New

1. minubo Suite

1.1 Demoshop Explorer

• Newly created entities are only be private
• Sales can share public read-only entities and migrate entities to leads

1.3 FeedsV3 Improvements

• A feed can be turned off and on
• Multiple feeds per query can be created and saved with different export settings
• Add an overview for all active feeds with the last request date and security settings
• Search and find a feed by its token
• Feeds are downloaded as files instead of displaying the data in the browser
• Feed are protected via Rights and Roles

1.4 User Management Improvement

• Deactivated users can not be assigned to roles, entities, feeds and schedules
• Entity migration page for all entity types including read-only and public entities

2. Data Model

• New measures and attributes for credit notes released

3. Data Sources, Interfaces and Data Transformation

• More extended validation of raw input from source system to identify data quality issues automatically
• Added a new Google Analytics interface without a snippet
• Added a self-onboarding process for Google Analytics
• PriceCostHistory may overwrite product cost of goods on SKU-Level
• Implement OfferHistory as an additional source for Original merchandise value

Other improvements

• Transaction Metrics Matrix contains credit note measures
• Clean session handling to prepare for zero downtime deployments and scalable app server infrastructure

New

1. minubo Suite

1.1 General Improvements

• We optimized the algorithm for the field search. A combination of search terms like "Disc" + "Merch" + "Val" will only return matches that include all search terms while still correcting for likely typos
• We changed the behavior of filters in the view mode of reports and queries. A user that is viewing an entity can now add, remove and edit filters in the view mode just like in the dashboards.
• Queries without a measure still return results for the attribute.

1.2 Explorer Improvements

• Entities and folders are created via one centralized button to clean up the user interface and prepare the unification of the currently tool-based explorers to a general minubo explorer.
• Users can now select multiple entities and folders in the explorer.
• users can only move and delete the entities that they have the right to edit as well to prevent messing up the folder structure of other users.
• There is a new right in the feature rights section "Entity Manager". Users with this right are allowed to manage (move, delete, edit) protected entities of other users as well.
• Added mouse-overs to explain the handling of protected entities.

1.3 Feed Configuration and Security

• Allow Feeds with point and comma decimal. Decimal values are escaped automatically when necessary due to delimiter.
• Feeds can have English or German language.
• Period column: Every feed with a comparison period or plan, is exported with a period column to mark the data series of each row (actual, comparison or plan). Optionally, the feed can be exported with the actual date ranges of the feed.
• Feeds With custom field names: To protect the feed against future name changes or to export the feed with own labels, the creator of the feed can define own labels for columns. (e.g. 'Income' instead of 'Revenue (OD)'.
• Feeds with different file formats (csv, json, HTML, XML) and configurable delimiter.
• Feed overview previews the selected security option.
• Feeds can be configured to allow external contacts (without minubo login) to access the data via a configurable password.

2. Data Model

• New measures and attributes for credit notes released

3. Data Sources, Interfaces and Data Transformation

• Added handling for cost prices in other currencies.
• Pixi tags can be configured to be written into many more minubo attributes now.
• The price cluster attribute is historized now and calculated based both on the offer data and the transactional data.

New

1. minubo Suite

1.1 General Improvements

• PDF documents of dashboards and reports will now represent the entity exactly how the user views it instead of how the entity is viewed.
• Top Seller Report PDFs display many more images of products now.

1.2 New Reports tool released

• We have released our new reports tool that replaces all existing static reports of minubo with a configurable and powerful tool
• The new tool allows users to create their own reports or adjust pre-configured templates of common reports of the commerce sector.
• We have migrated all existing report schedules from the old static reports to similar reports based on our new tool
• The old reports will be removed from minubo until the end of March.

