Modules and Services Key Functionalities for Users Management

In this section, you will find an overview of the possible actions in each module and service as well as the dependencies you need to consider when setting access to a role or estimating the impact of the current module on other modules.

Modules described in this topic:

Services described in this topic:

User Management

In the User Management module, authorized users can set the security for access privileges within AOS.

The key functionalities of this module include:

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The Read permission is needed for System Configuration for Stations and Sales positions.

System Configuration

In the System Configuration module (formerly referred to as the Master Reference Data module (MRD)), authorized users can set the system, the modules, and the target presets.

System Configuration Tab

In the System Configuration section of this module, authorized users can configure collections of entities that will be referenced throughout the AOS application and the downstream modules. These entities are the building blocks for the system and include settings such as the establishment of periods that will be sold (Calendars), identification of Dayparts, and the creation of attributes such as Channel Groups, Line Classes, Order Types, and Ratecard types.

System Configuration is used primarily by System Administrators and API Manager roles. The user(s) assigned with these roles should be able to manage these entities carefully and take into account the impact of changes as they are wide.

Module Settings Tab

The Module Settings tab provides a section for each module where specific attribute defaults can be established for use within their respective modules. Some examples of this functionality are as follows:

  • Ability to define whether air times should be rounded within the Posting module.

  • Ability to establish the Deal workspace setting defaults such as % of RC method and whether the Price Constant should be based on Rate or CPM/CPP.

  • Ability to define whether Teaming should be allowed for within the Deal Module.

  • Ability to define whether or not the broadcast day boundary can be exceeded for a Product.

Targets & Custom Fields Tab

In the Targets and Custom Fields configuration screen, authorized users can create custom fields to be applied within the selected modules, as well as create templates for Digital Sales needs. 

These capabilities can allow for the configuration of complex combinations by mapping multiple settings into a single option to hide the intricacies of the production system data from Sales users, or for easy reuse of the same combinations.

Depending on their role, different users must have certain permission assigned for Targets and Custom Fields as follows:

  • Custom Fields – Create and Update permissions are only granted to System Administrators who need to define and set up Custom Fields in Admin. However, the Read permission is needed by almost every other service where Custom Fields are used.

  • Target Sets – Are reserved for future functionality and not in use.

  • Targeting Templates – The Update permission is needed by Administrators who set up the Targeting Templates that define which Digital Targets can be sold in Sales. The Read permission is needed by UPC, Sales, Ad Ops, and most other services when using Digital.

  • Target – The Update permission is needed by System Administrators who set up Targeting for Digital Products and Deals. The Read permission is needed by UPC, Sales, Ad Ops, and most other services when using Digital.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The AOS system allows for integrations with external traffic and sales automation systems including OnAir.

Master Data Management (MDM)

The key functionalities of the MDM module include:

  • Ability to create and maintenance of Advertisers, Agencies, and Brands.

  • Ability to enter contact details for Advertisers and Agencies.

  • Ability to assign Brands to Advertisers.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

Data within this module will be accessed and available within the Sales and Ratecard modules.

Products

The key functionalities of the Products module include:

  • Ability to create and update Products and select data coming from System Configuration and MRD. 

  • Ability to create, update, and delete Packages.

  • Ability to search Products/Packages by a template.

  • Ability to hide tabs in the Products module with the Read permission, for example, tenants or users that are not allowed to view Packages, don’t see the Packages tab.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

Data within this module is used downstream by most of the modules including Sales, Inventory, Ratecard, Orders, and Finance.

Books

The key functionalities of the Books module include:

  • Ability to provision Rating Data by Tenant / by Market.

    Ratings Data will be saved in a centralized Data Lake (because rating data is Tenant/User agnostic) and the Tenant will have to be provisioned as to what data they are allowed to access. The actual subscription to this data is outside of our control, but the data we receive because one Tenant subscribes must not be made available to a Tenant not subscribed to it with the data provider.

  • Ability to edit the rules that are used to create Books.

    Books are a collection of data that are based on the creation of a Book Header. While creating and removing a Book Header does not actually change the underlying data, it gives the user access to the data, and therefore must be provided only to Users / Roles that are at a Tenant that should have access to the data.

  • Ability to create the rules that are used to create Books.

    Rules are used to create Book Headers and to update the data and the calculations that are used when the User accesses the data from the books module. As these require the data from the Ratings Data Lake, the system must restrict these actions to Users / Roles that are at a Tenant that should have access to the data.

  • Ability to access Specialty Books (Sub-Surveys) to Tenants who have subscribed to them with the rating provider.

    Specialty Books (Sub-Surveys) are surveys that add additional ethnic and or socio-economic characteristics (e.g., Hispanic Viewers) to the traditional demographic definitions. These data represent a separate subscription level due to the rating provider and, therefore, must be restricted to Users / Roles that are at a Tenant that should have access to the data.

When assigning rights for roles related to Books, you must consider the followings:

  • The system must restrict access to books based on User / Role permissions. Books (Ratings Data) are accessible from various areas of the system, aside from having access to the data for specific markets and/or stations from within the Ratings Data Lake, the User / Role within a tenant that has access to Ratings Data must be restricted to seeing only those data (e.g., specific markets, stations, and/or Book Types) to which they are granted access.

  • Book Status Changes must be restricted to those Users/Roles that have sufficient rights. As changing the status of a Book makes it available for use inside and outside of the Books module, the system must restrict access to the function for changing the status of a book to those Users / Roles that have access to the function. For example, the Research Analyst (or team of Analysts) responsible for preparing books for one market, may not have the same authority over other markets. The system must restrict access to this action to those authorized to take it.

  • The system must restrict access to Rule creation/maintenance based on User/Role permissions. As with Status Changes, the system must restrict Users/Roles to creating and revising the Rules that are used to create and update the books, and for the same reason.

  • The system must restrict access to the Research functions based on user/role permissions.The Research screens are used to tweak Estimates and Projections based on a logic that cannot be easily programmed for as it is somewhat subjective. For this reason, the Research screens must be subject to access control as are the Book Maintenance functions and the Rule Maintenance function

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The following module dependencies must be considered for Books:

  • Sales - Downstream dependency. The Sales module uses Books to view delivery efficiency and to plan Proposals and Packages. Access to Published Books must be restricted to only those Users/Roles authorized to sell airtime based on the books in question.

  • Posting - Downstream dependency. Posting is done after the spots have aired to reconcile between the promised and achieved demographic delivery. The access to the Published Books used in Posting must be restricted to only those Users/Roles authorized to do this reconciliation based on the Books in question.

For users, the following restrictions must be considered:

  • The Account Executive, Account Managers, Pricing and Planning, and Sales Associates must be restricted to accessing Published Books for Markets they are authorized to see.

  • Research Super-User role for the Books and Research functions. There is a need for an administrative user within the Research and Books areas; this may be handled either as a specific Research Administrative role or via some other Super-User rights.

  • Base-User (non-privileged) Role for the Books and Research functions. There is a need for a 'non-privileged' access level within books. This user will have access to specifically allowed actions.

  • Supervisory (privileged) Role for the Books and Research functions. There is a need for a 'privileged' access level within books. This user will have access to all actions but may still be restricted to specific markets within the set to which the Tenant has access.

Note: Downstream access control to Books Data is expected to be implemented by the consuming module.

Ratecard

The Ratecard module is the AOS source of ratings and pricing data of a client’s product catalog where individual Ratecards are created and maintained by Pricing and Planning team members. The module allows users to create a set of prices for Products based on Rating data that can be associated downstream to Deal lines in the Sales module and displayed in the Deal Workspace.

The key functionalities of the Ratecard module include:

  • Ability to view, filter, and select a Ratecard to open and edit.

  • Ability to create new Ratecards.

  • Ability to perform certain actions such as copying a Ratecard, uploading Estimates files, publishing a Ratecard Header, and archiving Ratecards.

  • Ability to access the Universe Estimates (UE), where UE entities can be seen, edited, and created.

Dependencies and Integrations

Ratecards can also be created by integration with external modules such as OnAir and Profit using external APIs.

This module is dependent on the Sales and Product modules.

Inventory

The key functionalities of the Inventory module include:

  • Ability to view Product Inventory.

  • Ability to create Adjustments and Placeholders.

