PeopleStage release notes 2024

Our PeopleStage development team works using quarterly releases. Scroll down to see the PeopleStage quarterly releases from this year.

Note: Since the Q2 2023 release, Apteco desktop software requires a minimum of the .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later to be installed.

Note: Please see Notes for administrators for steps to be completed before applying a quarterly upgrade to your Apteco software.

PeopleStage Q4 2024 software release

New features and improvements

Wait selections

There’s a new folder in the PeopleStage Audiences library called Wait Selections.

Wait selections are an audience library option that lets you either exit recipients from an audience step or move them through it.

There are two wait selections options:

Campaign Wait: Moves a recipient who has spent at least X amount of time anywhere in the campaign. You can use this in an Audience step to either exit them or move them to a message.
Pool Wait: This works the same way as when selecting a Pool Journey. If a recipient has been in the previous pool for X amount of time, then you move them forward in the campaign.

Wait selections

See Using wait selections.

Process constraints in PeopleStage

Note: We’ve developed process constraints in PeopleStage to support triggered events in Orbit campaigns.

We’ve been able to apply a process to a step for some time in PeopleStage. However, you can now also apply a process constraint.

Process constraints

These new constraint options allow you to control how often people enter the process and how. If you don't use these options, then people can enter the process any number of times.

Note: If you’ve applied constraints at area or campaign level etc, and then apply process constraints, your process constraints don’t override your area or campaign level constraints. All constraints are applied at the level which they are set.

See Process constraints.

Orbit audiences in PeopleStage for transactional processing

When creating a booking-level campaign (any level below people), then we’ll display applicable orbit audiences.

There are places where we didn’t support Orbit audiences in the PeopleStage UI (or PeopleStage processing). These are now supported and include:

Transactional orbit audiences appear in the transaction colour in the library
Transactional orbit audiences appear in the response colour if usable in the response step

You can now use these Orbit audiences in the followling places:

In the audience (and we should know if it is a transaction segment)
In the content step as a selection or as a filter on a transactional variable
In the response step as a response segment filter

In all these cases, campaigns continue to save, publish, and run, as expected.

Increase campaign optimisation limit

We’ve increased the campaign optimisation limit for PeopleStage. Previously, you could only have 30 campaigns per area, whereas now you can have up to 50 campaigns.

LinkedIn integration API upgrade

We’ve upgraded our LinkedIn integration from the API version 202306 to the latest version to avoid deprecation, as v202306 will be removed from the platform on 16/12/2024.

Backend PS work to support features in Orbit

We’ve done some backend development in PeopleStage to support setting ‘To’, and ‘From’ dates when reporting on the target set for a goal or tracking an objective target.

Add UTM codes to AptecoEmail

If you add utm_ fields to your content in PeopleStage, and send these to AptecoEmail in Orbit, then the links have the appropriate utm_ codes applied.

However, for this process to work you need to turn on the ApplyUtmCodes option in your channel parameters. You will then find that your utm_ codes are applied to your sends,

Note: Transactional emails send all utm_ codes. Marketing emails will only apply utm_ codes where the values are equal (so no differentiation between recipients).

SMS OptOuts

We’ve added in optouts to AptecoSMS. Keywords are now specified in the ResponseGatherer or Webhook.

We’ve also added Contractual or Promotional settings, so that you can decide if you want optouts applied. This process works on a mobile number.

Bug fixes

Push notification channel not working

We’ve fixed some packaging scripts within the FastStats Service to ensure that the correct Push Notification DLLs are included. You can now successfully set up your Orbit campaign to use a push notification channel, without generating error messages.

Unable to have content journeys and store actual value in history

We’ve found and fixed an issue that prevents content journeys from storing actual value in history when tracked content was both split and sourced from a database.

Unable to set % on volume constraints in PS

We’ve found and fixed an issue that prevented you from setting percentages on volume constraints in PeopleStage.

SMS not applying defaults when no personalisation is sent

We’ve found and fixed an issue preventing SMS from applying faults when sent without personalisation. This issue occurred when you created a template with personalisation/sent a campaign without personalisation, causing the message to be sent incorrectly.

Sending and SMS with invalid phone numbers errors

We’ve fixed an issue causing SMS messages sent with invalid phone numbers (using 0 rather than 44) to generate an error.

PeopleStage Q3 2024 software release

New features and improvements

Order records by a numeric variable

You can now order records by a numeric variable in PeopleStage. This allows you to apply a top or bottom order to the values before setting a volume limit.

Order Records by a Numeric Variable

Record Apteco Email bounces

You can now record hard and soft bounces from Apteco Email in the response history, adding these details to the FastStats communication history. This update does not include displaying stats in Orbit or existing reports in PeopleStage.

Voucher code logging

You can now log instances where voucher codes have been over allocated in PeopleStage. If you assign voucher codes and they are over allocated, this action is automatically recorded in alerts.

Bug fixes

Fixed an error that occurred when running a preview count on an audience containing a content or broadcast journey, where the previous audience in the campaign had not yet been processed.
You can now add more than 5 response items in a PeopleStage campaign without encountering an error.
You can now set both MESSAGEPERIOD and RESPONSEPERIOD for dotdigital responses, allowing you to track responses from one period while messages are sent in another.
Preview counts in PeopleStage now persist when you navigate away and return, as long as you are in edit mode.
Preview counts in PeopleStage now work in both live and edit modes without needing to save the diagram in live mode.

PeopleStage Q2 2024 software release

New features and improvements

Meta Ads browser preview

PeopleStage users can now view Meta Ads previews in a modern embedded browser. PeopleStage now uses the MS WebView2 component, and if this isn't found then it is automatically downloaded and installed. You can also optionally choose not to allow automatic installation (via an option in the PeopleStage configuration tool). If you select this option, then your system administrator must download and install the component manually. The PeopleStage UI shows the URL used for manual download.

Meta Ads preview

PeopleStage Q1 2024 software release

New features and improvements

Single Database Multiple Schema mode

PeopleStage now uses the Single Database Multiple Schema (SDMS) mode, eliminating the need for SQL Server file system access. PeopleStage can now operate on various cloud databases, including Azure SQL Database. SDMS mode allows grouping tables under different schemas within a single database, enhancing your PeopleStage organisation and efficiency.

Single Database Multiple Schemas

For more information, see the technical update on Single Database Multiple Schemas (SDMS).

Bulk Copy Program

We have removed the Bulk Insert dependency in PeopleStage. By shifting away from bulk insert methods to Bulk Copy Program (BCP), this feature opens doors to previously excluded technologies like Azure SQL, enhancing compatibility and expanding usage possibilities.

For more information, see the technical update on Bulk Copy Program (BCP) integration.

Bug fixes

Fixed an error in PeopleStage when running a preview count. This error occurred specifically when the audience contained a content or broadcast journey and the previous audience in the campaign had not yet been run.