Find Events
Use the wizard to search through historical data for periods of time that represent anomalies and use this information to build accurate forecast scenarios.
An example of an anomaly that the Find Events Wizard could locate in the historical data would be something like this: Imagine that the AHT on May 24, 2008, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. was 500% higher than on the historical norm for those hours.
Finding events
To open the Find Events dialog:
- Start at the Historical Data Volumes view.
- Click Find Events in the toolbar or select Find Events from the Actions menu.
- Use these controls to define the search:
Search radio buttons | Define the search metrics.
Select IV to search for events that affected Interaction Volume. |
Search using granularity radio buttons |
Define the search increments.
Select Daily to search through daily data. |
Start date and End date fields |
Define the search limits.
Enter or select a Start date and an End date. |
Threshold (%) field | Define the search criteria.
Enter or select the percentage of deviation from historical data, that would identify the event you want to locate. Range: A positive integer less than 1000. For example, you would enter 500 to search for an anomaly that is at least 500% of normal. |
Running the wizard
- Define the search using the controls described above.
- Click Find Events (or click Cancel to abandon the search).
- A new tab in the right-hand portion of the window displays these items:
- a Possible Events list
- the Create Overlay and Create Event buttons
- an Existing Events list
- Select an item in the Possible Events list.
- The Create Overlay and Create Event buttons are enabled.
- All Overlay/Event items that occur within the date range of the selected Possible Event are displayed in the Existing Events list.
- Now you can create an overlay (and the event that it must contain) or create an event (and select the existing overlay that must contain it).
- Choose one of two options:
- Click Create Overlay to open the New Overlay Wizard, where you create a new overlay and specify its event’s parameters in the New Event page.
- Click Create Event to open the New Event page, where you select an existing overlay and set the event’s parameters.
Viewing the existing events
When you are finished, the wizard or page closes and the newly created overlay/event will appear in the Existing Events list, if its Impact Start Date/Time occurs within the date range of the selected Possible Event.
Otherwise, the overlay/event exists, but it is not displayed.
New events
The New Event page opens from the Find Events screen when you click the Create Overlay button (as the final page of the Create New Overlay Wizard) or the Create Event button.
- Select the appropriate settings on this page, remembering that some selections may deselect others.
- Click Next.
- The settings on this page are:
- Event Name field—Letters, numbers, and symbols are all acceptable in this field. If you enter the name of an existing event, this new event will overwrite it.
- Impact Start Date spinner—Enter or select the future date that the event is to start.
- Impact Start Date spinner—Enter or select the time that the event is to start, on the date you specified in the Impact Start Date field.
- Strength field—Enter the strength of the event. The range is any positive value (greater than 0), up to nine digits and two decimals.
- Disregard Historical Data check box—Select this check box if the event should disregard historical data. Clear the check box to consider historical data. See Impact on Historical Data in the "Overlays Primer" topic.