Cycle Tool

Use the Cycle Tool to establish product purchase cycles by calculating trends in the time lapses between transactions, which can then be used to engineer banded columns based on these cycles.

Procedure

1. Drag the tool to the Workspace or select it from Create > Engineering> Cycle.
2. To make the column permanent so that it is saved in the database, and can be viewed and selected in the Data Explorer tab, click the expand icon to display the following optional settings:
   • Target Table: This is the resolution of the calculation. This will usually be a Customer table. Drag in the required table from the Data Explorer.
   • Source: This is a filter field that specifies the transaction that you are predicting the cycle for. It will usually be a product code or product group i.e. you will be selecting people that have made purchases of a particular product in the past.
   • Date: Drag in the date column that indicates when purchases have occurred in the past, for example a Transaction Date or Purchase Date column.
   • Units: This is what the results will be displayed in

Our example is configured as follows, with 'MI' being a product group in the Demo database.

Click the Process button to run the calculation.

The results will be displayed in your document as follows:

Alternatively you could select the Range helper and view a graphic representation of the average gaps between purchases.

Numeric bands can be created automatically by dragging the banded icons off the helper.

• Predictive Analytics
  • Modeling Functionality Overview
  • Predict Inclusion Tool
  • Predicted Next Date
  • Cycle Tool