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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 belong to the new class. To the root product, they add subcomponents, which are the usage products. For more information about classes and products, see Siebel Product Administration Guide and Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Communications.

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

Attributes of Class Administration

Before proceeding with the procedures in this topic, review this background information about the attributes of class administration.

In general, Siebel applications have the following two categories of List of Values (LOVs):

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

Therefore, if you follow the procedure in this topic to set up a dynamic attribute in Class Administration for use in Price Comparison, then you might 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 must set up two different LOV types with the same set of values. The first one you set up in Class Administration, while the other one you set up in the regular LOV administration. For more information, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.

Siebel Energy is set up with 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 have to set up the regular LOVs because Region does not use LOVs (it uses a special BusComp to hold the possible values), and Usage Type does not appear in the SmartScript questions at all.

Setting Up Classes for Rate Plans

To set up classes for rate plans, follow this procedure.

NOTE:  Special considerations apply when setting up dynamic attributes for use in the Price Comparison feature. Make sure you set up the dynamic attributes correctly. For more information, see Attributes of Class Administration.

To set up classes for rate plans

1. Navigate to the Administration - Application screen, then the Class Administration view.
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 complete the following 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 of the attribute.
   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.

Creating Root Products for Rate Plans

To create root products for rate plans, follow this procedure

To create root products for rate plans

1. Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, then the Products view.
2. Add a record, and complete the necessary fields in the record and the form. To access more fields, click the show more button in the form.

   Some fields are described in the following table.

   Field	Comments
   Type	Select Service for the type of product.
   Service Type	Select the service type, such as Electricity or Gas.
   Product Class	Select the class that you created for the service.
   Price Type	Select the price type, such as Recurring (recommended for root products).
   UoM	Select the unit of measurement. Per Month is the only unit of measurement supported for the standing charge.

Creating Usage Products

You must create the usage products before you can add them as subcomponents.

To create usage products

• Follow the procedure for creating root products for rate plans with the following differences:
  1. For Price Type, select Usage.
  2. For UoM, select the appropriate unit of measurement, such as kWh.

Setting Up Usage Products

To set up usage products, follow this procedure.

To set up usage products

1. Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, then the Products view.
2. Drill down on 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, click the menu button and select Create Workspace.
5. In the Lock/Unlock Product list, select Locked Flag.
6. From the 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	Type the default number of instances of the product. Typically, this number is the same as the maximum number.
   Maximum	Type the maximum number of allowed instances of the product. This number must equal the number of usage types. For example, if rates for usage are peak, off peak, and threshold, then set the maximum number to 3.
   Minimum	Type the minimum number of allowed instances of the product.
   Product	Select an existing usage product.

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