IBM Analytical Decision Management and the Scoring Service

The general process for scoring IBM® Analytical Decision Management applications is as follows:

  • An IBM SPSS® Modeler stream (.str file) is automatically created in the repository when a user saves a IBM Analytical Decision Management   project.
  • The IBM SPSS Modeler stream can then be used with the Scoring Service. In IBM SPSS Deployment Manager, create a scoring configuration. When creating the scoring configuration, some IBM Analytical Decision Management-specific dialogs must be completed to enable interactive scoring, select interaction points (if configured), and set global variables (such as Max Offers, for example).

Creating a Scoring Service Configuration

You must use IBM SPSS Deployment Manager to create a scoring configuration. For complete instructions, see the help in IBM SPSS Deployment Manager. Keep the following IBM Analytical Decision Management-specific points in mind when creating scoring configurations using the IBM SPSS Deployment Manager Configure Scoring Model dialog box. Each section corresponds to a section in the dialog box.

Model Specific Settings

Enable Interactive Scoring. If your application (stream) supports interactive scoring, you can select this option to choose whether interactive scoring is enabled for the scoring configuration. If enabled, and if the Scoring Service does not have all the inputs needed, a MissingDataException will be returned that identifies the missing data (field), and the interactive question that can be used to prompt for the needed values. The caller can then prompt for the missing data and call the Scoring Service again (passing all data). Interactive scoring is configured on the Deploy tab in IBM Analytical Decision Management applications.

  • While MissingDataException can identify multiple pieces of missing data, it does not necessarily identify all missing data. MissingDataException will communicate which data is missing at the current stage of processing.
  • If Enable Interactive Scoring is not enabled, you get a MissingDataException without any interactive questions.

Select Interaction Point. If your application uses multiple interaction points, you can select which interaction point the configuration should use in the Model Specific Settings dialog box. Interaction points specify where an item such as a campaign or offer applies. Options might include a call center, web site, ATM, or in-store location. Administrators can predefine the interaction points available for selection by business users. The interaction points defined are displayed to business users in the IBM Analytical Decision Management applications. You can create multiple scoring configurations in IBM SPSS Deployment Manager--one for each interaction point.

Max Offer. Note that Max Offer is an example of a field that might be displayed in the IBM SPSS Deployment Manager dialog. Variables and constant values that are defined on the entity dimension can be overridden for a specific score configuration.

Configuring Model Specific Settings in IBM Analytical Decision Management

The model specific settings displayed in the scoring configuration are defined in IBM Analytical Decision Management. Interactive scoring is performed on a per-field basis, and is configured on the Deploy tab in the IBM Analytical Decision Management application.

The available interaction points, if any, are configured for each application by an IBM Analytical Decision Management administrator.

Choosing Model Outputs

In the scoring configuration, you can choose which model outputs to include with the results. The fields that can be output are those specified on the Deploy tab in the IBM Analytical Decision Management user interface.

Advanced Settings

Under Advanced Settings, you can specify options for batch scoring, caching, and logging. See the IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services documentation for more information.

Response Service

The Response Service supplements the Scoring Service. It's a web service allowing client applications such as call center interfaces to send responses to the service to be logged. For example, a bank might have a call center interface that presents specific offers to the call center agent. The agent can then make the appropriate offer to the bank customer, and the customer's answer (response) is sent to the Response Service and logged. The following figure presents the flow of a complete example.

Figure 1. Example use of Scoring Service and Response Service
Example use of Scoring Service and Response Service

 

Table 1. Scoring Service and Response Service example
Figure label Description
Customer Joe calls.
The call center sends Joe's customer ID to the Scoring Service. If logging is turned on in the scoring configuration (optional), this information is sent to the score log. Note that score logging is distinct from response logging.
The Scoring Service determines the best offer for customer Joe (Gold Card, for example) and sends the offer back to the call center. This information is also written to the score log (if enabled); Views and Queries can be written against the score log.
The call center operator presents the Gold Card offer to customer Joe.
Joe says yes to the offer.
The call center sends Joe's "yes" response to the Response Service and this response is logged. Queries can be written against the response log, or against both logs.

For more information about the Response Service and hooking it up to your front-office application, contact your SPSS representative.