What's New in Orbit

Welcome! This is the English version of the Apteco Orbit™ Help Centre.

Release 1.10.26 - Predefined Filters

Predefined filters

Orbit allows you to define data variable sets as filters for users when exploring the dashboard. You are now presented with additional filtering options when exploring the dashboard. By selecting these filters, all dashboard tiles are updated with the applied filter criteria. With the current dashboard tile limit in place, this feature ensures that visualisations on the dashboard can be designed to inform, rather than select data.

Only users with admin permissions can access this function to use within a dashboard.

See Predefined filters

Release 1.10.25 - Tile Filters

Tile filters

Orbit allows you to change the underlying data criteria on a single tile of a dashboard, enhancing the dashboard data story.

Tile filters allow you to apply additional data filters to individual dashboard tiles. This allows you to display different data and patterns over separate time frames, or compare one target audience against another side by side on a single dashboard.

Tile Tile Filters display data patterns differently to the rest of the Dashboard, comparing data patterns from different time frames side by side. For example, to display the following:

How many responses did my campaign achieve last quarter compared to this quarter?
Did the changes I made to the proposition cause an uplift in campaign engagement compared to the last time the campaign was run?

Results displayed side by side in a dashboard can then be shared with stakeholders, clearly displaying the effect of any test and learn strategies.

This clear visualisation of numbers informs strategic decision making on the customer lifecycle stage which marketers concentrate on to quash any declining trends in customer transactional behaviour.

See Tile filters

Release 1.10.25 - Number Tile Font Size

You can change the font size on a number tile

Unlocked the power of the text tile. You can now add as many as you like to your dashboards.
Dashboard editors now have much greater control over the size and placement of tiles on their dashboards.
Improved the feedback when grabbing a tile and dragging it around the dashboard, most notably when scrolling around the page

Release 1.10.22 - Audiences

You can now reference FastStats Selections in an Audience.

FastStats Selections

Complex selections built using the power of FastStats such as those including Nper, Limits or Recency, Frequency or Value aggregations can be searched, located and added to Audiences as part of the target Audience or the exclusion criteria.

Imagine you have created a series of selections in FastStats that identify different customer segments - year one customers, active customers, lapsing customers or loyal customers which are actively being analysed using the FastStats tool kit. Now, imagine, how easy it will be to search and add these selections to Orbit in order to visualise customers on a Dashboard enabling you to describe their distinguishing characteristics and share your findings with others.

Consistency is key for any identification, analysis and targeting of your customer base and this additional feature will mitigate the need for any recreation of these target Audiences in the platform for you to harness the visualisation, campaigning and sharing capability in Orbit.

See URNs and FastStats Selections

Release 1.10.20 - Usability

Channel Editor

Quickly create a similar channel by duplicating an existing channel.
Arrange channels by clicking and dragging into different folders.

See Managing Channels

Dashboards

Axis Titles

You can edit the variable name in the chart axis to be more descriptive.

From the Tile Editor Axis Titles menu

The diagram above shows our example Holidays system Variable names as defined in the data model

Change the descriptions for each axis

Chart Legend

You can edit the variable name in the chart legend to be more descriptive.

From the Tile EditorTile Options menu

You can change the variable description for the Legend

Release 1.10.19 - Dimension Filters

Dashboard user filters

You can apply a dimension filter to the whole dashboard, you can filter on any Variables, Audiences, FastStats selections, or URN files in the system.

A dashboard creator will add tiles to a dashboard to tell a data story, occasionally a tile is used as a main filter for selecting which categories in a dimension to filter by.

This powerful feature should only be enabled when all users are familiar with the data model. If you only want to offer relevant dimensions, then it is better to use a predefined filter.

See Predefined filters

Dimension Filters must be enabled in Application Settings by an administrator. See Dashboard Settings

For help using Dimension Filters see Dashboard filters

Release 1.10.19 - Channel Editor

Campaigning Channel Editor

We've improved the Campaigning functionality in Orbit

Using the Campaigning Channel Editor, you can set up new or manage existing channels in Apteco for campaigning in Orbit.

You can manage the whole process of setting up a broadcast channel, creating an Audience, then sending a broadcast from within Orbit:

Note: Channels can be configured to Upload and Broadcast, or Upload Only

A system Administrator uses the Channel Editor to create new, or manage existing broadcast channels

Orbit users can either; use an existing Audience, analyse Dashboards to create an Audience, or create a new Audience, then using the email broadcast integration in the Audience Export step select an Upload and Broadcast channel. Orbit users can then send a one-off email for immediate broadcast

Orbit creates a Campaign which can be monitored to confirm it sent successfully

Optionally Orbit users can use an Upload Only channel to upload the list to the broadcaster and then schedule the send using the broadcaster's web panel, or simply use Apteco email.

