This section describes some of the key concepts you should understand before you work with Optimize.

The proposed contacts table (PCT) is the list of contacts, associated offers, channels, contact dates, and scores to which Optimize applies optimization rules and constraints. Once Optimize sorts through the PCT using the rules and constraints you have created, it produces the list of optimized contacts.

The PCT is created when you create an Optimize session. Campaign populates the PCT with proposed contacts and associated offers. Specifically, you link Campaign with Optimize by including an Optimize process in an Campaign flowchart. When configuring the Optimize process, you select an Optimize session to associate with that flowchart. When you run the flowchart, Campaign writes to the PCT associated with the selected Optimize session.

A PCT can contain proposed contacts from more than one flowchart or campaign.

The columns of the PCT are made up of the audience level that you select in an Optimize session (and that is defined in Campaign), the pre-defined fields in the UACO_PCTBASE table, and, if you have selected an Optimize template table in your Optimize session, the columns you defined in the Optimize template table.

The optimized contacts table (OCT) is the list of optimized contacts and associated offers that Optimize produces after applying rules and constraints to the PCT.

The OCT is created when you create an Optimize session. When you run an Optimize session, Optimize analyzes the PCT (populated by Campaign) using the optimization rules and constraints you configured. Optimize populates the OCT with optimized contacts and their associated offers during this process. Campaign then retrieves the results from the OCT for use in a marketing campaign. The OCT is made up of a subset of the PCT fields, as well as a field for the score used for optimization (that is, the score being maximized).

The optimization period refers to the elapsed time between the earliest proposed contact and the latest proposed contact. For example, if a PCT contains proposed contact dates between April 1 and April 30, the optimization period is 30 days long.

The optimization period is determined by the dates specified in the Contact Date field of the PCT, which is populated in the Assignment tab of the Optimize process.

The Optimize (UO) template table is a database table you can choose to create before working in Optimize. You need to create an Optimize template table if you want to include user-defined columns in the PCT for reference by one or more optimization rules. When you create a session in Optimize, you can select one of the Optimize template tables that you created. You must create the Optimize template table in the same database where the system tables are located.

During the optimization process, the columns that you created in this table (along with their defined data types and sizes) are automatically appended to the base PCT fields contained in the UACO_PCTBASE table. These fields can then be populated by Campaign flowcharts and subsequently used in rules by Optimize.

These fields are not appended to the OCT. However, the OCT references the PCT, therefore you can also extract any data from additional fields in your post-optimization flowchart.

Examples of the information (columns) you might add to the template table include vendor name, age, account type, and so on. This information is likely specific to the nature of your business. Based on this example, you could then write an Include rule that specifies that only AccountTypes = "Good Standing" are eligible to receive "credit offers."

In an Optimize session, you define the rules that Optimize uses to include or eliminate contacts and their associated offers from the PCT. When you create an Optimize session, you select an audience level to be added to the PCT and OCT. You can also include an optimization template table whose fields will be appended to the PCT and OCT.

You associate a marketing campaign with an Optimize session in the following way:

The same Optimize session can receive proposed contacts from multiple flowcharts and campaigns.

Optimize rules and constraints allow you to define the criteria by which the set of final contacts (the OCT) will be determined. You can define multiple rules and constraints within a single optimization, which apply to all campaigns participating in the Optimize session.

The terms "rules" and "constraints" are often used interchangeably as the difference between them is subtle. By strict definition, constraints have many possible alternative solutions and the "best alternative" is chosen by maximizing an objective function (for example, maximizing a score value), while rules eliminate possible alternatives.

To understand constraints, consider this example: A constraint specifies that each customer can receive only three offers in any given 30-day window. If a customer is eligible to receive offers A, B, C, and D, the possible combinations of viable alternatives satisfying this constraint include A, B, C, AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, ..., ABC, ABD, BCD.

To understand rules, consider this example: A Gold credit card offer cannot allowed to be sent within 90 days of a Platinum credit card offer.

When working with rules and constraints, you will encounter the following terms:

Customer—A customer represents any marketable entity. In your implementation, a customer can be an individual person, a household, an account, or any other audience level defined in Campaign.

Interaction—A communication of one offer to one customer. This can also be referred to as a contact.

Offer—A message, often promotional, such as a low credit card interest rate or a coupon for a certain percent discount at a retail store, sent to a customer over a contact channel on a specific date.

Channel—A means of contacting, being contacted by, or interacting with a customer or prospect as part of a campaign. Examples include direct mail, telemarketing, fax, customer service or support, point-of-sale, email, and Web sites.

Package—All offers sent to the same customer via the same contact processes (in Campaign), delivered on the same channel at the same time. A package represents a single "interruption" to the recipient, but may contain multiple communications or offers. For example, a package could be multiple coupons in a coupon book or multiple offers within the same email. Contact fatigue constraints will likely be based on packages rather than offers. For example, a marketing company wants to limit the number of direct mail pieces a prospect may receive, which is based on packages. The customer may additionally want to limit the total number of offers any individual receives, regardless of how those offers are grouped into packages.

Scope—The contacts impacted by a rule as specified by the use of a strategic segment, offer or offer list, and/or channel. Rules define both the action and the contacts to which that action applies. For example, a rule might state that "high-value customers" must receive between one and three "discount offers" each 60-day period. "High-value customers" might be a strategic segment defined in Campaign and "discount offers" might be a smart offer list defined in Campaign. The scope of this rule is restricted to this segment and offer list. The action is to specify a minimum and maximum number of contacts over a 60-day time period.