Affino 8.0.32 - the Dashboard and Insight Release

The Affino Dashboard and Insight Release introduces two new outstanding reports / dashboards to Affino. The first is the Analysis Dashboard which delivers best-in-class insight into the performance of your web sites and brands. Our research shows that Affino typically delivers between 30% and 90% more content and audience insight than 3rd party web analytics platform.

 

The second breakthrough is the Account Engagement Report. This is a breakthrough for Account based Sales, Marketing and Engagement Analysis. It provides outstanding levels of insight into how companies and organisations interact with your brands across your online, messaging, events, interests, and indeed any engagement metric (conversion events, logins, points) you wish to track.

 

Both the dashboards showcase Affino’s new Control Centre design framework, and are fully responsive, with light and dark modes, and outstanding presentation across all devices (and print).

 

We are also introducing Advanced Self Service Directory and Content Publishing. For the first time entire sites can now be fully self service, with the content contributed through easy to use display-side editing interfaces. Crucially Affino can surface this content through all the core content elements for dynamic, beautiful looking sites.

 

A key element in enhancing the content flows for self service content is the introduction of Category Topics, this is a new way of making one topic stand out above all others for each article, and allows the introduction of very flexible content types into Affino.

 

This release also sees major enhancements to subscriptions across the board, in what is possibly the biggest leap forward for corporate subscriptions and subscription automation in Affino.

 

Affino’s custom search capabilities have evolved greatly with the introduction of a new generation Scoped Search engine. It supports dozens of new customisable search options, including multi-select multi-tier filtering menus.

 

We have worked extensively to both optimise Affino, in particular around data storage and retention, with around half of all brands running on Affino maxing out their data service levels. This release frees up some of that data capacity, and crucially provides a new Data and Service screen so you can see and plan your data optimisation levels at any time.

 

This is unquestionably one of the most significant Affino updates for years, introducing many great new revenue stream options to Affino-based organisations, and greatly improves the insight and user experiences throughout Affino.

 

Given all the updates, some of which significantly impact on so many aspects of your brands on Affino, we strongly advise you to read through and take on board what this release brings to your teams and brands.

 

Key Enhancements

 

Analysis Dashboard v1

The Analysis Dashboard, is now officially released, following the extended Beta period. The Analysis Dashboard is a breakthrough in accurate website and audience engagement analytics, all on one seamless screen for easy access and review.

 

The Analysis Dashboard delivers on the critical need for organisations to have accurate 1st party insight on the audience and how it is interacting with your content. As 3rd party cookies come to an end, it is clear that most analytics platforms no longer accurately track a significant part of the audience and their interactions, resulting in significant losses in insight and potential revenues. The new Analysis Dashboard fills the insight and intelligence gap.

 

It combines an overview of the most important metrics for your site, and makes it easy to switch between multiple sites you might be running, changing the timeframes, whether they are fixed ones like week, month or year, or any custom timeframe that Affino has the data for. The Dashboard features Affino’s new design and layout engine, with light and dark modes, is fully responsive, great for PDF creation, and perfect for printing.

 

Over the extensive trial period these past few months, we have identified that Affino consistently captures more engagement data, more accurately, than any other web analytics platform the Affino community is using. We are seeing Affino consistently capture between 30% and 90% more insight than competing platforms, with Affino able to identify more (and more accurately) users, user sessions, page impressions and reads.

 

Having this intel at your fingertips for daily briefings is going to be key for editorial, events, marketing and commercial teams. 

 

The Stats and Insights featured on the dashboard are:

• Main Chart (daily for the selected date range)
• Users, New Users, Returning Users, Sessions, Avg. Session Duration, Bounce Rate, Page Views, Pages Per Session, Registration on Gate 1
• Key Stats (for timeframe)
• Users, New Users, Sessions, Avg. Session Duration, Bounce Rate, Page Views, Pages / Session, Reg on Gate 1
• Hourly Page Views (versus average for the day)
• Mobile v Desktop (60 days)
• New v Returning Visitors (60 days)
• Daily Page Views (for the week v average day views)
• Top Channels (for the period, up to 60 days, top 100)
• Ranking, Channel Name, Views, Unique Views, Avg Time on Page, Entrances, Exits
• Top Articles (for the period, up to 60 days, top 100)
• Ranking, Article Name, Views, Unique Views, Avg Time on Page, Entrances, Exits

Affino automatically captures and aggregates all the data, which is hosted on Affino’s core data cloud (as opposed to your database).

