Prepaid Subscriptions - R15


Overview


A subscription is a business model where a company can sell their services on a termed (recurring basis). It reflects the agreement between the company and the consumer where termed fees (monthly or quarterly etc) are applied for services such as TV packages, broadband services, fleet usage, etc.
The following are the key business components of a subscription:
  • Termed services(billed on a recurrence basis) such as SVODs or TV channels,
  • Usage services (billed based on usage) such as TVODs (i.e. film) (Optional)
  • Hardware on which service signals are sent to; referred to as Installed Items in CRM.COM (Optional)
  • Fees such as start up fee  (Optional)

In CRM.COM subscriptions are categorized to Prepaid and Normal, which essentially describes the way they are billed. In prepaid subscriptions, customers subscribe for a set of services and pay them in advance, prior their consumption using wallet funds; on the other hand Normal subscriptions are funded by an account controlled by a credit limit and services are rated and billed either before or after their consumption.

In this manual we will describe processes applicable to Prepaid Subscriptions. Refer to Normal Subscriptions for specific processes and setup.

Setting Up Prepaid Subscriptions and Core Processes

Configuration / Billing Application / Subscription & Billing Settings

Before you start using Prepaid Subscriptions set up the system to reflect your own business needs.


Billing Term Scheme


Prepaid billing term schemes establish rules for billing prepaid subscriptions; for example, define whether the time for which a service will be rated will be based on wallet funds or a predefined period set in the system. You can create multiple billing term schemes and upon creation of the subscription, agents will be able to choose the one which is applicable to that subscription. It is however possible, to update the billing term scheme of the subscription at a later stage if required. Once configured, schemes are added to subscription type through which they are made available for selection in the subscription.

Billing & Payment Models

The following prepaid billing models can be configured

  • Prepaid (pre-rated) - Subscription Driven: The subscriber selects the pre-rated period at the subscription level, money is paid against the wallet and the software spends it FIFO based on the services consumption
  • Prepaid (pre-rated) - Payment Driven: Services are billed for a period based on the available wallet funds

In both models, payments can be submitted either manually by the subscriber or automatically by the system if the subscriber has opted in to automatic recurring payments

Subscription Driven Versus Payment Driven

In subscription driven models the subscriber has the option to select at the time that the subscription is created the period to bill in advance. The same period is applied for each subscription service. In case where there are not enough funds in the wallet to pay for the subscription services for the preselected period then the service is deactivated.

To configure a subscription driven model then disable the Pre-rated period is adjustable per subscription

In payment driven models the system will check the available wallet funds and will rate all subscription services for the amount of money available. The system will always check for available funds needed to cover the longest period and then proceed to shorter periods. To configure a subscription driven model then enable the Pre-rated period is adjustable per subscription

The available periods to be billed in advance for both models are configured in the Billing Term Scheme. In case of subscription driven the periods are available for selection when creating a subscription while for payment driven models the periods are used by the system to check against wallet funds.


Subscription Types


Subscription types represent the offerings a company presents its subscribers.  These offerings consist of individual products, prices, billing rules, and provisioning providers, or inclusive packages. The offerings can either be a-la-carte or packaged.  A-la-carte allows customers to add from a pool of services which are then charged accordingly, while packages have a predefined set of services and price. Multiple subscription types are created and the one requested by the subscriber is chosen upon creating the subscription; it is possible however, to change the subscription type on a later stage.

The subscription type determines:

  • Whether the subscriptions will be a-la-carte or packaged
  • Whether subscription is used for commercial purposes (B2B) or residential customers
  • Allowed billing term schemes
  • Available services; 'main' services are mandatory, 'add-ons' are optional
  • Chargeable expenses; one-off, such as a start-up or installation fee
  • Required hardware  
  • Restrictions, such as in the number of services required for a subscription
  • Conditions, such as the subscription products which are necessary for the addition of others products
  • Define allowed changes between subscription services used by the Swap Services subscription action. (TIERS) You can create multiple 'tier groups' and within the group provide a tier level for each included service, which will define whether exchanging one service for another constitutes an upgrade, downgrade or a swap.  Note that the smaller the number, the higher the hierarchy of the service and that you can only swap services that belong in the same tier group. You can also define a tier group hierarchy where one group can follow another. In this case, the system will restrict the options to swap between services of the 'child tier group', depending on the changes in the services of the 'parent group'.

