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Configuring next-best-action strategies

Updated on May 10, 2021

Pega Sales Automation uses Decision Management capabilities to identify the next best action for every sales opportunity.

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Before you begin: Ensure that the following conditions are met:
  • You installed Pega Sales Automation
  • Adaptive Decision Manager (ADM) and Decision Strategy Manager (DSM) services are running
  • The following services are running in the Normal status:
    • Decision Data Store
    • Adaptive Decision Manager
    • Data Flow
    • Visual Business Director

For more information about installing Pega Sales Automation, see the Pega Sales Automation Installation Guide on the Pega Sales Automation product page. For more information about Adaptive Decision Manager, see the Adaptive Decision Manager product page. For more information about Decision Management, see the Decision Management product page.

Note: The configuration steps listed in this article are based on the next-best-action architecture. The Next-best-action architecture article describes cases when the UsePreloadedNBA property is set to false and when it is set to true. While creating new propositions, set property components, or filter components, you must use the same configuration approach as described in the next-best-action architecture article.

Any data flow or strategy must call the primary page based on your business requirements; for example, considering how many propositions are needed and what are the filter criteria. While troubleshooting next best actions, ensure that this next best action is in the data set.

To configure next-best-action strategies for your Pega Sales Automation implementation, log in to the application as a system administrator or any operator with the sysadmin access group and complete the following steps:

Creating propositions

  1. In the header of Dev Studio, click ConfigureDecisioningDecisionsProposition Management.
  2. On the Hierarchy tab, perform one of the following actions:
    • Open an existing business issue, for example SANBAIssue and then a business group, for example Opportunityactions.
    • Create a business issue, and then create a business group that matches the scope of the next best action by clicking New group.
  3. On the Data tab, click New.
  4. On the Create proposition form, enter the name and description, and then specify the DefaultRank.
  5. Click Create.

Viewing propositions

By default, you see the implementation application propositions. To view the Pega Sales Automation default propositions perform the following steps:

  1. In the header of Dev Studio, click ConfigureDecisioningDecisionsProposition Management.
  2. To view propositions, on the Hierarchy tab, perform one of the following actions:
    1. In the Top Level section, click SR Class.
    2. On the Localized Label tab, click Private edit.
    3. In the translate To field, enter SA-SR to see the Pega Sales Automation strategy results.
    4. Click Save.
    5. On the Hierarchy tab, click Refresh.
Result: You can see the default Pega Sales Automation propositions on the Business issues and groups list.

Creating data models

To display the new next best actions for opportunities, create data models in the Base Opportunity class.
  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click RecordsData ModelData Page.
  2. Search for and open the D_NBASalesRepOpp data page.

    Based on the UsePreLoadedNBA dynamic system setting, the D_NBASalesRepOpp data page uses different activities to load next best actions. For more information, see Next best actions provided out of the box.

  3. On the Definition tab, in the Data Sources section, depending on whether you want to use the preloaded NBAs or not, choose from the following actions:
    • If you set the UsePreloadedNBA dynamic system setting to true, in the Data Sources section, set the Source field to Activity, and then set the Activity name field to UsePreloadedNBA.
      Note: The UsePreloadedNBA activity uses the FetchNBA report definition to fetch the precalculated next best actions and set the appropriate descriptions and labels for propositions.
    • If you set the UsePreloadedNBA dynamic system setting to false, in the Data Sources section, set the Source field to Activity, and then set the Activity name field to NBASalesRepOpp.
      Note: The NBASalesRepOpp activity uses the GivenSAOpp page as a primary page and sets all appropriate properties to determine the next best actions. The NBASalesRepOpp activity also calls the NBASalesRepOpp data flow with the GivenSAOpp page as a primary page. This data flow uses the NextBestActionsForSalesRep strategy to calculate the top 3 next best actions for an opportunity.

Creating strategies

  1. In the header of Dev Studio, click CreateDecisionStrategy.
  2. On the Create Strategy page, in the Label field, enter a label for the strategy.
  3. In the Strategy Results class section, select the business issue and group that you created for the proposition.
  4. In the Apply to (class) field, enter the primary page based on the context where this strategy is to be referenced.
    For more information about the next-best-action architecture, see Next-best-action architecture.
  5. Click Create and open.
    To import components and define your strategy, complete the following procedures:

Configuring a Proposition Data component

  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click RecordsDecisionStrategy, and then open a strategy you want to edit.
  2. On the Strategy tab, in the toolbar, click the Strategy Shapes icon, and then click ImportProposition Data.
  3. Open the Proposition Data component shape.
  4. In the Proposition data properties dialog box, enter the name for the proposition.
  5. Optional: On the Interaction history tab, perform the following steps:
    1. Select the Enable interaction history check box.
    2. In the Fetch when the conditions below are met section, delete all conditions.
    3. In the Define which properties to use section, click Add item.
    4. Set the target to .pyOutcome and the interaction data to .pyOutcome.
  6. Click Submit.

