Patent Application
20090012854
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to methods and systems for pricing configurable products. More specifically, the invention relates to such methods and systems that allow fixed and percentage discount pricing at configurable option levels.
2. Background Art
Many products available today are configurable by the customer. In general terms, this means that the product has a number of attributes for which various options are available. Personal computers are an example of a configurable product. For example, a customer may be allowed to specify a variety of options relating to attributes such as the type of processor, memory, storage devices, and peripherals. Electrical connectors are another example of a configurable product. For example, a customer may specify options relating to attributes such as gender (e.g. plug vs. receptacle), termination (e.g. cable vs. circuit board, straight vs. right angle), and numbers of signal lines and coaxial lines.
One problem with the sale of configurable products is that there is no support for allowing a configurable product to have selectable options allowing both percentage discounting and fixed pricing discounting. There is support with ERP systems, and mainly SAP, to allow for either fixed pricing or percentage discounting at the selectable option level. But the flexibility of allowing both types of discount pricing is required for marketing opportunities, flexible pricing options, and the ability to offer special incentive possibilities.
An object of this invention is to provide a process and design to allow for full selectable option pricing for a configurable product.
Another object of the present invention is to give the flexibility to have fixed price discounting and percentage discount pricing at the component (option) level for a configurable product.
These and other objectives are attained with a method and system of enabling fixed and percentage discount pricing at configuration option level, when a configurable product is ordered. The method comprises the steps of creating a condition table having information used to determine both fixed and percentage discount pricing. A Contract is also provided having information used to determine those discounts. When a product is ordered against the Contract, information from both the Contract and the condition table are used to determine the appropriate discount, if any, for each selected option item. The appropriate discount may be a fixed price discount, or a percentage discount based on the list price for the option.
The preferred embodiment of this invention, described below in detail, provides a process and design to allow for full selectable option pricing. The design gives the flexibility to have fixed price discounting and percentage discount pricing at the component (option) level for a configurable product. Current designs allow for fixed discount pricing for all selectable components or percentage discounting for all selectable components, but not both for a single line item. For example, SAP allows for fixed pricing or percentage discounts at a component level within a line item but not the combination of both.
Below is an Example Order line item with four selectable components, each of which is priced individually and with fixed and percentage discount pricing:
The advantages of offering such a design include:
Further benefits and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.
The present invention provides a method and system that allows both fixed and percentage discount pricing at configurable option levels.
In this process, step 102 is to create a table with: Condition type, SD document, Item, Material, Variant. Step 104 is to create access sequence that has Contract and Sales order as SD document. Step 106 is to create pricing condition as a variant/component fixed price. The condition is to be set up as a contract price agreement. Step 110 is to add new pricing condition to pricing procedure, and step 112 is to add Subtotal line under the new pricing condition.
Step 114 is to achieve exclusion of specific component list price through the calculation routine of the variant/component list price. This will exclude or make inactive only the variants/components where a variant/component fixed price is found. SAP standard exclusion configuration cannot be used, as it would have all list prices excluded when any new pricing condition was found for the line item. The use of the calculation routine is key to ensure that only a specific variant/component is marked inactive.
As represented at step 116, discount calculations should be based on the active list prices when a fixed price discount condition is applied. The fixed price discounts should not be taken into account when calculating the discounted price. To achieve this, subtract the fixed price discount total from the item's running total. Given any discounts, this will calculate the correct amount—taking into account active list price conditions. This is done in for all discounts. The running total will not take into account the fixed price subtotal.
The subtotal is used to work together with another condition, which is the line item's quoted price. This ensures that the quoted price is met up to the subtotal of the fixed price for the components. This allows discounting but only for those components with a regular percentage discount not the fixed price discount.
Ensure pricing date of all new pricing conditions is set to order document date. This locks the order fixed prices at order create. Ensure that exchange date is also locked at order create.
Update the Component level entitled price and discount calculated conditions that show the end result of discounts at the component level. Condition ZA03 (showing the discounted price) should be set equal to the new pricing condition value if any exist as this will be the entitled price for this component and no further discount will be given. Condition ZA04 (showing the discount off the list price) in this case shall be set to 0 as the new ZFOO pricing condition value is a fixed price override and not a discount.
Also the total value used to apportion the discount to all other components should not take into account the fixed price subtotal.
List Price total will not include the fixed price subtotal. The Entitled Price total will not include both the discounted list prices and the fixed prices.
As shown in
Other programs impacted:
As will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, the present invention, or aspects of the invention, can be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. Any kind of computer/server system(s)—or other apparatus adapted for carrying out methods described herein—is suited. A typical combination of hardware and software could be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when loaded and executed, carries out the respective methods described herein. Alternatively, a specific use computer, containing specialized hardware for carrying out one or more of the functional tasks of the invention, could be utilized.
For example,
The program product may also be stored on hard disk drives within processing unit 402 or may be located on a remote system 406 such as a server 410, coupled to processing unit 402, via a network interface, such as an Ethernet interface. Monitor 412, mouse 414 and keyboard 416 are coupled to processing unit 402, to provide user interaction. Scanner 420 and printer 422 are provided for document input and output. Printer 422 is shown coupled to processing unit 402 via a network connection, but may be coupled directly to the processing unit. Scanner 420 is shown coupled to processing unit 402 directly, but it should be understood that peripherals might be network coupled or direct coupled without affecting the ability of workstation computer 400 to perform the method of, or aspects of, the invention.
The present invention, or aspects of the invention, can also be embodied in a computer program product, which comprises all the respective features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able to carry out these methods. Computer program, software program, program, or software, in the present context mean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form.
While it is apparent that the invention herein disclosed is well calculated to fulfill the objects stated above, it will be appreciated that numerous modifications and embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art, and it is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and embodiments as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