  • Restrict sale or rental of installed items 

 

Defining your packages

If you are offering your customers packaged solutions then on creating the subscription type you can provide all the required information.

  • Specific Billing Term Scheme, Binding Period and Billing Frequency
  • Allowed Termed Services: The services you will set as 'main' will be automatically added to the subscription while the ones you set as 'optional' will be available for addition upon subscriber request.
    • For each of the services defined on the package you must define the rate with which the service is offered
    • Once the subscription type is saved a dedicated price plan is created for the package and the total cost of the package (Package Base Rate) is calculated taking into consideration the main service rates.


Handling subscription hardware

It is possible to define from where installed items added on the subscription come. For example whether they can be chosen from the ones residing in the company's warehouse and are available for rental or sale, installed items in a partner's warehouse which have already been purchased by the customers or installed items already owned by the customer If any of the options is blocked then agents will not be allowed to add installed items from that place. You can choose to block any of the following options:

  • hardware the customer already owes
  • hardware bought from a partner or your company
  • hardware which belongs to your company and will only be rented to the customer for as long as he is subscribed
  • Maximum number of concurrent logged in devices:  the number of devices that can be logged on a service simultaneously (includes registered and unregistered installed items). This option is directly related to cases where you can login to your subscription TV through multiple devices, i.e. mobile tablet smart TV.

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Subscription & Billing Policies


Subscription and Billing Policies includes rules and restrictions regarding the billing and management of subscriptions throughout their life cycle. They are used to incorporating your business requirements into the system.

Activation and Deactivation

Activation and deactivation of subscriptions and services can be controlled through general rules which are defined in the policies.

Cancellation of subscriptions and services

Contracts bind customers for a specific time period, guarantying the customer will generate a predefined amount of money for the company. To this end, penalties can be imposed for canceling a subscription earlier than as stated in the contract. It is possible to define rules both for cancelling subscriptions or services which are either with or without contract and define penalties with which they will be imposed.

Charge customers with one off or recurring expenses

  • Conditional expenses: Define one-time subscriber charges that are applied when events occur, triggered by subscription actions.
  • Recurring expenses: Define recurring subscriber charges. A period defined by a start and end event, within which a selected expense will be charged on a recurring basis according to the billing frequency of the subscriber.
  • Expense on bill: define amounts charged on bill. For example, you can charge an extra amount for printed bills

Apply business rules on subscription management actions

Once a subscription is created can be amended by subscription actions. For example, it can be placed to rest, or it can be regretted with a number of days, its billing frequency may be updated etc. Subscription actions however can be set to reflect your business models by providing rules and restrictions by which such actions can be used. Check the list of subscription actions which you can

  • Billing Term Amendments
  • Grace Period
  • Resting
  • Regret
  • Swap
  • Replace subscription

Other settings

Through the policies it is possible to define settings such as

  • Billable Life Cycle States: Subscription states whose period is considered billable other than the default 'Effective' state.
  • Non-Creditable Life Cycle States: Subscription states whose period should not be refunded (credited) other than the default 'Effective' and 'Draft' life cycle states. For each state, you can define the conditions that make it non-creditable.
  • Subscription Address Rules: Define whether specifying an address for a new subscription is mandatory or not, and the conditions for when it is 'Not Mandatory On Conditions'
  • Maximum Number of subscriptions per account


Prepaid Billing Settings


Billing runs are responsible to bill subscriptions based on the billing model they have subscribed to (dictated by the billing term scheme). The result of a prepaid billing run is the debiting of the subscriber's wallet. Through prepaid billing it is also possible to forecast how many days are left until the whole wallet amount is consumed by the current subscription services if enabled through the Prepaid Billing Settings. Estimation can be skipped in case that you want a faster billing or you can choose to estimate all wallets which have undergone a change. This is done through Enable Wallet Consumption Estimation Step.

If enabled you can also define the look-ahead period when estimating the consumption date for a subscription service while the maximum period is 3 years.


