25 Creating and Managing Service Groups
Learn how to use service groups to enable customers to purchase, transfer, inactivate, and cancel services as a group; and to share charges, discounts, and promotions among a group of subscribers in Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM).
Topics in this document:
About Grouping Services by Subscription
In BRM, you can combine services into service groups, which are sets of services associated with a subscription, such as telephony and text messaging services associated with a wireless connection.
A service group consists of a subscription service and any number of member services. The subscription service can be a service that subscribers use, such as telephony or broadband access, or it can be a representational service with no associated usage fees.
When services are grouped by subscription, you can do the following:
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Enable customers to purchase, transfer, inactivate, and cancel services as a group.
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Apply discounts and promotions owned by the subscription service to the member services.
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Enable member services to benefit from the subscription service's membership in sharing groups.
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Associate member services with the devices owned by the subscription service.
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Keep separate balances for the service group.
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Create a separate bill and invoice for the subscription.
For example, a service group might consist of the services shown in Figure 25-1.
About Service Groups
In service groups, subscription services and member services as follows:
Sharing Charge and Discount Offers
Subscription and member services share charge offers as follows:
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If the subscription service owns a charge offer but a member service does not, the member service uses the subscription service's charge offer to rate its balance impacts.
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If both the subscription service and a member service own charge offers, the member service uses its own charge offer. It cannot use the subscription service's charge offer.
Subscription and member services share discount offers as follows:
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If the subscription service owns a discount offer but a member service does not, the member service uses the subscription service's discount offer to rate its balance impacts.
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If both the subscription service and a member service own discount offers, the member service uses both its discount offer and the subscription service's discount offer.
Sharing Balance Groups
A balance group is a collection of sub-balances that track what customers owe or are credited with for one or more services. Services can use the default account balance group, or they can use a service balance group. See BRM Managing Accounts Receivable for more information.
If a subscription service has its own balance group:
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All member services that do not have a balance group use the subscription service's balance group.
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Any member service that has a balance group uses its own balance group instead of the subscription service's balance group.
About Using Charge and Discount Offers to Rate Service Group Usage
Both subscription services and member services can own charge and discount offers:
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When the subscription service owns charge and discount offers, the offers are used to rate member service usage.
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When the subscription service and a member service own charge offers, the charge offers' priority determines whether the subscription or member charge offer is used for rating.
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When the subscription service and a member service own discount offers, the discount offers' priority determines the order in which the discounts are applied.
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If a member service owns a discount offer but does not have its own balance group, its discount is applied to the subscription service's balance group.
You specify the priority of charge and discount offers when you create them in PDC or Pricing Center.
About Distributing Discounts to Member Services
Discounts owned by a subscription service can be distributed to member services as follows:
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Through a discount sharing group: When the subscription service and a member service have separate balance groups, the subscription service can share its discounts with the member service through a discount sharing group. The discount balance impact can be applied to a balance in the subscription service's balance group or in the member service's balance group. See "About Sharing Charges and Discounts in Service Groups".
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Through inheritance: When a member service shares the subscription service's balance group, the member service automatically inherits any discount purchased by the subscription service. The discount balance impact is applied to the subscription service's shared balance group.
Note:
When a billing-time discount grants a percentage off subscription fees based on the total usage of all services in the group, the total discount granted can be greater than intended. If you do not want billing-time discounts to be inherited, do one of the following:
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Purchase them for member services instead of for the subscription service.
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Configure BRM to disallow inheritance for billing-time discounts. See "Preventing Member Services from Inheriting Billing-Time Discounts".
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Preventing Member Services from Inheriting Billing-Time Discounts
By default, billing-time discounts owned by a subscription service in a service group are automatically inherited by all member services that share the subscription service's balance group. When the discount is applied at billing time, it is applied individually to each member service.
If a subscription service owns a billing-time discount that grants a percentage off subscription fees, the total discount can be greater than intended when the discount is inherited. For example, a service group includes a subscription service and ten member services that inherit a billing-time discount. The discount provides .05% off the group's aggregated charges. If the aggregated charges total $1000 when billing is run, the discount grants $5 off to each member service that inherits the discount, and $5 off to the subscription service. The total discount is $55, which is an actual discount of .055% off the aggregated charges.
To prevent member services from inheriting billing-time discounts:
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Open the CM pin.conf file in BRM_home/sys/cm, where BRM_home is the directory where you installed BRM components.
