Multi-tenancy in CRM originally spun out of single tenancy, but many businesses prefer to adapt the multi-tenancy infrastructure instead. Why? Businesses today require the ability to scale resources as needed in order to operate more efficiently. Therefore, multi-tenancy not only makes things effortless, but also provides huge cost savings, upgrades, and maintenance.
In Microsoft Dynamics 365, multi-tenancy presents 4 levels of empowerment in an exceptional multi-tenant CRM:
Multi-Tenancy in Microsoft Dynamics 365
In Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement, multi-tenancy provides the ability to support several autonomous Business Units (BU) within a single instance of CRM and cohabitate without interference. Dynamics 365 provides enterprise customers with extreme benefits over competitors and administers intra-instance multi-tenancy. Competitors such as Salesforce, Act, GoldMine, Infor, NetSuite and Zoho don’t acquire the sub-instance tenancy capability that relates users and security roles to the hierarchical business groups that make up a complex and diversified enterprise.
For instance, not every work unit within a business utilizes a CRM and every acquired or onboarded division wouldn’t acknowledge the idea of having to use hand-me-down procedures and business rules because they’re the newcomers. With CRM there isn’t a win, lose or proposition. Moreover, the aspect of CRM delivery, which one BU’s work rules, interface and data management may be autonomous and independent from others is referred to as “isolation”.
One way of isolation is deploying independent instances. Also, actively avoiding isolation by way of separate installations is highly recommended. Even when disparate instances are within common tenancy, they are set out to function as separate systems, and aligning may require substantial work to synchronize data and code. For example, to aggregate data, replication or accumulation would be necessary to consolidate reporting.
Dynamics CRM Business Unit Hierarchy
So how do you support consolidation and partial isolation without forcing one set of rules on all participants or allowing the “big money” BU’s to overrule the niche or startup divisions? Microsoft Dynamics has the notion of Business Units, along with security roles and users that are organized within the BU. The BU’s exist in a hierarchy, so the higher levels can consolidate data upward and manage as desired.
Federation
“The best way to organize around BU’s is to implement an approach I call “federation”, which is allowing a central authority such as an enterprise Center of Excellence to act as a “benign dictator” over only those aspects of CRM that the business at large should see as common or standardized across the enterprise” – Kjell Kahlenberg. For example, this may include naming conventions, rules of use, data architecture, option set values, field usage, common functionality or common validation.
Individual Businesses
The next layer down includes individual businesses, which may be allowed to work inside their BU. Moreover, deploying specifications that relate only to their particular business is achievable, such as BU-specific data attributes, sales processes or dashboards. Also, isolating is feasible using roles-based forms or BU-based forms and allowing the form to enforce unique data by capturing requirements using required fields and special record attributes. The BU can guide dashboards, menus, and even workflows appearing as if it is in complete control over the CRM.
Microsoft has allowed this to work due to the notion of data ownership. Every record is owned by a user or team and the BU (which is a parent record of the user) can enforce the selection of UI elements, such as forms and views. The owner field can be set to cascade to child records in several ways by generating all of the data in the BU and aligning it to standards.
Conflicts may occur when the enterprise uses common fields and the BU’s cannot all agree on the field definitions; commonly, option set values might be different or overlap. Also, code may be utilized on a custom table to deliver the right values to the right form, allowing the enterprise to contain data in just one field for matters affecting all BU’s as part of the overall business.
Alternatively, each BU can use a different but analogous field to capture commonly desirable attributes, and code consolidates the data in a hidden reporting field that holds the selected values for all BU’s. So, this is federation; there are some national obligations and some state’s rights. Divisional administrators can be assigned the rights to settle on some opt-in functionality, such as settings or modules. So, BU based administration allows selectively turning functionality and navigation off for some divisions.
Individual/Job-Level
The final level is individual or job-level variations, which only a certain user profile or job function prefers to use the system in a particular way by utilizing roles-based forms and elements base. For individual users, the system guidance may empower the use of some aspects and functions, but not others. Also, not all of CRM is mandatory and is not strictly speaking multi-tenancy, but adoption. CRM is about empowerment and at the user level, allowing participants to pick up on various components with differing degrees of enthusiasm.