Subscription Action Classification


Action Classifications are user defined and are used to describe why a subscription action has been performed. Classifications can be used when executing a subscription action. Refer to Subscription Actions for more information.



Recommended additional setup


In addition to the Subscription-specific settings the following must be configured for the Subscriptions to operate.

Products: Products added to subscriptions fall into two categories:

  1. Termed, usage or one-time based services, such as TV channels, film, and broadband services.
  2. Hardware items that are necessary for the provision of services, such as decoders or modems.

Once you configure the products, add them to the subscription type and define their dependencies and restrictions. View Products for more information.

Price plans: Price plans are catalogs of billable products (except usage services) with their applicable charges. Once the products and their rates are included in a plan, the plan is added to the appropriate billing term scheme. View Price Plans for more information.

Usage service catalogs: Usage service catalogs are used instead of price plans, for services billed based on their use, such as telephony or data. View Usage Service Catalogs for more information.

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Using Subscriptions

Billing / Subscriptions / Manage Subscriptions




Creating a subscription


To register a new subscription, navigate to Manage Subscriptions and click on NEW. To create a subscription the following information must be provided

  • An accounts receivable is required against which bills will be issued and the payments for the subscription will be made
  • The subscription type which will provide information associated to the services and hardware allowed to be added to the subscription
  • The billing term scheme which will provide the billing rules
  • The termed services the customer subscribed to
  • Optional
    • The hardware (installed items) such as the Set Top Box provided to the customer
    • Additional one off expenses such as start up or installation fees

Subscription Life Cycle States


The life cycle state of a subscription indicates its operational condition and the state of each service of the subscription dictates whether it is subject to billing. A subscription can have the following life cycle states:

  • Draft: the subscription is new and not yet activated
  • Effective: the subscription is active
  • Not Effective: the subscription services are disconnected
  • In Resting: the subscription has been put on hold for a predefined period
  • Regretted: indicates the reversal of a subscription decision shortly after the subscription was activated
  • Replaced: the subscription has been replaced
  • Cancelled: the subscription is no longer in operation
  • Short-Term Effective: the subscription is activated for a short predefined period
  • Short-Term Not Effective: the subscription is deactivated for a short predefined period.

Using actions to modify subscriptions


Subscriptions actions are available from the subscription Data Entry page and are used to apply business changes on subscriptions. Some of the available actions include activation, deactivation, putting a subscription to rest, modifying contract details and adding services or hardware.

Actions are grouped into three categories:   

  • Subscription Service Related Actions
  • Subscription Installed Items Related Actions 
  • Subscription Related Actions

Refer to Subscription Actions for more information.


Activating prepaid subscription services


Subscriptions are created either in a draft or effective state. In case that the subscription is Draft, no money is yet paid and no signals sent to the customer's device. It is possible to activate a subscription at a later stage using the 'Activate Subscription' subscription action in which case, the subscription will be billable. Regardless of the billing model followed, money must be available in the wallet in order for the subscription to be activated.

Billing of prepaid subscription services


Subscriptions are billed through the Prepaid Billing Run which is a background process and is executed daily. Additionally, a subscription will also be billed automatically upon activation.

Refer to Prepaid Subscription Billing for more information.

Deactivating prepaid subscription services


Subscribers who do not have sufficient funds in their wallets to pay for the subscriptions are deactivated by the automatic deactivation process. The process is also responsible to identify and process subscriptions that are owned by accounts that have exceeded their credit limit.

It is possible to exclude from deactivation subscriptions that belong to specific groups, accounts receivable classifications (such as employees) and specific subscription types.

Deactivation is always applied at the level of subscription services.  Deactivation can take into consideration the 'date and time' on which the services were activated (so that subscribers can benefit up to the last minute for the services they paid for), or just the 'date', in which case the service gets cut off at midnight of the day that the services must be deactivated. Services taken into consideration are: 

  • Prepaid subscription services that were classified as candidates for deactivation (from the Billing Run due to insufficient funds)
  • Prepaid subscription services that belong to an account whose credit limit is exceeded


Rules associated to the prepaid deactivation can be defined at the Configuration / Billing Application / Subscription & Billing Settings /Subscription and Billing Policies.