Note: You can use Orbit or PeopleStage to create or manage channels. Only one administrator can use the Channel Editor in a system at the same time. For other administrators, it will be Checked-Out in PeopleStage or marked as Read-Only in Orbit.

Administrators can take over a locked channel editor. For more details, see Editing the channel editor when locked out.

Note: You don't need a campaigning licence to use the channel editor, but you do need some PeopleStage roles/permissions.

See Channel editor

Release 1.10.19 Audience Export

Exporting an Audience - File Server

You can export an Audience to a Public or Private Folder

The options presented here must be configured by an Administrator

Public Folder

Allow Export to File Server (Public Folder)

Enable or disable the ability for a user to export an Audience to the File Server Public folder.

Export Public Folder

This will enable the File Server (Public Folder) Delivery option in the Audience Export tab

File Server (Public Folder) Description

Override the default description for the File Server Public folder.

This will rename the public folder description for the File Server (Public Folder) - Delivery option

File Server (Public Folder) Export Path

The path within the File Server Public folder to write the export to.

You can use the default path which will create the location in your FastStats system
Click in the box to select an alternative location, you can chose from any locations that have previously been created in FastStats

Private Folder

Allow Export to File Server (Private Folder)

Enable or disable the ability for a user to export an Audience to the File Server Private folder.

Export Private Folder

This will enable the File Server (Private Folder) Delivery option in the Audience Export tab

File Server (Private Folder) Description

Override the default description for the File Server Private folder.

This will rename the public folder description for the File Server (Private Folder) - Delivery option

File Server (Private Folder) Export Path

The path within the File Server Private folder to write the export to.

You can use the default path which will create the location in your FastStats system
Click in the box to select an alternative location, you can chose from any locations that have previously been created in FastStats

See Exporting an Audience - File Transfer

Release 1.10.19 Venn Diagrams with Multiple Measures

Multi-Measure Venn

You can define up to 5 sets and up to two measures on a Venn diagram

Multi-Measure Venn

In this example we are counting on two measures People and Bookings

Venn two measures

The two sets for Brand A and Brand B are using existing Audiences for the data selection in the tiles

Audience as a data selection in a Tile

The Venn with two measures can be used to filter the dashboard to analyse by brand, you can see both bookings and people or you can use the tile to see brand data by filtering on one of the other tiles

Using Multi-Dimension Venn

Release 1.10.17 Zipped and Password Protected Audience Exports

Zipped and Password Protected Audience Exports

You can enable the option to compress an Audience export as a ZIP file, additionally you can also enforce password protection.

Configure using the:

Application Settings Menu

The Application Settings page is available from the user menu, it will only be visible if you have admin permissions.

You can manage application settings here.

User Menu Application Settings

From: User icon in the top right
Select Application Settings >

Select the Features area
Set the required Export feature to Enable and click Save

Export as zip file

Enable or disable the ability to export and download files zip compressed. If enabled, users will have the ability to specify that they want to zip the file and password protect it if required.

When enabled this will affect the Audience Export - Download option.

Force export as password protected ZIP file

Enable or disable the ability to force export and download of password protected files ZIP compressed. If enabled, users will have to enter a password to download their exported file.

Password Protected Zip

When enabled this will affect the Audience Export Download option.

You will not see an option to ZIP the file, you must add a Password then click Export , the file will then be downloaded as a protected ZIP file.

You need to have a third-part Zip compression tool. Right-click on the exported file to Open archive then Extract to use the password dialogue

See Exporting an Audience - Download

Release 1.10.17 Venn Diagrams

Dashboards have just got more powerful

Venn Diagram

A Venn The name comes from John Venn, a 19th-century British logician who devised the notion. diagram gives a colourful, graphical representation of how data interrelates. It is advantageous in segmenting the data, for example, when creating target groups for mailings. You can use the Venn to select and analyse your chosen dataset, and then filter a dashboard.

Click on a subset count to zoom in and see a tooltip with details.

Up to five sets can be used in a Venn diagram. A coloured ellipse representing each set is shown in a different colour. Five default colours are used, however, you can change the colour for each set.

You can add up to five sets

See Venn Diagrams

Release 1.10.16 URN Files

URNs

Orbit can reference the power of URN files saved in FastStats as part of Audiences and Dashboard base queries.

For example, you can use a URN A URN (Unique Reference Number) is the unique identifier for a record in a FastStats system, it can be used to identify a Person or a Household for example. file to either include or exclude individuals or a household from communications.