Final Thoughts
Driving the intra-instance multi-tenancy implementation with a governance plan is crucial. In order to help serve the needs of each BU, listen to them as a group and as individual participants. If the IT department has budget limits don’t hesitate in charging the BU’s back for the work and allowing IT to acquire enough resources to take care of the full enterprise.
Learn more about how to properly leverage .
About the Author – Kjell Kahlenberg
As Director of Customer Engagement Solutions of Indusa, Kjell is a subject matter expert on Microsoft Dynamics CRM with deep experience across sales, customer care, and marketing disciplines. He has led large enterprise CRM deployments across various industries and business models. Kjell focuses on solution advisory, consulting, architecting, project and program governance, and overall customer engagement.
Contributing Author:
Predict at scale, with very low latency, and deliver actionable intelligence in real-time to the decision maker or machine. This back-end capability is designed for demanding use cases requiring very fast scoring, like predicting how your customers behave, when your industrial parts will break, or calculating the risks associated with an action or a client. Enable real-time online scoring from web portals, phone apps, or desktop applications.
Parallelization of operators with Loop and Optimize Parameters, FP Growth, Join and other built-in operators makes it lightning fast to work with complex data imports and perform feature engineering steps with a few clicks. These operators were the first one to migrate to Studio’s new data core. Overall, the results are remarkable, depending on your data, FP-Growth improved by a factor of 5.
The new architecture (introduced in v8.0) provides a way scale indefinitely and let the RapidMiner environment grow with your needs, as well as structure jobs and executions with queues that can adapt to your organization. Know that you’re doing everything to be in control, reduce risk, and grow, as your business needs evolve.
Throughout history, decentralization of systems has always resulted in more robust and agile mechanisms. Whether the organization of large empires or mutually beneficial trading relationships, decentralized systems have successfully multiplied the impact of resources while retaining the ability to adapt to stresses without major structural change.
In recent centuries, the economies of scale prompted a move to integrated systems that produced large volumes of products at low purchase prices to consumers. However, certain advantages of distributed systems were lost or compromised in the process. As we enter the age of AI, machine learning, and IoT-enabled digital transformation, we have the unique opportunity to meld the greatest advantages of both into one powerful, agile, and highly productive approach.
Platform as a Service (PaaS), also called application platform as a service or platform-based service, is a category of cloud computing services. It provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.
PaaS solutions and services support your development capabilities, which help you extend, integrate, and build innovative applications in less time. In effect, these solutions provide a significantly higher level of capability and agility than legacy infrastructure – without the hassle of maintaining, authenticating, and patching servers and other traditional hardware. PaaS expands possibilities through the incorporation of workflows, APIs, programming languages, development and deployment tools, as well as database capabilities, among other powerful features.
Apps and software-based solutions are rightly regarded as some of the most dramatic enhancements in productivity, process integration, and service-level enhancements. The immense distributed and interactive intelligence they enable is a game-changer for our civilization, let alone individual business models. The PaaS model ushers in a new era of centralized resources, multiplied dramatically by distributed and synergistic systems.
Legacy models for the development of apps required servers, software, data security, and multiple software dependencies – with continual updates – and complex hardware systems requiring ongoing structured maintenance, as well as considerable financial investment. Any infrastructure incorporated into this system was prone to becoming outdated and even obsolete quite rapidly. PaaS, on the other hand, can deliver click-and-code solutions through the use of cloud-based tools, servers, and programming environments, enabling apps to be rapidly developed and hosted with very low upfront costs.
As a solution, PaaS is focused on providing the tools and technologies to create an intelligent enterprise that allows a connected user to orchestrate the entire business and all its functions from a single device. It sets the user free from the dependence of static and stationary infrastructure, allowing information to talk and share its “stories,” rationalizing the business process. PaaS empowers intelligent technologies that are predictive rather than reactive, setting enabling operational excellence and underpinning real-time enterprise mobility in the field.
Danish company Vestas Wind Systems, a seller, operator, and servicing provider for wind turbines, provides a dramatic case in point. The company now conducts its complex maintenance tasks with the help of administrative processes that primarily use mobile devices. The entire process integration required no complex redevelopment work and provides field workers real-time access to all relevant enterprise data. PaaS empowered the company to improve compliance, optimizing productivity and integration of processes in a backend-agnostic fashion.
