Orbit release notes 2024

Our Orbit development team works using fortnightly sprints. This helps us get the newest features to you as soon as they are ready.

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12 December 2024

Version 2.1.16

Headline features

Triggered Events: Acknowledge campaign engagement with real-time action

Triggered events in Orbit campaigns allow you to respond automatically to recipient actions, boosting engagement and guiding customers through their journey based on real-time behaviour. By using predefined actions triggered by specific conditions—such as making a purchase or downloading content—your campaigns can deliver immediate, tailored responses to your customers.

Powered by either Audience Data or Live Data, triggered events let you react to real-time actions, ensuring flexibility in your campaign.

Key benefits:

• Automatically respond to recipient actions, such as purchases or sign-ups, with relevant, real-time communications.

• Adjust recipient paths based on real-time actions, ensuring messages align with engagement goals.

• Adhere to contact strategies, by controlling the frequency of communications with constraints.

• Understand the number of recipients triggering an event to help monitor engagement and refine future campaigning

Note: This feature is available with a Campaigner bundle and above.

Note: Upgrade your Apteco software to Q4 2024 today to start using this feature.

For more detail, see Triggered events.

Campaign Goals: Define and track campaign success

Track and optimise your marketing campaigns with ease by setting clear, measurable goals for your Orbit campaigns. Whether you're aiming to increase product sales, drive event registrations, or boost donations, campaign goals provide a simple way to align your team, monitor progress in real-time, and ensure your campaign strategy is on track.

Key benefits:

• Automatic tracking shows progress instantly with visual indicators

• Clear purpose to the campaign to help focus on the definition of campaign success

• Data-driven insights highlight key trends through automated analysis

Set a goal for your campaign, such as achieving a specific number of product sales or website visits within a set timeframe. Track progress through a visual progress bar that updates as participants interact with your campaign. With built-in monitoring and detailed campaign strategy views, you can ensure you are meeting your goal.

Note: This feature is available with a Campaigner bundle and above.

Note: Upgrade your Apteco software to Q4 2024 today to start using this feature.

For more detail, see Campaign goals.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Apteco SMS for instant customer engagement

Apteco SMS is now available in Orbit campaigns, enabling you to connect with customers instantly through personalised text messages. Whether you're sending urgent notifications, promotions, or reminders, SMS ensures direct engagement by delivering messages straight to the mobile device. With Apteco SMS, you can create personalised templates with ease, track character count and credits, and preview your messages before sending them.

Key benefits:

• Instant engagement for time-sensitive alerts, ensuring immediate connection with your customers.

• High visibility by delivering messages directly to mobile devices, guaranteeing they’re seen regardless of internet access.

• Cost management through tracking character usage and SMS credits, helping you optimise campaign expenses.

Whether you’re gathering customer feedback or reducing churn with subscription renewal reminders, Apteco SMS offers a flexible and efficient communication channel.

Note: Upgrade your Apteco software to Q4 2024 today to start using this feature.

For more detail, see Apteco SMS.

UTM code tracking for Apteco email

Apteco now supports UTM code tracking for email campaigns, enabling you to track traffic performance via campaign links.

This feature is available for Apteco email users, helping you automatically monitor UTM Source, UTM, Medium, and UTM Campaign in Google Analytics. This allows you to understand which campaign, and campaign message where Apteco email is used, is contributing to traffic on your website.

Enable UTM tracking for your email messages in the journey builder and Orbit automatically adds UTM parameters to all message links.

UTM parameters:

• UTM Campaign: Orbit campaign name

• UTM Medium: Set to email or WhatsApp

• UTM Source: Message name in Orbit

For more detail, see UTM code tracking.

Spotler broadcaster integration

We’ve released an integration with Spotler for Orbit and PeopleStage, available from Q4 2024. This new feature enables you to take advantage of email and SMS campaign management via Spotler’s MailPro API.

Key features:

• Email & SMS support: Manage campaigns with Spotler’s tools.

• Dynamic personalisation: Use DMD_ fields for transactional data.

• Enhanced logging: Access detailed logs for API debugging.

Note: Upgrade your Apteco software to Q4 2024 today to start using this feature.

Audiences

Combination charts

We’ve extended our audience workbook map visualisations capabilities even further. You can now include combination (single dimension, multi measure) charts to further analyse and target your audience with more complexity.

On an audience workbook combination chart:

• Users can select a column or a bar or the line or the category label on the axis or a legend item

• The colour of both measures then change to the theme's selected colour

• The user can de-select a column or a bar or the line or the category label on the axis or a legend item, or reset the whole selection

• The colour of both measures changes back to the original (theme or category colour)

• The selection menu can be dragged around the screen but is constrained by the audience workbook

• The user can select create audience from the selection menu

• An audience is created and the user is taken to it

• The audience criteria matches that of the selection plus the original audience's queries

Allow full stops in file names for export to an ftp site

You can now use full stop characters in file names when exporting from Orbit to an FTP site. This allows you more flexibility when choosing file names, for example, when you want to use a file path as a file name for FTP upload.

Connect

Updater configurator repair options

Administrators can now manually repair the Orbit Updater and Login Service components, in addition to those it was already possible for. We’ve also added the capacity to view and repair all updater configurator component functions within a single summary tab.

See Orbit installation guide, updater configurator, summary.

General

HTTP headers for Orbit

We've further improved Orbit browser security by adding more default secure HTTP headers, making Orbit even safer to use.

Bug fixes

General

• Responses Webhook API fails to start properly if Apteco SMS is not configured.

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26 November 2024

Version 2.1.15

Headline features

Maps in audience workbooks

Audience workbooks now allow you to upload shape files to create dynamic maps that you can use to analyse and target your audience.

Administrators manage the first part of this process, then users can continue to create and analyse workbook maps:

• Administrators can upload a GeoJSON shape file, view shape files, and delete shape files

• Users can then create and use workbook maps and penetration maps

Use cases:

• Absolute data from dashboard maps don’t remove outliers from your data set and you need workbooks using quantiles for decision making based on relative performance.

• You need to focus your marketing resources on areas with the highest density of target customers. Penetration maps help you make data-driven decisions to optimise your marketing strategies.

See Audience workbook maps.

New database connections: SQL Server, Snowflake, and PostgreSQL

You can now bring your data from various database sources into Orbit. Specify and securely store your credentials, connect your databases, and begin building your system with confidence.

Supported database providers:

• Microsoft SQL Server (including Azure SQL)

• Snowflake

• PostgreSQL

This feature expands your integration options beyond file and Amazon S3 connections, making Orbit connect even more versatile for managing data from disparate sources.

For more detail, see Data sources.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Landing pages

Note: Available for Apteco email users.

Landing pages are standalone web pages created to convert visitors into leads or customers. They focus on a single objective, such as promoting a product or capturing sign-ups, with a clear Call to Action (CTA).

Key features and benefits:

• Quickly create standalone landing pages without needing to link them to your website.

• Embed forms with the form builder to collect visitor information

• Familiar drag-and-drop interface to the email builder

• Live editing of published pages for real-time updates

• Enhance branding with custom URLs, subdomains, SEO settings, and page descriptions

Note: Subdomain setup requires DNS record changes and domain validation. Contact Apteco support for assistance.

For more detail, see Landing pages.

After trigger schedule for live data audiences

Campaigns now automatically start when a new row is added or existing data is updated in a live data audience.

New data entries in the live data audience immediately trigger and run the associated campaign. This improvement ensures that your campaigns respond in real time to live data changes.

For more detail, see Live data.

Campaign run date in personalisation

You can now use the campaign Run Date variable as a content field for all message personalisation in Orbit campaigns.

This allows for more dynamic and time-sensitive messaging, ensuring your communications are tailored to the specific timing of each campaign.

For more detail, see Applying personalisation.

View audience details in view mode

You can now view audience details for Orbit audiences in the journey builder when in view mode, with an option menu available on target segment steps. You no longer need to be in edit mode.

For more detail, see Viewing audience details.

Duplicate campaigns from the journey builder

You can now duplicate campaigns directly from the journey builder option menu.

