How do I add a new hierarchy?

Note: This function is typically managed by your Blue Ops representatives. 

Hierarchies are a helpful tool to layer in summarization over the detailed core fields in the dataset such as customer, SKU / item, project, service, ship-to-zip, etc. A few common examples have been included below. 

• Parent Customer: cleanup or summarization of the underlying customers into a 'Parent Customer' level. For example, in the base data you might have Walmart listed out by the specific store locations (Walmart #100, Walmart #104, etc.), but when looking at top customers you would like these rolled up into a single parent customer, 'Walmart'.
• Ship to Geography: If the business includes an e-commerce or shipping component it may be helpful to understand where the Company's customer base is concentrated and/or opportunities to expand into untapped locations. Lets say in the core dataset there is a ship to zip code. You might add city, state, and/or region on top of that zip code to understand this data.
• Product Category / Service Line Mapping: Often times it's helpful to categorize underlying products or services into their respective categories or product/service lines. (e.g. using a food and beverage company as an example, 'hot dog buns' and 'hamburger buns' likely exist as separate SKUs, but would roll up to a single product category such as 'Bakery'.

If you haven't already, please check out the following article for a more in-depth overview on the topic of a 'Hierarchy'.

Adding a new Hierarchy

Within Diligent, navigate to the 'Manage' tab and then select 'Hierarchy.' 

Here you will see all of your current hierarchies, as well as the specific information they contain (Levels, Elements, etc.). To add a new hierarchy, click 'Add Hierarchy' in the bottom right corner, as outlined below. 

Next you will be brought to the screen below. Step one is to choose your hierarchy type. This is asking what field from the dataset you want your hierarchy to be based off of. In the example below, we are going to add 'channel' mapping over customer. Once you have selected your hierarchy type, given your hierarchy a name. In this case we named the hierarchy 'Channel'. The third step is to select the options defined at the right. Additional detail on what these selections mean has been included below. Last, click save and your hierarchy will be created.

Security / Availability Options for new hierarchies:

1. Enable Security: If checked, it allows you to assign permissions to individual users or groups in order to limit access for use in the Cubes. If left unchecked, it is available to all users. Example: Say you only want a user or group to be able to analyze data about a specific Region or a certain Company. You would enable security on the Hierarchy that observes Region or Company.
2. Available in Cube: If checked, allows the Hierarchy to show up in the Excel Cube files for analysis. Leaving unchecked is a good way to develop a Hierarchy prior to exposing it into the Cubes for broad consumption to your users.
3. Company Attribute: Rarely used, but can be useful in certain circumstances. Select this for Hierarchies that will only ever need a single level. Example: Color will likely only ever need a single level beneath it, like Blue, Red, White, Yellow, etc. Same with Flavor (Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, etc.).  
4. Available in Reports Filters: Allows for the addition of this new Hierarchy into existing Reports.
5. Enable Report Category: Use this Hierarchy to create a new set of Reports.
6. Element Display Options: For certain Hierarchies, such as the Profitability/Operational Account Hierarchy, the ID and Description can be the same. The Element Display options allow you to choose how the leaf level data is displayed for that specific Hierarchy. 

Customizing the New Hierarchy 

After you have clicked 'Save' at the bottom, you now have different customization options at the top of your screen.  This is where you can add the different levels of summarization off of the field you selected for your hierarchy. Following the same example above, we are just going to add one level (see below) that we can use to map each customer to a respective channel.

Levels: 

You have the option to add additional levels and modify the naming of the levels with the three dots under the 'Actions' header. The hierarchy levels will go from highest level of summarization (e.g. 1) to most granular (e.g. 6). You have the option to add up to 10 levels. 

NOTE: if you rename an existing hierarchy level this will cause the field to drop out of any data cuts, reports, analysis that are currently utilizing this field. Upon cube refresh, the software looks for the name of the original field. When it can't find it, it will remove it from your pivot table field list and the newly renamed field will need to be re-added

Mapping using export/upload function: 

Within Export/Upload is where you can actually perform your mapping / summarization. Once navigating to this section you will want to select export within the drop down shown below. This will export an excel file with the newly added levels all tagged as "Unassigned".

The export should look similar to the below screenshot.  The original download will have all line items populated as 'Unassigned' for new levels initially (step 1). Next, simply type or lookup the value you wish to populate within your new levels (step 2). Once you have completed the mapping upload the file directly from Excel. To do this, navigate to the 'EBM Office Bridge' ribbon within Excel and choose 'Upload.'

If the file times out and is too big to load directly from Excel, an alternative solution is to load through the File Upload Center. 

Other Relevant Links: 

Adding levels to an existing hierarchy

Missing Hierarchy in Excel Cube

Missing Hierarchy in PivotTable Fields

Diligent Glossary