Configure a Model in Negotiation Guidance

Create a Model Based on Negotiation Guidance Model Class

Go to Optimization > Models (MO) and click Add Model button at the top right.

Open

Creation of a model

A pop-up is shown where you provide a name for your model, and the Model Class, which is Negotiation Guidance. Another Model Class would belong to another kind of optimization model.

Open

Add a new model

You can also duplicate an existing model. In this case, you will keep all the inputs of the previous model and will have to rerun all the steps to get the outputs. Once you have copied a model, you can change its name by double-clicking the blank side of its name/label.

The same model class, Negotiation Guidance, can be used by many models. Use informative names for your models, providing information on your dataset, and your calculation case.

Set the Scope of Transactions (Definition Step)

In the Definition step, you map the inputs and set the scope of the model. The user inputs are always on the left. By default the inputs are filled with values set during the deployment of the accelerator.

• Transaction source – Datamart or Data Source used to calculate the segments. It must fill the requirements listed in Installation. Once provided, some fields based on it appear:

  • Transaction Filter – Allows you to filter the data. We recommend that you define at least these filters:

    • Positive cost, revenue, and quantity.

    • Optimization target in a realistic range, for example between -0.1 and 1.

  • Customer Field

  • Product Field

  • Quantity Measure

  • Revenue Measure

  • Margin Measure

  • Optimization Target

  • Target Type

  • Weight Measure

  • List Price

The revenue, margin, and list price values are used to simulate the transactions when the optimization target value changes. If needed, create some calculated fields in the transaction source: revenue, margin, margin rate (i.e., margin/revenue).

Use the check-boxes for additional filters ensuring calculations without exceptions:

Once you apply the settings, the right panel provides:

• Transactions in Scope – Data that are in the scope of the segmentation.

• Filtered Out Transactions – Data that are filtered out by the set transactions filter. some data rows could not appear neither in the Transactions in Scope, nor in the Filtered Out Transactions. It is the case if a value is filtered out by the advanced filter, but its value is null and it is also filtered out with the opposite of the user filter. Please consider the Filtered Out Transactions portlet as an information that could miss some data.

You can then click the Continue button (top right) which takes you to the Analysis step.

Analyze Data in the Scope and Set Price Drivers Parameters (Analysis Step)

When you arrive at the Analysis step from the Definition step, the model first runs a calculation to prepare the data. It can take some minutes, depending on the size of the transaction source. The goal of this calculation is to format and save the data that will be used in the next steps of the model. Two tables are created: Transactions and Profile. The tables of a model are always accessible through the menu in the top right corner. But usually, you would not need to access them like this; all needed information is directly provided in the sections of the model.

Once the calculation has run, two tabs appear: Data Profile and Price Drivers Setup.

Data Profile

This tab is mainly a dashboard made of three portlets:

• Scope Summary – This bar chart shows how much data is in the scope of the segmentation and how much is filtered, among different dimensions, from the total profit to the number of transactions.

• Details for all Fields – This table is a summary of all the mapped fields and the dimensions of the transaction source, taking into account the filtered data in the scope. For any data, you get the min and max value, the number of nulls, the number of different values (cardinality), and information about the type of the field and its owner. It is useful to check if there are some nulls in fields that you would want to use as segmentation levels, or if some cardinalities are too high for a segmentation.

• Distinct Values – This portlet is optional. It is created if you enter a value in the left user input Show distinct values for, and apply the settings. It allows you to deeper check any dimension of the data scope, to validate if you are interested in using it for the segmentation.

Price Drivers Setup

In this tab, you choose the fields on which the price drivers are calculated. The price drivers evaluate the importance of any feature of the data to forecast the optimization target (i.e. generally the margin percentage), the interactions among all features, detect hierarchies, and provide dimension recommendations for the segmentation. These values and recommendations will then help you define the dimensions you will take as levels of segmentation and their order. It will only provide help: you can use any dimension in the segmentation even if the related price driver has not been calculated. The more features you choose, and the more cardinality they have, the longer the calculation will take. By default, all the dimensions of cardinality between 2 and 30 are pre-selected (excluding non-dimensional features).

Once the choice is made, click Continue. The next step, Configuration, will first run the calculation of price drivers and then provide the next section.