Configuring a Filter component

  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click RecordsDecisionStrategy, and then open a strategy you want to edit.
  2. On the Strategy tab, in the toolbar, click the Strategy Shapes icon, and then click ArbitrationFilter.
  3. Connect the Filter component to the Proposition Data component.
  4. Open the Filter component shape.
    1. In the Filter Properties dialog box, enter the name for the filter.
    2. In the Filter condition field, enter the .pyOutcome!="Clicked" filter condition.
    3. Click Submit.
  5. Optional: To add a second component, perform steps 2 to 3 and connect this Filter component to the first Filter component that you created previously.
  6. Optional: Open the second Filter component and perform the following:
    1. In the Filter Properties dialog box, enter the name for the filter.
    2. Select the Proposition filter check box, and either select an existing Proposition filter, or click Add to create a new Proposition filter.
    3. Complete the fields on the Create Proposition Filter form and click Create and open.
    4. On the Default criteria tab, select any check box to filter criteria based on your requirements.
    5. On the Specific criteria tab, select any proposition based on your requirements, and then click Add criteria.
    6. Based on your requirements, add the next-best-action qualification filter conditions.
    7. Click Save.
  7. Click Submit.

Configuring a Set Property component

  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click RecordsDecisionStrategy, and then open a strategy you want to edit.
  2. On the Strategy tab, in the toolbar, click the Strategy Shapes icon, and then click EnrichmentSet Property.
  3. Connect the Set Property component shape to the Filter component shape that you created in the previous procedure.
    Result: This component is now used to set the needed properties.
  4. Open the new Set Property component shape.
  5. In the Set Property Properties dialog box, enter a name for the property.
    Tip: The .pyLabel property has the text of the next-best-action (by default, it is the proposition description). If required, you can concatenate or modify the content of the .pyLabel property to create custom text for the next-best-action.
  6. Optional: Configure other properties, as needed.
  7. Click Submit.
  8. Connect the Set Properties component shape to the Result component shape.
    The system creates the Result shape after you created a strategy rule.
  9. Click Save.
    Result: Review the following example strategy configuration for the OpportunityStrategy.
    An example complete strategy flow

Configuring substrategies

  1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click RecordsDecisionStrategy.
  2. Search for and open a strategy you want to add substrategies to.
    The following steps use the NextBestActionsForSalesRep strategy as an example. This strategy is called from the data flow in the NBASalesRepOpp activity that is referred to in the data model setup step.
  3. To add a substrategy, in the toolbar, click the Strategy Shapes icon, and then SubstrategyExternal.
  4. Open the substrategy component shape, and in the External strategy properties form, perform the following steps:
    1. Enter a name for the substrategy.
    2. On the External strategy tab, select either Current page or Another page depending on your requirements to run a strategy on.
    • If you selected Another page, in the Page field, select a page or a page list populated on the GivenSAOpp clipboard page.
    • If you selected Current page, in the Page field, select the available strategy in the External strategy field of the GivenSAOpp clipboard page.
  5. Click Submit.
  6. Optional: If you want to display the new next best action only when an opportunity is open, connect the new substrategy to the appropriate opportunities Filter component.
  7. Click Save.

Clearing interaction history

  1. Log in to Pega Sales Automation as a Sales Ops.
  2. In the User portal navigation pane, click Tools.
  3. Click Reset AI sample.
  4. To clear the interaction history, delete any entry from the PR_DATA_IH_FACT database table.

Troubleshooting configuration

  • You click an action to close it but the action is not removed from the Next Best Actions dashboard widget.
    • .pyOutcome is not mapped or it is missing from the Import component of the strategy.
    • The filter is not configured to remove the items that have an interaction history.
  • The Next Best Action dashboard widget displays only a few actions or no actions.
    • Clear the interaction history.
  • An exception occurs when using the strategy.
    • Verify that the properties you are using in the Proposition Filter and the when rules are set up to handle null values.

Tags

Pega Sales Automation 8.6

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