Prepaid deactivation is a background process which is executed by the system as long as it is enabled (started) through the Foundation / Platform / Manage Admin Settings / Batch Processes Admin Board

Through the Subscription and Billing Policies (Generic Settings), periods of deactivation can be configured to be billable.

 

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Reactivating inactive prepaid subscription services


Deactivated subscription services are activated by the recurring activation process or following a payment made against the account. The activation process also re-evaluates the status of subscription services that were classified as candidates for deactivation (during the billing run). It is possible to exclude from activation subscriptions that belong to specific groups, accounts receivable classifications (such as employees) and specific subscription types.

Activation always takes place on the subscription service level and not on the subscription level. Services taken into consideration are:

  • Prepaid subscription services that were not effective for a period that is less than the specified threshold
  • Prepaid subscription services that are effective and are classified as candidates for deactivation

Setting up the Activation Recurring Process

Settings associated with the activation of services accessed from the 'Subscription Activation' found in the Subscription and Billing Policies. Once the settings are defined, the activation process under Subscription Maintenance Utilities must be enabled. It is configured once and executed on a recurring basis.

  1. Navigate to Billing > Subscriptions > Subscriptions Maintenance Utilities and click EDIT
  2. In the Schedule Subscription Activation tab, use MODIFY to ENABLE the process and provide the scheduling settings.
  3. Alternately, click on Run Now to execute instantly or CANCEL pending activation processes


Ranking of Subscription and Subscription Services used for Billing, Deactivation and Ractivation processes

Billing, activation and deactivation processes rank subscription and subscription services to determine processing order.

Subscriptions inherit a ranking number from their subscription type, while services are ranked based on whether they are mandatory (higher ranking) or optional (lower ranking).  This is also defined in the subscription type.

Ranking is critical when services must be activated in an account or wallet with limited funds.

The system will prioritize subscriptions and consequently services with the highest ranking and activate those. 

In case of deactivation, the system prioritizes subscriptions of the lowest ranking and deactivates its services accordingly.

Additional reference to ranking takes place to decide the order. Refer to the table below for more information.

Sorting of SubscriptionsSubscriptions are sorted based on:
  • Ranking level, as defined in the subscription type, in ascending mode.  
  • Activation date, in ascending mode
  • Creation date, in ascending mode.
Sorting of Subscription Services

Services are sorted based on the following logic:

  • Mandatory services without prerequisites
  • Mandatory services with prerequisites
  • Optional services without prerequisites
  • Optional services with prerequisites.

Services within each category are then sorted based on the following logic:

  • By tier level, in ascending mode, as defined on the subscription type
  • By first activation date, in ascending mode
  • By creation date, in ascending mode.

 

Paying for a subscription


 CRM.COM supports multiple ways of paying for a subscription. Cash, Direct Debit, Credit Card or other supported online payment methods. Payments must always be made upfront (before the subscription/service is activated). This means that the account must either have enough funds to cover for the payment or a card/online payment must be available from where money will be directly deducted.

Recurring card(online) payments

It is possible for customers that choose to pay with credit cards or other online payments to provide their information and whenever a payment is required it will be done automatically. This provides your customers with the security of an uninterrupted service due to payment failures. In order to enable recurring payments, the information (i.e card details or PayPal account) must be provided and saved on the subscriber's account, and enabled to be used for recurring payments.

Making payments for specific prepaid services

It is possible to make payments to top up the subscriber's wallet for an amount of money that can either be consumed by all the services of a subscription or for specific ones. As a result, the payment's amount is not just moved to the customer's wallet, but this amount is also allotted to the requested services. This can be done by defining the services which the payment is made from upon the creation of the financial transaction.


Set up Wallet Credit Rule accordingly to ensure that a payment made against the account will be used to top up the wallet.



Provisioning subscriptions


Subscriptions used in the Subscription TV business will also require provisioning of the content. Provisioning in CRM.COM is the distribution of the paid content (i.e. channels, film) from the video platform to the customer's device. According to the state of the subscription (active,inactive) the required information is communicated from CRM.COM to the TV platform or CAS which will in turn handle the signals to the subscriber's device accordingly. CRM.COM is integrated with multiple TV platforms and Conditional Access Systems. For more information refer to provisioning.

