This chapter provides an overview of subscription management and discusses how to:
Set up subscription management.
Manage subscription products.
Subscription management enables order capture agents, reps, and managers to record orders and quotes and to perform service management against subscription based products and have these transactions fulfilled and billed.
Subscription management contains four major components:
Defining subscriptions.
Prior to offering subscriptions, pricing and product managers define the enterprise subscription business. This includes setting up subscription terms, schedules, subscription products, and subscription pricing. Order capture administrators set up order cancellation reason codes that are used to track cancellations in service management.
Recording customer subscriptions.
When customers and order capture users capture orders for subscription products, they have the ability to specify the length of the subscription and the installment-billing schedule. An installed service is created and used to track the new subscription.
Managing customer subscriptions.
Customers may wish to cancel, change, suspend, or resume a subscription that they previously established with the enterprise. Management of the subscriptions is simplified so that an order capture user can manage multiple subscriptions for a single customer within one transaction. If a customer cancels a subscription, the reason is tracked for better analysis of lost business. The installed service is updated to reflect the service management related change.
Billing customer subscriptions.
Customers are billed based on the subscriptions that they receive, the length of those subscriptions, and the interval that they have specified. Integration with the Transaction Billing Processor (TBP) is required for automatic billing; out of the box this is set up in core order capture, but not necessarily in the verticals since they assume a different billing integration.
To set up subscription management, use the Subscription Terms (PROD_SUBSCRIPT) component.
Successful implementation of subscription management functionality depends on several setup steps:
Define schedules.
Define the schedules that your enterprise offers customers for subscriptions. This is required setup to support the ability to take orders and quotes for subscriptions. Schedules leverage the existing billing schedule setup that is used in CRM Financials and Supply Chain Management. The data is maintained in CRM through a one-way synch with FIN/SCM.
See PeopleSoft Financials, Enterprise Service Automation and Supply Chain Management Application Fundamentals 9 PeopleBook, Defining Financials and Supply Chain Management Common Definitions
Define subscription terms.
Define reason codes.
Reason codes expand on the hold denial codes in the setup workbench. Reason codes use the Cancellation Reason type to denote cancellation reasons.
Activate the subscription hold.
For subscription products, the Order Capture Administrator activates subscription hold SUBSCR that is defined out of the box. This hold includes checks for:
Subscription start date that is past or missing.
Subscription term missing with subscription product on order.
Subscription schedule missing with subscription product on order.
Configure order capture business units.
The order capture administrator can configure subscriptions ordering for an Order Capture business unit. A default Schedule and Subscription term can be specified at the business-unit level.
Define subscription products.
The product manager defines subscription products that customers can order. This is required setup for the ability to take orders and quotes for subscriptions. The process uses a product type of Subscription and a display template for subscription products called PROD_DEFN_SUB. When the subscription is created, the UOM is automatically created as Each. When defining subscription products, do not use recurring pricing, frequency, duration fields, or service feature fields.
Packages can contain subscription products. Packages with subscription products should be priced at the component level only.
Since SCM static packages cannot contain any service type products, subscriptions are only included in lightly configured packages.
See Understanding Product, Pricing, Proration, and Catalogs.
Define subscription pricing.
The pricing manager defines pricing rules for subscription products using new pricing keys for schedule, subscription term, and subscription type product. The process follows the existing pricing rule setup procedures, with the new ability to define pricing rules based on the Schedule chosen by the customer, and by the length of the subscription term defined by the customer at time of placing an order or quote for the subscription product
Using the marketing application, you can define basic price rules using only the customer, product, and offer keys. Subscription management pricing keys are not accessible directly in the Marketing application. . If you need to edit a price rule that was created from marketing, you can use the Price Rule page to modify the condition to include additional price keys that could not be populated in marketing.
Note. Although you can use subscription products in promotions, you can not create promotions that include the subscription term as part of the promotion.
See Creating Price Rules.
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
Schedules |
SCHEDULE |
Set Up Financials/Supply Chain, Common Definitions, Calendars/Schedules, Schedules |
Create schedules for billing frequency. CRM allows another billing opportunity on the Account page with the One Time Payment feature available to the customer service representative. |
Subscription Terms |
SUBSCRIPT |
Products CRM, Subscription Terms |
Define the subscription terms offered for the product. |
Reason Codes |
RO_DEFN_HLD_DEN |
Set Up CRM, Product Related, Order Capture, Set Up Workbench, Reason Codes |
Define, for tracking purposes, the reasons that customers cancel subscriptions. |
Hold Codes |
RO_DEFN_HLD |
Set Up CRM, Product Related, Order Capture, Set Up Workbench, Hold Codes |
Activate subscription holds delivered by PeopleSoft. |
Order Capture Definition |
BUS_UNIT_RO1 |
Set Up CRM, Business Unit Related, Order Capture Definition, Internal |
Specify defaults in the business unit for subscription ordering. |
Product Definition |
PROD_DEFN |
Products CRM, Product Definition, Definition |
Define subscription products. |
Conditions |
EOEP_CONDITION |
Pricing Configuration, Price Rule, Conditions |
Define pricing rules for subscription products using pricing keys for schedule, subscription term, and subscription type product. |
Access the Subscription Terms page.
The term is used as the length of time for the subscription being ordered. It should be used in conjunction with the product list price to determine pricing for the subscription.