Herfy, Saudi Arabia’s premier fast food chain, has built on a PaaS solution to provide native iOS apps that enable its customers to order their burgers and fries using an app. Oman-based OTE Group, with business interests that span from the automotive industry to home appliances, is making PaaS a central initiative in its digital transformation, using the technology to allow its staff to access enterprise IT infrastructure from their mobile phones. In yet another transformative initiative, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has enabled online access for several campus facilities and services using PaaS.
PaaS is a generator of mutually beneficial partnerships through enhanced optionality and agility. SAP recently introduced a new consumption plan for customers enabling a future where customer transactions are seamless and where our customers aren’t just happier – they’re better and more competitive than ever before.
What customers truly value with this plan is the amount of flexibility it provides to their development teams to support the rapid changes required by the business. The IT and development teams can test the latest technologies – blockchain, machine learning, and AI – in their test and development systems with zero cost.
To help customers leverage these new technologies and solutions, the SAP Co-Innovation Lab provides project-based co-innovation to enhance the capabilities and knowledge of our customers and partners. Co-innovation is one of our major commitments, because it is the most effective way to demonstrate how we can deliver true business outcomes.
One critical component of a PaaS is a mobility platform. The mobility platform simplifies the development, configuration, and ability to manage multiple applications. This is achieved by providing a collection of tools and services, such as SDKs for Apple and Android, that empower developers to rapidly build world-class enterprise apps that run anywhere, anytime on any device.
All good PaaS providers will also typically provide an associated app center. An app center is a digital, enterprise marketplace where customers can discover, try, buy, manage, and deploy trusted applications that have been built using the tools and services from the PaaS provider. Most app centers will allow customers to discover information about solutions and services, read user reviews, look up certifications, and start conversations with various partners and developers.
This provides businesses that adopt this approach with a strategic advantage over their competitors to deploy solutions far more economically at a pace significantly faster than traditional approaches.
For further information and insights regarding the powerful capabilities and possibilities that PaaS technology can enable, please visit SAP Cloud Platform.
Knowing how to win the heart of your dream guy can be a little challenging. But with the right knowledge of a man’s brain and his heart you can make any guy go crazy over you. There are some fundamental things that every guy looks for in a woman. These things are encoded in man’s brain since ancient times. Finding them and using them for your own good can land you the guy of your dreams. The Devotion System claims to know these secrets and tricks that can lead you to the heart of your dream man. Incorporating the personality traits that a man looks for in a woman is the key to his heart. The Devotion System claims to teach you these personality traits so that you can attract any guy you want in a snap of your fingers.
According to the author Amy North there exists a state of desire which is more powerful than love and finding the way to unlocking that hidden desire will get any man’s heart bound to you and only you! The author Amy North claims to know these tried and tested hidden secrets that are guaranteed to work 100% of the time. These secrets will get any man whether he hates you, is your ex or has friend-zoned you fall in love with you in a couple of days. With the Devotion system interactive e-book you also get:-
The book provides you with 3 guaranteed-to-work steps that would work rapidly and successfully for any girl! These steps are: –
So, what does the devotion system teach you? Below is the list of things that you will learn after reading these steps in detail.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other techniques which you will learn after reading this book. These techniques will make him totally loyal to you. He will never want any other woman in his life.
So, after reading the whole e-book line-by-line and word-by-word I have came up to certain conclusions. Being a woman I can certainly say that this thing works! But will it work for everyone? Will it work for any average looking girl that has failed in her love life again and again? Or will it work for that girl who has no experience in the game of love?
Yes, it will. After reading these steps in detail in this E-book I can say that it’s a must read for every woman who is failing in her relationship or love life again and again. Looks and age doesn’t matter, whether you are an average looking girl, an overweight 40 year old or an attractive 20 year old this book is a must read for every woman who is trying to get the man of her dreams. The Devotion System will not only help you get the man of your dream but will also lay down practical and scientifically proved psychological methods to make him totally loyal to you and only you! After reading this book you will literally become the relationship queen.
Rating The Devotion System: –
Overall: – 9.4/10
Practicality and effectiveness: – 9.8/10
Format: – 9.3/10
Value: 9.6/10
So, after considering all the pros and cons of buying this book I can say that it is a must buy! These dating tips and secrets are really going to help you for your lifetime. After all, who doesn’t want to know the secrets of getting into a man’s heart? At this price The Devotion System is the best dating guide that you can find on the Internet. This book is definitely a game changer. Just go and grab it right now!