See URNs and FastStats Selections

Release 1.10.15 Referencing Audiences

Audiences in Audiences

When creating campaign files or customer segments for analysis, a subset of customers is continually referenced in most or all customer selections. These Audiences can define active customers, frequent spenders, dormant customers, or master exclusion lists such as complainers, do not contacts, marketing preferences, or deceased lists. These criteria to select customers are usually recorded and updated in one central place as Includes, or Excludes (suppression Using information on one or more lists to remove duplication of specific names before a mailing, or to eliminate those undesirable names. Suppressed items are not generally mailed. lists), for campaigning or analysis. You can use the Search function to find and add an Audience to new or existing Audiences.

The benefits of referencing Orbit Audiences within new or existing Orbit Audiences are:

The ability to create and maintain one Audience as the master copy to be used in all Audiences as required
The flexibility to change these Audiences and have that change automatically apply to Audiences where it is referenced
The ability to reference multiple Audiences within one Audience to ensure consistent criteria is applied
Ability to reference a read-only version of an Audience that has been shared with you as criteria within your Orbit Audience
To have peace of mind that Audiences created which include these Audiences are consistently selecting the same people as the basis of the selection

See Referencing Audiences

Release 1.10.10 Improved Search

Search

Searching for customer attributes (variables) is fundamental in using both Audiences and Dashboards in Orbit to find those people you wish to target or take a more focused look in visualisations to describe behavioural patterns or transactional trends.

We have improved search to help you find those attributes or variables quickly and efficiently. You may have many data variables which sound the same but maybe formatted differently for example. as text or numeric. Symbols describing the variable type have been added so that you can be sure of selecting the data in the correct format for your needs.

Types of Variables

Selector
Multi-Response
Date
Numeric
Text
Currency
Date Time
URN (when Applying Limits to an Audience or creating an Export Template)

We have gone further to improve the default Search mechanism, by filtering the Search to show data variable names relating to the search criteria, not all options within each data variable as well. If you prefer the old way of showing you everything then you can always tick that box to expand the search.

We have also combined searching and browsing together so that you don't have to switch between the two modes to understand where the data has come from. For example, you may have many data variables relating to Sales in your data: Sales from different product divisions, sales from different channels or sales from different brands - now by showing the data in folders, you can be reassured you are choosing the correct variable for your needs. For functions such as adding Measures to a Dashboard tile or applying Limits, the new Search will allow you to select the table name rather than having to search for it.

Search has not only been enhanced for efficiency but will soon be evolving to allow you to search and select not only saved Audiences but also URN files and Selections which have been made and saved in Apteco FastStats for use in Audiences and Dashboards in the Apteco Orbit platform.

Searching or Browsing Data

Find Variables using search

Click Include codes in search to show the defined codes

Show Codes in Search

or Browse data to access your FastStats System explorer folders and navigate and select the require variable and category:

Browse Variables

or Search for URNs or FastStats Selections

URNs and FS Selections

Release 1.10.8 Workspaces

You can tag your resources such as Dashboards, Audiences, Campains, and Collections into a workspace to make them easy to find, use, and update.

With workspaces you can:

See all your resources in one place
Organise your resources in a meaningful way
Create links between resources

Workspaces menu

The workspaces menu can be found in the top left of each Orbit page.

Workspaces Area

Workspaces are a great way to organise your marketing assets

See Introduction to workspaces

Release 1.10.4 Customise Visualisation Data Labels

Data Labels

You can configure how a dashboard tile displays Data Labels, the options are:

Display - Turn labels On or Off or set to Auto (Auto - data labels will automatically display when the tile is large enough)
Abbreviate count - Abbreviate the data label values
Display every nth label - Set a step value to prevent labels from clashing

Click on the Data Label icon to set the options

Select Abbreviate check box to abbreviate the value

Select Display every nth label and use the cell to enter a value or the Increase and Decrease arrows to adjust the interval

Release 1.10.3 Resolve Table enabled by default

See Resolve tables for more information.

Release 1.10.3 Export Charts as Image

You can now export charts to use in other applications

Note the modern office applications work best using the SVG option as you can scale the image without loss of clarity

You cannot export on mobile devices or any of the following chart types:

Maps
Numbercards
Text tiles

Exporting a Chart as an Image

From the charts advanced options menu

Click the Download chart as image button

Download as image button

Select for either PNG or SVG

Select PNG or SVG

Release 1.10.2 - Improved display of data on Number Cards

Number Card Options

You can use the number card options to improve the display of large values, customise the number representation and gain more dashboard space.

