Scoring Weight

Scoring weights can be assigned to scoring scales for actions taken by individuals, organizations or chapters. In addition, scoring weights can be assigned to scoring scales when certain conditions are met.

Adding Records

Once you have your scoring scales created, you must assign a scoring weight (value) to the various Action Types that can occur within that scoring scale.

To add scoring weights to your scoring scales, complete the following steps:

1. Locate the Scoring Scale profile where you will be adding the Scoring Weight.
2. Click the GoTo icon to launch the Scoring Scale Profile page.
3. Expand the scoring weight child form. This form displays all of the Action Types within a scoring scale that will provide points to a member.

Scoring Weights for Actions

4. Click the Add icon located in the upper-right corner of the scoring weight child form.

   This will launch the Add - Scoring Weight form.

5. Select the Action Type you wish to add from the action type drop-down menu.
6. Enter the number of points (must be greater than zero) an individual will receive for participating in this activity in the points field.
7. Enter the start and end dates in the start date and end date fields (if needed.)
8. Select the level of point decay from the decay rate drop-down menu. This selection will create a scoring decay for the Scoring Weight as described in the Managing Decay Rates section. This drop-down menu is available on the Add page and the Edit page if there are no decay rates already set up. If any decay rates are already set up for a Scoring Weight, then they must be managed manually.
9. If you would like to apply conditions to whether points are earned or not, you can select a query from the qualification query drop-down menu.

   This allows you to create a query that specifies whether points will be awarded or not for a specific item, or allows you to categorize the amount of points awarded for meeting certain conditions.

   For example, you may wish to award 5 points for individuals who attend the National Organization Conference and 2 points for those who attend the Chapter Conferences. You can set up multiple Action Types for each of these event registrations and apply a qualification query to each, that awards the appropriate number of points based on the registration type.

   Note: The query must first be built using the Query Tool. Once the query is saved in the Query Tool, it will be available in the qualification query drop-down menu.

10. Click the Save button.

    This will add your new Action Type to the scoring weight child form.

Note: At this time, you cannot score Actions for Customer Action types that are based on customer tables (for example, Individual Demographics or Organization Demographics).

Scoring Weights for Qualifying Conditions

Scoring weights can also be assigned to scoring scales if certain qualifying conditions are met.

Note: The A-Score functionality currently does not support custom demographics for A-Score tasks.

To add scoring weights for qualifying conditions to your scoring scales, complete the following steps:

1. Click the GoTo icon to launch the Scoring Scale Profile page.
2. Expand the scoring weight child form. This form displays all of the Action Types within a scoring scale that will provide points to a member.
3. Click the Add icon located in the upper-right corner of the scoring weight child form. This will launch the Add - Scoring Weight form.
4. Select the Individual Demographics option from the Action Type drop-down menu if you're setting up a Scoring Weight for individuals. If you're creating a Scoring Weight for Organizations or Chapters, then choose Organization Demographics or Chapter Demographics, respectively. If setting up a Scoring Weight for custom User Defined Demographics, then choose Individual Custom Demographics, Organization Custom Demographics or Chapter Custom Demographics as appropriate.
5. Enter the number of points (0 - 100) a customer will receive for participating in this activity in the points field.
6. Enter the start and end dates in the start date and end date fields (if needed.)
7. Do not enter a value in the Decay Rate section; this is only for Action-based Scoring Weights. Demographic-based Scoring Weights do not decay; the points are fully active over the time the Customer maintains the qualifying demographic value.
8. Expand the column name drop-down menu and select the demographic you would like to award points for.
9. Enter the value for the demographics selected that will be awarded points in the column value field.

   The column value field will display as either a text field, if the demographic selected accepts free-form text or it will display as a drop-down menu if the values for the demographic are fixed. If the demographic is a checkbox, then enter 1 for checked or 0 for unchecked. If you want the points to qualify for any non-empty value (for example, if the individual has any political party chosen), then leave the Column Value empty (note: this will not work for checkbox demographics: you must choose either 1 or 0).

   If the demographic you selected uses a numeric value (such as salary) and you would like to award points for individuals that fall within a certain range, enter the numeric range in the numeric range low value and numeric range high value fields.

   Likewise, if the demographic selected uses a date value (such as birth date) and you would like to award points for individuals who meet the criteria for a date range (such as birthdays between 1/1/1975 and 1/1/1980) enter those values in the date range high date and date range low date fields. You may also use the calendar icon to select the dates using the netFORUM calendar control.

10. Click the Save button.

    This will add your new Action Type to the scoring weight child form.

    Note: You may only choose to use a qualification query OR a column name when setting up a scoring weight. Attempting to use both will display an error message and not allow you to save the data entered on this form.

Managing Records

Once the qualification conditions have been created for a scoring weight, they will be displayed on the scoring weights child form located on the Scoring Scale profile.

The Qualification Criteria column of the scoring weights child form shows the demographic selected (in this case, ind_marital_status) and the value that will award the points (in this case, Married.)

Note: NetForum will also adjust an individual or organization's A-Score if the action or condition that originally granted the points changes to a condition that does not award points. For example, if you have set your site to award points when an individual registers for an event, and then that individual cancels their registration, the A-Score points awarded will be adjusted and deducted from their profile. Note the selection query must contain the conditions that govern a qualifying or non-qualifying action.