This provides a quick and convenient way to create full copies of your campaigns, either by duplicating from:

• The campaign overview screen

• This new option in the journey builder

For more detail, see Duplicating a campaign.

Reorder campaign sections

You can now reorder campaign sections in the campaign journey builder using drag-and-drop functionality.

This feature makes it easier to reorganise your campaign sections, helping you maintain a clear and manageable campaign flow.

Quickly navigate to a campaign section

You can now use the arrow on a path redirect step to jump to a closed section, which automatically expands for easier navigation.

This allows you to quickly access and adjust specific sections without disrupting your overall campaign view.

See Sections and path redirects.

System builds warning/hover over message on table

We've improved the visibility of warnings and required actions in the system build area. You can now immediately see which table(s) are affected by warning messages and can hover over to display the required action(s).

Bug fixes

Audiences

• The temporary URN file option, meant for dashboards, is no longer available in audiences. Permanent URN files are now the main option, to ensure reliability.

• Filters from FastStats selections now take into account transactional filters with on-the-fly aggregations, as expected.

Campaigns

• We've fixed an issue where adding a constraint to a campaign targeting a non-default table reverted the campaign table to the system default.

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14 November 2024

Version 2.1.14

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Campaign constraints indicator badge

A new constraints indicator badge now appears in Orbit campaigns. Whenever you apply one or more constraints, this badge will display next to the schedule at the top of your campaign.

This makes it easier to identify campaigns with active constraints at a glance.

For more detail, see Constraint settings.

Campaign summary items order

Items on the campaign summary screen are now logically grouped together by type for easier comprehension.

For more detail, see Campaign summary.

WhatsApp UTM code change

We've changed the UTM code links for Whatsapp, so that the UTM codes we apply to WhatsApp are the same as the links for Apteco email. For example, utm_campaign=name for the campaign, utm_medium=whatsapp and utm_source=name for the message.

Dashboards

URN upload folders in public directory

When adding a user filter to your dashboard, you can now make folders in a public directory when uploading URN files. This allows you to organise your upload and view your file structure with the first 5 line preview window.

Multiselect variables on predefined filters

We've added multiselect variables to predefined filters. Now, when adding variables to predefined filters, you're able to select multiple at once, saving you time spent re-navigating the filters menu.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• When adding a dashboard file filter, you can now navigate below a folder with a '#' in the name.

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30 October 2024

Version 2.1.13

New features and improvements

Connect

Table property improvements

We’ve relabelled tables within the system definition in Orbit connect to accurately represent their type, improving the presentation of their properties when editing or viewing a system definition.

A megaphone icon now appears on tables nominated for campaign activity and displays the nomination type.

For more detail, see Table options.

Dashboards

Additional tile filtering

We've enhanced filtering options for dashboard tiles. You can now choose to filter a tile so that specific records are displayed, allowing you to include any drilldown or tile filter (i.e. Filter to Households), or you can keep the default option of just adding the selected categories to the filter.

Datagrid page view visual enhancements

The datagrid page view now features improved alignment and spacing, with all data left-aligned and a text-to-spacing ratio for better readability.

Audiences

Further enhancements to custom date range selection

We've made further enhancements to date range selection, allowing more precise control of the custom date ranges with an improved user interface/experience. You now have two fully customisable option rows where you can define a date range ‘From (Start of)’, ‘To (End of)’.

For more detail, see Working with dates.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• We've fixed an issue preventing dashboard charts from correctly displaying category colours.

Audiences

• Multi-dimension audience charts no longer display an error message when adding or deleting a calculated measure.

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15 October 2024

Version 2.1.12

Feature improvements

Audiences

Custom date rule improvement

You can now choose from more options when defining your custom date rule. In addition to 'Today', you can now select from; tomorrow, yesterday, this week, this month, this quarter, and this year, providing much greater customisation flexibility.

See Working with dates, Custom rule.

Favourite charts

On the add new audience page, you can now create a chart, favourite it, and then reuse it on a new audience.

Bug fixes

Campaign

• A campaign no longer crashes when paused with a null reason.

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02 October 2024

Version 2.1.11

Feature improvements

Connect

Improved data column reference

In Orbit connect, when you create a table definition and select or edit a variable type, the corresponding column in the preview data table is now highlighted for easier reference.

See Table definitions.

Campaigns

Journey constraints side panel redesign

We’ve redesigned the journey constraints side panel in the journey builder with the following improvements:

• You’ll now find the volume constraint option above contact constraints.

• For both volume constraints and when switching between a campaign contact constraint or communication contact constraint, you see a description explaining its function.

• You can now name, rename, or delete constraints via the option menu. A name auto-generates for a new constraint.

• Reorder your constraints with the new drag function.

See Constraint settings.

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18 September 2024

Version 2.1.10

New features and improvements

Connect

Apteco Cloud permissions

We now provide an enterprise-level permissions suite enabled by default for servers hosted in Apteco Cloud.

Campaigns

Order a volume limit by a variable

You can now choose records by ordering them based on a numeric variable. Once ordered, you can apply a top or bottom order to the values before setting a volume limit.

Note: This feature requires a FastStats Service version of Q3 2024 or later.

Campaign block failure notifications

You now receive notifications detailing why your campaign blocks failed, enabling you to take immediate action. If you delete an audience after a campaign is published but before it runs, then the Monitoring tab now shows the specific reason for the pause.

Note: This feature requires a FastStats Service version of Q3 2024 or later.

Improved campaign section creation

You can now add a campaign section directly without needing to add a new journey step in the journey builder. A + New Section button is available at the bottom of your campaign journey for easier access.

Bug fixes

Connect

• Orbit connect now works with a global database configuration. The data import request now includes this database connection string, ensuring session validation and preventing activity failures.

  Note: This fix requires a FastStats Service version of Q3 2024 or later.

Dashboards

• We've fixed an issue occurring on dashboard cube tiles with a booking date on both dimensions and 'omit unclassifieds' checked. When you add a filter using a variable from the tile information table, a 'ke is undefined' error is no longer generated.

• Numeric inputs in dashboard tile options are no longer oversized and misaligned with other elements.

Audiences

• Manually entering a date range in a date variable filter now applies correctly, without causing an error.

• Chart icons now correctly display for workbook charts.

Campaigns

• We've fixed an issue where the channel template for a message step would not reset in some cases when you’ve changed the channel.

• Time zone settings configured in appsettings.json for Apteco Email are now correctly applied in the Responses Webhook, ensuring the logged time zones match the configured values.

• Accessing the journey tab of a campaign that contains sections now functions correctly, without causing an error.

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03 September 2024

Version 2.1.9

Headline feature

Transactional campaigns in Orbit

You can now run transactional campaigns in Orbit, allowing you to create highly targeted communications based on individual transactions. This new feature enables you to improve message relevance and engagement by tailoring your campaigns to specific actions taken by your customers.

Key features:

• Create campaigns focused on individual transactions, such as bookings, purchases, charity donations, or policy renewals, to deliver more relevant content

• Choose your campaignable level when setting up a campaign and quickly identify which level a campaign is running on in the journey builder

• Send multiple communications to the same email address, acknowledging each unique transaction

• Leverage transactional data variables to customise message personalisation based on specific transactions

This feature allows you to send targeted communications, such as renewal notifications for specific policies or personalised emails for each booking, like a holiday trip. You can also handle multiple transactions for the same email address, ensuring separate messages are sent for each without being limited by email provider deduplication.

For more detail, see Transactional campaigns.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

Tile copy improvement

You can now copy a dashboard tile to another tab on the same dashboard.

General

Enhanced locale and language support for Canadian and French users

You can now use Orbit with language and locale settings that match your preferences and with the expected settings:

• Canadian users can use Orbit in English with Canadian locale settings.

• French users can use Orbit in French with French locale settings.

• French-Canadian users can use Orbit in French with Canadian locale settings.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• We've fixed an issue where the end date time in a date range defaulted to the beginning of the day.

• We've fixed an intermittent SQLite error due to a timing issue during index re-creation. The index is now handled correctly to prevent duplicate entries.

• Search results in the Orbit share function now properly clear when the search string is empty. Previously, pressing backspace did not always remove search results as expected.