From the Tile Editor for a Number card Options section

Abbreviated Counts on Number Cards

You can abbreviate the count on a number card

Select the Abbreviate count check-box to enable this feature

The following abbreviations will be applied

1 => 1
21 => 21
321 => 321
4321 => 4.3K
54321 => 54K
654321 => 654K
7654321 => 7.7M
87654321 => 88M
987654321 => 988M
1987654321 => 2B

Set the Maximum Number of Decimal Spaces

Set the Apply maximum number of decimal spaces check-box

Use the cell to enter a value or the Increase and Decrease arrows to adjust the number of decimal places.

This will also work when an abbreviation has been applied for example

28,400.99 will display as 28K when abbreviated
Setting the number of decimal spaces to 3 will display 28,401K

Currencies display in the locales natural format (normally 2 decimal places).

Release 1.10.2 - Australian Locale added and defaulting to the browser locale

Orbit now supports the Australian locale, representing the Australian $ currency symbol correctly

If the browser is running either Australian, United States, Deutsch or Nederlands, the user interface language option will be set to that locale automatically, if the browser is in UK (English) or none of the above it will use the United Kingdom language option.

Release 1.10.00 Multi Resolve Table

Dashboards Multi-Resolve Table

We're making Dashboards more intuitive, we want to make it clearer and more natural to use tiles from multiple tables, as is typical in a large system. We are also making the Dashboards more powerful, more flexible, and clearer for users to interact with.

Dashboard User

Dashboards are more powerful, more flexible for users to interact with.

When you select data using the dashboard and add to Filter, Orbit will use separate criteria for each table. These will then be combined dynamically into appropriate filters for any table when refreshing each tile.
User Filters are counted and grouped intuitively, and the filter grouping is easier to understand.
Advanced users have the option to display a breakdown of how a User Filter is applied to a tile.

This update provides considerable flexibility to drive analysis of the data to provide useful and meaningful results

There are more options that can be set at design time to control how a dashboard delivers results, for example using Multi-Dimension tiles, see the online help for more information.

Release 1.10.00 Email Broadcasting Integration and Campaign Monitoring

You can upload and broadcast or upload only an Audience to one of the many email service providers (ESPs) Apteco already integrates with. Within Orbit, you can create a target Audience and then Export directly to an ESP.

See Apteco Integrations

For those with Apteco PeopleStage already licensed, an Orbit user can upload and broadcast to their chosen ESP and automatically record communication history for their Orbit campaign. They can also see the campaign automatically drawn in their PeopleStage instance in an Area called Apteco Orbit.

Those without a Campaigning bundle can still benefit from the integration, with the ability to upload only to a chosen ESP. Perfect for occasions where an email is required to be sent without personalisation or the need to track the success of the campaign in Apteco. Communication history is not recorded for those without a Campaigning bundle.

Campaign Monitoring in Orbit Campaigns

Campaign Monitoring allows you to monitor the status of all campaigns within Orbit, whether created in PeopleStage or Orbit. You can now log into Orbit on your mobile, desktop or tablet device to see the status of running campaigns to ensure they are running as planned.

You can upload and broadcast or upload only an Audience to one of the many Email Service Providers (ESPs) Apteco already integrates with. Within Orbit, you can create a target Audience and then Export directly to an ESP.

See Apteco Integrations.

Useful to have before you start:

The Message Name in the ESP to use
The Email Channel name to use in the Delivery drop down
The Channel must already exist in PeopleStage
You will need to have the Publisher role to see the Channels in the Delivery drop-down in Orbit
The Export Audience To Campaign Feature must be Enabled in Application Settings - Features
Have any Upload Only Channels prepared, it's useful to name the channel to identify it as Upload Only - See note below

The Upload and Broadcast is not scheduled, It is on a NOW schedule.

We are adding the ability to configure the ESPs email Channel from within Orbit in a later release

Upload Only - To use the Upload Only you must configure an Email Channel by selecting the Upload but don't broadcast check-box on the Output Settings tab of the Channel Editor, Orbit will reognise it as an Upload Only channel.

Email Broadcasting System Requirements

This release of the email broadcasting integration in Orbit requires the following prerequisites:

You must be using the Apteco Q1 2021 version
You will need to be an existing PeopleStage user to -
- Configure Email Channels in PeopleStage to use in Orbit
- Manage the Apteco Orbit Area in PeopleStage

You will be able to perform the tasks above from within Orbit in a future release of the email broadcasting integration.

