4 Purchases

You can purchase products and services using the Purchase menu in Oracle Communications Billing Care.

To purchase products, services, and add-on products, see the following topics:

• About Offer Association IDs

• Purchasing New Products and Services

• Purchasing Add-On Products

• Transitioning Bundles and Packages

About Offer Association IDs

An offer association ID associates a discount offer with a product offer so that the discount applies only to that product at run time. Billing Care displays the Offer Association ID field when a product or discount can be associated with another offer during account creation, service purchase, add-on bundle purchase, package transition, or rate customization.

Assign the same offer association ID to both the product and the discount. For example, if a product and a discount both use an offer association ID of 10, the discount is associated with that product.

Depending on the workflow and the selected service, the Offer Association ID list can include the following groups:

• Unsaved drafts: IDs entered for another product or discount on the current Configure screen and not yet saved.

• From subscribed offers: IDs already set on subscribed products or discounts that the account owns.

• From sharing: IDs from discount offers shared with the account or service by a discount sharing group owner.

In review mode, Billing Care displays Not Set when an offer has no offer association ID.

Purchasing New Products and Services

To purchase new products and services for an account:

1. Open an account. See "Finding an Account" for more details.

2. Click the Purchase menu, and select New Service.

3. Select the package that your customer wants to purchase.

4. Click Continue.

   The Configure page appears.

5. Under Service Configuration, enter a service identifier for each service.

6. To schedule the package purchase to a date earlier than the current date, select Backdate Package Purchase and in the field Backdate purchase to, click the calendar icon to set the date. By default, the current date is selected.

   Note:

   • If you purchase a service, you cannot select the backdate if the chosen date is before the account's effective date and last status change.

   • If you purchase a bundle, you cannot select the backdate if the date selected is prior to the account's effective date, the account or service's status change, or the service's effective date.

   • The backdate option is not visible when deliverable-based revenue recognition is enabled, and the package is associated with a subscription term.
7. Under Bundle, click a bundle to configure the credit limit check. Select one of the following values:
   • Override credit limit: the credit limit will be overridden
   • Prorate based on credit limit: prorated until the credit limit is reached
   • Enforce credit limit: the transaction will fail if the credit limit check fails

   By default, Enforce credit limit is selected.

8. (Optional) Under Products and Discounts, click an offer to change the customer's purchase charges, such as by:

   • Changing the purchase activation or deactivation dates.

   • Decreasing the customer's monthly fee through discounts or overrides.

   • Changing the length of the grace period. Customers can reactivate and extend their expired product if they repurchase it within the grace period.

   • Associating a discount offer with a product offer by using an offer association ID.

     See "About Offer Association IDs" for more information.

   For more information on cycling and billing attributes, see Table 2-1.

9. Click Terms.

   The Terms screen displays details about the contract's commitment period, early termination policy, and renewal behavior.

   Note:

   The Terms screen is disabled if no subscription terms are associated with the package.

10. Click Pay.

    The Pay screen appears.

11. Click Add Bill Unit to add Bill Units.

    The details of the existing bill units appear on the page. You can add new bill units from this page. The added bill units are available in the Pay screen.

    This page also displays the services from the selected plan. The services are grouped by the balance group and are identified by the service type.

    The newly selected services can be added to the bill unit that has a balance group for the account. You can drag and drop the balance groups, purchased for a new service, from one bill unit to another. For more information, see "Creating an Account".

    During account creation, you can add new bill units and configure payment methods. However, you can only configure the existing bill units or payment methods while purchasing new products and services.

12. Click Finish.

Purchasing Add-On Products

To purchase additional products for an account:

1. Find the account. See "Finding an Account" for more information.

2. Click the Purchase menu, and select Add to a service.

3. Select a bundle and then click Configure.

   The Configure screen appears.

   Note:

   If you add a telco service, see "Configuring SIM Cards".

4. To schedule the bundle purchase to a date earlier than the current date, select Backdate Bundle Purchase and in the field Backdate purchase to, click the calendar icon to set the date. By default, the current date is selected.

   Note:

   • You cannot select the backdate if the date selected is prior to the account's effective date, the last status change date of the account or service, or the service's effective date.

   • The backdate option is disabled for systems configured for deliverable-based revenue recognition.

   • The backdate option is not visible when deliverable-based revenue recognition is enabled, if the package is associated with a subscription term.

5. (Optional) Under Products and Discounts, click an offer to change the customer's purchase charges, such as by decreasing the customer's monthly fee, customizing the purchase options including activation, recurring fees, usage dates, and offer association ID.

6. (Optional) In the Purchase section, configure the Offer Association ID to associate a product offer with a discount offer. See "About Offer Association IDs" for more information.

7. Click Terms.

   The Terms screen details the bundle's commitment period, early termination policy, and renewal behavior.

   Note:

   The Terms screen is disabled if no subscription terms are associated with the package.

8. Click Finish.

Transitioning Bundles and Packages

Note:

You cannot transition bundles or packages that are associated with subscription terms.

Transitions enable you to limit the packages customers can switch to while remaining fully provisioned. When transitioning to a designated package, your customers can retain their devices, such as phone numbers.

Only a few transition types, such as Upgrade and Downgrade, appear by default. There could be more types based on your system configuration.

• Upgrade to a package that is typically more expensive and has more features. For example, a customer might transition from a package that provides Internet and cable TV services to one that includes Internet, cable TV, and VOIP services. In this case, the transition adds a service and a bundle, and changes the bundles for the existing services.

• Downgrade to a package that is typically less expensive and has fewer features.

When a target package contains products and discounts that support offer association, the Configure page uses the same Offer Association ID behavior as purchase flows. See "About Offer Association IDs" for more information.

You can perform the following types of transitions:

• Transitioning a Bundle for an Account

• Transitioning and Configuring a Package for an Account

Transitioning a Bundle for an Account

To transition a bundle for an account:

1. Select an account. See "Finding an Account" for more information.

2. Click the Purchase menu, and select Bundle Transition.

   The Bundle Transition page appears.

3. Select the Source bundle you want to transition from and click Continue.

4. From the Transition Type list, select a type of transition, such as Upgrade or Downgrade.

5. Select a Target to transition to.

6. Select a reason for purchase.

7. (Optional) Enter a note.

8. Click Finish.

Transitioning and Configuring a Package for an Account

To transition and configure a package for an account:

1. Find the account. See "Finding an Account" for more information.

2. Click the Purchase menu, and select Package Transition.

   The Bundle Package Transition page appears.

3. Select the Source package you want to transition from and click Continue.

4. From the Transition Type list, select a type of transition, such as Upgrade or Downgrade.

5. Select a target package to transition to.

6. Set the required fields in the Bundle, Purchase, Recurring (cycle), Services, Usage, and Offer Association ID sections.

   To associate a product offer with a discount offer, assign the same Offer Association ID to both offers. See "About Offer Association IDs" for more information.

7. Select a reason for purchase.

8. (Optional) Enter a note.

9. Click Finish.