1.3 New ad-hoc analysis tool Queries released in alpha

• We have developed a new ad-hoc analysis tool. So far it goes by the simple name Queries. ;)
• Queries is the successor to our previous Webpivot tool.
• Queries comes with different templates for ad hoc analysis of time series, tables or looking up huge data sets.
• It is still very similar to the dashboard widgets at the moment in terms of its feature set. However, it is our goal to optimize the tool further to speed up the required time and clicks for analyzing data on the fly.
• Already, we have added direct links to the Queries tool. These links allow viewers to further dive into data analysis from any part of the minubo application:
  • You can for example click on a dashboard widget or report and via one click the data query behind that widget is transferred to the queries tool to manipulate the query and to drill into further details.
  • Within the Queries tool we will soon also add the option to download or export the data of the query ad-hoc.

1.4 Announcement: New Feeds tool, Alpha release in March

• Another core benefit of the new Queries tool is that it unifies the feature set of the previous WebPivot and Feeds tool.
• Not only will this reduce redundancy in our tool portfolio but most importantly this carries important features over to the new feeds:
  • New feeds will support exporting with comparison period and plan data! Yes, you heard right. With the new feeds, you will no longer need to export large historical data sets to generate comparison period values in your Excel sheets. You can export the feed directly with the values of the comparison period and with your plan values.
  • Furthermore, you will be able to protect feeds better by selecting the individual users and external contacts with access to the feed.
  • Another important feature is that the feed creator can define the column names of the feed. By defining your own column names, data export is protected against any possible future name changes from our side and the columns can be made more identifiable for users that are not familiar with minubo terminology.

1.5 Announcement: New User Management tools, Alpha release in February

• We have developed the new version of our User Management. With the new User Management, important configuration around users, their permissions within minubo and handling of entities grows together into one place
  • The new User Management allows user admins to create, deactivate and reactivate user.
  • New: The user admin can renew invitations as well.
• Our new Data Access Roles, enable the user admin to configure the usage to attributes and measures for groups (roles) of users. For example, all users from the marketing team could be associated with a Data Access Role "Marketing":
  • This role would grant access to all attributes and measures which are important to the work of a marketing team.
  • All fields outside of the scope of work of a marketing team would not be allowed.
• Our new Feature Roles, enable the user admin to configure the usage of tools for groups of users. For example, the marketing team could be associated with a role "Marketing":
  • The Marketing Role would allow to access all the dashboards and reports that analysts have created but not to edit them permanently.
  • Another role, "Analyst" would have permission to editing dashboards and reports as well.
• With the new User Management, the admin can also define Functional Roles. Functional Roles associate a user with a function in their organization. Being assigned to a functional role means that certain attributes, measures and pre-defined default entities are more important to this group of users.
  • For now, the functional role determines which measures are displayed on the start page of each user and on his or her weekly insights page.
  • In the future, the functional role will help us select which fields and default entities will be offered to users.

2. Data Model

• The data model is being extended to incorporate Credit Notes as well.
• So far, credit notes were often imported by manipulating invoices or returns.
  • However, this approach had undesirable side effects or even falsified key performance indicators.
  • For example, an additional invoice with a negative value for a credit note would capture the monetary value correctly but inevitably increase the "Sales" by one.
• Instead, we are in the process of adding additional measures specific for credit notes to quantify their frequency, cause, and value.

3. Data Sources, Interfaces, and Data Transformation

• We added a basic interface to import data from ERP system Xentral
• We added a basic interface to import data from popular shop system Shopify
• We changed our ETL to allow for journeys with multiple conversions.
  • Previously, one journey was connected to one conversion alone.
  • Now, one journey may cause one or more conversions in case that a user transacts within one session multiple times.
  • This change does not alter your total number of conversions, visits or journeys but only improves the allocation of conversions/ transactions to marketing sources.

