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Strategies for Design of Pricing Factors and Decision Flow Logic

You can switch between the Pricing Factor Designer and the Pricing Factor Flow Chart Designer:

• When you create a pricing factor in the Pricing Factor Designer, it appears in the Pricing Factor Flow Chart Designer, so you can incorporate it into the decision flow.
• You can double-click on the icon for a pricing factor in the Pricing Factor Flow Chart Designer to display the Pricing Factor Designer and Pricing Factor form for that pricing factor, so you can modify it.

This connection between the Pricing Factor Designer and the Pricing Factor Flow Chart Designer allows you to use either a top-down or bottom-up approach to the developing pricing factors and pricing model decision flows.

• The top-down approach. Begin with a general view of the pricing factors and decision flow logic in a pricing model, and then work out the details of each pricing factor. To use this approach, begin by working in the Pricing Factor Flow Chart Designer, which allows you to create pricing factors and put them in the proper place in the logical path. Use these simple pricing factors as placeholders as you work on the decision flow logic model, and return to them later to design them in detail.
• The bottom-up approach. Begin by creating individual pricing factors, and then work out their decision flow logic. For example, if you are creating a complex pricing factors, you may want to work out all their details before you fit them into the decision flow logic. To use this approach, begin by working in the Pricing Factor Designer. After you have defined pricing factors, icons representing them appear in the Pricing Factor Flow Chart Designer. You can drag it into the proper position in the logical path of the decision flow, and integrate a new or modified pricing factor into the pricing model by rearranging the connectors to and from the factor.

As a general rule, a bottom-up approach is more suitable if you are new to Siebel ePricer.

Whichever approach you use, you should define single pricing factors first (Single, Matrix-based, or Script-based type factors), and then arrange them into the single factor decision flow path (the path that begins with the Start symbol). After testing and validating this decision flow path, develop Bundling and Aggregate type factors, and arrange them in the aggregate factor decision flow path (the path that begins with the Aggregate Start symbol).

Before you work on the aggregate factor decision flow, the single factor decision flow logic should be stabilized, because the results of the single factor decision flow determine the starting prices for the aggregate factor decision flow.