Campaigns

• In the journey builder, releasing records from a time delay step after a message step no longer causes an error.

General

• We've fixed an issue that prevented connections to OpenID Connect SSO providers following the .NET 8 upgrade.

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28 August 2024

Version 2.1.8

Important Notice

We’ve applied a further bug fix to the following dashboards issue from our last release, 2.1.7 on 21 August 2024:

Calculated measures displayed as percentages now correctly show the percentage symbol on dashboard visualisations.

Our previous fix meant that values were always displayed as a percentage of the total across all categories. You can now choose to display a value only as a percentage. This issue has now been fully resolved.

We’ve worked hard to quickly apply this fix with Orbit update 2.1.8. We apologise sincerely for any inconvenience caused.

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21 August 2024

Version 2.1.7

Headline feature

Dashboard quick search

We've added a powerful new dashboard feature that allows you to search and filter across multiple text or text URN fields simultaneously. Previously, the filter mechanism required you to add and select on each field individually, and for all search criteria to be met. This new quick search allows you to return records where the search term is matched on any of your selected fields – for example, surname and email address.

You can set up the new quick search in the dashboard filter side panel, and then use it in the dashboard header:

• As a dashboard editor, you can define the search prompt presented to your users and define which fields are searched from within the dashboard filters side panel.

• As a dashboard viewer, the quick search input box is visible in the dashboard header for maximum ease of use. The fields that are searched are displayed in the new Search Filters section in the filters side panel.

Key benefits

• You can now simply enter a search term and return results where the term is found in any of the search filter fields. This makes the dashboard more flexible and powerful when combining textual search with other filter criteria.

• You can enable or disable the quick search feature based on the needs of each user dashboard, providing dashboard designers with flexibility to customise the dashboard user experience.

See Dashboard quick search.

New features and improvements

Connect

Rebuild notification for table and system changes

A notification now alerts you when a rebuild is required after you make changes to table or system definitions. If you altered any definitions since the last build, a message indicates that there are pending changes requiring rebuild and deployment actions.

Campaigns

Release people stuck in an Orbit journey

You can now release individuals who are stuck in an Orbit campaign journey due to constraints or incorrect audience logic. This feature allows you to release recipients who are unable to move forward or exit the campaign.

Meta integration API upgrade

We’ve upgraded our Meta integration from API version 18 to 20, providing improved validation handling to align with Meta's latest changes. Deprecated post insight metrics have been removed.

Bug fixes

Connect

• We've fixed an issue that meant the build time displayed within the deployment dialogue was shown in UTC, rather than a user's local time.

• We've resolved an issue in the Orbit update process that could cause an error if the update was attempted while the WWW service was not running.

Dashboards

• Sharing a dashboard no longer causes the tab to go blank. This applies to both tabbed and non-tabbed dashboards.

• Calculated measures displayed as percentages now correctly show the percentage symbol on dashboard visualisations.

• You can now browse all folders in the Export Solution dialogue. The data variables viewable window no longer gets overlaid, allowing access to the bottom folder.

• We've increased the maximum row limit for Data Grid tiles on dashboards to 200, resolving the issue where users could not extend Data Grids beyond a certain length.

Campaigns

• We've fixed an issue where viewing audience details in a target segment in a journey displayed an invalid table in the audience pop-up.

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07 August 2024

Version 2.1.6

Headline feature

Charts in audiences

We’re happy to announce that you can now use your Orbit audiences to create multiple, powerful full-screen chart visualisations, all within the same UI!

We’ve greatly expanded your access to audience visualisations, now including:

• Bar and column charts

• Line and area charts

• Pie and donut charts

• Radar and funnel charts

For a new or existing audience, you can add a variety of chart types. You can then define your dimensions, measures, and data properties using the intuitive chart properties side panel. Each chart appears on a separate tab enabling you to see multiple different visualisations of the audience. You can choose the most appropriate chart visualisation for your insight objectives. For example, use a line chart to display temporal (date or time) data, a donut chart to display proportions, or a funnel chart to show a descending sequenced category such as a sales pipeline stage.

Once you’ve added and defined a chart, you can select a sub-set of your data from the chart to create new audiences. Any audience you create can be used in turn to create a 'train-of-thought' as you refine the subset of your data you wish to use. Any of the audiences created at any stage of this train of thought can be activated through the campaign capabilities or output manually as a result of your analysis work.

Key benefits:

• You can now use full screen charts to quickly and fully visualise your audience without ever navigating away from the audiences UI.

• The newly consolidated and logically ordered chart properties side panel allows you to quickly and easily configure your charts, so you can focus on getting the most out of your data.

• You can now interact with charts to follow your train-of-thought and prepare new audiences to target subsets of your original cohort. This interactivity helps your users engage with and understand your data resources.

See Charts in audiences.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

Export multiple dashboard tabs as a single PDF

You can now export multiple selected dashboard tabs in a single PDF output. When you select Export as PDF, you're presented with a dialog that allows you to choose the relevant dashboard tabs and preview the output before saving the PDF. This is a great way to share insights from your analysis with your colleagues as the exported PDF displays the results of the filtering you have applied.

See Export multiple dashboard tabs as a single PDF.

Campaigns

Change channel type

You can now change channel type on the fly for a message step in the Orbit campaign journey builder. The new channel type retains all personalisation settings from the original channel. For example, you could change from an email step to a WhatsApp step without losing any personalisation.

This features saves you time when building your multi-channel campaigns and ensures you maintain a consistent message across multiple channels.

See Applying personalisation.

Enhanced admin access

Orbit administrators now have direct access to configuration of FTP sites, storage quotas, velocity, and row filters. You can now manage these key settings more efficiently when you have the new permissions mechanism enabled in Orbit.

See Permissions.

Bug fixes

Connect

• Double imports no longer occur when adding a data source with an existing import schedule. If you set a schedule on a data import and click the import button, a pop-up message asks if you also want to import immediately.

• Orbit connect now trims any leading and trailing spaces on column headers of imported files. This ensures that files with or without white spaces in column headers import correctly and do not fail during the import process.

Dashboards

• All columns now display correctly when using multiple horizontal axes and multiple measures on a cube.

• Orbit now supports Slovenian currencies used in FastStats and no longer result in errors.

• When exporting a dashboard as PDF, tile notes are now included, as expected.

General

• We’ve fixed an issue where a login error message incorrectly displayed in French when set to German.

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26 July 2024

Version 2.1.5

Important Notice:

We’ve found and fixed an issue with some of the German translation in version 2.1.4 of Orbit.

We’ve worked hard to quickly apply this fix with Orbit update 2.1.5. We apologise sincerely for any inconvenience caused.

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25 July 2024

Version 2.1.4

Headline feature

Connect onboarding

We’ve greatly improved the new user experience for Orbit connect. The new landing page orientates you within the easy to use Orbit UI, complimenting the intuitive and compact design we’ve been implementing consistently across Orbit. This landing page familiarises you with working in Orbit right away, allowing you to hit the ground running when you’re fully set up and quickly focus on analysing your data, and running campaigns. For more information, see Orbit end-to-end.

You’re now also presented with an interactive task list, guiding you through the steps required to build your system quickly to get the most out of Orbit analyse and campaign features.

Using this interactive task list, you can assess which tasks you’ve yet to complete, and can reach the relevant pages by clicking on the applicable step.

For more information, see Connect onboarding.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Live data in Orbit

We’re excited to introduce Live Data in Orbit. This feature allows Near Real-Time (NRT) trigger campaigns to people outside your FastStats system, as soon as they meet the defined trigger. It can also be used to recognise a change in information for customers already in your system, such as a change in preferences. Live data in campaigning can be triggered by defined actions across different data sources, including new sign ups, making a purchase, filling in a survey or redeeming an offer code.

You can use live data audience segments alongside normal audiences, splitting the journey based on whether recipients come from a live data feed. This capability allows for highly personalised communications tailored to each recipient's actions.

For more detail, see Live data in Orbit campaigns.

Default to variable in Apteco email personalisation

When adding personalisation fields to email content with Apteco email, Orbit now sets the default field type to Variable instead of Text. This streamlines the process, requiring fewer steps to add variable content.

