Targeting Metadata

MC Cycles are the header records for an entire MC Cycle’s worth of plans and targets. In Align, MC Cycles are assigned to Field Force and have a set lifetime between their start date and end date. The MC Cycle’s lifetime determines the lifetimes for all of its child records. A Field Force can only have one live cycle at a given point; for example, the US Cardiology Sales Field Force cannot have more than one MC Cycle between the dates of 01/01/2017 and 03/31/2017, but it can have a different cycle assigned to it between 04/01/2017 and 06/31/2017. MC Cycle records are not allowed to overlap if assigned to the same Field Force.

A cycle is made of two main areas: MC Cycle Plans, which are described earlier in this document, and MC Cycle Channels.

MC Cycle Channels determine the type of activities included in a cycle, such as face-to-face calls, events, or emails. These cycle channels drive the creation of the cycle plan channels assigned to each target, and also determine which activities performed in CRM are counted when calculating the Field Force's progress against the goals of those cycle plan channels.

For example, a Cycle Plan Channel could define face-to-face calls as having a higher weight than emails within the same cycle. Face-to-face calls are counted only as progress against the cycle's goals if they are made against active Accounts and include at least one sample detail.

MC Cycle Product is a child object of the MC Cycle Channel object, determining the products included under a cycle channel. For example, the face-to-face calls in the previous example require the Field Force to detail products A and B to their targets, but do not include product C because it is a lower priority and should not be detailed as often.

Channel Templates

Align Admins can create reusable Channel Templates, allowing users to quickly apply the same weight and channel criteria to new channels. Templates give an organization the ability to standardize channel criteria across markets and ensure each market logs activities in a uniform manner, as well as making it easier for market Admins to create Targeting cycles for their markets. Align users can create Channel Templates through the Channel Templates option under the Targeting tab.

To create a Channel Template:

  1. Select the Channel Templates option on the Targeting tab.
  2. Select Create to display the Template Creation page.
  3. Populate the following required fields:
  • Channel Label
  • Veeva CRM Org
  • Channel Object
  • Channel Weight
  1. Select Add Criteria once Align has retrieved the channel object details for the org.
  2. Build the criteria specifying which activities should be counted against a channel’s goals for the purpose of a targeting cycle.

Creating Cycles and Channels

Users can access cycles through the Cycles option under the Targeting tab. When creating a cycle, users assign the cycle to a Field Force and to a Veeva CRM org. Once these values are selected, users can add cycle channels and cycle products to this cycle, based on the channel objects present in the assigned Veeva CRM org.

To create a MC Cycles and MC Channels:

  1. Select the Cycles option on the Targeting tab.
  2. Select Create to open the Template Creation page.

  1. Assign a Name to the cycle.
  2. Select a Field Force or Field Force Model for the cycle. These two fields are mutually exclusive, but one of them must be set. Once assigned to a Field Force or Field Force Model, the value cannot be modified.
  3. Assign the cycle to a Veeva CRM Org.
  4. Assign a Start Date and End Date. These dates must be within the lifetime of the chosen Field Force or Field Force Model and cannot overlap with the lifetime of another cycle assigned to the same Field Force or Field Force Model.
  5. Assign Channels to the cycle.
  • Select Add Channel, then select From Template or Create New.
  • Assign a Channel Label, Channel Object, and Channel Weight if you are creating a Channel.
  • Build Channel Criteria to specify which activities should be counted against a Channel’s goals for the purpose of a Targeting cycle.
  • Add Cycle Products to each channel by choosing from the drop-down list of Product records and assigning a Weight to each Cycle Product.