Glossary of Technical Terms

Accelerator Packages

Configuration packages available in PlatformManager Marketplace. They allow you to implement solutions to a wide variety of use cases.

 ACC

Access admin

An area where user management takes place.

 PfM

Activity Logs

Shows changes related to accounts, integrations and partitions as well as user accounts creation/deletion, permissions changes, group assignments.

 PfM

Actual Price Lookup

Lookup for the current product price which is fetched based on the configuration.

 ACC

Adjusted Price Corridor

Deviation between the global adjusted price and the final list price

 ACC

Agent

An autonomous program that indefinitely loops its lifecycle of perception-decision-action. “Autonomous” means the agent decides itself what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. It is used in AI optimization.

 AP

Allocation – Dataload Logic

It is a Price Analyzer Dataload Logic, used for the Rebate Allocation process (allocating rebates back to original transactions for accurate net margin and net pricing reporting and insights).

BU/TU

Allow Manual Price Override

Defines whether the ManualPrice and ManualPriceReason elements should be visible.

 TU

AMAS

Adaptive Multi-Agent System, based on the concept of "agents". Its global function is to converge towards a state where user-defined criteria are satisfied.

 AP

Analytics

One of the Pricefx capabilities (modules) where users can visualize pricing data.

 BU/ TU

Apache Camel

A “mediation router”: a message-oriented middleware framework implementing the enterprise integration patterns. It makes use of these patterns along with supporting all common transport protocols and having a vast set of useful adapters included.

 AP

Apache Kafka 

A distributed publish-subscribe messaging system that receives data from disparate source systems and makes the data available to target systems in real-time. It facilitates the asynchronous data exchange between processes, applications, and servers. 

 AP

Application integration

The sharing of processes and/or data with different application systems within an organization using real-time communication. It is typically implemented to increase application efficiency and improve scalability between systems.

 ??

Pricefx Application Programming Interface (API)

It is a part of our software allowing other programmers to connect to it.

AP

Approval workflow

A process of approval when the document (quote, rebate agreement, etc.) does not fit into the defined thresholds (e.g., minimum margin). Approval workflow is programmed in the logic.

 TU

Approved (status)

A document can have either the Approved status or No Approval Required. In both cases the status of the document is approved.

Assets

Identifies and defines Pricefx partitions and IntegrationManager instances and can be used to associate with specific users or business roles.

 PfM

Base currency

Default currency that will be used in a Datamart.

TU

Base unit of measure

Default unit of measure which will be used in a Datamart.

TU

Business Intelligence

The purpose of Business Intelligence is to make educated business decisions based on data. Its components are collecting, integrating, analyzing, and presenting business information.

 AP

Business Roles (BR)

A tool to combine user roles and user groups for a certain level of access to the software. It assigns a name to a set of specific permissions and accesses and is used as a template for permission assignment to one or more users.

BU/TU

Calculation Base

The calculation base encapsulates the product and customer (group) filters, and any other relevant filters added in the Rebate Type calculation logic (for later use in the Rebate Allocation logic). It describes which transactions are used for the rebate (accrual) calculation, and hence which transactions should that accrual be allocated back to.

 TU

Calculation logic

A program in Groovy language that is part of configuration. Using Pricefx Groovy API, you can retrieve data, build input fields, calculate prices, create workflow steps and much more.

 TU

Camel component

Acts as an endpoint factory. To put it simply, components offer an interface to different technologies using the same approach and syntax. Camel already supports a lot of components in its DSLs for almost every possible technology, and it also gives the ability for writing custom components

 TU

Change Data Capture (CDC)

Captures changes made to a production Data Source, typically performed by reading the audit or log files.

PfM

Charts

Standard pricing charts available by default in Analytics within Data Analyzer.

 BU/TU

Claim records

The table containing the approved claims' records to be processed and paid out.

 TU

Claims Types

A page where the pre-programmed types of claims calculation are displayed. The types are used to create claims with pre-defined parameters.

 TU

Cloud data management

A method to manage data across cloud platforms, either with or instead of on-premises storage.

 AP

Cloud migration

Movement of data, processes, and applications from on-premises storage or legacy infrastructure to cloud-based infrastructure for storage, application processing, data archiving, and ongoing data lifecycle management.

 AP

Competition Data

A master data table that stores competitor pricing. The type code of this table is PCOMP.

 TU

Computation 

An agent which takes variables as input to compute a value that it assigns to the output variable. This term comes from the Optimization area.

 TU

Configuration of Pricefx Core

Setup of the product, so it behaves in certain way. It includes tables setup, various properties, logics (configuration code), document types (e.g. quote type, rebate type, promotion conditions) etc.

