17 Creating Configurable Recurring Offers

Learn how to set up configurable recurring charge and discount offers in Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM), allowing customer service representatives to select billing attributes at the time of purchase.

Topics in this document:

About Creating Configurable Recurring Offers That Can Be Changed At Purchase

You can create recurring charge offers and discount offers that CSRs can configure at purchase time. Instead of creating separate offers for every billing scenario, you expose a controlled set of attributes, such as cycle charge type, cycle frequency, and cycle alignment, for selection when the customer purchases the offer. A configurable product is an offer that contains a configurable recurring event. For example, if the customer purchases a configurable product and specifies they want a cycle forward charge type with a quarterly billing cycle, the CSR can set that at purchase.

The ability to override the attributes of an offer at purchase time eliminates the need for you to design multiple similar offers and helps streamline your product catalog.

Note:

If you want to be able to change the rate associated with the configurable offer, you can add a rate plan selector to the offer as well.

About the Product Specification Characteristic Attributes You Can Expose

The templates shipped with PDC include the following attributes. In each offer, you must specify all attributes, and you can select one or more values for each attribute.

  • Cycle Charge Type: Choose from Cycle Forward, Cycle Arrear, or Cycle Forward Arrear.

  • Cycle Unit: Set the unit to Day(s), Month(s), or Year(s).

  • Cycle Frequency: Specify a value greater than zero.

  • Cycle Alignment: Select Billing or Purchase. Billing aligns the cycle start date to the customer’s billing date while Purchase aligns it to the date of product purchase.

  • In Advance or In Arrear Billing Unit: Choose Day(s) or Month(s).

  • In Advance or In Arrear Billing Frequency: Enter any negative or positive number.

How Configurable Recurring Offers Work

Configurable recurring offers use a configurable billing event named /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/configurable. BRM considers the base class to be /event/billing/product/fee/cycle and resolves the actual subclass at purchase time based on the customer’s selection. For example, if a customer chooses a cycle forward charge type, BRM applies the /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/cycle_forward event. The two PDC product specification attribute templates (PSC_ConfigurableEvent_ChargeOffer.xml and PSC_ConfigurableEvent_AlterationOffer.xml) let you declare which attributes a CSR can set and which values are allowed. At purchase time, Billing Care (or your custom client application) presents only those attributes and values that are enabled in the offer. For example, if you allow the cycle unit to be Days or Months, Billing Care lets the CSR choose only Days or Months for that offer. When the CSR completes the purchase, BRM adds the selected values to the customer’s purchased product and uses them for rating and billing going forward.

Loading the Product Specification Characteristic Templates

To load the attribute characteristic templates into PDC:

  1. Go to PDC_home/PDC/apps/bin.

  2. Run the following commands

    • For the charge offer template:

      ./ImportExportPricing -import -config ../Samples/Examples/PSC_ConfigurableEvent_ChargeOffer.xml -ow

    • For the discount offer template:

      ./ImportExportPricing -import -config ../Samples/Examples/PSC_ConfigurableEvent_AlterationOffer.xml -ow

Setting Up Configurable Recurring Offers at Purchase

To set up recurring offers that customers can configure at purchase:

  • Ensure the /config/event_map object includes the cycle fee event subclasses you plan to support, such as:
    • /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/cycle_forward
    • /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/cycle_arrear
    • /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/cycle_forward_arrear
    • /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/configurable

Note: Define the service-event mapping in BRM by using the pin_usage_map file and the load_usage_map utility. For more information, see "Mapping Event Types to RUMs" in BRM Setting Up Pipeline Pricing.

  • Load the PSC_ConfigurableEvent_ChargeOffer.xml and PSC_ConfigurableEvent_AlterationOffer.xml templates into PDC using ImportExportPricing so that the configurable attributes are available in the PDC UI and XML pricing interface. For more information, see "Loading the Product Specification Characteristic Templates".
  • When you create charge and discount offers in PDC:

    • Select Subscription as the type and select the recurring event type /event/billing/product/fee/cycle/configurable as the event type for the recurring fee.

    • Under Product Spec Characteristic Attributes, specify the allowed values for each attribute.

    • If needed, add a rate plan selector.

To create configurable offers in ImportExportPricing, see "Configuring Product Specification Attributes for Pricing Components".

Configuring External Applications to Manage Product Spec Characteristic Attributes

If you want to use an external application to manage product spec characteristic attributes, you must customize it to pass product spec characteristic attributes when purchasing charge offers and discount offers. You can do this using one of these methods:

  • The PCM_OP_SUBSCRIPTION_PURCHASE_PRODUCT opcode when purchasing charge offers, and the PCM_OP_SUBSCRIPTION_PURCHASE_DISCOUNT opcode when purchasing discount offers. Ensure you pass the PIN_FLD_PRODUCT_CHARACTERISTIC array with the set of allowed attributes and values. See "Specifying Cycle and Billing Attributes" in BRM Opcode Guide.

  • Using the Billing Care REST API endpoints listed below. For each endpoint, ensure you include the following:

    Table 17-1 Endpoint for Specifying Cycling and Billing Attributes

    API Endpoint Request Payload

    Create an Account (/bcws/webresources/v1.0/accounts)
    Use the following request payload fields under customizedChargeOffers or customizedDiscountOffers:

    • cycleChargeType

    • cycleUnit

    • cycleFrequency

    • cycleAlignment

    • inAdvanceBillingUnit

    • inAdvanceBillingFrequency

    Add Service to an Account (/bcws/webresources/v1.0/accounts/{id}/package)
    Use the following request payload fields under customizedChargeOffers or customizedDiscountOffers:

    • cycleChargeType

    • cycleUnit

    • cycleFrequency

    • cycleAlignment

    • inAdvanceBillingUnit

    • inAdvanceBillingFrequency

    Add bundle to a service (/bcws/webresources/v1.0/accounts/{id}/bundle)

    Use the following request payload fields under customizedChargeOffers or customizedDiscountOffers:

    • cycleChargeType

    • cycleUnit

    • cycleFrequency

    • cycleAlignment

    • inAdvanceBillingUnit

    • inAdvanceBillingFrequency

About Limitations When Using Configurable Recurring Offers

Be aware of the following limitations when creating configurable recurring offers:

  • After customers purchase a configurable offer and set the configurable attributes, they cannot be modified again.

  • When you create an offer in PDC, it can contain only one configurable recurring offer or one standard recurring offer. It can include other regular offers, but only one recurring offer of either type.

  • The configurable recurring offer has one fee, but your customers can choose the other attributes.