Overview

Warranty policies are the set of rules that determine the application of warranties (an assurance from a supplier that the physical good will be repaired or replaced in case it malfunctions within a predetermined period after the purchase).  The policies establish the physical goods covered by the warranty, the validity period and the instances in which the warranty can offer a free replacement.  Once warranty policies are set up in the system, warranties are automatically issued for goods during the sale. The latest warranty policy set up in the system is the one applied.

Major features

• Automatically apply a warranty to goods sold to customers (not to rented goods)
• Automatically determine the warranty coverage of a good through service requests
• Transfer warranty coverage between exchanged items 
• Bill replaced physical goods under warranty
• Move replaced malfunctioning items to specific warehouses
  
• Preview warranties through dashboards

Setting Up Warranty Policies

Warranty coverage reasons

'Coverage reasons' are user-defined and provide a justification for the replacement of a physical good.  Once coverage reasons are configured, they must be added to warranty policies to determine whether the replacement will be free of charge.

 A coverage reason may cover the free replacement of a physical good when selected for one warranty policy and not for another.

Warranty policies

A warranty policy defines how physical goods bought by customers can be replaced within a specific period after the purchase. 

Multiple warranty policies can be set up.  The most suitable (subject to conditions defined in the policy) is automatically applied when a good is sold or swapped.

A policy must have an 'Effective' life cycle state to be applied. The life cycle state of a policy can be toggled between 'Effective' and 'Not Effective' using a dedicated action. 

Warranty policy fields

The table describes the sections of Warranty Policy Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

Main Information
Duration: The coverage period, configured in days, weeks, months or years. Life Cycle State: 'Effective' or 'Not Effective'. A policy must be 'Effective' to be applied. Company Responsibilities: The obligations of the retailer regarding the coverage of the physical goods by the warranty policy (free text area). Customer Responsibilities: The obligations of the customer regarding the coverage of the physical goods by the warranty policy (free text area).
Validity
The period during which the warranty policy is available defined by a 'Valid from Date' and 'Valid to Date'  Valid from Date is always mandatory, while the Valid to Date can be left empty if the period is open-ended. The validity period is used to determine which policy should be applied to goods when more than one policy is applicable. The policy with the most recent Valid from Date is applied and has priority over 'Always Valid' policies.
Coverage for Physical Goods
The physical goods that can be covered by the policy. Specific products, product types, product brands, or product families can be defined. Each policy must include at least one of the aforementioned categories. Only traceable physical goods can be specified.
Allowed Coverage Reasons
Coverage Reason: Select one of the available reasons from the drop-down list. Replacement Under Coverage Policy: For each reason, select the policy to be used following the replacement. The available options are: Carry Over Remaining Duration: The remaining warranty is transferred to the new physical good. Apply New Warranty: The replacement physical good is issued a new warranty. No Warranty: The new physical good is not issued a warranty.  Provide Coverage: For each reason, enable to indicate that the item can be swapped free of charge.
Allowed Organisational Units
Define the communities, groups or units to which the user that sells or swaps the physical good should belong to for the warranty policy to be applied on the physical good.

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Related configuration

The following mandatory modules are related to warranty policies and must be configured for the warranty policies module to operate at its full capacity.

Using Warranty Policies

Issuing a warranty for sold goods

Warranties can be issued for traceable physical goods sold to customers based on warranty policies. The process is automatic and takes place when the goods are sold. When a good that is eligible for a warranty is sold, the system determines the warranty policy that should be issued. 

If the good is eligible for more than one warranty policy, the policy with the most recent Valid from Date is applied and has priority over other 'Always Valid' policies. 

Once the warranty policy is determined, the system will set:

• The policy on the installed item.
• The warehouse issue date equal to the current date, recording the day that the good was sold and removed from the company's warehouse.
• The warranty coverage period, calculated by adding the warranty's duration to the warehouse issue date.

Replacing a physical good under warranty

Customers may request to replace a physical good for various reasons (e.g., due to a technical issue or to upgrade it or because it was stolen).

If their good is under warranty, the system can check whether the replacement will be free.

A job of fulfillment scope 'swap subscription installed item' or 'replace physical good' must be used to replace a good. The system considers the good's warranty and the coverage reason selected by the user to evaluate whether to:

• Provide a free replacement.
• Issue a warranty for the new good.
• Transfer the warranty from the replaced item to the new one.

The following sequence describes how to check if an item to be swapped is under warranty and how to select the replacement reason that determines if the new good will be charged.

