loyalty-agent-service/docs/specs/archive/introduction.md

title, type, status

title	type	status
Introduction	OpenSpec	Draft

Introduction

Scope of Document

Terminology

1. The following sets out the definition of terms which are used in this document:

	Term	Definition
	Amount vs Quantity	* In OLS, “Amount” is used in connection with monetary amounts – i.e. when the unit of measure is an actual currency such as Dollars, Pesos, and Indonesian Rupiah etc. For example, “Transaction Amount” is the most frequently encountered “amount” entity. * Quantity is used to refer to the number of units of an entity, but not to monetary value. For example, the number of points awarded is typically referred to as the “Award Quantity”, and the number of points redeemed is the “Redeem Quantity”, whereas the value of the award is the “Award Amount” and the value of the redemption is the “Redeem Amount”
	Pool Blance Bucket (Bucket)	* It is used in the context of a Reward Pool Bucket, per bucket: based on pool entity level and expiring date to determine a pool balance bucket.
	Bucket Expiry Date	* If used in the context of a Counter, see Counter. * If used in the context of a Reward Pool Bucket, see Pool.
	Campaign Rule (Rule)	* A Rule is a business rule defining the conditions under which a reward will be given, including the type and quantity of reward. * The Rule includes a set of “Rule Criteria” that defines the conditions to be met in order that the quantity of rewards to be calculated with the formula and parameters that are defined in the “Rule Formula” is to be given to the customer.
	CEP	* “Counter Extract & Process” is a module for setting up job requests to extract a specified counter based on criteria set up in the request, and using the counter value as transaction amount, to form a transaction to process against Campaign Rules linked to the transaction through a Transaction Code and other Rule Criteria. * The module includes the corresponding batch processes to execute the requests.
	Contributor	* Identifies an entity which funds the rewards given under a given Rule. * One or more Contributors can be set up for rewards of each Rule. * If there is more than one Contributor for a Rule, the “Rule Contributor Settings” function is used to define the percentage of reward to be billed to each Contributor. The total contribution percentage must be 100%. * If the business entity with which the customer is transacting is the only Contributor for the rewards, then no setting has to be done in the “Rule Contributor Settings”, as BLP will consider the transacting entity as the default Contributor. * The Contributor setting is used in the end-of-day Contributor settlement report to calculate the amount due from each Contributor, for each reward transaction.
	Counter	* Counters are used to track customer’s transaction statistics. * Counters can be defined on demand to track a spend frequency or spend total for a given set of criteria. * For example, a Counter can be configured to track the number of transactions done by each customer in a specific Merchant Category Code or MCC. * If the count to be tracked is periodic – e.g. monthly – then the Counter can be configured to track the count for each period in a separate “Counter Bucket”, where each Counter Bucket has a “Counter Bucket Date” equal to the end date of the month. * What is tracked depends on which “Counter Method” is selected. * Counters are identified by “Counter Ids”.
	Effective Period	* Many parameters have a Start Date and End Date range during which the parameter is effective. * The general rule is that the Start Date starts on and after 00:00:00 hours and the End Date ends at 23:59:59. * Note that in BLP, time is considered a discrete quantity in seconds. * This definition applies for all cases where we have the “Start Date” and “End Date” parameters – e.g. campaign rules, currency rates, item price schedules, etc, where the corresponding start and end times are not specified.
	Expiry Policy	* See more on the Pool Definition section
	Formula	* This part of the Rule defines the calculation formula or formulae to be used for calculating the quantity (number of units in the Reward Pool – e.g. number of points, number of coupons) of reward to be given for a given transaction if the conditions set in the Rule Criteria are fulfilled. * The Formula comprises 2 parts: the Formula Header and the Formula Detail. * “Formula Header” defines a set of parameters to be adopted by all formulas selected in the Formula Detail – e.g. the maximum amount of reward to be given, the rounding rule (round down, round up, etc), the quantity to use for calculation (whether the Gross Amount or Nett Amount). * “Formula Detail” defines the details of the formula to be used in the calculations. Each Formula Detail can have one or more Formula. * Execution Sequence. A Rule has one or more Formula Details. Each Formula Detail is assigned an Execution Sequence number that determines the order in which the Formula is executed during transaction processing. The higher the numbers are executed first.
	Gross Amount	* See Transaction Amount.
	Pool	* Each type of reward – e.g. points or coupons, is tracked in a “Pool” or “Reward Pool”. * Each Reward Pool is associated with a “Pool Expiry Policy”, also referred to as “Expiry Policy”. * The Pool Expiry Policy selected for the Pool determines how the reward earned in that Pool is expired. * An example of a Pool Expiry Policy is “Expire 2 calendar quarters after earning”. * This would cause all the rewards earned in a given calendar quarter to be put in a Pool Bucket with an Bucket Expiry Date set to the end date 2 calendar quarters from the quarter in which the rewards were earned. * Rewards that expire on a given date are tracked in a separate “Pool Bucket”. * Example, if Expiry Policy for a Reward Pool is “Expire rewards 6 months from month of earning”, then all the points earned in each month will be stored in a separate bucket, each “Pool Bucket” having its own Bucket Expiry Date. * To meet the requirements of UNIRMs, new policy based on Card Types will be provided. For details of this, see “Expiry Policy” definition.
	REP	* “Redeem, Extract and Process” is a module for setting up a request to redeem a specified Pool, subject to criteria set up as part of the request, and to then output the redemption transaction details according to the selection set up in the request.
	Rule Criteria	* See Campaign Rule Criteria
	Rule Pool	* The Rule Pool is a Reward Pool which is updated with the results of the Rule Formula or Formulae. * Each Rule is associated with one Rule Pool.
	Transaction Amount	* Each transaction record in OLS for award processing has a mandatory column identified as the Transaction Amount. The Transaction Amount is used as the principal quantity for reward calculation in the Formula. * If the transaction is a payment transaction: + The Transaction Amount is the payment amount + If the transaction request includes a request to offset the payment amount by redeeming any available rewards, the amount remaining after deducting the available rewards value from the payment amount is referred to as the “Nett Amount”. + The payment amount before the deduction is the “Gross Amount”. * The Transaction Amount is always logged in OLS as the “Gross Amount”.
	OLS Transaction Code (TC)	* Each transaction record received in OLS for award processing has a column identified as the Transaction Code or TC. * The TC is used as the key to locate applicable Rules. * If no Rule is linked to TC, no reward calculation is done for that transaction. * TC is user-defined but it must be set up in the Transaction Code look-up table.

Structure of Document

The rest of this document is made up of the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. OneAcess
3. Customer Management
4. Campaign Management
5. OneCatalouge
6. OneMarketing
7. OneTargeting