Duration |
Enter the number to apply to the duration frequency. |
Frequency |
Select the frequency to apply to the numeric duration, such as months or years. Combined with the Duration this determines the length of time for the subscription. |
This section provides an overview of subscription orders and discusses how to create a subscription order.
See Also
This table provides details on subscription order processes:
Process |
Detail |
Reference |
Browse and search catalog |
The flow for the order capture representative or self-service user browsing and searching the catalog is identical for subscription and non-subscription products. Subscription products must be configured to display in the internal catalog. |
See Catalog Setup. |
View submitted orders |
The flow for the order capture representative or self-service user viewing submitted orders is identical for subscription and non-subscription products. Subscription Term, Schedule, and Start Date are displayed as read-only. |
|
Create subscription quote |
The flow to create a subscription quote is the same as the flow for subscription orders. |
|
Convert subscription quote to order |
The flow for the order capture user converting subscription orders to quotes is identical for subscription and non-subscription products. Converted orders are placed on hold if the subscription start date is in the past. Self-service users can convert quotes created internally with subscription products to orders. |
|
Convert lead or opportunity to quote or order |
Sales users can capture leads and opportunities that contain subscription products. The lead or opportunity pages do not require Subscription Term or Schedule to be specified. The sales user creates a lead or opportunity adding subscription and non-subscription products to the proposal. When the sales user is ready to create an order or a quote, they do so from the Propose tab. The order or quote is created and the customer and product detail is copied. The subscription term, schedule, and start date must be specified prior to the quote or order being submitted. Orders and quotes with subscription products created from leads or opportunities are handled identically for subscription and non-subscription products. |
|
Create order through telemarketing |
Telemarketing users can create an order by populating products from a telemarketing branch script. Subscription products are supported through telemarketing, however the attributes of schedule, subscription term, and start date are populated on the order when the telemarketing user is transferred there. |
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
Add Order |
RO_FORM |
Orders and Quotes, Add Order |
Create a subscription order. |
Access the Order page.
Note. The discussion in this section focuses on fields specific to subscription management.
Fulfill By |
Select the start date for the subscription. The system populates the Start Date in the order line with this date. If the date is in the future, the order might be queued after it is submitted. If queued, the order is automatically submitted and fulfilled in the background at a later date. |
These fields appear only for subscription products. You can add subscription and non-subscription products to the same order.
Subscription Term |
Select the length of time the subscription will run. If you selected a default value for this business unit, the value will automatically appear. If no default is defined, or the default value from the business unit has become inactive, the subscription term is left blank on the order. |
Start Date and End Date |
The Start Date is populated from the Fulfill By field. The end date is calculated by adding the subscription term to the start date. The start or end dates cannot be manually overridden. |
Schedule |
Select the schedule for the bill payment frequency. If you selected a default value for this business unit, the value will automatically appear. One Time Charge is available for use with subscriptions. If no default is defined, or the default value from the business unit is inactive, the billing Schedule is left blank on the order. |
See Also
Working with Future Dated Orders and Temporary Services
This section provides an overview of subscription management and discusses manage subscriptions.
During the business process that is triggered upon submission of a subscription order , an installed service is created and the customer is billed.
This table provides details on the processes that are part of subscription management:
Process |
Details |
Reference |
Maintain subscriptions. |
Enterprise users manage subscriptions on behalf of the customer through service management. The enterprise user can make changes to, cancel, suspend, and resume existing customer subscriptions. |
|
Create installed service. |
An installed service is created for each subscription product entered on the order and the customer’s installed product history is updated. The installed service history of the creation and any changes that have been made to the service are visible. |
|
Maintain installed service. |
Installed service maintenance for single or multiple service management lines is handled through a business project. The installed service becomes inactive at the end of the customer’s term. To inactivate expired subscriptions, the system checks for installed services that have end dates in the past and cancels them. The customer’s installed service is updated for every subscription product that is maintained. and the installed product history is updated. |
|
Bill the customer. |
The system generates the customer’s bills based on the schedule and subscription term that are specified on the order. The system handles any updates that are required to the customer’s bill. For example, if the customer’s bill is impacted by changes that have been made to the installed subscription such as cancel, suspend, or resume, then a billing adjustment (debit or credit) is made for the customer. The billing process is handled through the business project interface to the Transaction Billing Processor (TBP). If a customer cancels a subscription that was not paid with a one time schedule, the system generates credit for any paid portion of the subscription that was not received by the customer and cancels any future bills. If a customer cancels a subscription that is paid with a one time schedule, no automatic credit is given. |
Page Name |
Object Name |
Navigation |
Usage |
Manage Service |
RO_FORM |
Service Management, Maintain Service, Manage Service |
Cancel, suspend, and resume existing customer subscriptions |
Manage Service |
RO_FORM |
Service Management, Maintain Service, View Service Management Order |
Search for any transactions to manage customer subscriptions. |
Access the Manage Service page.
Line Action |
Select a service management action. If you select Cancel, the Cancellation Reason drop down box appears. An End Date needs to be set to determine the date of the cancellation. Depending on business unit settings this date might be read only. Use the Fulfill By date in the order header, if the date automatically populated is not what you want. If you select Suspend Service, select a Fulfill By date to set the date of the suspension. Depending on business unit settings theStart Date may be read only. Use the Fulfill By date in the order header, if the date automatically populated is not what you want. If you select Resume Service, select a Fulfill By date to set the date of the resumption. Depending on business unit settings the Start Date may be read only. Use the Fulfill By date in the order header, if the date automatically populated is not what you want. |