So, this was our review of The Devotion System E-book. Leave your comments in the comments section and tell us about your experience with this e-book. Good or bad, sweet or bitter just write down however your experience was with this book. We would like to hear from you. Stay tuned for more reviews, self help tips and tricks and much more. Thanks for reading.
You’re watching the news when you see the meteorologist point out a small storm in the Atlantic Ocean. In the coming days, that swirling energy cell becomes a tropical storm, then a hurricane. Initially it looks like it won’t hit your area, but with each passing day, the storm’s path changes. Suddenly, your town is on the edge of the predicted path. Its strength grows to a category 3, its path changes again, and now a major storm is barreling straight for you.
The chances of a hurricane or other natural disaster wreaking havoc on your home or business can vary depending on where you are. In April 2018, forecasted a 63% chance that a major hurricane– a category 3 or stronger storm– would hit the east coast of the United States. They predicted that of 14 named storms this hurricane season, three would be major. For residents in the Carolinas watching the news reports, the possibility of getting hit by a hurricane became a very harsh reality with Florence.
When you are faced with a potentially devastating disaster, you rush to the store to buy food, water, and other supplies. You fill your car with gas. You board up your windows and prepare to evacuate. But what about your business? Those windows may be boarded up, too… but what if a power surge or flood ruins your servers? What if your stock and supplies are ruined, or your building smells like mildew? What is your disaster recovery plan? Insurance may cover your costs, but is your business going to be able to pull through an extended period of downtime?
If you collect data of any kind for your business, performing backups is a must. Some businesses think keeping a backup server in another room is sufficient. Others spend considerable amounts of money on an off-site secondary data center they might never have to use. Even more businesses flirt with disaster every day and don’t have any kind of backup plan in place. But when your business experiences an outage for hours, days, or weeks at a time, will it be able to survive?
Business owners are hesitant to implement a disaster recovery plan because they can be cost prohibitive when using a secondary data center. After all, this requires a duplicate of your systems and hardware, and staff to keep it running every day of the year. However, buying your own server and keeping your backups in your office isn’t a great approach, either; if your main systems get flooded, so do those servers… and how diligent will you really be in keeping those backups up to date?
There’s an easier and cost-effective solution to having a safe, stable, and robust disaster recovery plan: real time, up-to-the-minute, system replication with Azure Cloud. Azure will keep up to date with every order, credit card transaction, quote and more that you were working on. Having a full replica of your data center in Azure will only cost you the storage your solution uses, and the rest is “shut off.” You only pay for what you use. In addition, even if your systems are all on premises currently, if you decide in the future to move them to Azure, you’re already well on your way. AKA Enterprise solutions can help you determine your license applicability for hybrid benefits in Azure so that when you decide to run in the Cloud, your costs are minimized.
Sleep better at night knowing that your affordable and reliable disaster recovery plan is in the Cloud. Learn more by , then to discuss the best plan for your organization.
Watch this video to learn more about moving to the Cloud:
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SuiteWorld18 featured a number of incredible business leaders, including fashion entrepreneur Rachel Zoe, basketball legend and investor Magic Johnson, and inspiring founders like Kara Goldin the CEO of Hint. From motivating keynotes to educational breakouts, attendees came to Las Vegas this past April to learn how they can harness the power of digital technologies to break through the old constraints and grow both their ideas and their business. The first-day keynote event was capped by Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, who appeared live via satellite.
During his appearance, Hurd participated in a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with attendees. His responses touched on subjects ranging from essential (Oracle’s integration of NetSuite) to esoteric (one attendee asked Hurd if he’d rather invest in quantum computing or reverse aging technology). NetSuite customers will appreciate much of what he discussed, and some of Hurd’s statements are worth a closer look.
Oracle and NetSuite: A Perfect Pairing?
During his conversation with Oracle NetSuite Executive Vice President Jim McGeever, Hurd stated that Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite has “gone exactly as we would want.”