Canceling subscriptions


Subscriptions and subscription services can be canceled by the user through a subscription action, or automatically through a recurring cancellation process. Subscriptions or services that are inactive for a long period can be automatically canceled (through system processes that are configured once and executed as often as necessary). During the recurring process, the system examines and cancels subscriptions or services, following the rules defined by the business set in the Subscription and Billing Policies under 'Subscription Cancellation'.

The following settings are available:

  • Select whether the whole subscription or just specific services should be canceled.
  • Provide the period for which a subscription should be inactive (i.e., in a life cycle state that is 'Not Effective') before it is considered as a candidate for cancellation.
    Different periods can be provided for normal and prepaid subscriptions.

Once the rules are defined in the Subscription and Billing Policies, the recurring process must be enabled and configured in 'Subscription Maintenance Utilities'. It is configured only once and executed on a recurring basis.

  1. Navigate to Billing > Subscriptions > Subscription Maintenance Utilities definition and click EDIT.
  2. In the Schedule Subscription Cancellation tab, use MODIFY to ENABLE the process and provide the scheduling settings. 
    Throttling settings allow you to define the number of subscriptions to be cancelled in every batch and the time between each batch in order to avoid a long queue when sent to the provider for cancellation
  3. Alternately, click on RUN NOW (to execute instantly) or CANCEL any pending cancellation processes.

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Providing subscriptions or subscription services free of charge


 Subscription services that are provided for free cannot be disconnected due to outstanding or insufficient funds. If all the subscription's services are free then the subscription is considered a free subscription. To create a free subscription or free services define these services in the Billing Term Scheme Service Rules

 

 

Applying discounts to subscriptions


There are two ways to offer discounts on subscriptions:  

  1. Through price plans, based on purchased quantity/ period
  2. Through additive discounts, which are applied to a subscription based on subscription or account conditions, or selected by the agents creating the subscription by using the Provide Ad Hoc Discount action.

Refer to Pricing for more information

 

 

Additional Processes and Automations for Prepaid Subscriptions

B2B Subscriptions


Business-to-Business subscriptions represent the agreement between the service company and another company instead of a physical person. They allow the concurrent usage of the subscribed services in various locations, by multiple users or on multiple devices.
Billing of commercial subscriptions is done based
  • Maximum Capacity: a number defined upon subscription creation which will always be used by billing
  • Actual Capacity: a number provided every time the subscription is billed and is based on the actual number of devices/users that used the subscription
  • Number of devices added to the subscription: the number of installed items added to the subscription

The above parameters are set on the subscription at the time of its creation

B2B subscriptions can only be created for accounts associated to companies and not physical persons.

To create a B2B subscription you must use a 'Commercial' subscription type and a billing term scheme which supports concurrent usage.

Offering Subscription packages


A subscription package reflects a company's marketing offering that allows its customers to subscribe for a fixed set of services and physical goods. It includes
  • A fixed price for all services included in it
  • Common subscription and pricing terms to all customers that select to subscribe to it

A subscription package
  • Can be swapped with other packages  (Swap Package)
  • Can be replaced by other subscription types (Replace Subscription)
  • Can be discounted automatically by auto-applied additive discounts or by discounts added by on the fly (ad-hoc discounts (Apply Ad-hoc discount)
  • Have additional services swapped

For more information on packages refer to Subscription Type

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Communicating subscriptions 


It is possible to automatically create communications on various events that take place with regard to a subscription, such as creating, cancelling activating or deactivating, changing etc. by setting up 'Event Based Communication Definition' accordingly. You can use tags related to wallets (text that is automatically replaced by values specific to selected records) when creating communication templates or communications. Tags are available for selection by typing '#'. It is also possible to manually create communications which include subscription related information through the communications page by adding the subscription number in the 'Referring to Entities'

Refer to the Communications manual for a complete list of service request tags.

Approving subscriptions


Subscriptions can be configured to require approval from a specific user before they are further processed. This is done by setting up Approval Definitions and triggering Workflow Rules.  For more information refer to Managing Approval Requests.