Note: At this time, it is not possible to have a "compound" qualification condition for two or more demographic column/values in a single Scoring Weight (for example, an individual who is both a CEO (individual type) and a specific ethnicity). It is not possible to make this work as an Action with a selection query, because there no "action" occurs simply from the existence of an Individual record.

Editing a Scoring Weight

You may wish to modify certain aspects of your scoring weights after they are created.

To edit a scoring weight, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Module Menu tab to expand the list of NetForum modules available.
2. Click the CRM link to launch the CRM module.
3. Click the Customer Setup link on the Overview page to launch the Customer Setup Profile.
4. Click the More tab to view the child form choices available to you.
5. Click the Scoring option to display the scoring child forms.
6. Expand the scoring scale child form. This form displays all of the netFORUM Scoring Scales that have currently been set up to receive scores.
7. Click the GoTo icon next to the scoring scale whose weight you wish to modify. This will open the scoring scale profile page for that item.
8. Expand the scoring weight child form.
9. Click the Edit icon next to the Scoring Scale you wish to edit. This will open the Edit - Scoring Weight form.
10. Make the desired changes to the selected Scoring Weight.

    Note: The decay rate drop-down menu will only display if no decay rate was set when the Scoring Scale was created.

    If needed, click the edit icon next to the Qualification Query drop-down menu to edit the currently selected Qualification Query.

    If needed, click the add icon next to the Qualification Query drop-down menu to add a Qualification Query to be used for this Scoring Scale.

11. Click the Save button.

The clear query cache checkbox should be selected and the Scoring Weight should be saved after you have modified an existing query. For performance reasons, NetForum saves information about the selection query in memory so the system will run faster. If you alter the Query (for example, if you change a filter of the query) then the NetForum memory must be reset to force it to reload the new version of the query. If you don't do this, then when the Scoring Weight is evaluated for a customer action, the older version of the Query will be evaluated.

Deleting a Scoring Weight

If you have a added a Scoring Weight but have not started issuing points for it, then you can delete it if necessary.

To delete a scoring weight, complete the following steps:

1. Following steps 1 - 8 from the Editing a Scoring Weight section above to navigate to the scoring weight child form.
2. Click the Delete icon next to the Action Type you wish to delete.

   You will be prompted to confirm the deletion of this item.

3. Click the OK button.

   The scoring weight you chose is now deleted.

If at some point, you may wish to stop awarding points for a particular scoring weight, then enter an end date for the weight.

If you want to remove the scoring weight and remove all points for it, then it will be necessary to run a SQL Script for this. Please talk to Abila.

Additional Information

• If the qualification type is N/A, this is because the linked Action Type is an action that is not native to NetForum, and therefore it is not possible to query against the customer action because there is no data associated with it other than the action type code itself.
• It is not possible to add a Scoring Weight, with a Qualification Query, for an Action Type that is linked to an Object that has no Forms. This is an unusual case. If you need to score an Action Type linked to an Object with no Forms, then simply add a dummy Form for that Object, then come back to the Scoring Weight and then you'll be able to add and then select a Qualification Query.

Advanced Settings

Update Qualification Query

Most Scoring Weights that use a Query for qualification will use that Query for inserts and updates.

For certain advanced scenarios, you may define a second query to be used only for updates by selecting the query in the qualification query for updates drop-down list. Additionally, an option include conditions from first query in second query is available if you select an update query.

Abila developed the "update query" option and the accompanying "include conditions from first query in second query" option for many accounting transactions. This is done to boost performance and reduce any drag during everyday NetForum processing that could be caused by handling scoring operations.

The standard qualification query may contain whatever eligibility factors are needed to eligibility for points, but should omit conditions such as being voided or returned that could never happen during the insert anyway. Such a condition could never happen on an insert because NetForum would never insert an invoice detail that is canceled; an invoice detail can only be canceled after its initial insertion.

What this enables us to do is put the more complex conditions for being voided or returned or canceled in the "update query" which keeps the default query faster and simpler. The end result is less drag whenever a new invoice is added becauseNetForum doesn't need to check as many conditions, especially the more complicated conditions that require scanning deeper into the accounting data.

When records are updated, they will be qualified against the "update query".

If desired, the "update query" can be written with conditions that build on the conditions in the main query if the "include conditions from first query in second query" checkbox is selected. This will have the effect of combining the conditions of both queries together. This can simplify setup because you won't need to double up the conditions in the second query with those of the first query.

For additional performance boost, Abila has configured the baseline Workflow Rules for most accounting transaction to not fire on updates, but instead handle re-qualifying during the All Scales Maintenance scheduled task. This task will evaluate existing records based on the "update query" which should also include any conditions set in the first query.

Configuring your Scoring Weights for accounting transactions in this manner will assure you of the best performance possible with the only drawback being that any score reductions caused by voids, cancellations or returns will not be reflected until the next running of the All Scales Maintenance recurring scheduled task.

If you want to boost speed further, then you can even change the Workflow Rules to not fire on Insert. This will offload the insertion of customer actions to the All Scales Maintenance task. This means that you won't see a customer's point total rise right away after selling an item, but you will gain a slight performance boost.

Abila is shipping a baseline query called ** A-Score - non-voided , non-returned, non-canceled invoice detail. This is a query intended to be used as the "update" query for financial transactions. The query contains eligibility conditions that will ensure the invoice detail is, as the query describes, not voided, not returned and not canceled. You can use this query for any Scoring Weights based on Invoice Details. If you need to change it, we recommend you copy it to a new query.

More information

Aggregate Scoring Weight