Hurd indicated that Oracle will continue to accelerate investment in NetSuite. Oracle and NetSuite have a longstanding, close relationship, as NetSuite was founded by former Oracle executives, with early funding from Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and built on Oracle technology. NetSuite is rapidly expanding its data center footprint by leveraging the latest Oracle innovations with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). By using OCI, NetSuite will be able to leverage the 11 global datacenters that utilize the OCI infrastructure. OCI is specifically architected to provide the consistently fast performance, versatility and governance required to run the most demanding workloads for Oracle’s largest customers. This will give NetSuite access to thousands of OCI developers and operations personnel to further improve efficiency, reliability and security.
In fact, Hurd stated that NetSuite would be the beneficiary of research and development (R&D) funding going forward, and he also promised that NetSuite would benefit from Oracle’s global reach as it continues its international brand expansion. In addition to its substantial R&D outlays, Oracle also maintains a far-flung network of global offices. There are 26 Oracle national contacts for the Americas, 35 contacts for different European nations, 24 points of contact for African nations, 12 for the Middle East, and 24 for the Asia-Pacific region.
Into the Cloud
As a Cloud company, NetSuite is a natural fit with Oracle’s growing cloud business. Hurd said that Oracle and NetSuite are “trying to create this world where, from the smallest company to the biggest companies, you now get access to the same technologies.”
Hurd also repeated his mantra on the three-fold benefits of cloud computing: “It simply costs less… you simply get more innovation… and it’s simply more secure.” These three core cloud computing benefits have been key to Hurd’s public presentations on the technology and he supported these statements at SuiteWorld18 with specific examples.
For the first benefit, Hurd noted that the costs of data center operations and organizational R&D can be shifted to massive companies like Oracle, which can devote more resources to maintaining and improving hardware and software than nearly any other non-tech company — as well as most tech companies, which lack Oracle’s size and reach. This “offloading” benefit ties into Hurd’s second point, as companies that use Oracle’s cloud solutions can benefit from the aforementioned R&D spending without having to devote significant resources to developing or improving their own systems. The benefits of cloud computing for growing businesses is also a popular subject on Hurd’s Twitter feed.
While he highlighted all three benefits during his initial speaking session, much of Hurd’s time at SuiteWorld18, particularly during the question-and-answer session, was devoted to Oracle and NetSuite’s cloud-based security advantages.
Safety and Security
With regards to security, Hurd noted that data protection concerns have prompted Oracle to open data centers in many additional countries. Hurd also pointed out that Oracle and NetSuite encrypt data in transit throughout their cloud services.
Oracle CEO Mark Hurd regularly speaks on technology industry topics and was a featured speaker at the Oracle OpenWorld 2017 conference. You can watch many of his major speeches on Hurd’s official YouTube channel.
A common accounting task is to consolidate the financial results of subsidiary companies into combined results of a parent company. A parent company can have one or multiple subsidiaries. Each subsidiary can also have one or multiple subsidiaries beneath it. The relationships between parent companies and subsidiaries are often organized in a hierarchical structure.
In a single parent hierarchy, each child node has a single parent. In a multiple parent hierarchy, each child node can have either a single parent or two or more parents. In the single parent hierarchy diagram below, we can see that entities B and C have A as a parent, D and E have B as a parent, and F has C as a parent. The multiple parent hierarchy differs from the single parent hierarchy in that E has both B and C as a parent.
If we assume companies A, B, C, D, E, and F each have $ 100 of income the consolidated total would be as follows in the multiple parent scenario:
F: $ 100, E: $ 100, D: $ 100, C: $ 250 (100+100+50 assuming 50% ownership of E) B: $ 250, A: $ 600
For the single parent scenario, the totals would be the same except B would have $ 300 and C $ 200.
DAX has a hierarchy feature that is relatively straightforward to use for the single parent hierarchy scenario while a multiple parent scenario complicates things. The remainder of this writing will primarily focus on the latter.
The first time I built a hierarchy in DAX, everything appeared to be working well. However, as I checked the numbers, I realized that it was not handling the instances where a child node had multiple parents. I posted a question online asking if it was possible to create a hierarchy with multiple parents. The response I received was yes, it is possible……but it requires a many-to-many relationship to work correctly. I had previously read about many-to-many relationships online, and in Rob’s book, so I had a general idea of how to get started and thought that this problem would provide an excellent reason to explore it in more detail. I have an example workbook that you can download here to follow along
Before we can get to the task of creating a hierarchy, relationships, measures, and Pivot tables, we need three data sources:
The first step is to create a table with the hierarchy nodes and ownership percentages. For this exercise, we will have 26 nodes or company names (1 each for A to Z). The first column is the Node ID. The second column is the parent Key. Nodes A, B, and C are top tier and do not have a parent. The nodes below A, B, and C will ultimately be consolidated into these three nodes. Looking at the fourth line, we can see that node A is the sole parent of node D.