Automation on subscriptions


Subscription processes can be automated by using Workflows.  For example, you can use alerts to contact users or schedule activities, when a subscription of a specific type is created.  For more information refer to Workflows. 


 

Previewing days until deactivation


A preview is available through the Bill Subscriber action, which can estimate the number of days left until the wallet (which pays for pre-rated and post-rated subscription services) runs out of funds.

Using all remaining wallet funds


 In order for a wallet to fund a prepaid subscription there must be enough funds to cover for all the subscription's services in order for the subscription not to get deactivated. However, there are cases in which the wallet's available amount is not enough to activate a prepaid service for its required pre-rated period. As a result, this money is never consumed and the prepaid pre-rated services will get deactivated.

To avoid this scenario the customer may select to use the remaining amount of money for his subscribed services for a shorter period. Use Enforce Wallet Consumption action  available in Wallets which enforces the remaining wallet amount to be consumed by prepaid service(s) by pre-rating them for a smaller period that their specified pre-rated period.

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Business Flows


Creating and billing prepaid subscriptions

Scenario

Aluxsat Co. advertises two subscriber offerings, whose services must be paid a week in advance.

Subscriptions activated 1 January at 3 a.m. are deactivated 8 January 3 a.m.

Broadband & TV Gold (€10/week)

  • 2 main channels that are mandatory for the subscription
  • 5 add-on channels selected from a pool of 20 channels 
  • 50 MB internet

Broadband & TV Platinum (€20/week)

  • 5 main channels that are mandatory for the subscription
  • 10 add-ons channels selected from a pool of 20 channels
  •  50 MB internet

Subscribers must have a streaming device and a modem.  Both items are available from Company ZX.

New subscriptions can be created in two ways:

  1. Customers can visit a retail shop, pick-up the necessary equipment and start using their subscription straight away.
  2. Customers can place an installation order by calling the Company ZX call center.  The installer activates the subscription from the customer's location using a mobile app.

Subscriptions are billed as soon as they are activated, and on a weekly basis, from then on. If subscribers do not have adequate funds in their wallet, then the service is deactivated. Subscribers that cancel their subscriptions or swap to an already billed service are credited and billed again, as necessary.

Configuration


  1. Go to Products and create:
    1. Channels and broadband (as termed services)
    2. A physical good for the modem
    3. A physical good for the Roku box.
  2. Go to Price Plans and provide rates for each of the products
  3. Go to Billing Term Schemes and define billing rules as follows:
    1. Type: Prepaid
    2. Billing Type: Pre Rate
    3. Make sure that Pre-rated period is adjustable per subscription
    4. Set1 new 'Period Billed In Advance' to one week and set as default

  4. Go to Subscription Types and create your offerings. Create one subscription type per offering.
    1. Broadband & TV GoldIncludes two main channels that are mandatory for the subscription and five add-ons, which can be selected from a pool of 20 channels and 50 MB Internet.
      1. Add the two main channels and the 50 MB broadband service and define them as 'mandatory' under allowed services.
      2. Add the remaining 20 channels and set them as 'optional' under allowed services.
      3. Add the Roku box and modem in the allowed physical goods.
      4. Define a minimum and a maximum number of mandatory services as '2'.
      5. Define a maximum number of optional services as '5'.
      6. Define a dependency of the broadband service on the modem.
      7. Define a dependency of all termed services on the Roku box.
    2. Broadband & TV PlatinumIncludes five main channels that are mandatory for the subscription and 10 add-ons, which can be selected from a pool of 20 channels and 100 MB Internet.
      1. Add the five main channels and the 100 MB broadband service and define them as 'mandatory' under allowed services.
      2. Add the remaining 20 channels and set them as 'optional' under allowed services.
      3. Add the Roku box and the modem in the allowed physical goods.
      4. Define a minimum and a maximum number of mandatory services as '5'.
      5. Define a maximum number of optional services as '10'.
      6. Define a dependency of the broadband service on the modem.
      7. Define a dependency of all termed services on the Roku box.
    3. The following steps need only be taken for one subscription type, as the step will add all the services in the billing term scheme.
      1. Add the new billing term in the billing term schemes tab.
      2. Click on 'Add Missing Services' to add to the billing term scheme all the services added to the subscription type.
      3. Define the service billing type as pre-bill (billed before usage).
  5. Go to Wallets and set up as follows:
    1. Wallet Threshold: 0
    2. Wallet Causes - Debit Wallets
      • During Prepaid Billing Run
      • Select Normal Debit (provided that the wallet transaction type it is already configured).
    3. Wallet Causes - Credit Wallets (in order to refund the subscriber if a service is cancelled)
      • During Prepaid Billing Run
      • Select Normal Credit (provided that the wallet transaction type it is already configured).
  6. Go to Subscription & Billing Policies and set Subscription Deactivation Rule as follows:
    1. Prepaid Subscriptions will be deactivated: Based on Day and Hour