For more detail, see Applying personalisation.

Dashboards

Filters panel closes after dashboard change

When swapping between dashboards, the dashboard filters panel now closes.

Dashboard filters collapse by default in view mode

Dashboard filters now collapse by default only in 'View' mode, in 'Edit' mode they remain expanded.

Connect

Rename a data source

You can now rename a data source via the drop down options menu.

Bug fixes

Campaigns

• You can now successfully use the 'Copy Image Link' function from the image library of the Apteco Email template builder.

General

• We've changed the 'Unsaved Changes' dialog so that the 'Stay and Save' button is now the default option, rather than 'Discard Changes'. Once you’ve clicked ‘Stay and Save’, you’re free to stay on this dashboard and can save your work before leaving.

  

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10 July 2024

Version 2.1.3

Important Notice:

The latest Orbit release (version 2.1.3) requires the ASP.NET Core 8 Server Hosting Bundle for the OrbitAPI. To update Orbit and take advantage of its new features, you must download and install the .NET Core 8 update.

Steps to update:
1. Download and install the .NET Core 8 update.
2. Ensure you are using version 8.0.7 or later, as it includes essential security patches from Microsoft.

For more information on downloading the update and accessing a list of FAQs, please refer to the ASP.NET requirement for Apteco Orbit.

For the latest updates and details from Microsoft, visit the Microsoft .NET 8 downloads page.

Headline feature

Duplicate and reuse dashboards, tabs, and tiles

You can now easily copy, edit, and reuse dashboards, tabs, and tiles. When viewing a dashboard in edit mode with the necessary permissions to create dashboards, you can now:

• Copy entire dashboards, including all their tabs and tiles

• Copy dashboard tabs, including all their tiles

• Copy individual tile

This quality of life feature saves you considerable time replicating already existing dashboard configuration. Reusing existing content from dashboards, tabs, and tiles allows you to focus on getting the most out of your marketing data with Apteco software.

For more information, see Copying dashboards, tabs, and tiles.

New features and improvements

Connect

Compact design

Our new compact design provides users of Orbit connect with greater clarity and space when editing a system definition.

This improvement brings connect in line with the similar changes already implemented in our campaigning journey builder. These designs maintain ease of navigation, whilst allowing for management of a greater number of tables.

See Defining a system.

Campaigns

Duplicate a campaign section in Orbit journeys

You can now quickly replicate complex campaign sections in your Orbit journeys to speed up the campaign creation process and avoid starting from scratch each time.

This feature can ensure consistency across different sections by duplicating proven structures. You can easily test variations of a section without disrupting the original setup. Maintaining all essential redirect paths and loopbacks also reduces the risk of errors.

The duplicated section appears in the section list with a unique name and you receive a notification upon successful duplication.

For more detail, see Sections and path redirects.

Side panel delete option

You can now delete a journey step from the side panel option menu.

Bug fixes

Campaigns

• Deleting a section with multiple redirects from a split now correctly creates new Exit steps to replace them.

• We've fixed an issue where the channel template for a message step would not reset in some cases when you changed the channel.

• We've fixed an issue where the approval notification incorrectly displayed when in draft or edit mode.

• File steps now display placeholder text to indicate a filename is required, improving file step validation.

• We've improved personalisation validation when adding a content field to File and FTP steps.

• We’ve fixed an issue where discarding changes on a draft and navigating away could produce an unsupported journey warning.

• We've fixed an issue where audience counts would show on split paths in draft mode.

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3 July 2024

Version 2.1.2 (Out-of-band release)

We released an Orbit update (version 2.1.2) on 3 July 2024 to address an Orbit Updater service stability issue that occurred during simultaneous updates. You can now update the Orbit Updater, Orbit API, and Orbit UI components without the service ending up in a stopped state. This ensures all updates complete successfully and the service remains stable.

Note: If you have auto-update turned on for Orbit, then the patch will update automatically. If not, please refer to the software releases page on the Apteco portal to download the latest version of Orbit.

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26 June 2024

Version 2.1.1

Headline feature

Copy and reuse campaign journey steps

We’re pleased to introduce new copy and paste functionality for individual steps within your campaign journey.

Aside from your initial audience, you can now reuse any journey step, including messages, interaction splits, audience splits, and time delays. The steps retain all previously applied settings, including any message personalisation, ensuring consistency and efficiency in your campaign building process.

You can also copy multiple steps within a campaign section, just like any other journey step, then reuse that content anywhere else in your campaign journey.

This feature offers several benefits and use cases.

• Enhance consistency by maintaining uniform messaging and timing

• Save time by reducing repetitive configuration

• Ensure correct campaign structure with context-sensitive pasting

• Streamline the construction of complex customer journeys

A notification displays whenever you have a copied item ready to paste steps to your Orbit clipboard. The paste option appears only in suitable locations, ensuring correct placement.

For more detail, see Copy and reuse journey steps.

New features and improvements

Connect

Appending data source columns

Orbit connect users can now append additional columns to existing data sources, as well as additional rows.

This benefits administrators of Apteco Orbit systems who wish to append extra columns to an existing data source.

For more detail, see Appending data source columns.

Improved OrbitAPI logging

Administrators can now optionally log additional data within the OrbitAPI logs (such as the data view name and userid.

You can now more easily search and filter when using the Log Viewer function of the FastStats Configuration Utility. The resulting information display is split into separate relevant columns within the log viewer.

For more detail, see Logging options.

Dashboards

• You can no longer display underlying datagrids via dashboard tiles.

• We've added the ability to use hyperlinks to our rich tile editor. See Tile Options.

Campaigns

• When selecting a to-do list action, the journey will now scroll to the step associated with it.

General

Note: Just a reminder that Apteco plans to introduce a dependency on the ASP.NET Core 8 Server Hosting bundle for the OrbitAPI in the upcoming release (version 2.1.2) during the week of July 8th.

For details on where to download the update and a list of FAQs, see ASP.NET pre-requisite change for Apteco Orbit.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Tile notes on dashboards now use a sans serif font by default.

• The filter panel now shows the audience filter name when you edit a dashboard tile.

Campaigns

• When you come back to a campaign in the same session, Orbit remembers if you left it in Edit, Draft, or Live mode.

• We've fixed an issue where a race condition that prevented SQLite files from populating, ensuring you can now successfully search for variables.

• In the journey builder, deleting a split with one path no longer deletes the child steps.

• Multiple split paths going to a campaign section now display the path names correctly.

---

11 June 2024

Version 2.1.0

Headline features

Introducing campaign sections and path redirects for easy layout and structure of powerful journeys

Campaign journeys now support a new mechanism called sections, powerful components that streamline the campaign flow. Each section, with functionality matching the main campaign diagram, can be referenced from various parts of the campaign and linked to other sections. This simplifies the layout, reduces repetition, ensures consistency, and centralises campaign settings.

You can collapse sections to show only their names, and expand them to view more detail. They always start with a path redirect step, which links to any section within the campaign. Click on a path redirect step to go directly to that section.

Use sections to standardise processes, such as thanking customers, or reminding them before a sale ends. This allows different parts of the campaign to redirect to these sections, ensuring uniform responses and reminders.

Key features include:

• Journey sections: These let you organise detailed aspects of your campaign journey into manageable, expandable sections.

• Path redirects: These steps enable you to connect to any campaign section anywhere in the journey. A path redirect displays an arrow which you may click to move directly to the relevant section.

The use of campaign sections and path redirects allow you to unify various parts of the campaign flow for a standardised marketing approach. A path redirect can then split or loop the campaign flow back to an earlier stage.

With sections and path redirects, crafting the ideal customer journey has never been easier.

For more detail and example use cases, see Sections and path redirects.

Orbit journey builder compact design

We’re excited to announce transformative compact design enhancements to the Apteco Orbit journey builder. The new design empowers you to create and manage complex, multi-channel journeys while making them easier to navigate and understand.

With this streamlined layout, you can now quickly adjust and troubleshoot campaign journeys on screen, seeing a greater context for your work. The compact visibility improvement enhances your experience while being less resource-intensive.

Key improvements include:

• Compact design: The new layout and colour scheme allow you to create and manage extensive journeys without compromising on-screen visibility. For more detail, see Journey builder.

