Creating a PPU Product Type

As a product manager, the first step for configuring a PPU service is to define its product type. Each service resource that can be consumed and billed, must be defined as a product characteristic. You can start by creating a new and PPU Product type by navigating to BSS Setup > Billing > Products > Product Types and clicking on the Add button.

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On the Product Type creation page that is displayed at the beginning, you have to define three elements. More specifically:

• Name: A meaningful Product Type name of your choice that will differentiate this Product Type from the rest of the Product Types.

• Cancellation Refund Policy: The default option for such a case is the preconfigured one called Refund based on days the services was used.  

• Quantity Limit: We suggest this option to be set to 1. Consumption bases subscriptions act in our system as "containers" for billing the service's consumption and it does not make sense to have quantity more than 1.  

Once these three options are configured, the new Product Type must be saved by clicking on the Save button on the top menu. 

Define the Billable Resources of the PPU Service

The resources of your PPU service must be included in the definition of the product type as properties. Now that the Product Type is saved and created, the Product Type Properties section is available for defining the billable resources of this service. 

In platform terminology, the resources that must be billed every month based on consumption are called metered resources. There are resources that are charged for a billing period, and for the next one, the billing starts over from scratch. Such a resource is, for example, the bandwidth of a website. In order to charge for the bandwidth that a website has consumed, you simply need to measure the total bandwidth consumed in a period of time and bill it (e.g., 45GB bandwidth for the period 01/11 - 30/11). For the next billing cycle, you need to re-measure the bandwidth and charge accordingly. Such resources must be modeled as numeric product characteristics. 

To create a property that will represent one of the service's resources, you can click on the Add button, located under the Properties tab.


During the creation of a Property, you must define three elements. More specifically:
 

• Name: A meaningful Product Type Property name of your choice that relates to the resource. For example, Metered Bandwidth GB.

• Property Type: It must be Product Characteristic.  

• Property Values Type: Since this property represents a measurable resource that will be billed, its type must be Number.

Once these three options are configured, the new Property of the Product Type must be saved by clicking on the Save or Save & Close button on the bottom menu.

This is how the created PPU Product Type Property looks at the moment:

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Now that the Property of the PPU Product Type is saved and created, the next step is the creation of a PPU Product that will be based on this Product Type.

Creating a PPU Product

You can now proceed by creating a new PPU Product by navigating to BSS > Billing > Products > and clicking on the Add button to select the Add Product option.

Inside the Product creation page, you have to do the following actions:

• Make sure that the PPU Product is defined as a Primary Product.

• Provide a meaningful name for this PPU Product, under the Description field.

• Connect the previously created PPU Product Type by selecting it by name.

• Provide a meaningful product code for this PPU Product, under the Code field.

• Select the Unit of Measure that best describes this product.

• Under the Pricing section, make sure that you have selected the option Recurring charge - Pay-per-use, since this is a requirement for creating a Product as a PPU Product.

• Also under the Pricing section, make sure that you have deselected all the non-applicable Units(Quarterly, Annual, Two Years), except for the Monthly.

Once all the aforementioned options are configured, the new PPU Product must be saved by clicking on the Save button on the top menu. 

This is how the created PPU Product looks at the moment:

Now that the PPU Product is saved and created, the next step is the definition of how the resources will be priced.

Creating Add-ons for Billing the Service Resources

The consumption of a PPU subscription is billed by uploading, at the beginning of each month, the consumption of the previous month. This is achieved by uploading each month an Excel file that includes the usage records. Each usage record represents the consumption for a specific resource and includes the quantity that must be billed (e.g., 15GB of bandwidth or 125 minutes of international calls). But, the cost of a specific resource (for example, the cost for the 10GBs of bandwidth or 1 minute of an international call) is modeled in our system with the use of add-ons.

We have decided to use add-ons for billing the resources of a PPU service for the pricing flexibility they offer:

• You can bill a resource using packages (e.g., to bill the bandwidth in packages of 5GBs or 10GBs)

• You can use volume pricing or tiered pricing to offer better pricing for bigger consumption volumes.

• You can have custom pricing per customer or group of customers by including the add-ons in pricelists.
  
  

Creating the PPU Add-ons

You should create only one add-on per resource. It doesn't make sense to create more than one add-on per resource since a resource can be billed only from a single add-on.

You can create a new PPU Add-on by clicking from the PPU Product view page the New Add-on option located under the Shortcuts menu.

To configure an add-on correctly, you should:

1. Make sure that you have related the add-on with a single resource: Each resource is represented as a product characteristic. You should set a value only to the property this add-on will bill and the rest properties should be left empty.

2. Set a sell and purchase price for the quantity you have set in the related property.

In the following screenshot, we have created an add-on that bills the 5GBs of bandwidth for 2 euros.

Additionally, you should:

• Make sure that the PPU Add-on is defined as an Add-on.

• Provide a meaningful name for this PPU Add-on, under the Description field.

• Connect the previously created PPU Product Type by selecting it by name.

• Provide a meaningful add-on code for this PPU Add-on, under the Code field.

• Select the Unit of Measure that best describes this product.

• Under the Pricing section, make sure that you have selected the option Recurring charge - Prepaid, otherwise, the Add-on will not be created as a PPU Add-on for the PPU Product.

• Also under the Pricing section, make sure that you have deselected the Setup Fee pricing as well as all the non-applicable Units(Quarterly, Annual, Two Years), except for the Monthly.  

Once all the aforementioned options are configured, the new PPU Add-on must be saved by clicking on the Save button on the top menu. 

This is how the created PPU Add-on looks at the moment:

Now that the PPU Add-on is saved and created, the next step is the define the relation between the PPU Add-ons and the PPU Product Resources.

Connecting the Resources with the PPU Add-ons 

On the details page of the PPU product, you can find the Usage Charges tab. This is a list of the product characteristics (resources) that can be charged based on their usage. This is where the creation of the PPU bond (in terms of the product resources) with the PPU Add-on will take place.

Under the Usage Charges tab, you can define which resources are billed from which add-ons by selecting the “Edit Usage Charges” action.

Once the button is clicked, a pop-up window appears bearing the following options:

• Resource: This is a list with all product characteristics, stemming from the Product Type (except for product characteristics with property value type = Text, Text Area, and Date).

• Usage Type: Select always the Metered value.

• Add-on for charge: This field is for selecting the add-on that will be used for charging the consumption of the select resource. If you have created only one add-on with value for the specific resource, this add-on will be selected by default.  

• Charge Rule: This field is disabled for Metered resources. 

Once all the aforementioned options are configured, as per this example, then you need to click on the + icon for the PPU Add-on to be related to the PPU Product Resources. You can then close the pop-up window by clicking on the Close button.

Therefore, in the Usage Charges tab you can view all the product characteristics for which the usage-based charging has been activated.

Here you have defined, for example, that resource Metered Bandwidth GB is a metered resource that is charged based on usage utilizing the PPU Add-on Bandwidth GB.
The Price column displays the monthly price of the selected Add-on. If the Add-on has been declared to be subjected to a volume discount, the price here is shown as a price range, with the lowest price being the price from the 1st tier of the volume discount and the highest price being the price from the last tier of the volume discount. 

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