    2. Events that will trigger the automatic Subscription deactivation: On Prepaid Subscription Deactivation process


User Process

Once the configuration is in place, agents can start registering subscriptions.

Retailer Shop Subscriptions

The Become Subscriber action is used and submitted as 'Effective'.

  1. At the subscriptions Data Entry page:
    1. Provide the new customer's details.
      1. Create a new account and add a credit card in the payment preferences
      2. Enable the credit card preference to be used for recurring payments
    2. Select one of two subscription types available.
    3. Select the requested services and hardware equipment.
    4. Ensure that the pre rate period is set to 1 week
    5. Submit the action as 'Effective'.

The signal is available as soon as the equipment is connected.

Call Centre Subscriptions

The Become Subscriber action is used and submitted as 'Draft'.

  1. At the subscriptions Data Entry page:
    1. Provide the new customer's details.
      1. Create a new account and add a credit card in the payment preferences
      2. Enable the credit card preference to be used for recurring payments
    2. Select one of two subscription types available.
    3. Select the requested services.
    4. Submit the action as 'Draft'.
      The subscription and its services remain in the System as 'Draft'. 
  2.   The installer activates the subscription from the customer's location using a mobile app integrated with CRM.COM, using subscription WEB APIs.  The installer:
    1. Executes the Add Installed Item action and enters the serial numbers of the Roku box and modem.
    2. Uses the 'Activate Subscription' action.


Billing Run executed on a daily basis

Example:  Three customers wish to subscribe to the Broadband & TV Gold service, which costs €20/week.

The requested effective date is 1 January 2018 and the pre-rated period is one week.

  • Mary credits her wallet with €40
  • John credits his wallet with €30
  • George does not credit his wallet.


Subscriber
Requested Effective Date
Wallet Amount (Prepaid)
Pre-Rate Period

Service activation

01.01.2018

Prepaid Billing Run

08.01.2018

Prepaid Billing Run

15.01.2018

Mary01.01.2018€401 week
  • Pre-Rated Amount is €20
  • Wallet Amount is €20
  • Service is billed up to 08.01.2018
  • Pre-Rated Amount is €20
  • Wallet Amount is €0
  • Service is billed up to 15.01.2018
  • Pre-Rated Amount = €20
  • Wallet Amount = €0
  • Subscription is marked for deactivation, as funds in the wallet are not sufficient to cover another week.
John01.01.2018

€30



1 week
  • Pre-Rated Amount = €20
  • Wallet Amount is €10
  • Service is billed up to 08.01.2018
  • Pre-Rated Amount is €20
  • Wallet Amount is €10
  • Subscription is marked for deactivation, as funds in the wallet are not sufficient to cover another week.
Remains deactivated
George01.01.2018€0.001 weekGeorge's subscription will not be activated due to insufficient wallet funds. Remain deactivated Remains deactivated



On this page

For the developer

Check out the Subscriptions WEB API for a complete list of actions available used to integrate CRM.COM to external systems

Subscription Actions WEB API

Subscription Service Actions WEB API

Subscription Installed Item Actions WEB API

Actions WEB API



Release news

Check out a full list of CRM.COM features available per release.

Features

Check out upgrade notes to find out what needs to be done to upgrade from your current release to the latest release of CRM.COM.

Upgrade Notes