TU

Configuration wizard

It is a feature to create a simplified, sequential control for guiding users through a complex task, for instance, the configuration of an accelerator.

 TU

Configuration package 

A set of folders and files which represent the configuration of the partition. The package is deployed to the partition either through Pricefx Studio or PlatformManager.

TU

Connection 

Utilizes the partition access credentials to create a link between PlatformManager and Pricefx partition.

 PfM

Connector

Refers to specific software used to create a data connection and is used as a synonym for middleware.

 TU

Constraints Parameters

Constraints are threshold and target criteria. Their parameters are namely: Acceptable delta – Acceptable margin of error. Precision – Expected precision of the target.

 Optimizer

Contract header

An overview of the complete contract. See Agreements and Promotions header.

 BU/TU

Contract line item

A contract item that defines a particular type of discount, agreement, campaign. One contract can have multiple line items.

 TU

Condition types

Pre-configured types of calculations used in Agreements and Promotions, Rebates, Sales compensation to add new items of specific condition types.

 TU

Contracts

Former name for Agreements and Promotions.

 BU

Converters

Are used by by mappers (LoadMapper, IntegratMapper and MultilevelMapper) to convert data types.

 TU/IE

Coordinates

Associate dimensions (e.g. product, client) to categories (e.g. product X, client Z) to situate variables in the problem's space. This is one of the concepts of the meta-model.

 Optimization

Core Customers

Core: Customers having cumulative revenue contribution in the last 12 months <= 80%. Long tailed: The remaining Customers/Products having cumulative revenue contribution in the last 12 months > 80%.

 ACC

Core Products

Core: Products having cumulative revenue contribution in the last 12 months <= 80%. Long tailed: The remaining Customers/Products having cumulative revenue contribution in the last 12 months > 80%. For Products this is calculated per Customer Segment (as per the Segment definition).

 ACC

Country Adjustment

Percentage by which global prices will be adjusted to obtain local prices.

 BU

Criterion 

It is an agent which expresses a criticality level by reflecting their satisfaction and their importance, e.g. targets, thresholds, or mini/maximization objectives. Criteria are applied to a variable. This term is one of the concepts of the meta-model.

 Optimization

Customer (table)

A table that includes customers data with a variety of attributes. Mostly used in B2B.

 AP

Customer (or product) Classification (as used in Pricefx)

Assigns customers (or products) into different classes, typically used for pricing.

 AP

Customer extensions

A type of data table containing additional customer information, such as sold-to, hierarchy, etc.

 AP

Customer Health Score / Product Health Score

A customer health score is a metric used largely by customer success teams to determine whether customers are healthy or at-risk. Deciding on a scoring system is a subjective process, and will vary from company to company.

 AP

Customer Margin

Total Margin of a customer based on a historical period.

 ACC

Customer Quantity

Total Quantity of a customer based on a historical period.

 ACC

Customer Revenue

Total Invoice Price of a customer based on a historical period.

 ACC

Customer Segment

It groups customers by common characteristics, e.g. customer size, region, country etc. According to values aggregated on the Customer Segment level, certain KPIs for particular customers are calculated, e.g. cross sell.

 AP

Dashboards

Graphical user interface that provides at-a-glance views of KPI in a visual manner: charts, graphs etc.

 AP

Data Blending

A data management technique that provides a fast, easy, and flexible method to extract value from multiple data sources and to find patterns without the deployment of a traditional data warehouse architecture.

 TU

Data Cleansing 

The transformation of data from its native or raw state to a pre-defined or standardized format or structure using customized software.

 TU

Data federation

Process where data is collected from distinct databases without ever copying or transforming the original data.

 TU

Data governance 

The application of rules and standards for the management of the availability, usability, integrity, and security of the data stored within an enterprise.

 TU

Data integration

The combination of business and technical processes that are used to merge data from multiple disparate sources into standard architectures for the purpose of gaining meaningful insights.

 TU

Data lake 

A storage repository that can hold large quantities of raw data in its native form, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. In this format, the data does not need to be structured until it is needed.

 TU

Data lineage

Referred to as the data life-cycle, which includes the origins of the data and where it moves over time. It describes what happens to data as it goes through diverse processes.

 TU

Data mapping 

The process of creating data element mappings between two different data models. It is commonly used as a first step for a wide array of data integration tasks, including data transformation between a data source and a destination. The process where an uploaded CSV file’s columns are linked to the Pricefx mandatory fields either for a specific Pricefx entity during Data Uploads or for linking to columns in a Datamart for the loading of an Accelerator.

 TU/IE

Datamart

A data repository that contains data arranged in specific patterns (star schema, snowflake schema, etc.) to support informational applications.

 AP

Data migration

The process of moving data between two or more storage systems, data formats, warehouses or servers.