New

Product Update September

1. minubo Suite

1.1 General Improvements

• We improved our user interface for filters through several small changes:
  • Filter values can be removed via backspace
  • The list of suggested filter values is sorted now
  • You can paste in a list of filter values from spreadsheets or Excel to input multiple filter values at once
  • Enter confirms an input regardless of whether the value exists in the database (Enables users to filter on values that are not yet in the database or excluded temporarily.)
  • Selecting one option highlights the user input. This way, typing a new search term directly removes the previous search term. This behavior allows for easy multi-selection and individual selection of filter values.
• Dashboards
  • Returning from a widget detailview or widget edit page takes the user back to the position where the user left the previous page. (No more annoying jump to the top and scrolling down.)
  • More complete chart legends for widgets with two measures and plan and comparison values
• Bugs
  • Fixed some rendering issues with PDFs
  • Removed unnecessary line breaks in tooltips and list widgets
  • Axis steps corrected
  • Detailview tables rendering completely again
  • Fixed visual issues on ETL overview page
  • A filter with operator "contains" works with the filter value “@” again

1.3 Documentation

• We added the Transaction Metrics Table from the Commerce Reporting Standard into our application.
• Go To Help > Overview > Data > Model > Matrix of Transaction Metrics

1.4 Queries (Work in progress - not yet released)

• Added an alpha release announcement
• Fixed incorrect implementation of “Difference to Total” and “% Difference to Total” columns
• Added a new visualization for Time Series analysis
  • A Line Chart with a pivot table
  • Up to 5 Measures with comparison and plan values
  • With or without a breakdown attribute

2. Data Model

2.1 Measures/ Attributes

• New measures for Price Markdown and Price Markdown Rate in the product price history (offer data)
• New measures for Inventory Value by Original Merchandise Price and Merchandise Price.
  • Calculated based on offer data prices with a fall-back to product prices
• Bundle Items returns a float number now
• New Attribute Product Batch Number (on Sales Order Position)

3. Data Sources + ETL

3.1 Salesforce Commerce Cloud

• There is a new cartridge version, 3.9
• The new cartridge exports the Original Merchandise Price of an item from a specified pricebook of the SiteID on the transaction and thus enables the calculation of correct price markdowns per transaction!
• More configuration of the interface allows to specify price books for the product Original Merchandise Price and Merchandise Price (previously we picked one price book only by siteID)
• Cartridge exports more prices now for easier validation

3.2 Hashing

• Sensitive customer fields can be hashed individually instead of all or nothing.

New

Product Update August

1. minubo Suite

1.1 Reports

• Added copying of reports
• Added tracking of reports usage

1.2 General improvements

• We made some changes to the time picker to simplify the user interface and increase ease of use.

1.3 ETL Status Page

• The ETL status page is now available to all users and not only Admins

1.4 QueriesV3 (Work in Progress - not yet released)

• We added comparison period and plan values to the raw data table. First step to offer comparison and plan values in feeds as well.
• We added the analysis table for data analysis with two new columns “% Difference to Total” and “Difference to Total” for rates and averages.

1.5 User ManagementV3 (Work in Progress - not yet released)

• We are in the process of improving our user management to give power users more control about user and rights management.
• Added active users and external contacts management
• Added feature to renew an invitation.
• Added a configuration interface for Data Access Roles to define the attributes and measures a user has permission to work with.
• Added a configuration interface for Feature Access Roles to define the tools and features a user has permission to work with:
  • User A is only allowed to open the Dashboards tool but not any other tool.
  • User B has permission to create and edit feeds but all other users not.
  • User C has permission to add and modify schedules
• Feature Access Roles will first be available for all V3 tools (dashboards, reports and queries.) and later be extended to all other entities when these are migrated into our new framework.
• There will be more administrative permissions as to specify who is allowed to manage the user accounts or modify the data model of your tenant.
• Remember our Weekly Insights Pages? So far it was only possible to configure the weekly insights pages via our backend. Not surprisingly, the feature was not used extensively. We added an interface to create functional roles via the front-end and define your own default pages for all users.

