Knowledge Article
The IDI Knowledge Center is a great source for start-to-finish instructions on creating and managing discounts. It's easy to navigate and updated on a regular basis. See Discounts.
Discounts Overview
The IDI platform system supports two basic discount types:
A Grant discount grants customers an award, for example free minutes, usually as part of a calling plan or promotion. Grant discounts are calculated when usage is rated.
A Volume discount must be earned through a specified purchase. For example, a 10% discount may be applied to the bill after the customer uses 100 minutes of long distance service. Volume discounts are calculated at billing.
Both Volume and Grant discounts may be set up to be applied associatively. This refers to the current trend toward “Friends & Family” type awards where discounts are offered within a specific calling network (for example, within a geographic region, area code or specific group).
Volume discounts can be set up as these specific types:
Loyalty discounts reward subscribers based on how long ago the account was established or how long ago the discount was assigned. The option to configure a loyalty discount is available in the volume discount wizard.
Reward points discounts let subscribers accumulate points based on loyalty or purchasing certain products. Rather than giving customers a credit, customers can use accumulated reward points toward the purchase of an item or to pay a bill. The option to configure a reward points discount is available in the volume discount wizard.
Tiered group discounts apply across grouped accounts. The group is defined by assigning the discount to a specific group of accounts or services. This may be used to give discounts to individual subscribers who are part of a common entity, such as a business or association. The discount is calculated using the number of active services within that group and the discount tier that corresponds to the number of services. The Add/Edit Volume Discount form has a setting to make a volume discount a tiered group discount. Tiers are set up in the volume discount wizard. Tiered group and loyalty discounts are mutually exclusive so when Tiered Group is selected, the volume discount wizard will not let you choose the Loyalty discount option.
The solution also supports Refillable discounts that offer your customers a way to avoid high overage charges. When a customer’s Base product has been depleted, the Refill product is automatically added to cover a new increment of usage (voice, data, text, or currency). You can also create Refillable products for different types of usage, such as one amount for domestic airtime and a different one for international airtime. Most setup for refillable packages is done outside the Product Catalog; however, a separate grant discount catalog item is required for each refillable discount offering, and there are parameters in the grant discount wizard related to refillable discounts.
Configuring Discounts Overview
Discounts are created in two phases.
First the discount must be added to the Product Catalog. In this phase you specify the type of discount (Grant or Volume), whether or not the discount is associative and the associative type (if applicable), and other basic characteristics such as SKU, description, activation/discontinue dates, and so on.
Once the discount has been added, you must configure the discount through the Discount Wizard. The wizard lets you set up the parameters by which the discount is applied. This includes:
Eligibility Factors. These are items that are eligible to receive the discount, for example: usage types, service types, distance types, originating/terminating locations, products and so on.
Contributing Factors. These are only applicable for Volume discounts. These are requirements that your subscribers need to satisfy in order to earn the discount. The same kinds of factors may be considered for contributing as for eligibility (usage types, service types, and so on).
Other parameters as required for Grant or Volume discounts.
These items that support discount configuration and operation are also configured in the IDI Desktop Client Product Catalog
Discount Categories help you monitor usage across the various discounts you offer. For example, if a monthly plan grants set amounts of voice, data and texting, each of those would be tied to a different grant discount, and each grant discount would be tied to a different discount category. When viewing usage and free units on a customer account, you can see the amount used in each bucket based on their respective discount categories.
Although not strictly required, it is good practice to assign all discounts to a discount category. Discount categories are created and assigned to discounts AFTER all discounts have been built, and your discount strategy is fully formulated. You can make discount category assignments directly via the Edit Discount form, or via the Discount Categories form via the Client Applications menu > Product Management > Discount Categories. The Discount Categories form facilitates setting discount categories across all discounts.
Processing Order lets you establish the order in which a discount is processed in relation to other discounts. The system processes the discount with the highest processing order first (1 = highest), recalculates the balance and then processes the next discount in the sequence against the new balance.
Usually, larger (more impactful) discounts should be processed later so they take the biggest percentage off the smallest version of the amount, after all other discounts of a higher order (i.e. 1 or 2) have already reduced the total. Processing order can be set via the Add/Edit Discount form, or via the Processing Order form which is available by clicking the applicable icon in the Product Catalog window icon tray.
Discount Sorting Rule is required for grant discounts. This rule considers factors in addition to processing order to determine the order in which grant discounts are processed. The rule must include Discount Processing Order; however, the actual order is set on an individual discount basis. The other factors serve as tie breakers and may be included or excluded as needed. One rule applies to all grant discounts. The Discount Sorting Rule form is available by clicking the applicable icon in the Product Catalog window icon tray.
Global Dialed Digit Numbers is an associative option for grant discounts that establishes a list of service numbers that subscribers can call without a charge. You can manage these numbers via the Global Dialed Digit Numbers form available by clicking the applicable icon in the Product Catalog window icon tray.
Reward Points Conversion Factor specifies how many points equal $0.01 in redeemed value for all reward points discounts. This rate is set up once and should not be modified once reward points are issued. The Conversion Factor form is available by clicking the applicable icon in the Product Catalog window icon tray.The IDI platform lets you offer Grant and Volume discounts to your customers. A Grant discount means the customer is simply granted an award, for example free minutes, usually as part of calling plan or a promotion. A Volume discount must be earned through a specified purchase, for example a 10% discount may be applied to the bill after the customer uses 100 minutes of long distance service.
The following are general guidelines to consider when creating and configuring discounts:
Once a discount has been assigned to a customer, any changes to the discount configuration must be made via a service request.
Discounts must be configured BEFORE they can be assigned to an account or service.
Discounts that have “include children” selected may only be assigned to Corporate Accounts.
Discounts can be assigned at the service or customer level.
New discounts must be saved and configured before you can select a Discount Category.
Getting Started
Start with Creating a New Discount. Then refer to the guidelines for:
Adding and Configuring Grant Discounts
Adding and Configuring Volume Discounts
Also:
Processing Order
An account or service may have several discounts applied. In this case you need to establish the order in which the discounts are applied.
The New Discount window has a Processing Order field to let you set the processing order when you add a new discount to the Product Catalog. (Show Field Details)
The Discount Processing Order window lets you set the processing order for any discount on the fly.
For grant discounts you can establish the processing order based on several criteria including processing order, usage type, distance type, time-of-day, expiration date, units remaining, discount plan and one-time or recurring.
Finishing Discount Configuration
See: