Glossary

This glossary provides terms and definitions for the HCL Unica suite of products..

The following cross-references are used in this glossary:
  • See refers you from a nonpreferred term to the preferred term or from an abbreviation to the spelled-out form.
  • See also refers you to a related or contrasting term.
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U V W

A

alert
  1. Information about system events. Examples are planned or unplanned server shutdowns. Alerts are shown to all users when they log in.
  2. Information about the state of an object or about an action that the user needs to take.
analytic server
See listener server.
API
See application programming interface.
application programming interface (API)
An interface that allows an application program that is written in a high-level language to use specific data or functions of the operating system or another program.
artificial transaction (ATX)
A system-generated event that can be used as an incoming event in an event component.
asset library
The highest level organizational structure in the digital asset repository.
ATX
See artificial transaction.
audience level
A way of identifying the granularity of marketing campaign targets. Typical audience levels are Customer and Household.
audit event
A security related event such as a change to user status, group memberships and permissions, or a change to configuration properties.

B

base record table
A type of user table that contains data about customers or potential customers. Each base record table is mapped to a database table or flat file.
batch flowchart
An IBM Campaign flowchart.
budget
An object that coordinates the expenses of plans, programs, and projects in the form of allocations, forecasted or committed spending, and actual expenses.

C

campaign
A marketing effort that is defined by a business objective, a corporate-defined initiative, and a date range.
cell
A list of identifiers that is the result of data processing and manipulation. For example, a Select process can generate an output cell consisting of males between the ages of 25 and 34.
channel
A means of reaching customers, such as mobile, email, direct mail, websites, or retail.
channel owner
A user who is responsible for creating the assets for a specific channel.
cloud
A network that Deliver requested virtual resources as a service.
communication
An object used in the Document Composer to define the structure and content of personalized messages and landing pages. The design of the communication determines the appearance and behavior of the message that is delivered to each recipient.
component
A reusable object or program that performs a specific function and works with other components and applications.
contact history
A complete historical view of a company’s marketing communications. The contact history includes targets that are contacted through campaigns, hold-out controls who do not receive a communication but are measured for comparison purposes against the target group, and the exact version offer that is given to each ID, including the values of personalized offer attributes.
contact optimization session
The rules that Contact Optimization uses to include or eliminate contacts and their associated offers from the PCT. To create an Contact Optimization session, select an audience level to be added to the PCT and OCT.
Contact Optimization template
A database table that includes user-defined columns in the PCT for reference by one or more optimization rules.
content creator
An individual in the functions and disciplines who creates the detailed operational plans and associated budgets at the direction of the Core Team.
control cell
A cell that contains IDs of customers who are qualified to receive an offer but who are purposely excluded for analysis purposes.

D

dashboard
An interface that integrates data from a variety of sources and provides a unified display of relevant and in-context information.
data filter
A configurable feature that allows users to specify data access restrictions in IBM Marketing Software products. Data filters make it possible to restrict the customer data that a user can view and work with.
derived field
A variable that does not exist in a data source and is created from one or more existing fields, even across different data sources.
design environment
The location where users define events, interaction points, smart segments, and treatment rules. After configuration, they can be deployed to the runtime environment.
dimension table
A database table that augments the data in a base record table. For example, a dimension table might contain demographic information, product information, or purchase transaction details.

E

engagement
An integrated set of customer interactions that allows marketers to design an integrated set of customer interactions that are sequenced based on the time to Deliver in market.
event
An action, notification, or change of state or content, that is observed at a specific time in a known context, system, or location.
expression builder
A set of input fields used throughout Opportunity Detect to compare strings and numbers, perform math operations, and apply database functions.

F

failover
An automatic operation that switches to a redundant or standby system or node in the event of a software, hardware, or network interruption.
flowchart
A visual representation of marketing campaign logic, in which prospects are selected and segmented from various data sources. A typical flowchart provides offers to prospects or tracks responses to offers.

G

grid
A spreadsheet-like presentation of data. Grids allow users to store all campaign- and project-related data within the project.