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Search for the following line:
- fm_subscription btd_inheritance 1 -
Set the value of the btd_inheritance entry to 0.
The default is 1, which means billing-time discounts are inherited.
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Stop and restart the CM.
About Sharing Charges and Discounts in Service Groups
Charge and discount sharing groups are groups of services that share balances. They consist of a group owner and group members.
To set up charge or discount sharing for a service group (for example, to distribute 300 minutes to all services on a phone line), make the subscription service the sharing group owner, and make the member services the sharing group members.
The service type of the subscription service must match the service type to which the shared discount applies.
Note:
All services in a sharing group must have their own balance groups so BRM can track the balances they use and share.
About Distributing Sharing Group Balances to Member Services
Each charge and discount sharing group member has an ordered balance group. See "About Ordered Balance Groups".
When a subscription service is a member in a sharing group, its member services may or may not share its ordered balance group:
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A member service that is not a member of a sharing group uses the ordered balance group of its subscription service. By default, the member service inherits member status in the sharing group from the subscription service, and the member service has access to the sharing group's balances as shown in Figure 25-2.
Figure 25-2 Member Service Using Its Subscription Service's Ordered Balance Group
Description of "Figure 25-2 Member Service Using Its Subscription Service's Ordered Balance Group"
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A member service that has its own ordered balance group does not use the subscription service's ordered balance group. This is true even when the member service and subscription service belong to the same sharing group as shown in Figure 25-3.
Figure 25-3 Member Service Using Its Own Ordered Balance Group
Description of "Figure 25-3 Member Service Using Its Own Ordered Balance Group"
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If a member service and its subscription service belong to different sharing groups, the services have access only to the shared balances in the sharing group to which they belong (see Figure 25-4).
Figure 25-4 Subscription and Member Services in Different Sharing Groups
Description of "Figure 25-4 Subscription and Member Services in Different Sharing Groups"
When the subscription service and a member service are both discount sharing group owners and have members in common, the sequence of the ordered balance group list for each discount sharing group member determines whether the member service's discounts or the subscription service's discounts are applied first.
If a service is a member of both a charge sharing group and a discount sharing group, the discounts are used before charges are applied.
You set up discounts and define how charges are shared in PDC or Pricing Center.
To create charge and discount sharing groups, you implement BRM opcodes in your customer relationship management (CRM) system.
About Changing Status in Service Groups
The status of the subscription service or any member service can be active, inactive, or closed. Changing the status of the subscription service changes the status of all the group's member services.
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When you inactivate a subscription service, all its member services are inactivated.
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When you close a subscription service, all its member services are closed.
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When you reactivate a subscription service that was inactivated or closed, all its member services are reactivated.
Changing the status of a member service affects only that service. If you close a member service and then close the subscription service, reactivating the subscription service does not reactivate the independently closed member service.
Closing a service cancels all charge and discount offers owned by that service. If you reactivate a service and want to restore canceled offers, you must repurchase the offers for the service.
About Setting Up Corporate Accounts That Use Service Groups
When a corporate account uses service groups, rating performance is affected if the company has many employees whose services share account balances.
For corporate accounts, it is better to set up a bill unit hierarchy in which the company account owns the paying parent bill unit and the employees own accounts that include the following:
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Their own subscription and member services
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Nonpaying child bill units of the corporate account's paying parent bill unit
That way, the charges are rolled up to the corporate account at billing time, so rating performance is less affected.
About Creating and Managing Service Groups
Creating and managing service groups includes the following tasks:
About Creating a Service Group
A subscription service is a /service object in the BRM database. You can create a custom storable class to represent a subscription service, or you can use an existing storable class. Member services can be a subclass of the subscription service or a different service type.
A service instance can be either a subscription service or a member service, but not both. After a service is selected as a subscription service, it cannot also be used as a member service in the same service group.
You can create service groups in the following ways:
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When creating a package in PDC or Pricing Center. When customers purchase the package, the member service objects are created and associated with the subscription service object. Additional member services can be added during customer account creation.
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If you implement your own CRM system, customer service representatives (CSRs) can dynamically set up service groups or add member services to an existing service group when creating customers. To create service groups when creating accounts, you implement BRM opcodes in your CRM system. See BRM Opcode Guide for more information.
About Adding Bundles to Service Groups
You can add bundles to the subscription service and to member services. A bundle owned by the subscription service is a subscription bundle. That is, the offers in the bundle are available for rating all services in the service group.