• Volume counts: Real-time volume counts now display the number of contacts in a specific parts of your campaign journey, offering more accurate insights than the previous cumulative counts. For more detail, see Volume counts.

• Detailed step view: Hover your cursor over or lightly touch any step in edit or view mode to expand it and reveal additional details, making understanding and reviewing your campaign elements easier. For more detail, see Journey steps.

These enhancements improve the navigability of Orbit campaign diagrams, allowing you to make adjustments on-the-fly, when managing large, multi-stage journeys.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Constraint settings in Orbit campaigns

These abilities help you manage your campaign communications at a granular level, controlling the volume and contact strategies of your campaign based on channel and timetable.

Key features:

• Volume constraints help you manage a consistent flow of messages that target specific frequencies or percentages per campaign run.

• Contact strategies allow you to control communication frequency for individuals or households and select which channels these strategies apply to.

Make the most of constraints to ensure your audience receives timely, relevant messages without overwhelming them.

For more detail, see Applying constraints.

Delete splits

We've refined your ability to delete interaction split and audience split journey steps. You can now delete the steps without having to delete the step content and preceding journey paths.

Audience deletion notifications

You now receive a notification if your campaign contains deleted audiences, ensuring you can update the campaign successfully to prevent errors.

Dashboards

Improved measure sorting

You can now sort measures with a greater level of customisation when editing a dashboard combination chart:

• First measures can be sorted as ascending, descending, or natural

• Second measures can match the first, by category

• A gap is left in the second measure when the value is null/undefined

Bug fixes

Connect

• On process summary screens in Orbit connect, you now see last updated, built, and deployed times in your local timezone instead of UTC.

• You no longer see 'waiting for...' messages in empty systems with campaigning enabled when you have not yet created.

Campaigns

• Orbit now correctly updates internal SQLite databases, ensuring you can successfully search for variables even when the system's build date differs between UTC and local time zones.

Dashboards

• Dashboards no longer crash when a cube with one dimension and a selector is present on a tile with a date dimension banding filter limit.

• You can now share a favourite with the correct permission applied without encountering a 403 permission error.

---

30 May 2024

Version 2.0.1

Headline feature

Orbit connect: Build your campaign-ready marketing platform

Achieving Campaign Ready status in Orbit connect is crucial to fully utilising the end-to-end campaigning capability of your Apteco Orbit platform. With the ability to add Campaign and Licence table properties when building your system, you can now easily manage your Orbit campaigns from start to finish with no database configuration required.

This milestone marks a significant shift, as for the first time, you can start building systems, analysing your data, and managing campaigns—all within the Apteco Orbit platform, powered by Apteco Cloud.

Key benefits:

• When you mark contact and response tables, your system is deemed Campaign Ready, allowing you to manage and publish campaigns seamlessly within Orbit.

• Campaign history, including communications and responses, is automatically included in the system build, facilitating immediate analysis and integration with Apteco email.

  

Feature overview:

• Orbit connect now includes options to add Campaign and Licence table properties.

• You can designate a contact table and optionally a response table, enabling full campaign management capabilities.

• Nominate a table to track licensing volume restrictions, ensuring compliance and accurate data usage.

• Systems set up for campaigning display a 'Campaign Ready' badge on the system detail and list pages, informing you of their readiness status.

• By specifying tables for campaign activities, you ensure that all campaign-related data is integrated and readily available for analysis.

This update empowers you to fully leverage Apteco Orbit capabilities, enabling comprehensive campaign management and data analysis in a single platform.

For more information, see Table options.

Note: Orbit connect is currently only available via Apteco Cloud.

Note: This feature requires a FastStats Service version of Q2 2024 or later.

New features and improvements

Connect

Amazon S3 data source

Orbit connect now provides you with a flexible method for importing data directly from Amazon S3 into your Apteco Orbit system.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a widely-used cloud storage service. By facilitating data ingestion from S3, we offer a more adaptable solution for integrating data into your system, paving the way for more automated update processes.

Using S3 provides you with:

• Flexibility to import data from cloud storage in addition to local files.

• Ability to set up automated processes to regularly fetch updated data from S3.

• Leverage existing AWS infrastructure and credentials.

For more information, see Amazon S3 data source.

S3 scheduling

Once you’ve created your S3 data source, you can now set an update schedule (as opposed to a manual upload).

Once established, the data source is updated according to the schedule you defined.

For more information, see Amazon S3 data source.

Scheduling a system build

With Orbit connect, you can now fully refresh your system, without any manual intervention.

Once you’ve built a system, you can now set a schedule and automatically deploy it. In combination with the S3 data source, you can now:

• Fully update your data

• Refresh your system

• Make it available for use

For more information, see Scheduling a system build.

Expanded Salesforce data model choices

When using an Apteco Cloud Salesforce system or signing up for a trial through Salesforce, you now have access to an expanded list of data models. This enhances the initial setup experience by allowing you to include key tables such as Leads and Opportunities, as well as Opportunity Line Items and Opportunity Line Item Products.

Integrate even more critical lead and opportunity Salesforce data into Apteco to gain deeper understanding of your sales pipeline and performance. The trial setup process now provides a more complete data model, ensuring quicker access to valuable insights.

To try Apteco with your own Salesforce data, either:

• Visit apteco.com, and click Start your trial now.

• Go to the Salesforce AppExchange, and search for Apteco.

Campaigns

Editing the channel editor when locked out

We have introduced a feature in Apteco Orbit to enhance workflow efficiency and minimise conflicts. Users with the 'Force check-in' role can now take over a locked channel editor.

If a user leaves their session in Edit mode, blocking others from making changes, an authorised user can take control of the editor. The original user is notified about this change in access, ensuring work progresses smoothly without unnecessary interruptions.

For more information, see Editing the channel editor when locked out.

View your campaign summary at any time

We have improved the campaign setup process by making the Campaign Summary accessible at any point during the planning process. Now, you can view detailed summaries of your campaigns, including all journey steps, throughout the campaign building process. This feature ensures that you can review and refine your campaigns more effectively before publishing. You can find this summary by clicking the option menu in your campaign journey.

Improved field validation in Apteco email

Apteco Orbit now offers improved field validation for accurate and reliable data matching in Apteco email. This includes:

• Data field validation: Converts spaces to underscores and special characters (**`[](),\\"/$*=<>:;`**) to full stops, case-insensitive.

• Variable field validation: Converts spaces to underscores and special characters (**`:}{`**) to full stops, case-sensitive.

For instance, [[data:total_cost]] will correctly match and validate a field named Total Cost.

Error handling for deleted Orbit audiences

Both PeopleStage and Orbit campaigns now fail if they contain a deleted Orbit audience, ensuring accurate error handling when the required audience data is unavailable.

Apteco news

Apteco Orbit Global Launch

Last week we launched Apteco Orbit to a global audience!

The Apteco global launch 2024 event included:

• Introduction from Apteco founder and Managing Director, James Alty

• Who are Apteco and what are we celebrating?

• New feature announcements

• Overview and benefits of the Orbit platform from Apteco offices around the world

• Live software demonstration including exciting new feature reveals

• Sneak peek of the forthcoming Apteco generative AI assistant

• Panel session and live Q&A with Apteco experts

• Apteco future and roadmap

Learn more about the event and watch the recording here!

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Audience reference descriptions are now clearly displayed on tile filters, as expected.

• When sharing a dashboard is prohibited, you can now no longer click the share button.

• When logging out of one dataview and into another, you're no longer mistakenly navigated to a dashboard or campaign that you don't have access to.

• Numbers are now correctly size formatted in data grids on dashboards and audiences, as expected.

---

15 May 2024

Version 2.0.0

Headline feature

Number card enhancements

We’ve made major enhancements to number cards, dramatically improving your marketing metric capabilities. With this Orbit release, you can now take full advantage of the analytic improvements available from our ‘expected vs actual’, and ‘Return On Investment (ROI) calculation’ number card features.

Expected vs actual number cards

Using the expected vs actual number card feature, you can easily compare a key measure value against a predefined target. As demonstrated in the image below, you can display the actual value, target value, percentage difference, and a color-coded visual indicator based on whether below or above the target is desirable. You can also use calculated measures for your comparison value.