 

We encourage all organisations to embrace the dashboard in your daily editorial, product, sales, and marketing workflows.

 

Account Engagement Report v1

This release sees the introduction of Account Engagement Reports, a major step forward for account based sales and marketing. 

 

Each Account Engagement Report covers the breadth of interaction with each organisation across a host of criteria including:

• Account Header
• Analysis - this can be entered and shared on the report
• Key Stats - Total and Active Members, Points and Logins
• Top 10 Users
• Top 10 Authored Articles
• Recent Logins
• Display Views - trending chart and key impression, consumed and bookmarked stats
• Areas Accessed
• Engagement Points
• Top 10 Interests
• Events - including key stats on attendees, speakers, judges and award entries as well as the most recent attendees
• Messages - including most accessed messages
• Subscriptions - key stats on paid, free, assigned and unassigned subscriptions and most recent subscribers

The Account Engagement Report can be generated for one, three or twelve months and presented in light, dark and print modes for easy PDF generation. This means that it is fast and simple to generate each account report as needed, providing a powerful tool both for your own sales and marketing activities, as well as for account reporting purposes.

 

Each report looks great and benefits from Affino’s next generation design centre styling, and can be saved for future reference (this will eventually time out though to save on data). It is also possible on the CRM Profile to hide some columns from the report as they might detract value in some cases.

 

As well as creating the new Account Engagement Report, we have further refined the Accounts Report, to with more accurate and fully matching analytics to compare your account engagement. 

 

Next Generation Affino Reporting and Layout Engine v1

When it comes to delivering the new generation of Affino reports and dashboards we have gone back to the drawing board. We reviewed every component we used on both the report generation and data storage side in Affino, as well as how each element is styled, presented and laid out.

 

On the data side, for the new generation Analysis Dashboard only the initial data and activity processing happens on each Affino instance. The aggregated data is then sent to Affino’s new AWS based secure data cloud, and fetched on demand when the reports are generated. For the Account Engagement Dashboard Affino has refined how the data is captured, aggregated and the analysis generated, all without adding any additional data points. The reports themselves are then stored in lightweight JSON data packets.

 

For the display we migrated fully to open source for the charting, lists, wysiwyg editor, date lookups and other frameworks were needed. Each time reviewing all the leading options available today, and selecting those which had the best combination of quality, capability, and future proofing. For the design layout framework, we have reviewed multiple frameworks, but none quite fitted the brief so have developed our own new generation engine.

 

All the new screens, and ultimately the entire Affino Control Centre will be migrated to the new framework and be fully responsive, great looking on all devices, with light and dark modes to match your preference. It will take some time to roll this out fully but you will see it being used on key dashboards, reports, hubs and then fully rolled out over the coming months.

 

Advanced and Simple Directories v1

We have moved Affino’s self service content management forward a great deal in this release with the introduction of Advanced (Self Service) Directories and Advance (Self Service) Directory Articles / Products. For the first time it is possible to roll out entirely self service content sites on Affino, as opposed to self contained self service directories.

 

The Advanced Directory template supports a multi-tabbed display showcasing a tab for each content type (see Category Topics below). As well as all the meta data, social sharing, bookmarking, Topic Highlights and new detailed layout. For the first time Directory Entries and Products can, with the advanced version, have metering applied. This works with the core metering engine and means that all the self service content can be the basis for converting users to members and subscribers.

 

Advanced Directory Entries and Articles / Products can now flow throughout the site, and be fully featured in all article related design elements, including featuring them based on their Category Topic. This really opens up new self-service and managed-service business models where the community contributes fully the content for the site and you add value through managed services, prioritisation, insight, and lead generation.

 

Advanced Directories support multiple membership tiers, all of which can be fully defined, and which determine the number of articles which can be published in each tier as well as how many topics each directory entry and article can target. It is also easy to prioritise content for premium members where applicable. These are set on the Directory Profile.

 

There are many quality-of-life updates to managing Directory Entries, Products and Steps, including making the Control and Live management interfaces more consistent; additional checks and notifications when setting up and deleting profiles and much more.