You associate bundles with subscription services when you add bundles to packages in PDC or Pricing Center.
A CSR can also add a bundle to a subscription service or a member service that a customer has purchased.
About Setting Up Balance Groups for Service Groups
Although a subscription service can use the account's balance group, tracking usage for a service group when the subscription service has its own balance group is much easier.
Note:
You cannot transfer a subscription service that uses the account's balance group to another account. See "About Transferring a Service Group to Another Account".
You can do the following:
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Associate all member services with the subscription service balance group.
In this case, when customers use member services, the cycle and usage fees are stored in the subscription service balance group as shown in Figure 25-5.
Figure 25-5 Storage of Member Cycle and Usage Fees in Subscription Balance Group
Description of "Figure 25-5 Storage of Member Cycle and Usage Fees in Subscription Balance Group "When all member services use the subscription service balance group, all noncurrency balances, such as minutes and frequent flyer miles, are shared by all services in the group.
For example, the Line A subscription service has two member services: a telephony service that includes 360 minutes of usage per month and an SMS service that includes 30 minutes per month. Both member services use the Line A subscription service balance group. At the beginning of the month, a balance of 390 minutes is stored in that balance group, and all services have access to the 390 minutes as shown in Figure 25-6.
Figure 25-6 Sharing of Noncurrency Balances
Description of "Figure 25-6 Sharing of Noncurrency Balances" -
Create a balance group for each member service in the group.
This makes it possible to set up shared discounts, set credit limits on service balances, and limit balance consumption to the specified service. Initially, the member service balance groups have the same credit limit, floor, and threshold as the subscription service balance group. You can later change them.
When member services have their own balance groups, cycle and usage fees for each service are tracked in the member service's balance group as shown in Figure 25-7.
When a member service has its own balance group, any noncurrency balances included with the service can be consumed by that service only.
In Figure 25-8, the SMS service includes 30 minutes that can be applied only to the SMS service, which has access only to its own balances; it cannot use the minutes included with any other service.
Figure 25-8 Noncurrency Services with Multiple Balance Groups
Description of "Figure 25-8 Noncurrency Services with Multiple Balance Groups" -
Associate groups of services with different balance groups.
A member service can also be associated with another member service's balance group to track usage for those services together. However, member services cannot use the balance group of a service that is not in the same service group.
You might want to track some types of noncurrency balances at the subscription level (for example, the number of months users have been subscribers regardless of whether they have changed the services on their lines).
To track noncurrency balances at the subscription level, configure a counter sub-balance for the subscription service. See "About Noncurrency Sub-Balances" in BRM Creating Product Offerings.
For more information about balance groups, see BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
About Sharing ERAs in Service Groups
Any member service that does not have its own extended rating attribute (ERA) uses the subscription service's ERA. If the subscription service and member service both have an ERA, the member service's ERA is used to rate the member service's usage.
For general information about ERAs, see BRM Telco Integration.
About Modifying Service Groups
You can perform the following actions to modify a service group:
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Add a member service to the group.
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Add bundles to a service in the group.
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Change the status of a service in the group.
You can modify a service group's services when setting up services in PDC or Pricing Center.
To modify a service group's services after customers have purchased them, implement BRM opcodes in your CRM system. See BRM Opcode Guide.
About Canceling a Subscription Service
A subscription service can be canceled at any time during the billing cycle. You can also bill the account for the service immediately upon cancellation.
In BRM, a subscription service is canceled when the following occur:
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The account that owns the subscription service is closed.
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The subscription service expires.
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The subscription service is canceled by a CSR.
To perform a subscription service cancellation, BRM does the following:
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Closes the subscription service and all its member services. See "About Service Status When a Subscription Service Is Canceled".
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Cancels the charge and discount offers associated with the subscription service and its member services. See "Effect of Canceling a Subscription Service on Offers Owned by the Service".
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Deletes the sharing groups owned by the subscription service and its member services, and removes the services from any sharing groups of which they are members. See "Effect of Canceling a Subscription Service on Sharing Groups Owned by the Service".
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Bills the account if specified. See "About Billing on Subscription Service Cancellation".
CSRs can use Billing Care or Customer Center to cancel subscription services as they cancel other services. To cancel subscription services with your client application, implement BRM opcodes. See "Canceling a Service Group" in BRM Opcode Guide.
About Service Status When a Subscription Service Is Canceled
When a subscription service is canceled, all its member services are also canceled. The status of the subscription service and its member services is set to closed.
