Siebel Interactive Selling Applications Upgrade Guide > Upgrading to ePricer Version 7 >

Overview of Upgrading to ePricer Version 7

All of the product structures, price lists, pricing models, and price factors associated with ePricer will upgrade automatically as part of the standard Siebel upgrade process. However, because of the value of the new features offered in ePricer version 7, you may want to consider restructuring select parts of your implementation in order to make best use of ePricer version 7.

For instance, you may want to consider restructuring certain data and rules if you have the following requirements:

Bundling

In ePricer version 6.x, you may have used script-based factors to bundle products. Now that ePricer version 7 offers bundle type factors, you may want to replace these script-based factors with actual bundle type factors since the bundle type factors are easier to administer and will likely improve performance.

Customizable Product Pricing (BOMs)

In earlier versions of Siebel, you likely used a combination of Siebel ePricer script-based factors and Siebel eConfigurator to create sales BOMs. Now that sales BOMs can be constructed using Siebel eConfigurator's customizable product structure, and the associated pricing can be defined in ePricer, you may want to consider replacing the approach used in Release 6.x with the improved structure offered in Siebel 7. The customizable product pricing offered in Siebel 7 allows for easier administration and maintenance than script-based factors. It is also more dynamic, allowing the bundle's price to be determined in multiple ways.

Compound Rules

In ePricer version 6.x, you may have used script-based factors or mapping definitions to create something similar to compound rules. Because compound rules are constructed in ePricer version 7, you may want to use the new compound rule functionality.

Attribute-Based Pricing and Product Structure

In ePricer version 6.x, you may have maintained multiple product permutations on a price list in order to represent how the price of a product may differ with the selected attributes of that product. However, in Siebel 7, the product classification system allows you to maintain products more efficiently, associating attributes to product definition. Using ePricer version 7, these product attributes can then be associated with pricing adjustments, eliminating the need to instantiate each product-attribute combination as an item on the price list. You may find it beneficial to restructure your product definitions and price lists to make use of this new structure.

Matrix-Based Pricing

In ePricer version 6.x, you may have used mapping definitions to provide functionality similar to matrix-based pricing. These mapping definitions can be used in ePricer version 7 as well. However, if you have used mapping definitions extensively, you may want to consider using matrix-based pricing instead as this will improve performance and may be easier to administer.

Controlling the Sequencing and Flow of Pricing Rules

In ePricer version 6.x, only sequencing of pricing rules was available. However, in ePricer version 7, the rule flow can be laid out using Decision Flow, which allows rule skipping, exiting and sequencing. Decision Flow provides more control over pricing and it helps improve performance.

Contracts

You may want to consider translating your account-specific pricing rules (for example, "If account = AK Parker, give 10% off") to Contracts in ePricer version 7, if contract-based pricing is part of your business process.


 Siebel Interactive Selling Applications Upgrade Guide 
 Published: 18 April 2003