17Managing Products and Pricing
Managing Products and Pricing
This chapter is about administering and working with products and pricing. It includes the following topics:
About Managing Products and Pricing
In Siebel Finance, products are the physical goods and services that a financial institution offers to its customers. Only those with the required administrative responsibilities, such as Siebel administrators, can set up and create new products.
The Products screen provides a collection of views to supply service representatives, sales agents, and managers with product information in an organized format. Managing product information and pricing structures requires setting up and maintaining products, product lines, product features, and price lists.
Use these procedures to perform the administrator tasks of setting up product and pricing information in Siebel Finance. End users use the Products screen to view product information.
The Products screen and associated views that appear in Siebel Finance share much of the functionality found in Siebel Business Applications. This chapter focuses mainly on the products functionality that is unique to Siebel Finance. For more information on creating and administering products, see Siebel Product Administration Guide and Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
Scenario for Managing Products and Pricing
These scenarios feature sample tasks performed by a Siebel administrator and a customer service representative. Your company might follow a different workflow according to its business requirements.
In this scenario, end users are the customer service representatives who answer customer calls. They use the Products screen to:
View lists of products
Obtain information about each product, which includes the product line, products code, rates, fees, key features and benefits, and description
Compare products by feature
View literature about a product
View and create news items associated with a product
The Siebel administrator is responsible for administering Siebel Finance and requires administrative responsibilities to:
Create a new product line
Define a new product
Set product fees, rates, and conditions
Administrator Defines New Products
An administrator sets up a new product line in Siebel Finance by:
Creating the new product line and then defining products.
Creating regions and associating those regions with each product.
Defining application workflows, product scores, fees, rates and conditions, and financial attributes.
Customer Service Representative Views Product Information
A customer service representative receives a call from a customer inquiring about the company’s products. He navigates to the Product Details view to review product information such as key features, a product image, and other product details.
As a customer service representative talks with the customer, he learns that she is interested in a Gold Visa credit card. The representative describes the product’s features and benefits, such as an increased credit limit and free insurance on goods purchased with the card. The customer also expresses interest in features the service representative knows are available in another product. Immediately, he provides the customer a feature-by-feature comparison of the two products and quotes prices from the price list. He can check for the latest news updates on the product, such as an anticipated rate change, and convey this information to the customer. After the call ends, the service representative follows up with the customer by sending her more detailed information, such as the Consumer Disclosure Statement, through the mail.
Process of Managing Products and Pricing
This topic details sample tasks often performed by administrators and end-users when managing products and pricing. Your company might follow a different process according to its business requirements.
Administrator Procedures
The following list shows tasks administrators typically perform to manage products and pricing:
Creating New Products
Before creating a new product in Siebel Finance, end users must first create a product line. Then they can designate the products to be included in the product line, and set up the scoring system a financial institution’s agents will use to determine customers’ needs.
Administrators have the job of creating new products. The Product Administration view is used to define the finance-related products that are recommended by the sales agents and used in customer needs analyses. For more details on defining products and product lines, see Siebel Product Administration Guide.
To create a new product line
Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, and then the Product Lines view.
In the Product Line list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields as described in the following table.
Field Description Contracting
Indicates whether the product line is offered on a contracting basis.
Licensing
Indicates whether the product line requires a license.
Product Line
Name of the product line.
Products
List of products associated with the product line.
Creating a Product
Once you have created a new product line you can create new products.
To create a product
Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, and then the Products view.
In the Products list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields as described in the following table.
Field Description Avg Profit
Average profit generated by product.
Sub Type
Product groupings by Pension, Asset, Liability, Life & Annuity, Personal Lines Insurance, Service, Transaction, Group Insurance, Individual Health Insurance, Derivative, Currency, Commodity, and Commercial Insurance.
Equivalent Product
Products to be used in comparisons.
Profit Rank
Ranking of product by profit generation.
Region
Geographic region using this product.
Status
Current availability of the product.
Note: Some of these fields might not be visible. You might want to reveal them using the Columns Displayed command from the Menu drop-down list.
Defining Fees and Rates
The Fees and Conditions view in the Product Administration screen allows administrators to set fees and rates and define conditions for products.
To set fees and conditions for a product
Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, and then the Products view.
Drill down on the product for which you want to set fees.
Click the More Info view tab.
On the More Info link bar, click the Fees and Conditions view link.
In the Fees and Conditions list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields.
Scroll down to the Conditions list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields as described in the following table.
Field Description Condition
Condition for the product.
Maximum Credit Line
Maximum amount allowed for the credit line.
Minimum Deposit Amount
Minimum amount required in the account for the condition to apply.
Setting a Rate for a Product
You can also use the Fees and Conditions view in the Product Administration screen set rates for a product.
To set a rate for a product
Navigate to the Administration - Product screen, and then the Products view.
Drill down on the product for which you want to set a rate.
Click the More Info view tab.
On the More Info link bar, click the Rates and Conditions view link.
In the Rates and Conditions list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields as described in the following table.
Field Description Annual % Rate
Annual Percentage Rate for credit products.
Annual % Yield
Annual Percentage Yield for deposit products.
Conditions
Description of the conditions under which the rates are calculated.
Index Name
Name of the index used.
Index Rate
Percentage rate of index.
Maximum Amount
Maximum amount for the product to qualify for the rate.
Maximum Rate
Maximum interest rate for a product.
Maximum Term
Maximum term for tiered rates.
Minimum Amount
Minimum amount for the product to qualify for the rate.
Minimum Rate
Minimum interest rate for a product.
Minimum Term
Minimum term for tiered rates.
Points
Fee equal to 1% of the principal.
Rate
Rate percentage, calculated by adding Index Rate to Margin/Spread.
Rate Type
Type of rate.
Spread
Increase over index rate to determine rate.
Scroll down to the Conditions list, add a record, and complete the necessary fields as described in the following table.
Field Description Condition
The condition for the product.
Maximum Credit Line
The maximum amount allowed for the credit line.
Minimum Deposit Amount
The minimum amount required in the account for the condition to apply.
Using Product Information (End User)
End users access the Products screen either to inform a customer of the details of a given product or to educate themselves on new products or changes to existing offerings.
To view product information
Navigate to the Products screen.
From the Show drop-down list, select All Products.
In the Products list, drill down on the Product link to display more information about the product.
The Product form appears, along with the Features and Benefits list and the Product Image.
Another task that is commonly performed in the Products screen specifically for Siebel Finance, is to create an application using the Auto Application feature. For more information on using Auto Application, see Creating Applications Using the Auto Application Feature.