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The status-flag value of the subscription service is set to PIN_STATUS_FLAG_CANCEL_LINE, and the status-flag value of member services is set to PIN_STATUS_FLAG_DUE_TO_SUBSCRIPTION_SERVICE, which signifies that the member service status was changed due to the subscription service status change.
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The purchase, usage, and cycle end dates for the subscription service and all its member services are set to the cancellation date.
Effect of Canceling a Subscription Service on Offers Owned by the Service
Canceling a subscription service cancels all the charge and discount offers owned by the service and its member services.
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The status of the offer instances owned by the subscription service and its member services is set to canceled.
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The purchase, usage, and cycle end dates for the canceled offer instances are set to the subscription service cancellation date.
Effect of Canceling a Subscription Service on Sharing Groups Owned by the Service
A subscription service and its member services can own a sharing group, be members of a sharing group, or both.
When a subscription service is canceled, BRM does the following:
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For each sharing group member, the sharing group's balance group is deleted from the group member's ordered balance group list.
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The subscription service and its member services are removed from any sharing groups in which they are members.
For more information, see "About Charge and Discount Sharing Groups".
About Transferring a Service Group to Another Account
You can transfer a service group from one account to another at any time during the billing cycle.
Transferring a service group transfers the subscription service and all member services. The member service objects are updated to reference the target account object.
You can transfer service groups from both closed and active accounts:
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From a closed account to an active account: The subscription service remains closed after the transfer. You must manually activate the service.
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From an active account to a closed account: The subscription service remains active after the transfer. You must manually activate the account.
All pending scheduled actions (/schedule objects) associated with the subscription service and the member services are also transferred to the target account. Completed actions (/schedule objects with Done status) are not transferred.
To prevent the transfer of a service group to a closed account, use event notification and write a custom opcode to generate an error when the service group transfer event occurs. See "Using Event Notification" in BRM Developer's Guide.
Note:
When you transfer a service group to another account, its balance groups are also transferred. If the subscription service or one of its member services uses the account default balance group, however, that balance group cannot be transferred. Therefore, the service group cannot be transferred. To avoid this, the subscription service and member services should use service balance groups. You can define a balance group for the subscription service and associate all the member services with that balance group. See "About Setting Up Balance Groups for Service Groups".
You cannot backdate a service group transfer.
Each time a subscription service is transferred, BRM stores information about the source account and the date and time when the transfer occurred in a transfer list. The transfer list is stored in the /service object. BRM uses information in the transfer list to rate and record delayed events and call detail records (CDRs) and to bill the source account for usage that occurred before the transfer.
To transfer service groups, you implement BRM opcodes in your client application. See BRM Opcode Guide for more information.
About Transferring Service Groups between Schemas
To transfer a service group between accounts stored in different schemas, do one of the following:
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Migrate the accounts to the same schema and then transfer the service group.
You can use Account Migration Manager (AMM) to migrate accounts between database schemas.
Note:
AMM is an optional feature. Contact your BRM account manager for more information about using AMM.
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If you do not want to migrate the accounts to the same schema, enable the RecreateDuringSubscriptionTransfer business parameter. See "Transferring Service Groups between Accounts in Different Schemas" in BRM Opcode Guide.
About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Objects
When a service group is transferred to another account, objects associated with the subscription service and its member services are also transferred to that account.
A service can be associated with the following objects:
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Service profiles. See "About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Service Profiles".
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Devices and phone numbers. See "About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Devices".
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Charge and discount offers. See "About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Offers".
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Charge and discount sharing groups. See "About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Sharing Groups".
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Service sub-balances and account bill units. See "About Transferring Balance Groups during Service Group Transfer".
About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Service Profiles
Service profiles store additional information about a service. A service profile is associated with a service and the account the service belongs to. When a service group is transferred to another account, profile objects associated with the subscription service and its member services are updated to reference the target account.
About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Devices
Devices such as a mobile phone are associated with services. A device object is associated with a service and the account that the service belongs to. When a service group is transferred to another account, the devices associated with the subscription service and its member services are updated to reference that account.
See "Managing Devices with BRM" in BRM Developer's Guide.
About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Offers
BRM rates events by using the charge and discount information associated with the service for which the events are generated. The purchase, cycle, and usage start and end dates define the validity periods during which a charge or discount offer can be purchased and cycle fees and usage charges can be applied.
