Occurrence IDs and Occurrence Numbers Are Available for On-Premises Exports
Occurrence IDs and occurrence numbers are now available for on-premises segment maps and on-premises direct marketing tasks. The IDs and numbers can be included in an on-premises export template.
You can include these additional metadata items in either a predefined on-premises export template or when you create an export template. When you set up an on-premises export template, the data items for a segment map occurrence ID and a segment map occurrence number are now available for exports that are used in an on-premises segment map.
Likewise, the task occurrence ID and task occurrence number data items are available for on-premises direct marketing tasks.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Direct)
Agent Version Number Is Displayed
In General Settings=>Access Points, the new Agent Version display column is added. The value in this column is the current version of the agent that is in use, regardless of the type of access point (general, direct, Optimize, or diagnostics). If the agent version is expired or is nearing expiration, an appropriate warning icon and message are displayed. Agent versions that are more than three versions old are disabled.
This feature enables SAS Customer Intelligence 360 administrators who are responsible for maintaining access point definitions and on-premises agents to view the agent version status more easily.
Agent Version Column
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital and SAS 360 Engage: Direct)
Specify How Long to Store Event Personalization Data
In this release, you can specify how long personally identifiable information (PII) from events is available for personalization. This option ensures that attribute values are not stored for longer than necessary, up to a maximum of six months. Along with this feature, SAS Customer Intelligence 360 marks any custom attribute for an event as PII by default, which enables users to set up events without having to remember to specify PII data.
When you create a custom attribute for an event, define the number of days, weeks, or months to temporarily store an attribute for personalization. If the attribute is not PII, clear the check box. Any attribute that is marked as PII is not collected in the UDM tables.
PII Data Storage
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital)
Enhanced Cross-Domain Tracking
Some organizations have multiple web domains, and they want to be able to combine user behavior and maintain the same visitor ID, session ID, and identity information across these domains. Previously, SAS Customer Intelligence 360 could perform cross-domain tracking but only through the use of third-party cookies. With browsers increasingly blocking third-party cookies, this method is becoming less useful.
With this release, administrators can enable enhanced cross-domain tracking between two or more domains. When this feature is enabled, the SAS website tag adds session_id and visitor_id as query parameters to cross-domain links. When users click the links, their visitor ID, session ID, and identity information are maintained across domains.
To enable this feature, navigate to General Settings=>Domains and select the domains that you want to enable for enhanced cross-domain tracking. This functionality can also be turned off.
Cross-Domain Tracking
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital)
Add Event Attributes to Triggered Email Tasks
In this release, you can select attributes from the trigger event to forward to downstream task events. Task events include sends, opens, clicks, conversions, contacts, and responses.
For example, you can use an external event that contains a tracking code as a trigger for a triggered email task. You can pass that tracking code on the send event and attach the code to conversion events. The attributes are stored in the SAS 360 Engage detail tables in the properties_map_doc column that was added with schema 7. The attributes are available on the task events if the events are sent outside of SAS Customer Intelligence 360.
This functionality enables organizations to perform these actions:
- tie behavior to another system, including passing an external tracking code that originates outside of SAS Customer Intelligence 360, such as SAS Intelligent Decisioning or some other engine that makes an offer decision
- pass a promotion or voucher code that is tied to an individual and understand the user’s behavior
- pass an attribute that can be used to map to the set of dynamic personalization variables used for the individual without requiring SAS Customer Intelligence 360 to store the personalization variables on the events
Set these attributes on the Orchestration=>Event Attributes tab for triggered email tasks. You can add up to five attributes to be inherited by the task events. The attributes must be part of the triggering event. In upcoming releases, this feature will be available for other task types.
Event Attributes in a Triggered Email
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Email)
Enable or Disable VML Code for Rounded Buttons
In this release, email designers now have the option to disable Vector Markup Language (VML) code that is associated with the rounded buttons in their email content. VML is necessary to support buttons with rounded corners for some Microsoft Office email software, but it might have some unintended consequences. For example, button text might not be displayed properly depending on a recipient’s view settings.
You can now decide how to balance these trade-offs in the Layout Manager when you edit a button element. The Enable VML option, which is enabled by default, keeps the VML code that is associated with rounded buttons. Alternatively, you can disable this option when you do not want your email’s buttons to use VML code.
Enable VML
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Email)
Edit a Custom HTML Block In Place
In this release, email designers have a new way to add and edit custom HTML content from within an email task’s Layout Manager. In addition to selecting an existing custom HTML file from a file system or from the Assets repository, email designers can now edit the Custom HTML code snippets in place.
To edit custom HTML in place, drag the custom HTML element onto an email layout. In the Select Custom HTML Source window, select Edit New HTML.
Edit New HTML
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Email)
Improved Tracking of Open Rates for Extra-Long Emails
In this release, SAS Customer Intelligence 360 now provides the ability to track open rates for extra-long email messages.
Before this release, email-open events were counted based on a tracking pixel that is placed at the bottom of the email message. Although this behavior is industry-standard, it can sometimes lead to under-reporting of open rates for longer email messages, because email recipients might not scroll or swipe to the bottom of the email content in their inbox.
To improve the accuracy of open rates for extra-long emails, SAS now injects an initial-open pixel that is placed at the top of the email content. This pixel ensures that the email-open event is properly captured. However, the initial-open pixel cannot be injected when an email designer defines preview text in the email layout manager.
