6 Configuring the Base Inline Services

This chapter outlines the steps that you can take to configure the Base Inline Services.

As outlined in Part 2, each Base Inline Service contains a template of metadata. This template enables customers to tie their particular front end to a variety of Oracle RTD Integration Points. Oracle RTD can use these Integration Points both for Oracle RTD decisioning and for analysis of the customer web site.

While the Inline Service contains a variety of decisioning and data transformation logic, users must still take this Inline Service and identify what elements are necessary to support their business workflow and requirements.

To achieve this alignment, Oracle recommends the following high-level steps:

Align business workflow with Oracle RTD Integration Points and metadata.
1. Identify and sequence the required Integration Points.
2. Identify incoming interaction data.
Integrate Oracle RTD with the customer front end.
1. Refer to Part II - Integration with Oracle RTD of the Oracle Real-Time Decisions Decision Studio Reference Guide for integration methods to external applications.
Map entity attributes to physical data sources.
1. Add additional entity attributes as required by the business process.
Add additional logic as required.
1. Areas include eligibility rules, additional physical and derived attributes, performance goals and scoring rules, additional Integration Points.
2. Refer to the following for guidelines:
  
  Oracle RTD platform documentation, which includes the Getting Started tutorial in Part 1 of the Oracle Real-Time Decisions Decision Studio Reference Guide
  
  Your third party implementer documentation, if appropriate

6.1 Aligning Your Business Flow with Oracle RTD

Each Base Inline Service includes a collection of integration points that collects current interaction data about the front-end process (informants) and provides real time recommendations and scores (advisors).

In order to incorporate your own customer data into the Oracle RTD models, it is important to select and order how each applicable integration point can be used in your business process. For example, not all of the provided Advisors (such as Get Advertisements, Get Up Sell Offers, and so on) may be applicable in the intended workflow. Furthermore, it is critical to identify which data can be passed through the Oracle RTD integration points in real time in the context of the business workflow.

As an early design task, the Inline Service should be evaluated for what pieces are applicable and what data will be available for building the models, either as current interaction data or as data from data sources. See Section 6.3, "Mapping Entity Attributes to Customer Data Sources" for further discussions on data mapping.

6.2 Integrating Oracle RTD with the Customer Front End

Several methods for integrating your front end with Oracle RTD are available. These include the use of one of the following:.

Java smart client
.NET smart client
Direct web services

Each of these methods is discussed in detail in Part II - Integration with Oracle RTD of the Oracle Real-Time Decisions Decision Studio Reference Guide, where you will find steps on completing the integration.

6.3 Mapping Entity Attributes to Customer Data Sources

Each Base Inline Service contains a logical entity model that joins common customer and web attributes that a system may gather in the process of navigating through the business workflow.

As a design exercise, customers who use a Base Inline Service should review the entity structure and map the appropriate attributes to their own data schema. If there are useful data attributes or business objects that are not included in the Base Inline Service entities, customers should feel free to incorporate them into the entity model.

Data that captures the context of the customer interaction can be extremely useful in understanding customer behavior and offer acceptance. In addition to data captured from a back end data schema, users should also evaluate what information can be captured as current interaction data for the web interaction and be sent to Oracle RTD via the integration points.

Customers can refer to the Getting Started tutorial in Part 1 of the Oracle Real-Time Decisions Decision Studio Reference Guide for details on adding data sources and modifying or adding entity attributes.

6.4 Adding Additional Logic as Necessary

While each Base Inline Service covers a wide variety of data inputs and touchpoints, it is important to recognize that it serves as a base point. Logic unique to a customer's own business processes may need to be added to basic Oracle RTD operations, such as the following:

Performing analytics using the Oracle RTD models
Making recommendations through the Oracle RTD decision engine

Customers may also add custom logic to a Base Inline Service. Examples of customizations can include the following:

Additional derived data attributes
Modified scoring methods for performance goals
Modification of choice event outcomes
Additional analytical models to learn on unique business processes
Additional eligibility or filtering rules for applicable choices

For more information on performing customizations to an Inline Service, refer to the following manual:

Oracle Real-Time Decisions Decision Studio Reference Guide