Starting on lines 13 and 14, we can see that node M is duplicated in the Name column and that M has both D and G as a parent with each owning 50%. If M has an income of $ 100, $ 50 will flow up to both Node D and G respectively. The last four rows are for the four-way split of node Z. Node Z is owned 30% by T and U and 20% by W and X. Income for node Z will be split amongst these four nodes by these percentages.
To summarize the table above, A, B, and C are top-level nodes and do not have a parent. M and Z have multiple parents while the remainder has a single parent. I should also note that when creating a node with multiple parents, the percentage total should add to 100%. Node M above is .5 + .5 and Z is .3+.3+.2+.2.
The second source of data needed is a fact table with transactional data. It will be kept simple for this exercise, and we will assume that all 26 entities from A to Z have an income of $ 100 in the year 2017 and $ 200 for the year 2018.
The final data step is to create a table with a unique listing of the nodes.
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Name |
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A |
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B |
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C |
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D |
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E |
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F |
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G |
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H |
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I |
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J |
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K |
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L |
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M |
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N |
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O |
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P |
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Q |
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R |
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S |
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T |
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U |
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V |
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W |
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X |
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Y |
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Z |
Once the data is assembled, it can be loaded into the data model.
To complete the building of the hierarchy, some calculated columns will be added to the Nodes table. The DAX Path function is used to return the ID chain for the hierarchy path. It is a pipe-delimited list that has the parent ID for the chain. For node M on rows 13 and 14, the path is 1|4|13 and 2|7|14. As M has two parents, half of its income will flow up to nodes D and A while the other half will flow to nodes B and G
DAX PATH Function in the nodes table. The first five columns are raw data, and the last seven are calculated columns.
The DAX PATHLENGTH function returns the depth of the hierarchy chain. For this example, the maximum depth is four, so we will build four Levels (Level1,2,3, and 4) for the hierarchy.
For each of the four levels of the hierarchy, the DAX LOOKUPVALUE and PATHITEM functions are used to retrieve the corresponding entity name from the hierarchy path.
To create the hierarchy, while in the diagram view, click on the create hierarchy button in the top right corner and drag the fields to the bottom.
The hierarchy will appear in the pivot table field list.
The next step in the process is to set the relationships in the data model as follows:
Next, we will need to create a few measures.
The first measure is straightforward in that it is only a SUM of the Income amount in the fact table.
Total_Fact_Income :=
SUM ( Fact_Data[Income] )
Our second measure [Total_Income] takes the income measure created above and wraps it inside a CALCULATE and passes the Nodes table as a filter. This is needed for the M2M to work.
Total_Income :=
CALCULATE ( [Total_Fact_income], Nodes )
I would recommend reading pages 220-228 of Rob’s latest book to get a better understanding of why it is done this way. The book provides a deeper dive into the subject and also discusses the subtle differences between PowerPivot and Power BI when dealing with M2M situations.
The third Measure is a SUM of the OwenershipPct column of the Nodes table.
PctOwnership :=
SUM ( Nodes[OwnershipPct] )
The Consolidated_Income measure is the primary measure that will be used for this example. It wraps the Total_Income measure in a SUMX function and multiplies by the ownership percentage.
Consolidated_Income :=
SUMX ( Nodes, [Total_Income] * [PctOwnership] )
Next, we can build a pivot table with the following selections:
This pivot table displays the consolidated year 2017 income for the Top Level entities in the hierarchy. The consolidated total for A+B+C = 2,600.
With nodes A and B of the hierarchy expanded, we can see that 50% of the 2017 $ 100 income for Node M is allocated first to Node D and then to Node A and the other 50% flows up to G and B. The pivot table displays node M as a child of two different parents within the hierarchy.
The 30,30,20,20 allocation of Entity Z income to the four different parents is shown in the Pivot Table below.
There are two additional measures Parent_Income and Children_Income. I’m not certain that they function correctly, but they are my attempt to segregate the income of only the parent and the income of all children of the parent. The total of both should equal the consolidated income.