See Expected vs actual number cards.

ROI calculation number cards

These number card visualisations allow you to define an investment amount and calculate ROI with an easy-to-use interface, directly within your dashboard. ROI number card visualisations calculate and display the ROI for a given investment amount, with revenue defined by a measure or calculated measure. The calculated ROI value is then clearly displayed on your number card with an indicator icon for on-the-fly analysis of your campaign performance.

See ROI calculation number cards.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

Look-alike modeling Improvements

Look-alike modeling capabilities in Orbit have been improved, to provide greater flexibility and transparency in model updates.

Previously, look-alike models did not recalculate when new data was added. However, the model was actually updating itself based on the new incoming data.

With this release, the following changes have been implemented:

• Default Model Recalculation: By default, look-alike models now recalculate and update when new data is added. When you revisit a previously created look-alike item, the scores are then updated to reflect the new data.

• Option to Disable Automatic Recalculation: During initial look-alike model creation, you now have the option to prevent your model from automatically recalculating with new data. If you choose to update the insight score, then the model displays your original static scores without any updates from new data when you revisit the look-alike item.

These updates improve modeling process transparency, and the flexibility to control whether the model should dynamically update or remain static based on your specific use case requirements.

Transfer of ownership

You can now easily transfer ownership of various Apteco Orbit resources from one user to another. An example use case for this would be when someone leaves an organisation and you need to transfer their audiences.

For more information, see Transferring ownership.

Campaigns

Duplicating a campaign

You can now quickly and easily create duplicate campaigns with all personalised settings and configurations intact. This saves you the time and effort of starting another new campaign from scratch.

For more information, see Duplicating a campaign.

View publish summary

You can now view the Publish Summary of a Live campaign at any time while in View mode by clicking the View Publish Summary in the top-right corner.

General

ASP.NET Core 8

Apteco plans to introduce a dependency on the ASP.NET Core 8 Server Hosting bundle for the OrbitAPI by mid-June at the earliest. We strongly recommend you install this on the web server as soon as possible so you can continue receiving updates for Orbit.

See Technical Updates, Prerequisites for more information.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• We've fixed an issue causing numerous unclassified rows to appear outside all other bands when using look-alikes on a cube.

• We’ve fixed an omitting unclassifieds issue, so that a removed variable no longer causes crashes.

• We’ve fixed an issue where a text variable displayed only N categories instead of the top "n" by the measure. This incorrect variable display was caused by validating the combination of text variables with calculated measures in dimensions.

Audiences

• Tooltips on check charts in Audience workbooks now accurately display the category that they relate to.

Campaigns

• In the journey builder, the controls in the Interaction Split side panel are now disabled in View Mode.

• Transitioning from Live mode to Draft mode, making edits, and returning to Live mode now properly resets your journey to the Live Campaign.

---

02 May 2024

Version 1.16.3

Headline feature

Editing a locked campaign

You can now take control of a campaign that has been left in edit mode by another user, allowing you continuity in an uninterrupted workflow. An improved notification system also promptly alerts you when you try to edit a locked campaign, avoiding the potential confusion of multiple users editing the same campaign.

Key benefits:

• This feature prevents unintentional locks on campaigns and allows authorised users to take control, when necessary.

• By resolving edit conflicts quickly, administrators can maintain the project's momentum.

• Clear notifications help prevent users from accidentally overwriting others' changes.

• An enhanced notification system keeps all users updated on the campaign status.

For more information, see Editing a locked campaign.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

• Data grids on Orbit dashboards now display rows from tables without an ID column, allowing dashboard designers to showcase data from any related rows, and add a data grid from any table without the need for a reference variable.

Campaigns

• We’ve added more clarity to campaign journey visualisation with the new pan feature in the journey builder. Pan allows you to move freely around your journey diagram by clicking and dragging on the screen.

• Dynamic URL parameters (utm_campaign, utm_medium, utm_source) are now available in WhatsApp templates using Call-to-Action buttons with auto-tracking enabled.

General

• We've redesigned the workspaces UI to align with our general Orbit design principles. You can now create, edit, and add resources to workspaces much more easily than before, improving your overall workspace user experience.

  

  For more information, see Introduction to workspaces.

• Orbit systems now display the system build date and time on the home screen in the user's local time zone, accurately recording and displaying when the system was built. This feature enhancement is particularly beneficial for users working across different time zones.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Switching font size on a number tile now takes effect immediately, rather than requiring a refresh to do so.

• Stacked bar charts with omit zero or omit classified options selected no longer display 'infinity' chart values.

• We’ve fixed an issue where the first item in the legend on 2D charts was not selectable, specifically affecting the highlighting of categories in stacked charts.

• We've fixed an issue causing dashes to appear on stacked bar charts when using calculated measures.

• Stacked area charts now correctly render when using calculated measures involving a division.

Campaigns

• The Orbit campaign publish summary width has been reduced to improve UX display dimensions.

• We'We've fixed an issue where the Apteco Email template builder was not displayed when using transactional-only Apteco Email channels.

Connect

• Orbit Connect is no longer feature switch disabled when the Orbit updater runs.

Known issues

Dashboards

• We're aware of an issue where the combination of a text variable on a dimension, along with a calculated measure, could cause incorrect results to be displayed. We're working hard to fix this issue and will let you, our clients, know as soon as it is resolved.

Apteco takes immense pride in delivering high-quality software. Unfortunately, we have not met these high-quality standards in recent releases, and we apologise especially for any disruption caused by the bugs encountered in visualisations.

---

22 April 2024

Version 1.16.2

Headline feature

Enhanced dashboard tile notes

We’ve dramatically enhanced dashboard tile notes with the introduction of our new rich text notes editor, available on all dashboard tiles under the tile options menu. With this enhancement, you can now add text or images directly into our notes editor, then easily edit and apply html formatting to really tailor your desired tile note content.

The editor adds the following text options:

• Bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough text formatting

• Left, right, centre, and justified text alignment

• Adding, editing, and resizing of images (either via embedded paths or URLs)

Text tiles work as before, in that they fill the whole tile and scroll if there is an overflow. However, scrolling is no longer available in edit mode, and text tiles cannot position text to the top, right, bottom, or left, the text always fills the whole tile.

Note: For security reasons there are limitations on the HTML you can use. Therefore, the notes editor does not allow the introduction of any malicious code.

See Tile options.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

Viewing audience details in campaign journeys

Improve your campaign targeting precision with the new audience selection preview and review feature. Before launching a campaign, quickly validate the audience criteria aligns with your campaign objectives, all from the journey builder.

This feature simplifies campaign management, enabling you to:

• Check audience qualifications before deployment

• Ensure target audience alignment with campaign objectives

• Review audience logic for active campaigns

• Enhance efficiency and save time in campaign workflows

With this audience selection preview feature, you can launch campaigns confidently, knowing that your messages reach their intended recipients.

See Viewing audience details.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• We've updated dialog message backgrounds to appear as blurred, placing extra emphasis on the dialog message content.

• Number cards can now display cost variables as currency region, for example selecting EN-AU, which then displays in Australian dollars.

• Dashboards created in one region, then viewed in another, no longer fail/generate an error message.

---

08 April 2024

Version 1.16.1

We've found and fixed an issue preventing percentages from being displayed correctly on charts.

---

04 April 2024

Version 1.16.0

Headline feature

Orbit connect

We’re excited to announce the release of our powerful new Orbit connect feature, a major milestone in our Apteco software end-to-end solution. Orbit connect gives you the ability to upload, define, build, and access your resulting system in Orbit, hosted in the Apteco Cloud platform.

• Upload your data directly to Orbit and view the status of any previous or in-progress imports

• Define how the data you have imported should be represented within Orbit

• Build your systems, specifying the tables included and relationships between them before manually deploying

• Access the full power of Orbit’s end-to-end Dashboard, Audience, and Campaign functionality to get the most of your data

Simple to set up and easy to deploy, Orbit connect is the first step in accessing the full potential of your data with Apteco Orbit software. Begin by conveniently uploading your Apteco dataset through our flexible new web browser interface. This interface allows you to accomplish all of your work exclusively via our web platform, reducing your training needs, simplifying your experience, and fully realising the potential of your data in our Orbit end-to-end software solution.