 

Category Topics

This release sees the introduction of Category Topics. This is a nice enhancement which means that it is now possible to have one priority topic assigned to a host of content types. This topic can be highlighted independently from the others on the screen, and shares all the other capabilities already available through topics.

 

The following content types support Category Topics in this release: Advanced Directory, Simple Directory, Advanced Directory Product, Simple Directory Product, Advanced Event, Simple Event, Advanced Product, Simple Product, Advanced Article, Simple Article, Gallery Article, Feature Article, Feature Article 2 Columns, Review Article.

 

Category Topics have an additional dimension with Advanced Directory Products, which can now have multiple content types based on the Category Topic assigned, e.g. Article, Product, Case Study, Insight, News can all be Category Topics and can be used to flow content throughout the site using Topic Channels, Topic filters on DE’s, on Searches, and much more.

 

Subscription Auto and Semi-automatic Assignment

This release sees a completely new subscription assignment engine, which handles a host of new different subscription assignment scenarios. We have introduced an entirely new process for assigning subscriptions automatically and on-demand. The new approach is both more simple and more powerful, supporting the subscription assignment use-cases in a more robust and easy to use manner.

 

In essence there are now two ways in which subscriptions can be assigned, either automatically or on-demand. In the event that you wish the subscriptions to be rolled out as fast as possible to all users on the account you set them to be automatically assigned when setting them up on each account, or you can set them as on-demand.

 

The automatically assigned subscriptions will automatically be assigned to all the eligible account users in the CRMs, whereas the on-demand subscription means that only those users logging in are assigned subscriptions. By simplifying the auto-assignment into these two options Affino now resolves the complexity and issues previously experience by advanced corporate subscription users.

 

You will see the enhanced options for assigning Free (including closed circulation) and Paid subscriptions right from the Pro Formas through to Account management. Note also that for the auto and on-demand assignment you can now select the Zone(s) you wish them to apply to for multi-zone setups.

 

For free subscriptions which have the start and / or end dates amended on the Account, Affino will now update the free subscriptions already assigned to match the new dates. Separately Affino now automatically un-assigns any active subscription from archived users, and those who have been removed from an account, so that those can be re-assigned to other active account contacts.

 

This release builds on the IP address-based subscription assignment, with a login authentication layer. It is possible to both assign subscriptions via the user’s IP address, and also ensure that it is only applied if the user logs in on the IP address / IP address range, e.g. office / corporate VPN / University campus.

 

There are many use-cases for this, such as temporary access assignment e.g. a student can access in the library or on campus but not off; restricted corporate access when on corporate VPN; or simply ensuring short term assignment of memberships from a limited pool. Affino now continuously checks to see which subscriptions should be assigned and assigns them. It also makes sure that users are in the relevant security groups so that these can be used as the basis of sending automated mailers etc.

 

Subscription Overflow Alerts

This is a suite of new capabilities which mean it is now possible to notify account managers, key clients, and the end users themselves if there are insufficient subscriptions to assign to account users Essential for Account based subscription sales and retention. 

 

Simply select the users on each account which are to be notified in the event of an overage, and when additional team members sign up and there are no more subscriptions available to assign, the the relevant people will be notified. The Subscription Overflow Notification settings can be found on the Store Profile.

 

We have also added a new Conversion Event trigger for Subscription Overflow, which will alert the selected contacts of the overflow, sharing the details of the user, their Account and the Subscription Plan (and quantity). To manage this in bulk we have also added the fields to the Account Import and Export.

 

Scoped Searches

This release sees major improvements to Scoped Searches (tailored searches for any content section), indeed there are now dozens of different search combinations and we have introduced the ability to both single and multi-select the Topic filters as well as supporting two level Topic drop-downs for the first time. This all adds up to a significant extension in your ability to roll out tailored drill-down searches with far more granularity than was previously possible.

 

The search panel display has been rearchitected to support all the new features, in any combination across all devices. The Scoped Search management is now consolidated on a new Scoped Search settings panel on each Section, pulling together all the options.

 

If you have any scoped searches on your site(s) you will want to review them with all the great new options, and if you don’t, then definitely explore them to see how they can add to the user experience.

 

WebM Video Format

Affino now fully supports the WebM Video Format, as it is now fully supported natively by all the major web browsers and operating systems at this point. If you are sharing video directly through Affino then you will find that WebM is likely to provide similar quality to other video formats, with smaller file sizes, and faster downloads.

