Account Assignment

(account_territory__aln)

An Account can be assigned to a Territory. The assignments are created in mass by an Account Rule, manually, the delimited import process, or CRM integration. Each assignment record has fields designed to help the Align user understand why the record exists. For example, the field source__aln identifies how the assignment entered Align: Rule, Account Hierarchy Rule, Manual, Import, or CRM. The field account_rule_name__aln identifies the Rule responsible for the assignment.

The objects referenced by Account Assignment are: account__aln and territory__aln. Each record has a Start Date and End Date to indicate the life of the assignment.

Account assignments display as a related list on the Territory detail page. Assignments created manually or imported from CRM can be created, edited, and deleted manually. The same actions can be completed using the delimited import process. An Account Rule may exist to maintain assignments, as well. The assignments can be pushed to Veeva CRM.

To view assignment details, select the Name field within the entity's Related Lists section. The assignment detail view includes an option to edit the assignment.

Set the Send to CRM field to Yes to integrate the assignment with CRM. Set the Send to CRM field to No to prevent the assignment from reaching CRM. This action also causes previously sent assignments to be removed from CRM.

Align accounts are source-specific. The same healthcare provider might have multiple Align accounts if information was imported from multiple sources. The orgs are integrated into the same Align instance. When Accounts are imported from each org, Align creates an account__aln record for each CRM Org's account for the same physician.

For example, Dr. Ackerman's information was data-loaded into Align before also being imported from two CRM orgs. These three accounts can be differentiated by the combination of their Source and Veeva CRM org fields, as shown below:

ID Account Name Common ID Specialty KOL Do Not Call Source Veeva CRM Org Source ID CRM Record ID Composite Key
1 Clinton Ackerman

123

Cardiology

FALSE

FALSE

crm__aln

Sales

ABC

ClintAck

123::crm__aln::ABC

2 Clinton Ackerman 123 Adult Cardiology TRUE TRUE crm__aln MSL DEF CA123 123::crm__aln::DEF
3 Clinton Ackerman

123

Cardiology

FALSE

FALSE

dl__aln

 

 

 

123::dl__aln::

By default, territories belonging to a Veeva CRM org can only be assigned accounts imported from the Veeva CRM org. Users can choose to assign accounts imported via the data loader to those territories or to configure rules to assign those data-loaded accounts into their territories.

If the accounts are not present in the org, the assignments fail. Users should import those accounts into their CRM org and run an import from that org to Align before running the rules again and attempting a second export.

Special Notes and Restrictions

  • Assignments generated by an Account Rule can only be updated by the Account Rules engine. This is accomplished by updating the Account Rule, Account Rule criteria, or other data and running the Rule evaluation.
  • Assignments not sourced by an Account Rule are referred to as explicit assignments and are not governed by a rule
  • When editing an assignment, the start, end, and send to CRM dates may be altered within the following parameters: 

      The End Date value cannot be changed to a future date if the assignment was sent to CRM and then removed, as indicated by the CRM is Deleted field value

      The Start Date value cannot be changed to a future date if the assignment has been sent to CRM. Align assumes the assignment was sent when the current date is after the Start Date and before the End Date and the Send to CRM field is set to Yes.

      The Send to CRM field value cannot be changed to No after the assignment is sent to CRM. Align assumes the assignment was sent to CRM when the current date is after the Start Date and before the End Date and the Send to CRM field is set to Yes.

    Groups not in use do not display on the Account Assignment Results preview page. For example, if a customer is sending all assignments to CRM, the Send To CRM = No group does not display.

Automatically End Dating Self Alignments

Veeva CRM users can self-align Accounts to their Territory to document interactions. Over time, these records can begin to clutter the system. To help clean up the records, admins can end-date the self-alignment records so they automatically revert after a certain number of days.

For example, Sarah Jones meets a doctor at a conference. She wants to record the interaction, but she is not aligned with the doctor. She creates a self-alignment in CRM. Sarah’s Admin set self-alignments to expire after seven days, so the alignment reverts at that time.

The crm_assignments_expire__aln field on the account_territory__aln object is a system-managed field. Users should not populate this field using the UI or the Data Loader.

Increasing the Expiration Window for CRM Sourced Assignments

Admins can increase the expiration window defined by the crm_assignments_expire__aln field on the following objects:

  • align_settings__aln
  • account_territory__aln
  • account_territory_model__aln

The maximum value is 730, meaning that the maximum expiration window is 730 days.

To increase the expiration window:

  1. Navigate to either the appropriate record or the appropriate set of Align Settings.
  2. Edit the crm_assignments_expire__aln field with the desired new value, with a maximum value of 730.