2. Data Model

2.1 Direct Query Cache

• Every loading of a widget or report etc. generates a query on our database. Until now, we calculated each query independently. Now, we added a cache. Subsequent duplicate requests for data are answered from the cache. Repeat requests are answered from the cache (e.g. PDFs)
• Reports and Dashboards load much faster if multiple users open one entity
• Data Updates and changes to the query invalidate the cache

2.2 Measures and attributes

• We added a new measure to calculate the Avg. Time to Return From Invoice

3. Data Sources

• PIXI: Credit Notes added as additional positions on invoices

New

Product Update July

1. minubo Suite

1.1 Reports

• We started to implement our Data Access Roles for the Front-end and PDFs of Reports. This feature ensures each user only has access to the fields with permission (formerly called Rights and Roles).
  
• We introduced a preview feature for reports. While creating a report you can load a preview of the report. No more save and back to edit to check out the report in its current form.
• We improved rendering on small screens

1.2 Explorer

• The new explorer is available for the new reports V3 already
• We added a schedules area to manage all your email schedules in one place
• You can filter for active and inactive schedules and search for recipients in schedules
• We added a target time for all schedules (reports and dashboards). Specify a target time if you want to ensure that the mail is not sent out to your boss before you have seen the data first :)

1.3 ETL Status Page

• We added a new ETL overview page in the settings area
• The page gives information about today's and past data processing
• For each data, we display the earliest start time and latest end time of any data processings of that day. Therefore, one day-entry may therefore include multiple processings on that day.
• Important Note: The target time is up to your specification. However, be aware that earlier target times often require an earlier data provision as well.

1.4 QueriesV3 aka Web Pivot

• We are in the development of our successor to the Feeds and Webpivot tools based on our V3 framework. The name QueriesV3 is still preliminary. The tool will soon be released into a public alpha.
• We added a new view to the Query tool: The raw data table is designed for looking up many fields at once, just like the feed preview was used previously. The raw data table will be the basis for the feeds as well.

2. Data Model

2.1 Configurable Product Clusters

• Product Clusters are now fully configurable.
• A cluster can be based on products or SKUs
• The underlying measure of the clustering is configurable (example: Items Ordered, Items Sold or Items Sold Net)
• There are now configurable default thresholds for the cluster groups (example: <10:"Low", <20:"Medium", >20"High")
• It is also possible to specify thresholds per product categories (example: Items Ordered = 100 is low for trousers but high for shoes)

2.2 Measures and Attributes

• We have modified the historical inventory value measure to be based on historical cost prices in case these are delivered. If a product cost history is not delivered by your source system then the system falls back to the previous standard, the current cost price of a product.

3. Data Sources

• We started work on a Facebook and Instagram API. The API will integrate campaign performance data and spend into minubo.

New

At minubo we are currently working on two important topics in our suite, minubo Reports and the minubo Explorer.

minubo Reports

We are renewing the entire Reports section. We replace the static reports of the past with a flexible reporting tool. For all existing reports we offer preconfigured and customizable presets.

All “v3” features already known from the dashboards are available in the reports. That means:

• All measures, attributes, and filters are freely selectable.
• Time filters can be fully customized
• Comparisons with other periods and plan figures are just one click away.
• Automatic dispatch at the desired interval by email as PDF.

Release with four report layouts

• Top Seller: Define your own top lists for products, SKUs, brands or channels according to your own key figures.
• Table Report: Even more extensive tables than on the dashboards with up to 4 attributes and 5 key figures as well as with user-definable drill-down paths for the detailed view.
• Measure list: A list of up to 30 measures in the rows and one attribute in the columns. Use this layout to view the proportion of the most important key figures across the values of an attribute. For example, view all key figures from visits to net revenue across all sales channels.
• Measure list with several periods: A list of up to 30 measures in the rows and up to three periods with several comparison periods in the columns. Use this layout to track the development of your most important key figures over several time periods in parallel. For example, compare key figures for the current week to date with the previous week and the previous year together with the figures for the current year to date and the previous year. There are many more new features, but that is outside of the scope of this post. 🙂

minubo Explorer

We are replacing the existing tool-based Explorer bit by bit with a universal minubo entity Explorer.

