Account Rule Processing

The following sections are included in this topic:

Initiating an Account Rule Evaluation

To initiate the Account Rule evaluation process, select the Multi-action button from the Territory Detail page or Field Force detail page.

When initiating a Rule from a Territory, users can execute the evaluation of Account Rules on the current Territory or the current Territory and all subordinate Territories. The Territory used to initiate the process is not required to have an Account Rule assigned to it. For example, if the evaluation is initiated while having Territory US Cardio Nation open, the options are the following:

  • Evaluate only those rules assigned to US Cardio Nation

    • Evaluate rules for US Cardio Nation and the rules assigned to the regions, districts, and territories beneath it

A query is built by reading the Account Rule and Rule Criteria when the Rule is initiated. Comparisons are then made between the Account's data and the Territory's data looking for combinations that satisfy the rule. The Territory's Basic Rules execute first, followed by the Account Hierarchy Rules. An Account Hierarchy Rule does not impact the results of another Account Hierarchy rule.

Initiating a Rule from a Field Force has a similar flow to a Territory with a few distinctions. The confirmation page has a single execution option. When executing, the Rules of the Field Force are applied to all Territories assigned to the Field Force. Rules directly assigned to the Territory are executed at this time as well. Basic Rules from the Territory and Field Force execute as a group first, followed by the Account Hierarchy Rules from the Territory and Field Force as a group. An Account Hierarchy Rule does not impact the results of another Account Hierarchy rule.

An Account Hierarchy rule moves up or down the Account list until it finds a parent or a child that fits its criteria. Then the rule assigns all Accounts between the original Account that triggered the hierarchy rule up to and including the Account found in the previous step.

For example, Barnes Jewish Hospital was assigned to the St Louis 101 territory via an Account rule. St Louis 101 has an Account hierarchy rule that attempts to assign all child accounts whose primary specialty is in Cardiology. When the Account Hierarchy rule runs, it examines all of Barnes Jewish Hospital's child HCOs (or, the various departments within the hospital) for Accounts with these criteria. If none are found, it searches those HCOs' children until it finds an HCP whose primary specialty is in Cardiology. The Account Hierarchy rule then assigns this HCP to St Louis 101 and to all of the HCOs between this HCP and Barnes Jewish Hospital.

Reviewing Account Rule Evaluation Results

A link to the Account Rule evaluation results displays in the Alerts Tray once the process is complete. The results link is also accessible through the Assignment Preview's process task, viewable from the user's Home Page or the Alerts Tray.

The Account assignment summary report is grouped by Territory, subtotaled at each hierarchy level included in the execution. When beginning an assignment preview from a Field Force, subtotaling is provided on all hierarchy levels included in the Field Force. When all Territories assigned to the Field Force are limited to the lowest hierarchy level, subtotaling is not provided.

Once a user decides to commit the assignments, a new task displays in the Alerts Tray to measure the commit's progress.

A warning at the top of the report indicates the Account assignments are not committed to the database.

Action buttons and options:

  • Discard - The Discard button clears the Account assignments and report from memory. The database is not updated with the previous results.
  • Commit to Align - Stores the assignments in the account_territory__aln object. The Account assignments are eligible to impact downstream systems, for example, Veeva CRM, of their Start Date and End Date.
  • Retain the report - When navigating to another Align page without selecting one of the two previously mentioned buttons, the summary report and Account assignments remain in memory

Rules can be evaluated multiple times without discarding or committing the results.

The summary report and Account assignments are removed from memory when the user is signed out of Align. This has no impact on committed assignments.

Select the Preview button to display the results: 

Select the Exclusions button to view Accounts that are not included in the alignment:

Showing Gain and Loss Columns

To give users better insight into the number of Accounts added and removed during a preview, Gain and Loss columns were added to the HCO, HCP, and Total sections of the Account Alignment Results table. These columns indicate the exact number of Accounts that will be gained or lost if the user applies the preview.

By default, the Gain and Loss columns do not display. To display those columns, select the Show Gain/Loss link. Conversely, select the Hide Gain/Loss link to hide the columns.

This feature is available by default and cannot be turned off.

Exclusions

Exclusions prevent users from creating manual assignments between Accounts and their excluded Territories or globally excluded Accounts.

Self-alignments between Accounts and excluded Territories or globally excluded Accounts are imported from CRM and can be data loaded into Align but are end dated at the next rules run.

Align supports custom picklist values in the exclusion_reason__aln field on the Account_exclusion__aln object.

Canceling Previews

Users can now cancel previews when the Task Status is Running. This feature allows users to cancel a preview mid-process when errors are noticed rather than waiting for the preview to finish generating and then discarding it.

Use

To cancel a preview, select the Cancel link. Select Continue on the Cancel Account Assignment Preview screen.

Once canceled, the preview displays in the system tray as Discarded.