H

HA
See high availability.
high availability (HA)
  1. The ability of IT services to withstand all outages and continue providing processing capability according to some predefined service level. Covered outages include both planned events, such as maintenance and backups, and unplanned events, such as software failures, hardware failures, power failures, and disasters.
  2. Pertaining to a clustered system that is reconfigured when node or daemon failures occur so that workloads can be redistributed to the remaining nodes in the cluster.
householding
The process of grouping customers or prospects into family units for targeting in marketing campaigns.

I

identity provider (IdP)
A service that creates, maintains, and manages identity information, account authentication and credential management services for one or more systems. For example, a user registry for one or more hosts; or a built-in user registry for an application.
IdP
See identity provider.
interaction point
A place in a touchpoint at which to present an offer. Interaction points contain default filler content in cases where the runtime environment does not have other eligible content to present. Interaction points can be organized into zones.
interactive channel
A representation of a touchpoint that is used to coordinate all of the objects, data, and server resources that are involved in interactive marketing.
interactive flowchart
A flowchart that divides customers into smart segments. Interactive flowcharts can be used to assign a profile to a segment when a behavioral event or system event indicates that a visitor re-segmentation is needed.

L

landing page
The section of a website that is accessed by clicking a link within a mailing, usually the website's home page.
listener
A server process that provides an interface to back-end analytical server processes. This interface is used by clients (such as the Campaign web application and the Campaign Server Manager) to connect to back-end servers. Each listener spawns processes to handle user and flowchart interactions.
listener cluster
A set of two or more listeners that act as a unit to provide load balancing and high availability.
listener node
Any listener in a cluster, including the master listener that can serve a request from the web application.
listener server
A server on which the IBM Campaign listener is installed.
lookup table
A database table used to map one or more input values to one or more output values.

M

mailing
An email or message that is built from a template and sent to a group of people whose contact information exists in a company database.
marketing object
Any product that a marketing team develops and reuses in the course of its marketing activities. Examples: a physical item (such as a letter, credit card, or banner ad), or a business component (such as a credit card offer, a target segment definition, or a rewards program definition).
master listener
The listener that controls the coordination of clustered nodes. Every cluster has one master listener. Any node in the cluster can act as the master listener. The master listener includes the load balancer component.

N

notification
User-specific information about changes made to items in which the user has an interest or about tasks the user must perform. Examples are updates to a flowchart or mailing list or reminders about a deadline for an assigned task.

O

OCT
See optimized contacts table.
offer
The enticement that prompts a user to engage.
omni-channel designer
A user who is responsible for creating cross-channel engagements and collaborating with stakeholders to coordinate asset creation.
on-prem
See on-premises.
on-premises (on-prem)
Pertaining to software that is installed and run on the local computers of a user or organization.
optimization constraint
With optimization rules, a criterium by which the set of final contacts (the OCT) is determined. Constraints have many possible alternative solutions and the "best alternative" is chosen by maximizing an objective function, for example, maximizing a score value. Rules eliminate possible alternatives.
optimization period
Elapsed time between the earliest proposed contact and the latest proposed contact. The optimization period is determined by the dates that are specified in the Contact Date field of the PCT.
optimization rule
With optimization constraints, a criterium by which the set of final contacts (the OCT) is determined. Rule elminate possible alternatives created by the constraints.
optimized contacts table (OCT)
The list of optimized contacts and associated offers that Contact Optimization produces after it applies rules and constraints to the PCT.
outcome
Data produced by trigger systems, for use by external systems.

P

partition
A division of storage on a disk based on the data that is associated with different groups of users.
PCT
See proposed contacts table.
personalization
The process of enabling information to be targeted to specific users based on business rules and user profile information.
plan
The container for marketing programs and projects and includes the objectives of a business unit or geographic area for a specific timeframe.
portlet
A reusable component that is part of a web application that provides specific information or services to be presented in the context of a portal.
process
A function that performs one specific action.
profile
A set of customer data that is used by the runtime environment. This data can be a subset of the customer data available in the customer database, data that is collected in real time, or a combination of the two.
profile data
A set of customer attributes such as age, home address, and telephone number.
program
A child-object of a plan. Programs can contain multiple projects to organize work for a marketing organization.
project
A planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within a certain cost and other limitations.
proposed contacts table (PCT)
The list of contacts, associated offers, channels, contact dates, and scores to which Contact Optimization applies optimization rules and constraints. After Contact Optimization sorts through the PCT by using the rules and constraints, it produces the list of optimized contacts.
public key cryptography
A cryptography system that uses two keys: a public key known to everyone and a private or secret key known only to the recipient of the message. The public and private keys are related in such a way that only the public key can be used to encrypt messages and only the corresponding private key can be used to decrypt them.
push notification
An alert indicating a change or update on a mobile app icon.

