Subscriptions Template

Owned by Spyroulla Ioakim
Last updated: Sept 20, 2021 by Andros Papageorgiou

Export this template and answer these questions as accurately as possible, the information you provide will help us form a better understanding of your project requirements. Feel free to provide a brief description of business rules and scenarios where deemed necessary.

1. Product Offering

1.1. Products as Services

  • List the services currently offered (e.g. Basic TV, Movies add-on service, etc.)

    • List any termed services (billed on a recurring basis)

    • List any usage services (based on consumption, e.g. VOD)

    • List any one-time services (billed once, either a specific amount or based on duration, e.g. installation service)

    • List any expense services (fixed amount, billed once, or on a recurring basis)  

  • Are the services sold separately and/or as part of a bundle?

  • Specify any service dependencies (e.g. Kid’s TV service is offered only if the subscription service  is Gold Pack)

 1.2. Products as Physical Goods

  • Which devices are offered by your business?

  • Are these devices rented or sold to customers?

  • Can these devices be sold separately or as part of a bundle? (e.g. a TV service & a STB device)

  • Can customers use their own devices?

 1.3.  Pricing Offering

  • For each of your subscription services, specify:

    • The price

    • The billing cycle (days, weeks, months, years)

    • How many billing cycles is a termed period?

    • At the end of the termed period, is the service auto-renewed or expired?

    • The contract (binding) period

    • Is there a trial period? If so, what’s the duration?

    • What’s the billing method?

      • Pre-bill - services are billed before they are used

      • Post-bill - services are billed after they are used

    • Is the price fixed or variable?

  • Specify the rate model for each product (i.e. flat rate, tiered rate – maturity based, volume – quantity * tier rate, stair-step – tier rate)

  • Do you use different prices and/or currencies for B2B or B2C? (e.g. VIP prices for VIP customers)

 1.4. Discounts

  • Specify any promotions (discounts) offered to customers

  • Under which conditions do promotions apply? (e.g. type of subscriber, validity period, purchased products, product quantity)

2. Subscription Flows & Business Rules

2.1. Package Offering (Subscription Services)

Specify the business rules and conditions used to create and maintain subscription services

  • Is there a limit to how many subscription services a customer can order?

  • What are your rules for automatic deactivation of services?

    • Based on day and hour?

    • Based on day?

  • Is automatic cancellation of a service applied if it has been deactivated for a period of time?  

2.1.1. Change of Service

Do you offer upgrading/downgrading of services?

  • Define your service tiers (i.e. allowed changes between subscription services) in a hierarchical format with the highest ranking service first

  • What are the conditions for upgrading a service? 

    • Effective immediately?

    • On service contract end date?

    • On next billing cycle?

  • What are the conditions for downgrading a service? 

    • Effective immediately?

    • On service contract end date?

    • On next billing cycle?

2.1.2. Pausing Subscriptions

Define the rules for resting a subscription

  • Do your business flows support resting of subscriptions?

  • Are there any rules for customers to be able to rest?

  • Define your business rules related to the resting period (i.e. Allowed days per year, Allowed times per year, minimum/maximum days for each resting period).

2.1.3. Cancelling Subscriptions

  • What are your cancellation rules when not in contract?

    • Do you require a notice period?

    • Is cancellation effective immediately?

    • Applicable at the end of the billing cycle?

  • What are your cancellation rules when in contract?

    • Is cancellation effective immediately?

    • On contract end date?

    • Applicable at the end of the billing cycle?

 2.2. Billing

  • Specify the billing model used to bill subscribers

    • Anniversary (billed on the day the service was initially purchased)

      • Can a customer change the billing day?

    • Period (all customers billed on the same date)

  • Aside from when a subscription is effective, are there any other states when a subscription can still be billed? (i.e. draft, effective, pending verification, not effective, paused, regretted, cancelled, swapped, removed)

  • When is a subscription service considered non-creditable? (i.e. draft, effective, not effective, paused, regretted, cancelled, swapped, removed)

  • Are there any additional charges for services? (e.g. upon initiation, activation, deactivation, cancellation, downgrading, switching)

    • When are these chargeable? (immediately, upon next billing cycle)

  • Do you have a credit limit policy?

2.2.1.   Usage Based Billing

  • Define the billing rules for usage based services

    • Are there any rules for customers to be able to add a usage service?

    • Which services can be consumed and what is the usage allowance for termed services? (e.g. Movie channel, 10 movies per month)

  • Are there any usage charge limits? (i.e. maximum allowed non-billed usage, the customer will be invoiced once this threshold is reached)

 2.3. Payment Process

 Define the process of accepting payments from customers

  • Define the available payment methods (cash, card, direct debit, stripe, vouchers etc.)

  • Specify the process of notifying customers when a payment is due

  • Do you require creating automatic payments?

  • Do you allow payment retries (of failed payments)?

    • How many retries are attempted?

    • How often are retries scheduled?

    • What if payment fails?

  • Do you require payment gateway integrations with CRM.COM?

3. Other Business Flows

3.1. Subscriber Registration

Describe the subscriber registration process and the customer information required.

  • Specify any uniqueness rules to be applied during customer registration (e.g. phone, email etc.)

  • Define the customer verification process (e.g. OTP, verify email)

  • Specify the process of capturing customer addresses

  • Define any applicable business rules

  • Specify how to handle sensitive information (data protection)

3.2. Customer Notifications

  • List the events for which customers receive notifications

  • What information is included in these notifications?

4. Provisioning

  • Do you require integration with a CAS or OTT?

    • Which services and devices are provisionable per integrator?

  • Which actions or commands are sent to each device?

5. Inventory Management

  • Specify the business model of managing your inventory and the distribution to the different retailers (if applicable)

  • Specify products for which you keep stock information (Smart cards, Decoder, etc)

  • Do you require the ability to import devices? (e.g. decoders, set-top-boxes, etc.) in batches?

6. Automations and Integrations

  • List and describe any third-party systems that will require integration with CRM.COM (e.g. communication gateways, analytics tools)

  • Specify if it’s required to send or receive information via these integrations

7. Analytics

  • Do you require any quick view information in the form of a dashboard?  

  • Which reports are required for your business operations?

  • Do you require any insight data?