For more information, see Orbit connect.

Note: Orbit connect is currently only available via Apteco Cloud.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

Reordering tabs

You can now reorder multiple tabs in dashboards and audiences to organise your data in a single view via the dashboard ellipsis option menu.

Multiple tabs allow you to display different tools and datasets. Reorder these tabs to a more logical order whenever necessary with a simple drag and drop interface. You can then save your new tab order or cancel and revert back to your previous tab order.

For more information, see Reordering tabs.

 

Dashboard tiles information message redesign

We've redesigned the information messages on dashboard tiles. An icon now appears when you exclude a tile from filters or add a drilldown, displaying the relevant information in a tooltip.

Information message icons are now displayed for the following criteria:

• Excluding an item from user filters

• Making an item unselectable

• Adding a drilldown to an item

• If the item is a pareto chart

Campaigns

Form builder

In Orbit you can now create forms, confirmation emails/pages, and then embed these assets into a client web page from your existing contacts for use in campaigning.

For more information, see Form builder.

Note: This feature is only available to Apteco email users.

General

Permissions

Permissions are now available for system administrators to control which parts of an Apteco software installation a given profile can access. This allows you to effectively manage user access and interaction with our powerful features and functionality.

Permissions allow system admins to grant or restrict access for the User, Group, and System profiles. To enable Permissions, please contact support@apteco.com and speak to our Technical Services team.

For more information, see Permissions.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• We've updated pie and donut charts to display values beginning from '12 o'clock', rather than beginning from '3 o'clock'.

• Measures using currency variables with a Populated or Count Distinct function now display in general format, rather than as currencies.

---

20 March 2024

Version 1.15.2

Headline feature

Multi-stage campaigns

Apteco Orbit offers multi-stage campaigning, enabling you to expand a single-stage campaign flow to accommodate your recipients' interactions with previous communications. Utilise your data to create rules for moving recipients through a campaign using the new Audience Splits.

Orbit campaigns have evolved far beyond just a single message. Map out the entire customer journey - plan your conversation points and customise your communication based on their interactions with you or if they've reached a specific turning point in your data.

Visualise your sequence of journey steps in a clear, structured tree diagram for easier campaign management. After mapping your journey steps, schedule the campaign and get ready to engage with your customers in a relevant, timely, and creative way.

Key multi-stage features include:

• Time Delays: Optimise campaign timing with strategically placed pauses between journey stages.

• Audience Splits: Segment your audience and guide each group down unique campaign paths.

• Interaction Splits: Adapt campaigns based on recipient responses, ensuring relevance and impact.

Additionally, our new notification centre offers guidance throughout your campaign creation process with a useful journey to-do list.

Note: Ensure that your licensing bundle is Campaigner or higher to access multi-stage campaigning features.

For more information, see Multi-stage campaigns.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

• You now have a 'reset filters' option in the main dashboard ellipsis menu, making resetting filters much more convenient.

• Predefined filter icons on dashboards have a new improved design, reducing confusion caused by the previous 'bin' icon.

• We've improved number cards in dashboards with currency type selection, allowing dashboard designers to specify any global currency in settings independently of user locale. This only applies to numerical variables, calculated measures, and expressions.

• You can now easily delete your current dashboard from the 'My Dashboards' dialogue.

• We've enhanced the performance of tabbed dashboards. Notable improvements include the copying of preview results when duplicating tabs and tiles, as well as optimisation to prevent Pareto recalculation upon user or predefined filter changes.

Campaigns

• Apteco email users can now access additional navigation options in the image gallery, making image deletion much easier. This update provides a central location in Orbit for managing images across all your templates, enhancing user experience and workflow.

  

  For more information, see Image gallery.

  Note: This feature is only available to Apteco email users.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Clustered line charts no longer misdraw lines when encountering divide by zero.

• We've made an improvement to dashboard tile spacing, allowing for easier resizing.

• Decimal values now correctly use locale separator in audience/dashboard filter chips.

• Editing a single dashboard tile no longer causes all other dashboard tiles to redraw or create a flicker effect.

• We've fixed a truncation issue with the Pareto filter badge in dashboards.

Audiences

• Columns no longer overflow when adding numerous variables in the export solution dialogue.

• We've fixed an issue in audience workbooks where the auto-generated message incorrectly appeared for manual creation. Now, the message only displays for auto-generated checks as intended.

• Orbit is now more efficient when saving look-alikes, preventing redundant recalculations upon redirection to the Audience tab.

• You now have a feedback mechanism for audience saving. The button now displays a 'pending' state and loader dots, ensuring users are informed during the saving process.

• We've fixed an issue where changing the display style on an audience cube did not save.

• We've resolved an issue with numeric bands where international separator weren't respected in generating bands. Now, the UI correctly displays the international separator, ensuring consistency in the cube display.

---

06 March 2024

1.15.1

Headline feature

Meta Ads and WhatsApp messaging in Orbit campaigns

We’ve introduced two powerful new integrations in Orbit campaigns to enable messaging with WhatsApp and adverts through a Meta Ads account. These different techniques enable you to leverage the world's most popular messaging platform, WhatsApp, for known recipients and to harness the advertising potential of Meta Ads, on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger using first party data for acquisition and retention strategies in your Orbit campaigns.

Maximise the potential of your first party data using Meta Ads in your marketing strategy.

• Drive your social ads: Use the power of your Meta Ad account to place adverts on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Manage different ad formats in your Meta Ad account and then drive the audiences for those ads from Orbit campaigns.

• Enhanced communication reach: Expand your acquisition campaign reach on Meta’s platforms using your target audience or Meta look-alikes to your target audience, or both. To avoid look-alike ad spend on known customers etc. you can upload multiple Customer Exclusions Lists as part of the campaign delivery step.

• Maintain social audiences: Use the power of Apteco first party data segmentation, targeting and look-alikes to create custom audiences for your AdTech colleagues. A simple, daily scheduled campaign can maintain audiences on Meta for your AdTech and social colleagues to use for ad-hoc activity. Simply define an ‘Upload only’ rather than ‘Upload and Advertise’ channel in the Orbit campaigning channel editor and put the power of your first party data to work.

Get messaging with our WhatsApp direct integration.

• Direct Integration: We previously re-worked our WhatsApp integration to operate directly with the messaging platform rather than through an intermediary. Now we bring this messaging capability to Orbit campaigns.

• Versatile messaging: Craft engaging messages using WhatsApp's rich multimedia capabilities with text, images and call-to-action button capabilities.

• Tailored engagement: Personalise messages based on recipient data to drive higher levels of engagement and conversion.

• Opt-out management: Easily manage opt-out preferences for WhatsApp messages to ensure compliance and respect user preferences.

For more information, see WhatsApp and Meta Ads.

Note: These features require a FastStats Service version of Q3 2023 or later.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

• Orbit social campaigning features can now be accessed by all Broadcaster and above Campaign licensed users, rather than just Orchestrator.

Audiences

• You now have the ability to edit the 'Check My Results Solution' in an audience workbook by adding and removing variables.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• We’ve resolved a dashboard issue causing endless data requests until a filter was manually applied.

• We've fixed an issue where datagrids didn't display results until a filter was applied.

• We've fixed an issue causing the compression of non standard font German characters when exported to PDF.

• We've resolved data label inaccuracies in Orbit when 'show as percentage' is applied. The option to activate 'show in percent' in data labelling is now restricted if set in the tile editor.

• An incorrect dotted border no longer appears on a selector picklist when clicking just to the left of the checkbox column.

• Cubes with 'day' banded dimensions no longer cause Orbit to crash and now perform as expected.

• On a dashboard dynamic date range, options selected via the date dialog no longer disappear when selected.

• An error is no longer generated when resizing an edited dashboard tile.

• After adding tiles to the bottom of a dashboard tab, the dashboard tab no longer auto scrolls back to the top.

• When duplicating a dashboard tab with a text tile, an error message is no longer generated.