 

Data and Service Usage

We are adding a new Data and Service Usage screen in the Control Centre where you can at any point access the overall size (moved from the About screen) and largest data tables for your Affino database. In the future this will be extended to cover more aspects of Affino’s service so that you have visibility of your overall Affino usage and how it relates to your service tiers.

 

Affino continues to refine its data retention strategies with each release. We have it as a priority to only retain meaningful actionable insight, along with the key user, content and commercial data in Affino. On a minute by minute basis all activity data is aggregated where relevant, used to update status and interests, and anything beyond the essential is removed.

 

We also tightly optimise the compression of data and logs where it makes sense, and only store raw data in the database as opposed to files and media which are simply stored as flat files elsewhere. At the same time we continuously invest in providing more meaningful insight and supporting ever more types of content, coupled with every more insightful audience reporting.

 

This all adds up a highly complex data environment which can accumulate data where it is not adding maximum value. We have optimised two key areas in particular in this release: bot blocking logs and email logs. For bot blocking logs we now retain them for much shorter periods. This is because we have observed that most bot related issues arise within seven days of any interaction with a bot (indeed mostly the same hour / day). So we have considerably reduced the timeframe, but still retain all the data points. For email logs we have kept the same timeframe but reduced the data and meta data by over 90%, whilst still delivering the key analytics and insight.

 

For heavy email automation users, and those facing heavy bot DDoS onslaughts, this adds up to some useful data optimisation.

 

Unused Content Report v2

Keeping unused ‘dark data’ has a real cost in terms of ongoing investment and is an increasing factor in energy use and climate change. We are committed at Affino to support you with minimising your data footprint and the updated Unused Content report flags all the Channels, Sections and articles which have not been viewed within a timeframe.

 

This release sees significant updates to the report, which a much more detailed view on each type of content, highlighting not just what Channel or Section has no views, but how many sub-sections and articles are in them and when they were last updated. For Articles Affino now displays more intel on not just the sections they are in, but also those they are multi-displayed to. 

 

Crucially Affino now provides Exports with the Codes for each Channel, Section and Item. Each report can be exported in Excel for bulk auditing and deletion preparation.

 

Upgrade Guidance

 

If you have a Staging site, we recommend updating to this release and testing thoroughly prior to updating your main Affino instance. Note that all active scheduled tasks are wiped when you update the site so make sure that any required ones are completed prior to running the update.

 

It is important to liaise with the support team to schedule in an update window where they can be on hand to support with the update. It is essential that you run through the complete update process starting with the Affino Updater, followed by the sequence of the system and design updates laid out on the Control > Update screen.

 

This release sees significant platform compatibility updates, and is running on a number of updated underlying services, so will require solid testing. There have been a number of security updates on Affino’s infrastructure recently which have required significant code updates in Affino as a result. It has been thoroughly tested, but the nature of such a broad release means we recommend thorough testing on Staging before updating your live site(s).

 

To see the current list of Beta elements you can simply navigate to them on the Support menu to see which Affino elements are in official beta and not yet fully live.

 

Other Enhancements

 

Ad Campaigns - renamed from Campaigns to avoid any confusion with Message Campaigns. All Ad Campaign related elements and help have been updated accordingly. Note that if you have bookmarked yourdomain.com/control/campaigns it is now yourdomain.com/control/ad-campaigns the same goes for the themes, and all related Ad Campaign screens.

 

Account Export - added Last Touch From and To, along with Last Updated From and To filters to the Account Export, and added LastTouch to the Account Export file itself.

 

Accounts Report - we have added validation when setting up the Accounts Report on the CRM Profile to ensure that you have most data rich and consistent experience. The Accounts Report data sets have also been updated significantly so that they are consistent with the new Account Engagement Report. The Payment Status filter is now enhanced to be a multi-selector.

 

Articles - Send Via Content / Interest Subscription is no longer default selected when creating articles, this is because typically articles go through some iterations before making live. Ensure you select the setting prior to making the article live. We have added Character Counts to the Page Title and Page Description fields to support with SEO optimisation. Affino also provides guidance on the number of characters on each.

 

Batch References - Affino now enforces unique batch reference codes. Previously it had been possible (as a feature) to have the same batch reference on multiple imports so it would be possible to delete all at the same time, however it is clear that enforcing unique references is the better way to go to minimise any issues.

