PackagePlans/LinkingPackageAndServicePlans
Contents
Linking Packages and Service Plans
Introduction
Package Plans and Service Plans need to be linked together before they are sold.
Cumulus was built from the ground up to support a multi-tiered customer relationship. IE The Wholesaler, Service Provider and End User can all exist inside Cumulus. Further, it is assumed that what the Wholesaler sells to the Service Provider is not provided to the End User at the same rate. Services are bought from the upstream provider, and sold downstream. As part of representing this relationship, Cumulus has the concept of Buy and Sell Plans.
- A Buy Plan represents the service being sold to the Wholesaler/Service Provider. Any pricing contained within the Buy Plan should reflect the rate at which the service is being bought.
- A Sell Plan is the package actually being sold to downstream. A Wholesaler will sell Package Plans to a Service Provider, who then on sells these Package Plans to their End Users with their own Pricing.
When a Package Plan is sold to an End User, the system will create Package Subscriptions and Service Subscriptions at the Wholesaler Level (if the Wholesaler exists in Cumulus), the Service Provider Level as well as the End User. As such, Cumulus requires that Buy Package Plans be linked with Buy Service Plans, but also that downstream Sell Package Plans (linked with Sell Service Plans) are linked with respective Buy Plans.
When a Wholesaler is involved, The Wholesaler will create a 'Buy' Package Plan and Service Plan and then create various Sell Package Plans and Service Plans. The Service Provider will then create their own 'Sell' Package Plans and Service Plans, and these will link with the 'Sell' Plans of the Wholesaler.
If no Wholesaler is involved (or the Wholesaler is outside of the Cumulus network), the Service Provider themselves will create the Buy Package Plans and Service Plans and map them together as required, as well as the Sell Package Plans and Service Plans - and there will be direct links between the Buy Packages and Sell Packages.
Concepts
There are various Cumulus specific concepts that need to be explained prior to actually linking a Package and Service plan.
Service Allowance and Mandatory Services
In creating a link between a Package Plan and Service Plan, Cumulus will set the Allowance and also whether or not the service is Mandatory. Note that you can only set these variables when creating the initial Buy Package.
When you create the Sell Package and Service Plans, then link these together, the system will inherit the Allowance from the Buy Package plan you are linking to.
Allowance
The Allowance essentially is the number of Service Subscriptions that get created for that service plan. For example, you may have a Package with an ADSL service and 5 Additional Mailboxes. In Cumulus, you are not required to link the Email Mailbox Service Plan 5 times. Rather, you link the Service Plan only once and specify that there are 5 services.
Mandatory Services
A mandatory service is one that is required to be Qualified by the Service Qualification (SQ) process explicitly and configured before the Package Subscription will be active.
A non-mandatory service is considered an optional service that can be configured after the Package has already been activated. When a Package subscription is created that has non-mandatory services, the system will create Service Subscriptions for the non-mandatory services that are 'initialised'. These can then be activated and configured at will.
Package Catalogues and Package Groups
Package Catalogues and Package Groups:
- allow users of Wholesale Service Providers the power to sell only specific packages to specific Service Providers.
- allow users of Retail Service Providers the power to sell only specific packages to specific Agents.
This section and video pertains to Wholesale Service Provider use of the package catalogue only. If you wish to learn more about use of the Package Catalogue for Retail Service Providers, [this article].
A wholesaler may use Package Catalogues and groups if different downstream Service Providers are buying different service types, or if they offered a Tiered structure.
From the Wholesale level, 'Sell' Packages are placed into Package Groups. A Package Group (or indeed multiple Package Groups) is then placed into Package Catalogue, which is then mapped to the downstream Service Provider.
Please note that even if every Sell Package in a Wholesaler account is being offered to all Service Providers, these Packages must still be placed in a Package Group and a Catalogue created for each downstream Service Providers.
For a video which demonstrates the package catalogue configuration, see below;
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