Because preview text is defined in the email header, there is a conflict with the initial-open pixel. As a result, when you define preview text the end tracking pixel must load in the client in order for an open event to be recorded. Depending on the length of your emails, consider setting preview text based on how accurately you need to track open events.
Email marketers with extra-long email content should weigh the trade-off between having preview text versus more accurate open rate reporting.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Email)
Set a Primary Identity Type to Make Identity Value Changes
You can set which identity type is the primary identity type to enable companies to make changes to other identity values. The primary identity type becomes the anchor identity, which means that the identity type is the base for any subsequent imports and identity processing. After you set the primary identity type, this type is always used as the primary type and cannot be changed. Currently only the following identity types can be designated as primary:
- subject_id
- login_id
- customer_id
For example, a company defines three identity types: subject_id, login_id, and customer_id. The company changes its eCommerce system, which then creates new values for its customers’ login_id type.
The company needs to change all the values for the login_id. Previously, this was not an option in SAS Customer Intelligence 360. With this release, if an administrator designates one of the other two identity types (customer_id or subject_id) as the primary type, it is possible to make changes to the values for the other two identity types.
In this case, the company uses subject_id as the main record for the individual, so an administrator designates subject_id as the primary identity type. The company can now import records that update the values that are associated with the login_id. These tables contain sample login IDs before and after updating the values:
Login IDs before Update
Login IDs after Update
Note: To make changes to the other non-primary identity values, the imported data needs to contain the primary identity type as well as the non-primary identity that is being updated.
Set the primary identity type, navigate to General Settings=>User Identities=>Definitions. Select either subject_id, login_id, or customer_id and enable Use as primary identity type.
Primary Identity Type Option
After you click OK, a warning appears to alert users that this action cannot be undone.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital, SAS 360 Engage: Direct, and SAS 360 Engage: Email)
Specify the Color of a Push Notification Icon in the Android SDK
By default, the mobile SDK for Android uses the mobile app's main icon in a push notification. The icon is flattened to a single color. In this release, your mobile app developer can specify a color for the icon by calling the SASCollector.setMobileMessagingIconColor API during initialization of the app.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital)
Change in How the Mobile SDK for Android Handles Push Notifications
| IMPORTANT All mobile apps that deploy the mobile SDK version 21.08 or later require specific code changes to avoid disruption to URI or deep link-driven push notifications. |
The upcoming release of Android 12 requires a change in how push notification actions are handled in the context of the following push notification life cycle: push notification sent => push notification received => push notification viewable => push notification opened.
Unlike prior mobile SDK releases, in release 21.08 the call-to-action URI information is no longer provided to the app codebase when the notification is opened. As a result of changes to Android 12, when a push notification is received, mobile app developers must provide the Android mobile SDK with a desired Android Activity Intent to be launched when the push notification is opened. The mobile app developer will use the notification URI to determine the correct Intent.
For additional information about changes that affect SAS Customer Intelligence 360, see Anticipated Behavior Changes with Android 12. For Android’s summary of the updates in Android 12, see Behavior changes: Apps targeting Android 12.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital)
Detach Invalid SAS Device IDs
Organizations that maintain a set of test devices might often install, uninstall, and then re-install their mobile app multiple times during their test cycles. That situation can lead to invalid SAS device IDs that remain attached to your data hub ID but never become reachable (due to uninstalling). This situation can lead to a growing list of unreachable SAS device IDs that make management more cumbersome.
To address this situation, the Diagnostics console enables you to detach SAS device IDs that have been cycled through the install and uninstall process and are no longer needed. To detach one or more devices from their associated data hub ID, on the Identity Profile tab, select one or more devices and click 
Detach a Device ID
Detached devices are removed from the table. A device can be detached regardless of its reachability.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital)
New REST API to Execute Bulk Email and Bulk Mobile Push Tasks
Administrators can now execute bulk email or bulk mobile push notification tasks by using the Marketing Execution REST API (/marketingExecution). This REST API enables you to run operations on bulk email tasks that are in the cloud or on premises.
Tasks that are in a published state can be executed by calling the REST API and sending either the task ID or the task name. If the task’s name is not unique, you can send the folderPath parameter to uniquely identify which task should be executed.
Note: By default, the REST API does not execute tasks that have a defined schedule. However, an administrator can send the overrideSchedule parameter to override the defined schedule and execute the task when the request is submitted.
The REST API returns a URL that enables you to check the status of the execution (occurrence). This status gives you the ability to see whether the task executed successfully or failed, and the time stamps for when the task started and finished.
The Marketing Execution REST API enables administrators to execute these tasks with an external scheduler and to manage all the dependencies on demand, such as uploading customer data, imported lists, or transient files after an on-premises warehouse has been updated. This feature provides more flexibility for fluent schedules or delays in processes that need to happen before the task execution.
For more information, see Marketing Execution REST API in SAS Customer Intelligence 360: Programming Interfaces.
(Available in SAS 360 Engage: Digital, SAS 360 Engage: Direct, SAS 360 Engage: Email, SAS 360 Discover, and SAS 360 Plan)
Directly Post Comments to Plan and Workflow Items without Adding Topics
With the integration of the Comments Manager in SAS 360 Plan, you can now directly post comments to planning items or workflow items without adding a topic. Previously comments could be posted only within a topic.
Attachments can also be added directly to planning items and workflow items. Adding attachments in a comment post is not supported now.
(Available in SAS 360 Plan)
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