New Release
PUBLIC
February 2024
We are excited to announce that Subscription Order Management 2023 FPS01 is now generally available starting February 28th, 2024. This release brings a range of intuitive new features and Fiori enhancements that will elevate your user experience, integration capabilities, and system performance to the next level.
Let's delve into the latest product features, which include Billing Schedule, replication of scale-based conditions to SAP CC, contract sub-item with future start date, enhanced pricing capabilities with SAP CC and various other functional enhancements SAP Billing and Revenue Innovation Management (BRIM) suite.
Billing Schedule for Periodic Subscriptions
Have you ever pondered how to enable your customers with a tailored billing schedule as per their preference? Or you have always sought a standardized solution for ramp-up pricing or discounts with a validity lesser than contract validity? If yes, then with this release you will now have much more flexibility and control over the periodic subscriptions, thanks to the new billing schedule feature.
However, what is the new Billing Schedule feature and what scenarios are supported?
Well, with the Billing Schedule feature, you can provide your customers with greater flexibility in their billing arrangements, whether they prefer a periodic billing schedule that suit their convenience or choose to spread payments across uneven months. You can even configure the billing in a way that supports ramp-up/down pricing, or even model discounts which are assigned only for specific months. Our system seamlessly replicates the billing schedule lines to SAP CI to create individual billing plan items.
Why don’t we explore a couple of scenarios that are now managed intuitively?
Scenario 1: The total contract value is broken into multiple instalments with varying amounts.
For instance, your customer has committed to a one-year subscription starting on January 1st, 2024, with a quarterly billing cycle. However, the customer requests for the flexibility of a billing schedule where the amount varies among the billing cycle over the entire tenure.
Thanks to Billing Schedule feature, you can now easily update the default billing schedule values of the proposed system based on your discussion with the customer. This not only allows you to customize the customer’s billing schedule but also helps prevent customer defaults, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction.
Scenario 2: Ramp-up/down pricing:
Let’s consider another scenario where your customer has a subscription contract that is valid for three years, with a monthly billing cycle, and the contract requires a ramp-up pricing structure with a 10% increment annually. Until now, addressing this requirement would have involved either creating a contract for 3 years and then executing a price change process, or utilizing the phased contract feature.
However, with the newly introduced Billing Schedule feature, you can now directly configure the billing schedule to include a yearly 10% increment on the base price. Additionally, you can also view the calculated total contract value based on the recurring value that either increases or decreases over the duration of the contract.
With the Billing Schedule feature, you will now be able to model periodic billing scenarios such as:
- Discounts for a duration shorter than the contract duration
- Total contract value broken into multiple instalments with varying amounts on uneven dates
- Total contract value broken into instalments based on billing cycle with the ability to round off
- Different ‘recurring amount’ per billing cycle
- Ramp up/down pricing
Some of the key highlights of this feature:
- Currently, this is supported only for the periodic billing schedule.
- Change Product and Withdraw change processes are not supported.
- Detailed billing is not supported.
- Once you’ve selected the item category for a periodic billing schedule, it cannot be reversed. You will need to delete the item and add it again if changes are required.
- The ‘Price Details’ view is not displayed in periodic Billing Schedule scenarios.
For more information about this new feature and other supported scenarios, refer to the Billing Schedule for Periodic Subscriptions topic on the SAP Help Portal.
Replicating Scale-Based Conditions to SAP CC
Have you faced challenges while maintaining pricing conditions in the central price master data of SAP S/4HANA, to be used in Subscription Order Management for calculating the total contract value, while also needing to replicate them to SAP CC for usage charges? Alternatively, have you explored the SAP community pages for insights on leveraging scale-based pricing conditions and replicating them to SAP CC? If you have, then we now offer these features right out-of-the-box, which can help streamline all the manual back-office efforts you've been putting into maintaining pricing sync across the systems.
Let’s understand this feature with the help of a scenario.
Let's consider Company Cloud Storage Ltd., which provides cloud storage services to businesses and individuals. The pricing model involves a ‘Minimum Commitment’ wherein users commit to using a certain amount of storage space every month (for example, 1 TB). This means, if actual utilization of space is below minimum commitment, that is, 1 TB, then the user would be still charged on the minimum value. However, if the user exceeds the committed amount, then user should be billed for the additional storage consumed during the month based on the defined graduated scale pricing.
Thanks to the new feature, you can now set up these prices based on scale conditions in SAP S/4HANA central pricing and replicate them to SAP CC for rating the usage. This configuration allows you to calculate the total contract value in SOM, which can be viewed and transferred to FI-CA and RAR when contract is distributed, along with the prices replicated to SAP CC for actual usage-based charging.
With this release, you can now replicate the central price master data in SAP S/4HANA, which includes the base price, variant price, surcharge and discounts, and scale-based prices to SAP CC.