  • Ability to create Reserves.

  • Ability to view Units and Events for Products.

  • Provide inventory and availability to other services via APIs.

  • Category Avails - get real-time availability from the traffic system, for a given Industry Category considering clashing units, exclusivities, and other traffic rules.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

When setting the Inventory Users roles, the following permissions and conditions must be considered:

  • The Read permission must be assigned for Product Details and Product Chooser under Product.

  • The Read permission must be assigned for reference data under MRD.

  • The Read permission must be assigned for Deal Details, under Sales.

  • Get Planning Pressure via Kafka.

  • Get units and program data for Products and Events from the Schedule Log.

  • Get Advertisers, Brands and Category details from MDM.

Sales

In this area of AOS, authorized users can create Deals and maintain them through the various workflow statuses. Additionally, users can maintain pertinent Sales data, such as entry of goals and management of contact information for Advertisers and Agencies.

The key functionalities of the Sales module include:

  • Ability to enter a new or update a Deal for Linear, Digital, or both (Converged) for a variety of Plan Classes (including National, DR, Programmatic, and Promos).

  • Ability to create and manage Deal and Proposal Lines in the Workspace and update entries for impressions, rates, and units for Deals/Proposal Lines.

  • Ability to create a Revision.

  • Ability to link Deals to other Deals.

  • Ability to add and remove Products from Deals.

  • Ability to create and manage Deal and Proposal Lines in the Workspace.

  • Ability to enter goals and budgets based on dollars, impressions, or CPM.

  • Ability to add a new Advertiser or Agency Account, and add and update addresses and contacts on accounts.

  • Ability to add Constraints and Separations to a Deal to be used in addition to constraints and separations previously defined at the account level.

  • Ability to enter additional fees like on-unit/spot fees; addition of production charges, marketing fees, sponsorship appearance fees, etc.

  • The ability to update entries for impressions, rates, and units for Deals/Proposal Lines in the Deal Workspace.

  • The ability to refresh rates based on the latest Ratecard,

  • The ability to prorate Ratecard fees is reflected in the Deal Lines in the Workspace.

  • Ability to view the Task list.

  • Ability to access Books and Rates information.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

In addition to the Read permission to System Configuration – System Configuration entities, this module requires the Read permission for both Ratecard and Products.

Integrations with external traffic systems are available, including with Operative’s OnAir.

Orders

The main functionalities of the Orders module concerning user roles are:

  • Ability to generate Orders, Workstreams & Order Lines based on sales payload to ensure proper execution of digital lines.

  • Ability to edit or modify the details of the Order Lines.

  • Ability to handle incoming revisions from sales and accept or ignore the field level changes for Order Lines.

  • Ability to sync data to the external system w/ choice to create or link to existing records in the external system (Advertiser/Agency/Order)

  • Ability to manually associate external ads (Primary/Third party)

  • Ability to assign workstreams to a user.

  • Ability to manipulate the status of a workflow.

  • Ability to re-split order lines across workstreams.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The dependencies of the Orders module are:

  • Dependent on Sales to send and supply payload to generate artifacts.

  • Dependent on the Workflow Engine for status change and rules evaluation.

  • Dependent on Order configuration APIs to handle some of the items.

  • Dependent on the Integration Manager to do resolution and sync data externally and to respond.

Posting

The key functionalities of the Posting module include:

  • Ability to ingest Orders & Spots from external traffic systems.

  • Ability to edit or modify the details of the Spots, like assigning Dayparts, Programs, or changing rates and ratings.

  • Posting automatically assigns Books based on the predefined configuration.

  • Users can manually assign Books.

  • Posts can be duplicated for comparison with the latest updates.

  • Users can handle workflow statuses.

  • Posts can be grouped to manage performance for an Advertiser or Agency.

AOS doesn’t have a designated standard role for Posting. Only Account Executives and the team members from the Account Executive team for the Order are allowed to view the posts. When defining a Posting role, Update and Access permissions are required.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The information processed by the Posting module is dependent on other modules like Books, Master Reference Data, and Master Data Management.

Finance

The key functionalities of the Finance module include:

  • Ability to export to email and download.

  • Ability to export to an External System via S3 or S/FTP.