1. Create a new Job of a type having either a 'Swap subscription installed item' or 'Replace physical good' fulfillment scope and provide the contact and account details so that the system retrieves the customer's physical goods.
2. In the Items section, select the physical good to be replaced under the 'Requested Subscription Physical Goods' or 'Requested Physical Goods To Be Replaced' tab (depending on the fulfillment scope of the job).

3. If the warranty still covers the item, then the following information is made available.

   1. Warranty Policy: Displays the warranty applied to the good (Click to view).
   2. Coverage Reason: Select the coverage reason from the drop-down list.
      
      
      

   3. Covered: Set automatically once the reason is specified.

      • No  = The new good will be charged

      • Yes  = The new good will not be charged
        
        

4. Provide the rest of the required information to save and complete the Job.

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Viewing warranties issued on physical goods

To find out whether a physical good has been issued a warranty, or to view historic data on warranties, refer to the Manage Installed Items Data Entry page.

1. Navigate to Foundation > Inventory Management > Manage Installed Item.
   
2. Under the Warranty Policy Tab  
   
   1. Warranty Policy:  Name of applied policy
      
   2. Warranty Expiration Date 
   3. Warehouse Issue Date: The day on which the good left the warehouse (used to calculate the expiration date, by adding the warranty policy 'duration' and the 'issue date').
3. Change History
   1. Warranty Policy: Displayed if the warranty policy was removed from a replaced item.  
   2. Coverage Reason: Displayed if the warranty was removed from a replaced item.  
      

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Determining the warranty policy applied on replacement

When replacing an item through a job the system determines whether:

• The item is under coverage (will be replaced free of charge).
• The item's warranty policy will be transferred to the new physical good.
• A new warranty policy will be issued for the replacement item.

The system follows the Replacement Under Coverage Policy defined on the selected warranty coverage reason when replacing the item and uses it to determine which policy (if any) will be applied to the item.  Replacement under Coverage Policy has three possible values:

• Carry Over Remaining Duration: The remaining warranty period is calculated and applied to the new item.
• Apply New Warranty: A new warranty policy is issued as if a new traceable physical good was sold.
• No Warranty

 The diagram below displays how the warranty policy on an existing installed item (II) affects the warranty on the new item, during a replacement.  

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Identifying from which warehouse the item will be removed

When a physical good is swapped, the system uses inventory management definitions and warranty coverage to determine the warehouse that should be used to perform the swap, as displayed in the following diagrams: 

Warehouse transaction movements when the replacement physical good is provided free of charge

Warehouse transaction movements when the replacement physical good is not covered by a warranty

• Coverage reason does not include coverage (i.e. replacement is not free of charge)
• Warranty on existing item has expired
• No Warranty exists

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Warranty Policies Analytics

Dashboards 

Dashboards provide information regarding the key performance indicators of applied warranties from a single integrated view. Dashboards are made up of components such as charts and summary tables. Refer to Dashboards for information on their use and set-up.

Dashboard components

Jobs per Coverage Reason and Month 

The component displays the jobs that were initiated within the last 12 months grouped by warranty coverage reasons, in a stacked bar chart.  The results can be filtered by warranty coverage reason, job type, job status and physical good.

Jobs of all fulfillment scopes are retrieved, provided the requested physical goods include a warranty coverage reason.

Service Requests per Coverage Reason and Month

The component displays the service requests that were raised within the last 12 months, grouped by warranty coverage reasons, in a stacked bar chart.  The results can be filtered by warranty coverage reason, job type, job status and physical good.

Reports

Information can be extracted in a structured format for analysis by using reports. The items included in the report are selected and grouped based on user-defined criteria. The user can select the fields displayed in the report.
Refer to Reports for information on their use.

Warranty Policies for physical goods

The report, available under Inventory Management Reports, displays a list of the physical goods sold and covered by a warranty policy.

Physical Goods Covered are goods sold with a warranty which is still valid, while Physical Goods Sold are goods which were sold or replaced based on the warranty policy specified in the report, and may still be under warranty.

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Printouts

A printout displays all the information associated with the warranty of an installed item. It is available through the installed items Data Entry page, in one of the following formats: HTML, XLS, CSV, RTF or PDF.

Refer to Printouts for information on how they can be created, printed and sent.

Warranty policy printout

Warranty policy printout displays detailed information of an installed item's warranty policy coverage in terms of duration and coverage reasoning.  The printout is available through the installed items Data Entry page.  Unlike other printouts, it is not available for sending by email.

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Business Examples

Applying a warranty to replace damaged physical goods free of charge

Charging for the replacement of a physical good