When a service group is transferred, BRM cancels the charge and discount offers associated with the subscription service and its member services for the source account by setting the end dates to the transfer date. When delayed billing is enabled, delayed events and CDRs are rated and discounted by using the canceled charge and discount offers for the source account.
Note:
To rate and discount delayed events for the source account, the canceled charge and discount offers must persist in the account.
Another instance of the charge and discount offers associated with the subscription service and its member services is added to the target account with the purchase, cycle, and usage start dates set to the transfer date. The end dates are set to the original end dates. Events generated by the subscription service after the transfer date are then rated and discounted for the target account.
Note:
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To discount any charges associated with the charge offers, such as the prorated cycle fee amount, the discount offer instances are added to the target account before the charge offer instances.
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When a service group is transferred, the source and target accounts are not charged any purchase or cancellation fees that are generally applied when a charge or discount offer is purchased or canceled.
See "Managing Purchased Charge Offers".
About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Sharing Groups
Charge and discount sharing groups associated with a subscription service or its member services are not transferred when the service group is transferred to another account. Instead:
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If a subscription or member service owns a sharing group: The group is deleted, and the group's balance group is deleted from the ordered balance group list for each member in the group. You must re-create the groups after the service is transferred to the target account.
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If a subscription or member service is a member of a sharing group: The service is deleted from the group, and the group's balance group is deleted from the ordered balance group list for the service. The service must be added back to the group after the service is transferred.
About Transferring Balance Groups during Service Group Transfer
A subscription service can have its own balance group. Each member service can also have its own balance group. The balance group is associated with the account's bill units (/billinfo objects).
When a service group is transferred to another account, the balance groups associated with the subscription service and its member services are also transferred to the target account. Either the balance groups are added to an existing bill unit in the target account, or a new bill unit is created for the service only.
Note:
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You cannot transfer a service group whose subscription service or member services use the account default balance group. To avoid this, subscription and member services should use service balance groups. See "About Creating and Managing Service Groups".
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Usually, a balance group cannot move to another bill unit when its current bill unit has unallocated payments or adjustments, open refunds, or unresolved disputes. This restriction does not apply, however, when a balance group is moved to another account as the result of a subscription service transfer.
About Assigning Events to Bill Items after a Service Group Transfer
Each event generated by a subscription service is assigned to a bill item (/item). During billing, charges from all the bill items are collected in a bill for the account that owns the service group.
When a subscription service is transferred, BRM creates new bill items for the target account by using item configurations (/config/items). Events generated after the transfer date are assigned to the new bill items. The new bill items are linked to the bill unit referenced by the service's balance group in the target account. As a result, charges for the new events are applied to the target account.
Delayed events and CDRs are assigned to the bill items in the source account. The bill items are associated with the source account bill unit. Therefore, charges for the bill items are applied to the source account.
About Transferring Noncurrency Assets during Service Group Transfer
Before a service group is transferred to another account, a noncurrency asset is stored in a single sub-balance. After the service group is transferred, each asset is prorated and stored in two sub-balances with different validity periods:
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Original sub-balance: By default, assets in this sub-balance are valid from the start of the source account's current billing cycle to the transfer date.
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New sub-balance: By default, assets in this sub-balance are valid from the transfer date to the end of the target account's current billing cycle.
Note:
To create separate sub-balances with different validity periods, the balance impact that grants the free assets must have a nonzero relative cycle start date. If the relative cycle offset in the cycle forward or cycle arrears charge is set to 0, a new sub-balance is not created. Instead, the assets are added to the original sub-balance and are valid forever.
Rating and discounting impact the assets in the original sub-balance for delayed events generated by the service before the transfer date. Assets in the new sub-balance are consumed for new events generated by the service group after the transfer date.
By default, the original sub-balance always expires on the transfer date. Because events generated by the target account occur after the transfer date, the target account cannot consume free assets from the original sub-balance. You can extend the validity period of the original sub-balance so that its free assets can be consumed by the target account. See "About Extending Sub-Balance Validity When a Service Group Is Transferred".
About Extending Sub-Balance Validity When a Service Group Is Transferred
When a service group is transferred to another account, noncurrency assets are prorated and stored in sub-balances with different validity periods. See "About Transferring Noncurrency Assets during Service Group Transfer".
To extend the validity period of the original sub-balance, set the sub_bal_validity business configuration parameter to one of the following options:
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Cut: This is the default. This option sets the validity period from the start of the source account's current billing cycle to the service transfer date.
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Maintain: This option retains the original end date of the bucket, even for charge offer cancellations or line transfers.
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Align: This option sets the validity period from the start of the source account's current billing cycle to the end of the target account's current billing cycle.
Note:
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Setting the sub_bal_validity business configuration parameter extends the validity period of the original sub-balance only. The assets in the new sub-balance are always valid from the service transfer date to the end of the target account's billing cycle.
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Extending the validity period of the original sub-balance extends only the time the free assets in the bucket are accessible and does not change the asset proration. The assets are prorated based on the service transfer date. See "About Prorating Cycle Fees When a Service Group Is Transferred".
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If you do not configure the sub_bal_validity parameter, BRM sets the original sub-balance to expire on the service transfer date, and the target account cannot access this sub-balance.
To configure sub-balance validity, see "Configuring Sub-Balance Validity for Service Group Transfer".
About Consuming Noncurrency Balances When a Service Group Is Transferred
When a service group is transferred to another account, noncurrency balances are prorated and stored in sub-balances with different validity periods. See "About Transferring Noncurrency Assets during Service Group Transfer".
The source account always consumes free balances from the original sub-balance because the events for this account occur before the service transfer date. The target account can consume balances from both the original sub-balance and the new sub-balance when the validity period for the original sub-balance is extended beyond the service transfer date. See "About Extending Sub-Balance Validity When a Service Group Is Transferred".
The following examples demonstrate how noncurrency balances are consumed after a service group is transferred.
On January 1, Account A has a rollover balance of 50 minutes and a new grant of 200 minutes. Service Group A is later transferred from Account A to Account B on January 15. Figure 25-9 shows a timeline for the transfer:
Example 1
When sub_bal_validity is set to Cut, the rollover and original sub-balance buckets' valid_to dates are set to the transfer date. The assets in the original sub-balance are prorated, and a new sub-balance is created with 100 minutes.
A delayed event for Account A is recorded on January 17 for 200 minutes. When the event is rated, 50 minutes are consumed from the rollover sub-balance, and 100 minutes are consumed from the original sub-balance. The balance in these two sub-balances becomes 0. Because the event occurred before January 15, it cannot consume minutes from the new sub-balances, and Account A is charged for the remaining 50 minutes of usage. Figure 25-10 illustrates this example.
Example 2
When sub_bal_validity is set to Maintain, the rollover and original sub-balance buckets' valid_to dates are extended to the end of Account A's billing cycle.
A delayed event for Account A is recorded on January 17 (after the service transfer date) for 200 minutes. When the event is rated, 50 minutes are consumed from the rollover sub-balance, and 100 minutes are consumed from the original sub-balance. The balance in these two sub-balances becomes 0. Because the event occurred before January 15, it cannot consume minutes from the new sub-balance, and Account A is charged for the remaining 50 minutes of usage. Figure 25-11 illustrates this example.
Example 3
When sub_bal_validity is set to Align, the rollover and original sub-balance buckets' valid_to dates are extended to the end of Account B's billing cycle.
An event for Account B is recorded on February 3 for 200 minutes. Because the validity period of the rollover and original sub-balance is extended until February 10, 50 minutes are consumed from the rollover sub-balance, and 100 minutes are consumed from the original sub-balance. The remaining 50 minutes are consumed from the new sub-balance. The balance in the rollover and original sub-balance buckets becomes 0, and the balance in the new sub-balance becomes 50. Figure 25-12 illustrates this example.
About Rolling Over Noncurrency Balances When a Service Group Is Transferred
You can configure rollovers so that noncurrency balances associated with cycle forward fees are rolled over for use in future cycles. See "About Rollovers" in BRM Setting Up Pricing and Rating.
When a service group is transferred, the free assets in the rollover and original sub-balance buckets are rolled over when sub_bal_validity is set to Maintain or Align.
Note:
The rollover and original sub-balance buckets are not rolled over when sub_bal_validity is set to Cut.
The following example demonstrates how unused balance assets are rolled over when a service group is transferred to another account. In this example:
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The service group's subscription service grants 200 minutes valid from January 1.
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The service group is transferred to the target account on January 15.
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The billing cycle for the source account starts on the first of each month.
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The billing cycle for the target account starts on the 15th of each month.
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The sub_bal_validity business configuration parameter is set to Maintain.