 

Checkout - as with every release, there are a number of user experience enhancements on the checkout in this release. We have also added further display options including whether or not to display the Catalogue ID. New option on whether or not to send a Renewal receipt (a much requested feature).

 

Contact - Affino now prominently displays if a user has a Bounced Email in the main contact panel, as this affects all notifications for the user.

 

Contact Lists - it is now no longer possible to delete Contact Lists which are assigned to Messages and Message Campaigns. This is to prevent potentially major issues when Contact Lists are inadvertently removed from automated message campaigns, which could result in all CRM users being sent a message under the most extreme use-case. Note that Affino displays the messages and message campaign that the contact list is associated with and that association can be removed if you still wish to go on and delete the contact list.

 

Control Centre - Key Feature and Video links have been restored on each main Control Centre screen, and now point to Affino’s Help Centre on Affino.com.

 

Conversion Events - this release sees the introduction of an Inactive User conversion event trigger. The event is triggered for each user as their last activity (last touch) passes the timeframe set on the Inactivity setting. We have also added a Cancelled Subscription (display side) trigger. This means that it is possible to set in place automated retention for disengaged users beyond those who have subscriptions.

 

CRM Profile - we have added a host of defaults for the Engagement Report to ensure it looks great from the outset.

 

Coupons - we have steadily improved on, and fixed a number of issues with Coupons. The issues were quite complex and optimised for some sales workflows at the expense of others, so needed extensive updates throughout. This release sees all known issues with coupons fully resolved. 

 

Currency (Default) - it is now possible to change the primary store reporting currency simply by editing the Primary Currency on the Store Profile. Note that this is separate from the default Display Currency which is set directly on the Currencies.

 

Deferred Income - the Deferred Income report is now fully multi-currency. We have also added the year to the report description for easier review. This means that all subscription related financial reports are now fully multi-currency.

 

Directory Entry & Directory Product - renamed to Simple Directory Entry and Simple Directory Product

 

Editions - added further meta data to Editions, including the Author (creator), with their optional avatar and profile link.

 

Feature Article & Feature Article 2 Column - now supports Text 5 for richer content pages.

 

Free Subscriptions - when a user is removed from a mailing list with a free subscription plan associated, then Affino now updates the subscription to match the subscription end date with the date the user is removed from the mailing list.

 

Imports - a great new usability enhancement is that each Import notification now includes not just the time if finished processing but also the file name and batch reference. This will greatly help when running multiple imports.

 

Mailing List DE - it is now possible to have a custom Mailing List Name on the DE

 

Media Items - Affino now displays the total number of downloads for each media item on the Media Item Detail audit panel. This data was already in place, so will be accurate from the outset.

 

Messaging - this release sees the introduction of an updated email send engine which resolves all known issues.

 

Message Campaigns - new Exclude Security Groups option on Message Campaigns greatly simplifies excluding specific member groups from automated message and marketing campaigns.

 

Postcode / PAF Lookup - you will see new postcode lookup settings, these are in place in preparation for the upcoming Affino release and only the settings are in place at this point.

 

Referral Analysis - exports updated to new export engine supporting multiple export formats

 

Registration - the registration acknowledgement is enhanced to support multi-zone links, so that the same message can be displayed on multiple zones and link to the relevant channel, note that the channels on each zone should have the same URL structure, e.g. /welcome /products etc. The Demographic questions on the Demographic Step of the Registration can now each be secured with a Security Clearance. This means you can implement far more nuanced registration and profile updating workflows with focused data capture based on each user’s membership level.

 

Subscriptions - we have enhanced the subscription audit to display the reasons why a user might have been unassigned form a subscription. These include: manual un-assigning (and by whom), leaving the account, being archived, or indeed by having their user record deleted (and by whom). Affino now also logs and the history of the subscription changes on the audit panel. We have added the Customer on Subscription listings in the Control Centre, on the main subscription listing, the detail view and on the Digital Assets for each contact. We have updated the Subscription Renewal bar to display 14 days in advance of a renewal as opposed to 7 days as was previously the case.