See Email

Release 1.9.31 Pin a Dashboard to Home

To Pin a Dashboard:

Click the Pin icon next to a Dashboard

Pin a Dashboard

Release 1.9.27 Home Settings

Home Settings

You can manage homepage settings here.

From: User icon in the top right
Select Application Settings > Home Settings

System Build

System Info on homepage

You can show or hide the System Information widget on the homepage

Select Enable or Disable to show or hide this widget

Release 1.9.25 Audience Export Codes

Audience Export Codes

When you export an Audience you can include an additional column to add a user code, for example, a campaign code for a third-party fulfillment house to use in their processing.

Click Add user code

The Name cannot contain only numbers and must be unique to the export list.

Enter a Name and Code

The text value applies to every individual in the file.

Additional Column

You can add a blank column if an additional column is required to ensure a column structure to the file output. This column can be empty.

To edit the Code value use the Edit icon and enter a new value.
To change the Name of the code you can delete the column and enter a new export code.

Release 1.9.24 New Homepage

HOME widgets

New Home Page

- Welcome message, and links to help you get started using Orbit
- FastStats System(s) information and build date, click the View button to expand, the View button will only show if the DataView has more than one System. Optional, see the Home Settings section. Application Settings
- Quick Actions - Use these quick actions to get straight into creating and viewing your Dashboards, Audiences, Campaigns, and Collections. (A) Admins, you will see additional administrative actions for easy access.
- Counts of users resources You can see the number of resources (Dashboards, Audiences, Campaigns, Collections) you have at a quick glance, and can click onto a count to view all.
- PINNED You can pin important Dashboards, Audiences, and Collections for quick access here.
- MY RECENT - Resources you have created (Dashboards, Audiences, Campaigns, Collections) will appear here, ordered by the most recently modified first.
- SHARED WITH ME - Items newly shared to you will appear here, ordered by the most recently modified first.
- Highlighted features - A chance for you to see key features highlighted, showing images with links through to the online help resources or to the actual feature.
- NEW RELEASE This area shows off a summary of the latest release notes allowing you to click through into the full release notes for further details.
- LEARN You have access to Apteco's online help and learning environments.

Release 1.9.23 Multi Dimension Charts

Visualisations Library

Multiple Colours

More than one visualisation colour can be applied to a dashboard theme.

These help differentiate the categories on a dashboard.

Click the + sign to select additional colours

You will need to experiment with the choice of colours to ensure the Highlight colour stands out

Multiple dimension charts

Multiple dimension charts can display multiple dimension and multiple measure data on a chart to compare categories.

Use the built-in system themes to differentiate the categories, or create your own theme.

Categorical Colours

Clustered column

A clustered column chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - Gender and Occupation

Measure - People

Clustered Column

Stacked column

A stacked column chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - Gender and Occupation

Measure - People

Stacked Column

100% stacked column

A 100% stacked column chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - Gender and Occupation

Measure - People

100% Stacked Column

Clustered bar

A Clustered bar chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The horizontal axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - Gender and Newspapers

Measure - People

Clustered Bar

Stacked bar

A stacked bar chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The horizontal axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - Gender and Newspapers

Measure - People

Stacked Bar

100% stacked bar

A 100% stacked bar chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The horizontal axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - Gender and Newspapers

Measure - People

100% Stacked Bar

Clustered line

A clustered line chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - DOB and Newspapers

Measure - People

Lne

Clustered area

A clustered area chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - DOB and Newspapers

Measure - People

Stacked area

A stacked area chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - DOB and Newspapers

Measure - People

Stacked Area

100% stacked area

A 100% stacked area chart displays two dimensions and one measure to compare multiple categories.

The vertical axis displays the measure.

Dimensions - DOB and Newspapers

Measure - People

Clustered combo

A clustered combo chart displays two dimensions and two measures to compare multiple categories.

The left vertical axis displays the first measure, the right vertical axis displays the second measure value range which is represented by a line for each dimension two band

Dimensions - Gender and Income

Measures - People and Cost of Bookings

Clustered Combo

Stacked combo

A stacked combo chart displays two dimensions and two measures to compare multiple categories.

The left vertical axis displays the first measure, the right vertical axis displays the second measure value range which is represented by a line for each dimension two band

Dimensions - Gender and Income

Measures - People and Cost of Bookings

100% stacked combo

A 100% stacked combo chart displays two dimensions and two measures to compare multiple categories.

The left vertical axis displays the first measure, the right vertical axis displays the second measure value range which is represented by a line for each dimension two band

Dimensions - Gender and Income

Measures - People and Cost of Bookings

100% Stacked Combo