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Rollover minutes from the previous cycle are 50.
The rollover rules are as follows:
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A maximum of 50 minutes can be rolled over to the next cycle.
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The maximum number of rollover cycles is 1.
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The maximum number of minutes that can be rolled over from previous months is 100.
On January 1, the source account is granted 200 minutes for the month of January. On January 15, the service group is transferred to the target account. The 200 minutes are prorated and put in two buckets with different validity dates: the original bucket (Sub-balance 1) and a new bucket (Sub-balance 2). Figure 25-13 illustrates this example.
When pin_bill_day is run on February 1, 50 minutes from Sub-balance 1 are rolled over. Because Sub-balance 1 is valid for a partial cycle (from January 15 to February 1 instead of January 15 to February 15), the assets are rolled over for one entire cycle. As a result, the Rollover 2 bucket is valid until March 15, which is the next accounting cycle end date for Account B.
When pin_bill_day is run on February 15, 50 minutes from Sub-balance 2 are rolled over into a new bucket (Rollover 3) and are valid until March 15. The target account is granted an additional 200 minutes for the new cycle (Sub-balance 3).
Figure 25-14 illustrates the billing timeline associated with this example.
Because the Rollover 2 and Rollover 3 buckets are valid after the transfer date, only the target account can access the assets in these buckets. The source account cannot consume the minutes from these buckets.
About Prorating Cycle Fees When a Service Group Is Transferred
Typically, cycle fees are applied at the beginning of a billing cycle for services provided during that cycle and are prorated when a service is purchased or canceled during a billing cycle.
However, a service group transfer is not the same as canceling the charge offer in the source account and purchasing it for the target account. Instead, a service transfer moves the service from one account to another. When a service group is transferred, the accounts are not charged with the charge offer purchase or cancellation fees, and therefore the purchase and cancellation proration generally applied when a charge or discount offer is purchased or canceled are also not applied.
Consequently, when a service group is transferred during a billing cycle, cycle fee proration is enforced based on the transfer date to charge the source account for the fees before the transfer and the target account for the fees after the transfer. The prorated cycle fees from the start of the billing cycle to the transfer date are applied to the source account, and the prorated cycle fees from the transfer date to the end of the billing cycle are applied to the target account.
See "About Proration" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
Applying Billing-Time Discounts and Folds When a Service Group Is Transferred
Billing-time discounts and folds are applied at the end of the accounting cycle and are based on balances used during the cycle. In BRM, balances are stored and tracked in account default or service balance groups.
When a service group is moved to another account, the service balance group is also transferred to that account. As a result, billing-time folds and discounts are applied to the target account. See "About Transferring Balance Groups during Service Group Transfer".
For more information, see "About Billing-Time Discounts" in BRM Creating Product Offerings.
About Rating Delayed Events When a Service Group Is Transferred
Delayed events generated by a service group that occur before the service group transfer are billed to the source account. See "About Assigning Events to Bill Items after a Service Group Transfer".
BRM rates events by using the charge and discount offers associated with the service for which the events are generated. When a service group is transferred, BRM stores the original account's charge and discount offers to rate delayed events generated by that account. See "About Transferring Service Groups Associated with Offers".
When delayed events are rated for the source account, the source account can be charged for usage when all the free assets have been consumed by the target account. This can occur when the validity period of the original sub-balance is extended beyond the service group transfer date. See "About Consuming Noncurrency Balances When a Service Group Is Transferred".
Note:
To rate delayed events accurately, you must rerate events for both the source and target account in the correct order. See "About Rerating Events" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.
How a Service Group Transfer Affects Account Migration
When an account selected for rerating is associated with a service group transfer, rerating requires both the source account and the target account to reside in the same database schema. For this reason, AMM does not allow the source account or the target account to be migrated to another schema.
For example:
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Account A is stored in Schema A.
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Account B is stored in Schema B.
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Account C is stored in Schema C.
To transfer a service group from Account A to Account B, you must move Account B to Schema A or Account A to Schema B and then transfer the service group to Account B.
After the service transfer, AMM does not allow you to migrate Account A or Account B to Schema C because rerating requires the source account and the target account to reside in the same schema. To transfer the service to Account C, you must move Account C to Schema A and then transfer the service.