R

recipient list
A list that provides a connection to selected recipient-specific data in marketing databases that Deliver uses to address and personalize outbound marketing messages.
response history
The historical record of responses to campaigns, either by targeted respondents or by holdouts.
runtime environment
An environment that connects to a touchpoint and performs interactions. The runtime environment can consist of one or many runtime servers that are connected to a touchpoint. The runtime environment uses the information that is deployed from the design environment in combination with the Interact API to present offers to the touchpoint.
runtime session
A session that exists on the runtime server for each visitor to a touchpoint. This session holds all the data for the visitor that the runtime environment uses to assign visitors to segments and recommend offers.

S

SAML
See Security Assertion Markup Language.
SAML 2.0
See Security Assertion Markup Language.
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
  1. An XML framework for exchanging authentication and authorization information.
  2. An authentication standard from OASIS that allows a user to authenticate once with a designated identity provider (IdP) and access any server that is partnered with the IdP. Both Notes client and Web client users can make use of SAML-based authentication, which allows them to log in once and have access to multiple Domino web servers and applications, as well as any third-party applications partnered with the IdP.
server group
A group that is comprised of streams servers, database connections, and data source connectors.
session flowchart
A means to create a persistent, global data artifact for use in all campaigns. Each session contains at least one flowchart. Running a session flowchart makes the outcome of the session (the data artifacts) available globally to all campaigns. A typical use for a session flowchart is to create strategic segments.
smart segment
A group of customers with defined traits.
state history
Data about customer activity that is retained for use in evaluating events.
strategic segment
A globally persistent list of IDs that is available for use in multiple campaigns. A strategic segment is a static list of IDs until the original flowchart is rerun.
system table
A database table that contains information about the IBM Campaign application, including metadata about objects such as campaigns, flowcharts, and offers.

T

target cell
A cell that has an offer assigned to it. A target cell is a group of individuals at a specific audience level, such as individual customers or households.
task
An action item that is created and assigned as part of a project schedule.
template
In digital marketing, a document that is used to prepare emails to send to contacts. A template is used as a pattern and can include dynamic information, personalization, and external information.
touchpoint
An application or place where a marketer can interact with a customer. A touchpoint can be a channel where the customer initiates the contact (an "inbound" interaction) or where the marketer contacts the customer (an "outbound" interaction). Common examples are websites and call center applications.
transactional email
A single email message sent in response to a specific, predetermined transaction detected in a business system.
transaction data
Data about customer interactions captured by an external system.
treatment
The unique combination of a cell and an offer used at a particular point in time. Separate treatments are generated each time a flowchart runs.
treatment rule
A rule that assigns an offer to a smart segment. The assignments are further constrained by the custom-defined zone associated with the offer in the treatment rule. Each treatment rule also has a marketing score. If a customer is assigned to more than one segment, and therefore more than one offer is applicable, the marketing scores help define which offer Interact suggests.
trigger system
A set of configurable components that defines a time-sensitive detection algorithm to identify patterns of customer behavior.

U

user table
A table that contains data about a company's customers or prospects, such as demographic information and contact names and addresses. User tables provide the data source for processes within a Campaign flowchart. The source of a user table is a relational database or flat file.

V

value selector
A selector that can be used to specify values for expressions from data sources or components appropriate for the data type.

W

weighted round-robin
A load balancing algorithm that distributes traffic proportionally to servers based on the user-specified ranking (weight) of each server.
workflow
A means to organize the tasks, approval tasks, stages, and milestones for each project. Workflows measure the time that is spent on each part of the project and the people who are assigned to work on it.
workspace
One or more trigger systems that can be deployed and run to process transaction data.