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f[t_] := -0.024*sqrt[(x'[t])^2 + (y'[t])^2]*(x'[t])
g[t_] := -9.8 - 0.024*sqrt[(x'[t])^2 + (y'[t])^2]*(y'[t])
sol = NDSolve[{x''[t] == f[t], y''[t] == g[t], x'[0] == 11.63,
y'[0] == 8.14, x[0] == y[0] == 0}, {x, y}, {t, 0, 10}]
This is supposed to solve for the position of a projectile experiencing quadratic air resistance, but that error is what it keeps returning.
It’s a harsh truth that while data and technology in the fraud business abound, true domain expertise is a scarce resource. Meet Andy Procter, one of FICO’s fraud specialists. Having spent much of his career on the front lines fighting fraud at Citibank, Andy is now one of FICO’s Fair Isaac Fraud Advisors, where he specializes in fighting identity-based fraud including application fraud.
Today we are excited to pick Andy’s brain on the hot topic of how to fight identity-based application fraud.
Andy: I’ve seen many things that have shocked me, some for the sheer audacity of the perpetrator and others at the incredulity of the organization not having means in place to prevent them.
Andy: Credit risk is the bigger player in account originations. The overall question the organization is asking is ‘should we extend credit to this(these) individual(s)?’
To answer that, there are more underlying questions: Does the application meet with credit policy – do we think they can afford to repay? Will they be profitable? What terms should we offer? Are they telling us the truth?
Only that last question is of concern to the fraud team. In fact, even if they are telling the truth, are they a fraudster? To answer those questions there are equally many checks to do. The order of those varies across organizations according to their business preferences and other factors such as regulations. However, where possible I recommend a cost- and time-efficient process. This often involves early credit policy knockouts, followed by early fraud knockouts. Only after that should you go out and pay for additional information.
Once all information is in and knock-outs have happened, apply the credit risk policy to determine those you want to accept. The applicants left at that point pose a potential risk of fraud loss, so carry out the fraud checks then. Some clients save their pricing and limit setting until after the fraud check. I like this process: Any flags for potential first-party fraud that aren’t sufficiently strong to deny the application can still have an impact on the potential loss by impacting credit lines, limit increase periods, cross-selling periods etc.
Andy: Across the world, I’ve seen varying levels of automation with varying levels of success. If done right, automation is great – it gives a fast, consistent and smooth experience for applicants. After all, the fraud team as much as anyone wants genuine applications pushed straight through and low false positives. Some organizations think automated decisions are bad or even non-compliant. That need not be the case. Automated declines on limited information is a recipe for a headache, but data-rich applications with an automated decision to request additional information or trigger OTP, for example, can be positive even for false-positives.
Andy: Connected decisions – we use it a lot but it is valid. We certainly do see siloed set-ups. Sometimes we see the credit card team linked with the unsecured personal loans, but the auto finance, mortgage and SME/corporate loans have completely separate policies, processes and systems.
As long as I’ve been in fraud the key strength is sharing data – that’s what the fraudsters do. I’ve seen clients share with competitor organizations but not with other parts of their own business.
As well as connected decisions, a successful application fraud program requires three main practices:
Andy: Analytics. Feedback loops and defect analysis help drive false positives down. Also, I’ve seen some controversial fraud rules in my time, but some can be justified by their low false positives. Obviously, it is easy to lower false positives but not so easy to do it while maintaining or increasing the fraud detection rate (number of frauds found proactively by the detection tool as a proportion of all frauds detected).
The third metric in this trilogy is the referral rate. Most closely linked to the false-positive rate, this is the one that incurs the operational costs…and the one where human error comes into play. Some fraud teams have their strategies limited by the size of their operations team, some others have strict limits on referral rate placed on them by the business (without regard to the fraud rate of the organisation).
Regardless of the driver, the referral rate should be optimized in conjunction with the false-positive and detection rate.
For more on application fraud, check out the other posts in our series:
About Fair Isaac Fraud Advisors: FICO has a global team comprised of former fraud managers and domain experts who have a combined experience of 150+ years in fraud management. The practice helps organizations optimize operational processes, carry out complex analytical engagements, and build out a robust fraud program. They have undertaken engagements in 45 countries across 6 continents where they have coached and steered organizations towards best practices, data-driven approaches, and strategic change management.