Configuring Sub-Balance Validity for Service Group Transfer
To extend the validity period of the original sub-balance when a service group is transferred, run the pin_bus_params utility to change the SubBalValidity business parameter. This parameter takes one of the following values:
-
Cut
-
Maintain
-
Align
SubBalValidity is a systemwide parameter. By default, this parameter is set to Cut. Changing the value of this parameter affects the sub-balance validity period for any service group transfer that occurs after the change. See "About Extending Sub-Balance Validity When a Service Group Is Transferred".
Note:
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If you change the SubBalValidity parameter value, BRM does not keep a record of the original setting. BRM uses the new setting for any subscription service transfers that occur after the change.
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If you do not configure the SubBalValidity parameter, BRM follows the default implementation by setting the original sub-balance to expire on the service transfer date.
To extend the validity of the original sub-balance:
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Go to BRM_home/sys/data/config.
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Create an XML file from the /config/business_params object:
pin_bus_params -r BusParamsBilling bus_params_billing.xml -
Change Cut to one of the following:
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Maintain to extend the validity of the original sub-balance to the end of the original account's current billing cycle.
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Align to extend the validity of the original sub-balance to the end of the target account's current billing cycle.
<SubBalValidity>Cut</SubBalValidity> -
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Save the file as bus_params_billing.xml.
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Load the XML file into the BRM database:
pin_bus_params bus_params_billing.xml -
Stop and restart the CM.
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(Multischema systems only) Run the pin_multidb script with the -R CONFIG parameter. For more information, see BRM System Administrator's Guide.
About Billing for Service Group Usage
To bill for service group usage, all balance groups in the service group must be associated with a bill unit. A bill is produced for each bill unit.
Note:
If a member service's balance group is not associated with a bill unit, charges for that service are not billed.
You can create a bill unit for a service group or use the account's bill unit. If you use the account's bill unit, charges for any service owned by the account that are not part of the service group are also included in the bill.
You use Billing Care or Customer Center to create bill units and associate them with balance groups.
You can also create and manage bill units by using the BRM API. See "Managing Bill Units" in BRM Opcode Guide.
About Creating Multiple Bills for a Service Group
When a member service has its own balance group, you can create a separate bill for that service by associating it with a new bill unit. You can also associate several member services with a single bill unit if each member service has a balance group.
About Billing for Multiple Service Groups
When a customer owns multiple service groups, you can bill for each group separately or include charges for all groups in the same bill. To create one bill for all groups, associate the balance groups in all the groups with the same bill unit.
About Billing on Subscription Service Cancellation
Normally, you bill an account on its regularly scheduled billing day at the end of the billing cycle. You can also bill the account immediately upon a subscription service cancellation.
To bill the account immediately, specify the Bill Now option when canceling the subscription service.
Note:
If the Bill Now option is not specified, the account is billed for the subscription service during the regularly scheduled billing time.
When the Bill Now option is specified, the account is billed for all current charges generated by the subscription service until the cancellation date.
Delayed events for the service recorded after the cancellation date are billed on the next regularly scheduled billing date.
When the Bill Now option is specified, BRM bills the bill units associated with the subscription service. Typically, all the member services are associated with the subscription service's bill unit. However, a member service can have its own bill unit.
By default, any other service belonging to the same bill unit as the canceled subscription service or its member service's bill unit is also billed.
For more information, see "Configuring Bill Now" in BRM Configuring and Running Billing.
About Billing an Account When a Service Group Is Canceled during the Delayed Billing Period
When a service group is canceled during the billing delay period with the Bill Now option specified, the account is billed immediately.
Delayed events recorded after the cancellation date are billed on the regularly scheduled billing date.
In Figure 25-15, the subscription service is canceled during the billing delay period on February 5. Bill B1' includes all current charges from January 1 to February 5 for both billing cycle B1 and billing cycle B2. Delayed events for billing cycle B1 recorded after February 5 are billed on February 10. Events generated for billing cycle B2 after February 5 are billed on March 10.
About Billing a Service Group after Transferring It to Another Account
A service group can be transferred at any time during the billing cycle.
At the time of billing, any cycle fees associated with the service group are prorated. The source account is billed for the prorated amount until the transfer date. The target account is billed for the remainder of the cycle. See "About Prorating Cycle Fees When a Service Group Is Transferred".
The source account is billed for service usage charges incurred during the time the service was owned by the source account, including delayed events that occurred before the transfer of the service. Events generated after the transfer are billed to the target account.
Any remaining noncurrency grants, such as minutes, are transferred to the target account. See "About Transferring Noncurrency Assets during Service Group Transfer".