• One Explorer for all minubo analyses and a freely definable folder structure with any depth allows teams to organize all their relevant files in one place in a common structure.
• Instant overview of all exports: Who gets what data, when and in what form.
• Intuitive navigation and fast file management in the Explorer via drag and drop.
• With the migration of the individual tools to our v3 framework we also release the new Explorer step by step in every part of the minubo suite.

We are positive to release the prototype of both features in the coming two to three weeks.

New

A glimpse at April's work:

Dashboards

• Deployed migration and released V3 Dashobards -> Hard phase of migration starts in 2 Weeks 12.05.2020!
• Temporary filters from dashboard now apply on widget detail view page as well
• Widget detail view can also be edited temporarily in view mode (in QA)
• Drill-Down on detail view now consistent with implementation on old Dashboards and extended for new product categories
• Mobile charts show all data in vertical orientation to use tables on mobile widgets
• When user leaves editing mode accidentally are now protected by a request to save
• Fix: Double Confirm of V3-page URLs fixed
• Fix: Column Charts fit entire time series data horizontally!

Store Monitor

• "Time to Date" periods now exclude Today to allow equal comparisons against last year

Feeds

• Added feed queuing to manage the amount of parallel feed requests
• Added feed caching to answer multiple requests of one feed from a cache
• Added one internal page for monitoring of feed requests

ETL + Data Model

• Deduplication now works over multiple interfaces
• Several marketing performance KPIs exist now based on Sales/ Net Sales as well. For example, Marketing Profit On Net Sales. A Datamodel setting needs to be actived to enable the measures
• Fixed: Assigned MarketingCosts ID missing Unassignable Costs part (not yet deployed)

Offer history

• Added history for Original Merchandise and Merchandise Price per SKU, plus Number of SKUs, Products and Avg. Prices over in Offer over time, Data Model Setting
• Next: We will add avg. price markdown and avg. profit rate

Explorer V3 Prototype

• Created first prototype for release of a V3 minubo explorer (to later unify entity explorers)

Reports V3 Prototype

• Implemented first prototypes for V3 reports to built the future minubo reports tool
• Added Table Report: Attributes and Measures
• Added Time Comparison Report: List of 30 measures and up to 3 time periods
• Added Attribute Comparison Report: List of 30 measures with one attribute (Special case of inverted table)
• More details when we push the prototype out to collect feedback and improve

Configurable Product Clusters

• Next: Our product clusters become configurable (define thresholds for percentage clusters + define cluster ranges for product category groups for absolute clusters)
• Next: Add new price clusters

Next: Colorful V3

• Multiple Colors for Breakdown Attribute Values
• Includes default colors for known fields
• Configurable colors for breakdown attribute values

New

We released a bunch of features to simplify the selection of the right measures and attributes for users.

Tags

• We added field tags. With field tags, the user can match minubo field names and company speech more easily.
• Tags can be configured per attribute and measure per tenant.
• For example, "Revenue (OD)" could be tagged with "Sales Return" if that was the associated term in the companies own vocabulary.
• Tags are only displayed for the search and selection of fields.

Favorites

• We added favorites to the field selection.
• Favorites support the user to find his own favorite measures and attributes most easily.
• Favorites can be defined by each user individually

Last Used

• We added last used fields to the field selection.
• Last used fields are defined per user and make it easier to apply the previously selected fields again

Tags, Favorites and Last Used are visible in the field selection in the minubo suite in all tools based on our new V3 framework

New

Downloading feeds is even faster now!

• Feed caching and queuing is a new technology that we implemented to further speed up feed downloads.
• First, all incoming feed requests are now organized in a queue instead of directly firing the query on the Data Warehouse. The queue helps to speed up the calculation of each query. The number of parallel queries can now be controlled optimally.
• Second, the data of a feed is now stored in a cache after the first calculation. All subsequent queries are answered from the cache. This procedure eliminates the time of calculation for all subsequent feed downloads.
• The cache resets at the latest after 48 hours. Alternatively, the cached results are deleted after the feed has been changed or the database has been updated.

Released: 22nd of April 2020