  • Ability to access and read actual Finance data.

  • Ability to Lock action.

  • Ability to unlock Locked invoices and set Lock Status to Prior Locked, which still prevents changes outside of manual edits in Finance.

  • Ability to unlock Locked invoices and set Lock Status to Reset, which allows changes based on delivery details and Sales changes.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

No other modules depend on Finance. Finance must have Read permissions from Sales, Master Reference Data, Master Data Management, Organization, and Product as well as need access Export/Template services. 

Reports

In the Reports module, users can configure and generate multiple types of reports. There are no specific permissions assigned within the module, therefore all users have access to the module at this time.

Current reports that are available within this module are:

  • Sales reports including Flowchart, Plan report and Sales Revenue report

  • Product Definition reports and Program Grids

  • Ratecard Report

Dependencies and/or integrations

No module is dependent on Reports.

Product Chooser (UPC)

The Product Chooser tool allows users to add Products and Packages from the Universal Product Catalog as new lines to the Deals. The Products displayed in the Product Chooser are based on the parameters of the Deal from which the Product Chooser is opened.

The Product Chooser presents Products available to sell for Digital and Linear Network & Local. These are dependent on the published products for dates selected on the Deal Header (Date Range), Channel(s) selected, AE Access (Access Groups), Ratecard(s) selected, and Availability Dates. If Access Groups are used, then the only products shown in the results grid, in the Product Chooser, will be published products that the logged-in user has access to - otherwise, if no Access Group are applied to products/packages, then all users will have access to those products.

Users with appropriate permissions can add Products and Packages to the Workspace. If products are presented, then access is granted to add products to Workspace.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The modules in the Product Chooser are dependent on Products, Inventory, and Ratecard.

Schedule Log

This module doesn’t have an interface and stores Traffic Spots from the external system. For example, when the external traffic system is OnAir, spots that are scheduled in the log, are fetched regularly via the Integration Manager to AOS.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The data retrieved in AOS is owned by the external traffic system. The Integration Manager and Agent are responsible to pass the data into the Schedule Log database. Sales roles, as well as Ratecard roles, will require read access to this service.  

System Notes and Attachments

Users can view and record notes and attach files to different entities in AOS. The attachments can be accessed from Notes and can be added to any node within a conversation. The attachments are limited by file size and protected against harmful files. When adding a note, it is also possible to tag users, teams, and even people outside AOS by using tags.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

Access to Notes is controlled separately within each module and screen that is using notes.

Each module that implemented Notes has its users. There are no Notes specific users.

System Export

The key functionalities of the Export service are:

  • In the Orders module, users can export a spreadsheet containing custom fields and targets in multiple columns.

  • When an export process is started from the Sales Workspace, the exported file can include advanced editing such as logos, merged cells, colors, etc.

  • Professional services can upload customized templates for tenants at runtime.

  • Users can produce XML output files.

  • In the Finance module, users can export a CSV file.

  • The ability for the tenant to choose to receive and download the file either from a link in an email, from the in-app notification, or both.

  • Ability to upload/delete templates for users that have a role that is configured with permissions to create/read/delete a template.

  • The ability to export is assigned to users according to their role in relation to the modules they are using, for example, Finance users can start an export process from the Finance module and not from Orders.

  • The ability to upload export templates to the template service is reserved for Professional Services and System administrators.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The Export service is implemented by each module. The output file is dependent on the payload from each module.

Audit

The key functionalities of the Audit service are:

  • The ability to access the audit service. Currently available (fully or partially) in User Management, Sales, Orders, Master Reference Data, Product, Ratecards, Master Data Management, Reports. Orders are in the process of implementation.

  • The ability to view every change in every object in AOS. Date filters are retrieved from the Date Range, the username is from a list, search in fields is free text.

  • Filter records by username, date, fields in the object. Viewability is on object level within the object - users have to access Sales & select a Deal, to see audit records for that Deal.

  • The Audit is view-only. At the moment, anyone with access to the URL can populate it with the appropriate parameters and can see audit data even if they do not have access to the data itself.

Dependencies and/or Integrations

The Audit is dependent on each module where it is housed. Collections must be whitelisted in User Management so the Audit teams can add them.