The diagram below shows that the Charge Plan  is connected to the Charge, SAP CRM and SAP CI.

Charge Plans:

• Represent the charging part of a service that Carrier Operator propose to their customers, agents or partners via the provisioning system product catalog (e.g. CRM)
• Can be created by gathering existing Charges in the same Catalogue
• Contains Charge Plan Items.
  – Each item defines a pricing and charging logic (decision tree).
• Defines its class (exposed to the provisioning system)
  – A set of parameters (mandatory or optional)
  – A status (open, released or obsolete)
• Stored in the Catalog of the service provider
• Management from the UI
  – Create, modify, search and delete operations

Charge Plans enable:

• Grouping multiple services into marketable units
• Promotional time periods
• Partner commissioning and settlement
• Easy re-use for different marketing schemes
• “Family plans” with shared buckets of minutes
• Shared settings for similar charges

Charge Plans can be created by grouping existing charges from the same catalogue.

Before you create a Charge Plan, make sure the Charged Item Class is created first. This is a prerequisite. The Charged Item Class (not to be confused with the CIC) provides the output mapping that is to be sent to the billing system (SAP CI).

Now let’s go ahead and create a new Charge Plan. But first, the Charged Item Class must be created.

To create a Charged Item Class, in the menu bar, select File->New->Charged Item Class.

As a Name, enter ‘[T01] CITC’

Save the Charged Item Class in the database.

Select Owner and Catalog T01 then, click Save.

It reates an empty Charged Item Class. It is empty because we did not specify any output field to it. Below is one example a Charged Item Class with some output fields that will be used as the reference format for the preceding billing system. For this chapter, we will only be using an empty Charged Item Class. We will revisit the Charged Item Class in detail in the billing chapter.

To create a new Charge Plan, in the menu bar of the Core Tool, select File->New->Charge Plan

Choose owner T01.

Enter ‘[T01] Mobile Call Plan’ as the Name and for the Description enter ‘Mobile Call Plan (usage and monthly fees)’.

In the Parameters tab, add a new Parameter to the charge plan called ‘Plan Type ID (CP)’ of type String with the visibility set to External (Mandatory) and a Description set to ‘Plan type’.

In the Account Assignments tab, add a new Account Reference to the charge plan called ‘Default’ of type Postpaid with a Description set to ‘Default account’.

In the Technical Data tab, add a User Technical Identifier called ‘Phone Number’ with a Description set to ‘User’s phone number’.

Right-click on the ‘[T01] Mobile Call Plan’ Charge Plan and add in the ‘[T01] Mobile Usage Charge’. This Charge was created in the previous chapter.

In the Parameters tab of the Charge, set the Status of ‘Plan Type ID’ parameter to Linked and choose ‘Plan Type ID (CP)’ as a Value. The ‘Plan Type ID (CP)’ comes from the Charge Plan.

In the Charged Item tab of the Charge, choose ‘[T01] CITC’ as a Charged Item Based On.

In the Account Assignments tab of the Charge, link the ‘Default’ charging reference to the ‘Default’ account reference by choosing ‘Default’ as a Linked Value.

In the Technical Data tab of the Charge, add a new Service Identifier called ‘Call’ and link it to the ‘Phone Number’ User Technical Identifier.

Right-click on the ‘[T01] Mobile Call Plan’ charge plan and add in the ‘[T01] Mobile Recurring Charge’ charge.

Configure the Charged Item and the Account Assignments of the Charge.

Verify the charge plan.

Save the charge plan in the database.

We have successfully created a standalone Charge Plan. This can be called a standalone Charge Plan because we have only configured it in the SAP CC portion. Remember that the main function of the Charge Plan is to expose the Charge(s) of SAP CC to the provisioning system (e.g. SAP CRM).