• We've adjusted tabbed dashboard user role requirements, with a dashboard role now required rather than an audience role.

Audiences

• The correct background colour now displays when hovering over an item tab in an audience workbook.

General

• Addressed an issue where the sharing dialog search placeholder turned red when a user/group was added.

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22 February 2024

1.15.0

Headline feature

Tabbed dashboards

We’re excited to announce that ‘tabbed dashboards’ are now available in Orbit. Tabbed dashboards allow you to split a dashboard into multiple ‘tabs’, greatly increasing your data analysis capacity from a single dashboard. Previously, you were restricted to a dashboard with a fifteen tile limit. Now you can distribute your data across multiple tabs, with each tab displaying up to fifteen tiles.

You can add new, duplicate, rename, edit, and delete these tabs as needed, providing you with a high degree of customisation. In addition, any dashboard filters that you select are applied across all tabs, streamlining your data analysis user experience with intuitively applied filters.

See Tabbed dashboards.

New features and improvements

Campaigns

• Unsubscribe link validation

  Apteco email offers two types of template, Marketing and Transactional:

  • Marketing templates have an unsubscribe link as default which you can’t remove

  • Unsubscribe links in Transactional templates are optional

  When using a transactional template without an unsubscribe link, you’ll receive a corresponding warning message. However, you can choose to disregard this warning message and continue to publish the campaign.

  Note: If you’re using a promotional sub account, then you can use both template types.

  See Unsubscribe link validation.

• Personalisation splits

  The Orbit journey builder now offers you the ability to add personalisation splits to your campaigns. You can define splits via the personalisation section of the journey builder, using either percentage allocation or audience criteria.

  See Personalisation splits.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Category colours can now be applied to stacked bar and column charts, improving the visual display customisation options for your data.

• We've fixed an issue causing calculated measures with a divided measure to fail when including 'unidentified' updated data.

• We've fixed an error occurring when adding tiles with the 'Only show results when a user filter is applied' option selected.

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06 February 2024

1.14.6

Headline feature

Look-alike analytics

Unlock deeper insights into your customers with new look-alike analytics. Using predictive modelling, you can now identify prospects who closely resemble your best customers. You can then apply further analysis using the look-alikes model in Apteco Orbit. This provides enhanced insights for data-driven decisions regarding the size and composition of your target audience.

You can use model score variable dimensions on cubes or model score columns on a data grid to maximise the effectiveness of your look-alike analysis and insights.

See Look-alike analytics.

Note: This feature requires a FastStats Service version of Q4 2023 or later.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

• We've added a setting allowing you to hide all data grids records/results when a filter is not applied.

Audiences

• You can now create a new audience directly from a selection of one or more cells within a workbook cube. This new feature makes the audience creation process more accessible on the fly via full screen cubes.

  See New audience from a cube.

• We’ve introduced the following cube functionality to improve statistical analysis in audience workbooks:

  • Row and Column Percentages: These new insights provide deeper statistical analysis and reporting opportunities within workbook cubes.

  • Introduction of Index in 2D Cubes: Index in 2D cubes is a new statistic reflecting the ratio between row and column totals. This allows you to gauge over-representation or under-representation within your datasets. An Index above 100 indicates over-representation, while below 100 indicates under-representation.

  Note: Only available on full-screen cubes within audiences.

  See Additional cube statistics.

Campaigns

• You can now quick save campaign journeys in the journey builder with the CTRL + S keyboard shortcut, making campaign management more efficient.

• We’ve refined the list of journey warnings/notifications in the journey builder to better reflect the actions you can take, making the process more efficient and user-centric.

General

• You can now easily add, edit, and delete custom numeric bands in cubes and filters through a user-friendly interface in dashboards and audiences. This streamlines the process of segmenting numeric values into meaningful ranges without complex calculations for dimensions and filters.

  See Adding, editing, and deleting custom numeric bands.

• We've reworked the Orbit input text to align with our Orbit design principles.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Fixed an issue causing the addition of multiple custom banding to generate multiple ‘stay and saves’.

• 'No results' is no longer displayed when attempting to find look-alikes of a look-alikes audience. Instead, a message is now displayed when attempting to create a look-alikes solution on a 'New Item' page, or analysing dimensions on a look-alikes page.

Audiences

• You must now choose a limit type before you can apply audience limits. This structured audience creation flow ensures that you can produce valid results.

• We’ve disabled the ability to change the audience resolve table when limits are applied, with an improved explanation of why this change is invalid.

Campaigns

• Fixed an issue preventing you from setting the schedule via journey warnings.

General

• Factory default Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) Single Sign-On (SSO) keys are now long enough to successfully create the JSON Web Token (JWT) required to perform a SAML SSO login.

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25 January 2024

1.14.5

Headline feature

Administrator defined time window for Orbit updates

Administrators can now define a time window for the Orbit Updater to check for and apply updates. This means that you can set the Orbit updater to run overnight, freeing you up to work with updated Orbit features and enhancements during your day!

Previously, the Orbit updater periodically checked and then immediately applied Orbit updates if they were available. This enhancement ensures that users are guaranteed uninterrupted access to Orbit outside of their specified time window.

See Orbit updater configurator, Advanced settings.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

• You can now display up to two dimensions per axis in Audience full screen cubes, i.e. that is two rows and two columns, equalling up to four total dimensions.

Campaigns

• We've added a Webhook endpoint to Apteco responses. This endpoint can take a valid push, write content to a Webhook table in the RS database, and return a 200 response.

Configuration

• The Orbit updater now runs successfully when configurator utilities are open. Previously, the Orbit updater would abort if used when other configurator were utilities open.

General

• Orbit now supports all the latest expression features added in the Apteco Software Q4 2023 release. Orbit also now checks to make sure that your expression is compatible with the version of the FastStats service that you're using.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Decimal places are now consistently respected in cube expression measures on a dashboard when the cube totals setting is turned off.

Audiences

• Users can now successfully delete an audience reference chip in Orbit without encountering an error.

General

• Users can now get the list of dataviews available to log in to Orbit without encountering errors when entering a .com email domain.

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10 January 2024

1.14.3

Headline feature

Personalisation validation using Apteco email in Orbit campaigns

We have a notable improvement for users of the new Apteco email mechanism. With the desired Apteco email template selected for use as your campaign message, Orbit now validates the content fields required to fulfil all personalisation within the email. This includes any contact property and data requirements set up as dynamic or conditional fields.

To streamline the Apteco email process, you can now choose to let Orbit set up your required content fields automatically. Enabling this option prompts Orbit to add a text content field as a placeholder. You can then easily customise this field to meet your specific requirements. After adding content fields to the campaign journey, any validation warnings disappear.

Through the validation and automatic generation of content fields, the Apteco campaign system effectively mitigates the risk of overlooking essential data fields specified by the template. This proactive approach minimises the potential for incomplete or missing information, ensuring a robust and error-free campaigning experience.

See Personalisation validation.

New features and improvements

Dashboards

• You now have greater control over your data visualisations with our latest sorting functionality for pie and donut charts, allowing you to establish a default order in the editing panel and dynamically modify it in view mode.

Campaigns

• The content configuration process in the journey builder is now more user-friendly with the removal of the Field Value input from the Add Content Field dialog, allowing you to streamline your tasks.

• Users now benefit from a unified, native language experience as the Apteco email builder aligns with the chosen language across Orbit, ensuring consistency and ease of use.

General

• We have improved the Orbit user experience with updated input fields, aligning more closely with the Orbit design principles.

Bug fixes

Dashboards

• Fixed a dashboard error occurring when changing the level of a selection file. This previously caused dashboard tiles using the selection as a filter to remain in perpetual loading state until the filter was removed and then re-applied. This applies to dashboard filters, tile filters and user filters.

• Fixed an issue causing missing values on a cube to display as ‘MISSING TRANSLATION’. This issue occurred when creating a cube via audience workbooks, adding a numeric variable, and providing a missing values symbol.

• When you receive a shared dashboard, duplicate a tile, and edit the shared dashboard, the duplicated tile is now displayed as expected.

General

• Orbit systems that use SSO and only have one data view enabled no longer crash upon log-in for a user with a manually expired password.