 

We have added a new Do Not Dispatch flag on each subscription (and on the Order Import / Subscriber Export / Subscription Export). This is for subscribers who have advanced subscriptions but do not wish to receive physical (i.e. print) products. Note that this flag can be carried forward to renewals (new setting on the CRM Profile). New option to suppress sending email receipt for renewal subscription orders (i.e. the user’s subscription is simply renewed on an auto-renewing subscription without notifying them).

 

Subscription Member Report - now uses the Commerce system security right (as opposed to Finance)

 

Subscriptions Volume Report - renamed to Subscription Volume Report for consistency, you will need to update any bookmarks to match.

 

Two Factor Authentication - you will see more settings relating to two factor authentication which is due in an upcoming release. Note that at this point only the settings are in place.

 

Update > Update Internal Links v1 - it is now possible to update all the internal links on imported content post-import. This is crucial as frequently newer content is imported before the older content during the import process, meaning that many / most links will need re-indexing to be corrected to the new Affino URLs.

 

User Export - added Last Touch column alongside the LastLogin column. An essential upgrade to best support GDPR compliance and best practice data retention policies.

 

Fixes and Minor Enhancements

 

Fixes are elements which didn’t work as well as they should, and have now been made to work better. Minor enhancements provide subtle improvements that most people won’t notice (some will love), but which nonetheless improve on the overall Affino experience.

 

Account (editing, page analysis)

 

Accounts Report (generation)

 

Ad Creatives (fixed issue with clicks not being counted when ads are in messages)

 

Articles (edit)

 

Article Highlights DE (image alignment)

 

Article Import 

 

Articles Report (timeframe based data fixes)

 

Bookmarking Icons (shared design classes top and bottom, my library popup)

 

Campaign Analysis (fixed Zone filtering issue)

 

Checkout (address editing, value rounding issues)

 

Comments & Ratings (stars)

 

Contacts (search)

 

Content Type (updated help to provide clarity)

 

Control Favourites (ad campaign searches)

 

Conversion Events (faster notifications, terms and conditions trigger with redirect, guest users no longer trigger login event)

 

Coupons (now checks the payment status when determining how to apply Maximum Uses to each basket / checkout / purchase)

 

Design Menus (further refinements)

 

Directory (unique screen names)

 

Dynamic Forms (multi-display URLs)

 

Ecard (preview)

 

Forums (reduced the sensitivity on the tag blocking on forum content, improved code support in the wysiwyg editor, unsetting an answer)

 

Media (download terms and conditions, listing formatting on images)

 

Messages, Message Report, Message Analysis (open rate consistency improvements, message line breaks, topic formatting in Outlook)

 

Message Campaign (deletion)

 

Message Send (fully resolved all issues around duplicate / non-message sends)

 

OAuth Account Profile (creation, note only for custom integrations)

 

Pro Forma (order creation)

 

Product Search (sort)

 

Redirect Imports (now notify duplicates)

 

Remember Login (ticking / unticking)

 

Scoped Search (sort order)

 

Section Listing (control Type filter)

 

Security (optimised security function)

 

Site Search

 

Spacing (improved on Promo, Directory, Video and Product listings.

 

Share Icons (shared design classes top and bottom)

 

Store Profile (changing Primary Currency)

 

Subscription Export (incorrect record processing shown, no longer includes un-assigned subs)

 

Order (assigned)

 

Pro Forma (improved subscriber copying from previous orders)

 

Terms and Conditions (updated deletion alert)

 

User Import (ExternalAccountID, no longer creates free subscription if a free / paid one already exists for the same timeframe)

 

User Security (security group assignment)

 

Removed

 

The following elements were removed from Affino in this release:

 

Removed a number of redundant data tables

 

Integration Updates

 

The following integrations were updated in this release.

 

Stripe - important updates to better handle 3D secure payments in Stripe

 

Apple Pay - updated integration to better support Apple Pay

 

Google Pay - updated integration to better support Google Pay

 

Component Changes

 

Affino benefits from using some great frameworks, here are the updates we’ve rolled out for these frameworks in this release:

 

Chart JS updated to - no change

 

DataTables updated to - no change

 

DropzoneJS updated to - no change

 

flatpickr updated to - no change

 

FontAwesome updated to - no change

 

HighCharts updated to - no change 

 

JQuery updated to - no change

 

JQueryUI updated to - no change

 

TinyMCE updated to - no change

 

Video.js updated to - no change