Scenario Modeling Tip #2: Designate a constraint as a report-only constraint by selecting Report only in the Type list in the Create Constraint window.
Common misunderstanding: Where are report-only constraints applied? Report-only constraints are not applied during optimization, but are included in the Constraint Summary report.
Example
Suppose you want to calculate the average response probability for the campaign called Camp1 without imposing any type of limit on it. You could do this as a post-processing step on the mo_solution table. However, it would be easier to create a report-only constraint so that SAS Marketing Optimization evaluates the report-only constraint as part of the optimization process, without affecting the optimization result.
Because a report-only constraint is not a real constraint, adding a report-only constraint should not result in a significant change in the solution that SAS Marketing Optimization produces. However, for some scenarios, the addition of a report-only constraint can produce a slight change in the solution because of changes in how the data structures store the numeric measures that are used in constraints. If the addition of a report-only constraint produces a large change in the objective value, be sure to verify that the report-only constraint does not use a measure that changes the eligibility of any customers for any offers.
To determine eligibility for each offer, SAS Marketing Optimization considers all Customer Communication measures that are used in the scenario. For example, if the objective measure is expected_profit, then any communication that has a missing value of expected_profit for a particular customer is considered ineligible for the customer. Suppose a report-only constraint introduces a new Customer Communication measure, such as prob_response, that is not used anywhere else in the scenario. If this measure has a different eligibility pattern from the existing measures in the scenario, then the report-only constraint can change the eligibility structure of the scenario, and can then change the solution.
So, specifying a customer-level or household-level constraint as a report-only constraint causes the constraint to be ignored because the Constraint Summary report contains only aggregate constraints.
Note: This post was adapted from Michelle Opp’s “Scenario Modeling Tips” document. For more information, see SAS Marketing Optimization User’s Guide.