 TU

Data mining

Extracting previously unknown information from databases and using that data for important business decisions, in many cases helping to create new insights.

 TU

Data modeling

A method used to define and analyze the data requirements needed to support an entity’s business processes, defining the relationship between data elements and structures.

 TU

Data ownership

Answers the question: ‘who owns the data?’ It is also the philosophical and legal concept of an entity owning the right to control access to a particular set or group of data.

 TU

Data quality

Refers to the overall level of “quality” or perceived value of the data. If a particular datastore is seen as holding highly relevant data for a project, that data is seen as a quality to the users when their is a high degree of trust in the data values.

 TU

Data silos

A separate database or set of data files that are not part of an organization's enterprise-wide data administration.

 TU

Data Source (table)

A type of data table that includes cleansed and structured data used to build Datamarts.

 TU

Data steward

Another term used in conjunction with Data Ownership. It implies who owns and is responsible for the data. It is also the philosophical and legal concept of an entity owning the right to control access to a particular set or group of data.

 TU

Data upload

Uses uploaded CSV files to load Pricefx entity types in a partition. Supported entities include Customer, Customer Extension, Product, Product Extension, Data Source, Price Parameter, Product Competition and BoM data.

 TU

Data virtualization

A Data Integration approach that allows applications to retrieve and manipulate data without requiring technical details about the data. Virtualization is seen as an alternative to the traditional ETL process.

 TU

Data warehouse

This is conceived as a central location of integrated data from other more disparate sources, storing both current (real-time) and historical data which can then be used to create trends reports. They are generally used for analytics in an information system. It is a central repository to store information. It usually contains historical data derived from transaction data, but it can include data from other sources.

 TU

Dimensions

They are what defines levers and criteria. For instance, if your levers are product prices and your criteria are margin targets per product family and customer, then your dimensions are product, product family, and customer. In Datamart / Data Sources, it marks an indexed column that you can use for grouping of the data rows.

 TU

Discount

Percentage discount applied when calculating the transition from a gross to net price.

 AP

Dissatisfaction (criterion)

How much a criterion is dissatisfied, high = not optimal.

Optimization 

Elite

The smallest group of the most influential Value Finders whose cumulated influence is greater than half of the total influence received by the Criterion Agent.

 Optimization 

Endpoint

This is a channel through which the system can receive or send a message. It can refer to a web service URI, queue URI, file, email address, etc.

 IE

Enterprise Integration pattern

A software pattern that is used for designing data flows between different pieces of enterprise software.

IE

Entity

Object in a data model, for instance, Price List, Live Price Grid, Quote or Rebate Agreement. Also known as data entity.

 TU

Extract, Transform, Load (ETL)

In computing, it refers to a process used in databases, and especially data warehousing, that blends data from multiple sources.

 TU

Events 

Pricefx generates various events (e.g. Price List calculation finished) which, for instance, can trigger an action by IntegrationManager.

 TU

Excel Client

A tool (provided as an Excel sheet with macros) that allows to modify and upload the data to a particular partition.

 TU

Exceptions Manager

Interface used for managing exceptions / manual overrides and making them allowed. Exceptions/Allowance logic is implemented here.

 ACC

Exchange

The container of a message. It is created when a message is received by a consumer during the routing process. The exchange allows different types of interaction between systems – it can define a one-way message or a request-response message.

 IE

Feeder logic

A Calculation Logic used in a Calculation Data Load to provide a list of records which will be applied to transactions. It is usually used to provide list of Rebate Records, used by the Rebate Allocation Process.

 TU

Graph Patterns

Simple computation graph patterns to test the system and identify some Non-Cooperative Situations. They include SISO – Single input single output, SIMO – Single input multiple outputs, MISO – Multiple input single output, MIMO – Multiple input multiple outputs, Asynchronous feedback, Phase shift, Phase interference, Cycle.

 Optimization

Groovy Sandbox 

You can run your Groovy code in both Pricefx Core and IntegrationManager. These are potentially untrusted Groovy scripts that could contain malicious code, so they are evaluated inside a sandbox to prevent malicious code. If the sandbox detects a forbidden code, it throws an exception.

 TU

Home

A starting page of the Pricefx application that displays all software functional areas. It can be customized according to user preferences.

 AP

Hybrid cloud

An application environment model that combines an on-premises data center (also called a private cloud) with a public cloud, allowing data and applications to be shared between them.

 TU

Impact (criterion → value finder)

It defines how much the criterion pressures the value finder, relative to other neighboring criteria.

 Optimization

Inbound 

Refers to data that migrates from customer application systems to Pricefx partitions.

 TU

Induced Movement (criterion → value finder)

How much the value finder has moved because of the criterion.

 Optimization

Influence (value finder → criterion )