1. How does Pega Customer Decision Hub integrate with my systems?

Before you start your implementation, it is helpful to understand how Pega Customer Decision Hub integrates with your data sources and engagement channels, and how the application is structured to support daily operations and change management.

Pega Customer Decision Hub supports multiple connections to data sources and provisioning systems to obtain information about your customers and products, and other data that you use to run your business. The application also integrates with various inbound, outbound, and paid channels to help you engage with customers through marketing campaigns, sales, and support services.

2. Which deployment option is relevant to me?

Some aspects of the implementation process differ depending on the type of environment where you deploy your Pega Customer Decision Hub application. Review the available deployment options and related implementation considerations. Pega Customer Decision Hub supports the following deployment options:

Pega Cloud services deployments

When your Pega Customer Decision Hub application is deployed in a Pega Cloud services environment, the Pega Cloud services team provisions the hardware for your environment and installs all of your required software. Much of the technical configuration is done for you, except for steps that only you can complete. The Pega Cloud services team is responsible for security, stability, and support for your application. For more information, see Learning about Pega Cloud Services.

If you deployed your application in a Pega Cloud services environment, some tasks in this guide do not apply to your application. This is noted in the description of each task.

On-premises deployments

When you deploy your application using on-premises clusters within your organization’s enterprise network, you are responsible for installing and maintaining the infrastructure, security, and software for your environments.

Client-managed cloud deployments

When you deploy your application in a third-party cloud, you are responsible for installing and maintaining your application in your preferred Kubernetes environment. For more information, see Client-managed cloud.

3. What is the purpose of each environment and how are they connected?

Pega Customer Decision Hub implementations require the following environments:

Development

A system of record (SOR) for rules and artifacts, used by developers to make enterprise changes to your application.

Staging

A testing environment for testing changes to your application before they are deployed to production.

Business Operations Environment (BOE)

An environment that business teams use to plan, build, test, and optimize their changes, for example, create or modify actions and treatments, or introduce new predictive models. For more information, see Business operations use cases and Managing business changes.

Production

The latest stable live version of your system that is available for end users.

The following diagram shows the deployment architecture for a system with Pega Customer Decision Hub with the required environments and the change pipelines that connect these environments.

Your system also requires an orchestrator to manage the migration of changes through the change pipelines. Pega Cloud services deployments use Deployment Manager as the orchestrator.

Configure pipelines by using Deployment Manager. As a best practice, the change management process in an organization involves the following types of changes:

Enterprise changes pipeline

Enterprise changes involve changing the application itself, for example, by modifying the user interface. Enterprise changes are done by developers in a Development system of record (SOR) environment, and then pushed to other environments in the pipeline.

Enhancements to application functionality are made through standard developer practices such as branching and ruleset lock and roll. Enhancements can be made for both the Customer Decision Hub implementation application, and the 1:1 Operations Manager extension application. These enhancements are typically handled in the Rules ruleset, or in client-specific rulesets. For the 1:1 Operations Manager extension application, enhancements are handled in client-specific rulesets. No changes to the overlay application should be migrated from development after the initial deployment. These changes are migrated to higher environments using the Enterprise pipeline.

Business changes pipeline

Business changes involve business-as-usual operations such as the creation of new actions, treatments, customer segments, and so on. This type of change is triggered by business users in a BOE environment, and then pushed to other environments by using the Business change pipeline.

The changes are handled through the Revision functionality, and are packaged automatically for you when using 1:1 Operations Manager.

Once users start using 1:1 Operations Manager, you need to include Next-Best-Action Designer under change management as well. The artifacts should be first deployed to Development, then higher environments to Production. Testing for these changes is done in each environment by running specific tests that are appropriate to that environment. Changes are then migrated using the Business change pipeline.

Data migration pipeline

The automated data migration pipeline provides you with the means to test how the changes that you make to decision strategies affect their results, without running these strategies in a live production environment. You can sample a selection of real customer and internal Pega Platform data, and then migrate the sample to the BOE environment. As a result, the simulations are based on the migrated production data, that is, customer details, adaptive model data, and interaction history, which helps you assess how your changes are reflected in real-life scenarios.

For more information about the recommended pipeline setup, see Understanding pipeline types.

4. What is the Pega Customer Decision Hub setup wizard?

The Pega Customer Decision Hub setup wizard automates the initial steps in creating your Pega Customer Decision Hub application in the Development environment, and is available for all deployment types: Pega Cloud services, on-premises, and client-managed cloud.

The following diagram shows the configuration choices that you make when you run the Pega Customer Decision Hub setup wizard and before you start the setup process:

When using the wizard, you can define the customer data model and the Next-Best-Action Designer configuration for your application using a best-practice industry template (1a). For example, you can select a template for the communications or financial services industry.

Optionally, you can upload your own data model and Next-Best-Action Designer template (1b). You can use Pega-provided components from the Pega Marketplace or use your own templates. It is also possible to skip these configuration steps. However, you will need to complete this configuration manually later. To save time and effort, it is recommended to define the data model and Next-Best-Action Designer configuration through the wizard.

The next important step is selection of the decision repository (2). The decision repository is used to export interactions, and optionally, decisions from your Pega Customer Decision Hub application. If there are repositories configured in your system, you can choose one from the list. You can skip the repository selection step and define the repository later in your application settings.

If the organization name is already preconfigured in your application, the wizard does not display the step for configuring the organization name (3). Otherwise, you need to define the organization name through the wizard. The organization name is used to properly name rules in your application.

The wizard always configures the change management mechanism for you, which includes the Pega 1:1 Operations Manager application for migrating business changes from the Business Operations Environment (BOE) to the production environment.

The automated setup process is not reversible and can take up to 30 minutes. After the initial setup is completed, you can start editing the preconfigured data model and Next-Best-Action Designer to suit your business needs.

5. How to configure Development and higher instances?

Pega Customer Decision Hub is a Pega application that is intended to be configured and extended in a development environment, and then migrated to higher environments. At the same time, changes to business artifacts are made in the Business Operations Environment. These changes follow a separate change management process in which clients can support two works streams.

Use the Pega Customer Decision Hub setup wizard and additional procedures to configure the Development (system of records) environment to include the following applications:

As a best practice, configure all three applications in the Development environment. Then, once all applications are validated and smoke tested, migrate them using the initial deployment pipeline.

6. Am I implementing Pega Customer Decision Hub in a CRM configuration?

Pega Customer Decision Hub is ready to be used with the Pega Customer Relationship Management suite of applications to share data and service cases with the other two components in the suite: Pega Customer Service and Pega Sales Automation.

Create the Pega Customer Decision Hub application on a different Pega Platform environment with its own database and application servers separate from the servers used by the Pega Customer Service and Pega Sales Automation applications.

Pega Customer Decision Hub is a back-end analytical application with a typically smaller number of active users compared to the operational Pega Customer Service and Pega Sales Automation applications. Keeping the operational and analytical clusters separate helps ensure easier maintenance and decreases update complexity.

What to do next

Review and complete the prerequisites for a successful Pega Customer Decision Hub implementation. For more information, see Prerequisites for Pega Customer Decision Hub.