For more information about this new feature, refer to Replicating Scale-Based Prices to SAP Convergent Charging topic on the SAP Help Portal.
Advanced Variant Configuration - Multi-Level Configuration Enhancements
In our last release, we introduced integration with Multi-Level AVC for subscription products. You can find more details in the 2023 FPS0 blog. This feature was well-received by our customers, and we received further requests to enable mixed bundles in AVC configuration, along with API support as well.
With this release, we have enabled the mixed bundles in AVC configuration. This means you can now have the root bundle item with sub-hierarchies for subscription items and sub-hierarchies for sales items, and all this can be used in your subscription order. Additionally, if you're using a solution quotation, you can then include sub-items of type Service.
Key highlights:
- The root product is a specific bundle item that is not used in any follow-up document.
- You can use different kinds of products under this bundle item (subscription products, sales products, and service products), which are distributed then to different follow-up documents, like subscription contracts and sales orders.
- With API, you can now use mixed bundles, as well as pure subscription bundles.
For more information about this new feature, refer to the Multi-Level Configuration of Product Bundles Using Advanced Variant Configuration, and for updates on the previous releases (2023 FPS0), refer to the Multi-Level Configuration of Product Bundles Using Advanced Variant Configuration topic on the SAP Help Portal
Other Enhancements
In addition to the features mentioned above, Subscription Order Management 2023 FPS01 also introduces the following enhancements:
Contract sub-items with a future start date
Imagine a scenario in which Company ABC offers a bundled subscription product through their online EdTech learning platform. However, not all subscriptions need to start immediately; some should commence only after a certain date. In this case, the main subscription might begin immediately upon purchase to grant access to preliminary course content, while the advanced course may start only at a later date. This approach helps EdTech to ensure that there is a harmonized progression of the learning journey for the entire batch.
Here's where our latest feature comes in, now assign the start of business dates of sub-item to a later date than that of the main item. This means the sub item(s) effectively is usable only at a later date. Your subscription would be technically active as your main item is active, however, since you have assigned the start of business date at later date, the generation of billable item, billing and even invoicing of the sub-item will applicable only after this start of business date. However, please note that this feature is only applicable when you are using the CI billing plan.
Now, just imagine other scenarios where you can enhance such upselling opportunities with this built-in feature. You can now even structure your product offerings with advanced or premium features as a trial within the subscription sub-item, starting at a later date once users are comfortable with the main subscription. This approach may offer your customers improved upgrade experience.
Key Highlights:
- Main and sub item(s) have the same contract start date
- Start of business date of sub items can be in future where the sub item(s) are supposed to be active later.
- Start of billing date in sub item can be set the same as its start of business date meaning the sub item is usable and billable at a later date than its main item
Would you like to learn more about this? For detailed information on this new feature, refer to Future Dated Subitems topic on the SAP Help Portal.
Fiori App Mass Changes of Subscriptions - Extended to Support Header Change Process for Sold-To Party
Have you tried our new Fiori app designed for managing mass changes of subscription contracts and subscription contract documents, released in 2023 FPS0 (as Mass Changes of Subscription Contracts and renamed in 2023 FPS01)? If not, you can find more details in the 2023 FPS0 Blog. In this release, we have further extended the capabilities to support header change processes. Now, you can even initiate the mass change process at the subscription contract document level, that is, for the header change process for the sold-to party.
Let’s imagine a scenario where company ABC has acquired another company and now wishes to update all relevant contracts with the new Sold-To party along with changing the organizational data. Alternatively, let's discuss another situation where, due to internal re-organizational changes, a company opts to transfer a subsidiary company to a different Sold-To party. Now, with the help of the Fiori-based app for mass change processing, your back-office agent can trigger the Sold-To party change along with the organizational data by precisely defining the contract selection criteria, initiate the change process, and effortlessly monitor its progress. Just imagine how much back-office operational efforts are saved in the process!
Kindly note, to better align with the enhanced features, changing subscription contract documents too, the Fiori App has been renamed to "Mass Changes of Subscription". This adjustment aims to provide greater clarity for our users.
For more information about this new feature, refer to Mass Changes of Subscription Contracts topic and for previous release updates, 2023 FPS0, refer to Mass Changes of Subscription Contracts topic on the SAP Help Portal.
More Information
Subscription Order Management 2023 FPS01 has been released to customers on Feb 28th, 2024. For more information about Subscription Order Management 2023 FPS01, check out the following links:
- What’s New in 2023 FPS01 (Go to Finance > Billing and Revenue Innovation Management > Subscription Order Management)
- Product Page on SAP Help Portal
- Questions and Answers for Subscription Order Management in SAP Community
- SAP Managed Tags:
