Siebel Energy Guide > Price Comparison in Siebel Energy > Process of Setting Up Price Comparison >

Setting Up Products for Rate Plans

To set up products, administrators must first set up classes to be associated with the products. For rate plans, classes describe the type of service, such as Electricity or Standard Electric Services.

As part of defining classes, administrators create attributes, such as Meter Type, that get inherited by the products associated with that class. They also define the list of values available to the end user for each attribute of the class.

After that, administrators create and define the root products that should belong to the new class. To the root product, they add subcomponents, which are the usage products.

For more information on class systems and products, see Product Administration Guide and Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications.

This task is a step in Process of Setting Up Price Comparison.

Attributes of Class Administration

Before proceeding with the procedures in this section, read this background information on the attributes of class administration.

In general, there are two categories of List of Values (LOVs) in Siebel applications:

• One type is used for setting up Dynamic Attributes, described as part of the procedures in this section.
• One type is used everywhere else in the application, including in the Price Comparison SmartScript.

Therefore, if you follow the procedure described in this section to set up a dynamic attribute in Class Administration for use in Price Comparison, you will probably want to do the following:

• Associate a List of Values to each dynamic attribute
• Make the LOVs represent the possible answers to a corresponding question about customer's billing details in the Price Comparison SmartScript.

Because of the different categories of LOVs in Siebel applications, you need to set up two different LOV types with the same set of values. The first one you set up here in Class Administration, while the other one you set up in the regular LOV administration (see Applications Administration Guide).

Out of the box, Siebel Energy has already set up the LOV types and values for two dynamic attributes: Meter Type and Payment Method. The corresponding LOV types used in the Price Comparison SmartScript are UT_METER_TYPE and PAYMENT_METHOD.

In addition, for Region and Usage Type, you do not need to set up the regular LOVs. This is because Region does not use LOVs (it uses a special BusComp to hold the possible values), and Usage Type is not exposed in the SmartScript questions at all.

To set up classes for rate plans

1. Navigate to Administration - Application > Class Administration.
2. In the Classes list, add a record.

   Typical class names are Electric Service, Gas Service, and Standard Electric Service.

3. Click the Dynamic Attributes view tab.
4. In the Dynamic Attributes list, add a record and do these steps:
   1. In the LOV Type field, click the select button.
   2. In the Pick List of Values Type dialog box, select an existing type or add a record for a new LOV type.
   3. In the Dynamic Attributes list, drill down on the LOV Type hyperlink.
   4. In the List of Values - Type list, add a record for each value that an end user can select for that LOV type.
5. Repeat Step 4 for each attribute you want to include.

   Typical examples include Meter Type, Payment Method, Region, and Usage Type.

NOTE:  There are special considerations when setting up dynamic attributes for use in the Price Comparison feature. To make sure you are setting up the dynamic attributes correctly, see Attributes of Class Administration.

To create root products for rate plans

1. Navigate to the Product Administration screen.
2. In the form, add a record. To access more fields, click the show more button in the upper-right corner of the form.
3. In the Class field, select the class you created for this service.
4. In the new record, complete the necessary fields.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Price Type	Displays the price type, such as Recurring (recommended for root product).
   Service Type	Displays the service type, such as Electricity or Gas.
   Type	Displays the type of product, such as Service.
   UoM	Displays the unit of measurement. Per Month is the only UoM supported for the standing charge.

To create usage products

• You must create the usage products before you can add them as subcomponents. Follow the procedure, To create root products for rate plans, with these differences:
  1. For Price Type, select Usage.
  2. For UoM, select the appropriate unit of measurement, such as kWh.

To set up usage products

1. Navigate to the Product Administration screen.
2. In the Products list, click the name of the root product.
3. Click the Customizable Product view tab.

   The Product form appears with the Lock/Unlock Product list and Versions list beneath it.

4. In the Lock/Unlock Product list, open the menu and select Create Workspace.
5. In the Lock/Unlock Product list, select Locked Flag.
6. From the lower Show drop-down list (beneath the Product form), select Product Designer.
7. In the Product Designer list, add a record and complete the necessary fields.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Default	Default number of instances of this product. Typically, this is the same as the maximum.
   Maximum	Maximum number of instances of the products that is allowed. This should equal the number of types of usage. For example, if rates for usage are split into peak, off peak, and threshold, the maximum should be set to 3.
   Minimum	Minimum number of instances of the products that is allowed.
   Product	Select an existing usage product.

8. From the lower Show drop-down list, select Product Versions.
9. In the Lock/Unlock Product list, open the menu and select Refresh Workspace.
10. Click Release New Version.