The following attributes of the master / supplemental plans must be set in the current AMPS implementation:
The client-defined identiier for the plans should be defined as [ttttt-sss-ppppppppp] where:
Price Models
The primary price model in use is the standard Aria price model. The price model used is defined by product field ProductPriceModel assigned to the product whether it is "DIGITAL", "PRINT" or a "COMBO" product. The price model is not used with "SPECIAL" and "BUNDLE" products.
Price Model – "STANDARD"
If the ProductPriceModel is set to "STANDARD" then the standard ARIA pricing model applies. In this scenario the price defined on the subscription is billed according to the billing frequency selected. If a service is charged NOK 200 per month and NOK 600 per quarter, then NOK 200 or NOK 600 is billed to the customer irrespective of any future price changes that may be available. Changing the price within the product itself, will make the new price effective for all customers assigned that product. The new price will be used for billing at the next anniversary day.
Price Model – "PRICE-ADJUST"
If the ProductPriceModel is set to "PRICE-ADJUST" then the special flexible media pricing model applies. In this scenario, the price defined on the product including any future price changes are considered when the product is assigned as a subscription, and just before any future billing dates. At this point in time the price the customer is required to pay is calculated based on any future price changes and taking the current billing dates into consideration.
Assume that the customer subscribes to an annually billed product on August 1st, 2019. The current price of the product is NOK 1200 per annum, with a future price change to take effect on January 1st, 2020 increasing the price to NOK 1500 per annum. This setting will result in the customer being billed NOK 1374,25 on August 1st, 2019. The specification is shown below:
- Period from 2019/08/01 thru 2019/12/31 covering 153 days = 503,01
- Period from 2020/01/01 thru 2020/07/31 covering 212 days = 871,23
- Charge for period from 2019/08/01 thru 2020/07/31 = 1374,25
Details on the calculation are stored with the subscription for inclusion on the invoice/receipt presented to the end-customer. A few days before the next renewal the prices are revisited, and likely updated if a new price change has been configured.
Product Capabilities
The table below shows the different capabilities and to which type of product they apply. GREEN squares indicate that the capability is available for the product type while RED indicates that it is not.
Access Control
The Aria solution pushes information on subscriptions and the titles and features it provide access to, to an external access control system. Based on the information received, the external system can then determine what articles or stories a customer can have access to. If the customer does not have access to a given article, then the customer is offered to buy an additional subscription to provide the required access. The external access control system is also able to request details on what titles and features a given customer has access to at any time. A single subscription may provide access to multiple titles and features.
Key parameters for Access Control are:
- AccessFeature – a product supplemental field found on the service and via the service included in the product. The access feature is used to determine what features on the website a given service provides access to. The default "NEWSPAPER" provides full access to all articles for the titles in question. It can also contain other values like "SPORT", "ECONOMICS", etc. in which case the end-customer is provided access to only articles with that access feature.
- TitleCode – a product supplemental field found on the product. The field defines what titles a given product provides access too. What kind of access that is given, depends on the AccessFeature. On one plan, multiple titles can be provided, and the end-customer will then get access to all those titles.
Bundles
Bundles are a mechanism of offering customers access to multiple titles without paying the full price of the digital subscriptions. An example offering could be the “Regional Package” where the client offers customers who subscribe to 3 or more titles and the value of these subscriptions exceed a certain value (e.g. NOK 378) access to the remaining titles for a fixed low monthly price (e.g. NOK 49). The customer is eligible for the bundle when assigning the third title. Other bundles are likely to be added to the solution once the capabilities have been made available.
When creating a bundle, the client product manager defines the criteria that the customer must meet to be eligible for the bundle. The criteria available are:
- Number of customer’s existing subscriptions on products that are eligible for a bundle must exceed a given value, for example 2.
- Value of customer’s existing subscriptions on products that are eligible for a bundle must exceed a given value, for example NOK 378.
- Customer must have an existing (and active) subscription on one or more products to be considered for a bundle.
The user may configure the bundle to require that all criteria is true or only a single criterion must be true for the bundle to be selected as eligible.
When creating bundles, the user must select the Aria product (master plan) to be added as a subscription when the bundle is enabled. The bundle is also assigned a status which indicates whether it is being defined, under test, active, deprecated or closed. Each bundle is also assigned a validity period.
When determining whether a bundle applies, the following rules are adhered to:
- The bundle must have a status indicating that it is active and available for use
- The bundle must have a validity period spanning the date on which the bundle is to be applied. Customers remain on the bundle even after the validity period is over, however, if changes are made to the subscriptions, the new check may remove the customer from the bundle.
The bundles are checked in the sequence defined by the client, and once a bundle is found to be eligible, checking is terminated. It is therefore only possible to apply a single bundle at any given time. Only products having a plan product field EligibleForBundles set to true will be checked for eligibility unless, the product is specifically mentioned in the bundle configuration.
When a bundle is assigned to an eligible customer, the master plan identified by the product is added as a subscription for the customer using the rate schedule selected. The bundle remains active until changes are made to the subscriptions for a customer. If changes are made the bundles are checked again, and the current bundle may be removed and replaced with another bundle.
Campaigns
Campaigns are a mechanism for offering individual products for a limited period, usually as intro¬duc¬tory offers, for example sign up for a subscription on a given title and get the first 5 weeks for NOK 5. Once the campaign period is over, the subscription continues with the normal rate until cancelled by the customer. During the transition from campaign to normal subscription, the customer maybe eligible for a bundle. If so, this will automatically be assigned by the solution. A campaign cannot currently be assigned automatically by the solution. Customer or user interaction is required.
When creating a campaign, the client product manager defines the criteria that the customer must meet to be eligible for the campaign. The criteria available are:
- The customer must have certain products as active subscriptions to be eligible for the campaign. The user can define that just one of the subscriptions are required or that all listed subscriptions are required to be eligible for the plan
- The customer must be requesting a title which the campaign covers
- The campaign must have a status indicating that it is active and available for use
- The campaign must have a validity period spanning the date on which the campaign is to be applied.
- The customer must not have had the subscription covered by the campaign assigned within a given period. If so, an alternate price of the subscription may be offered, or a completely different campaign is offered.
When creating campaigns, the user must select the ARIA product (master plan) to be added as a subscription for each title covered by the campaign. During the configuration, the user also configured the one-time product used to cover the initial period of the campaign and the associated cost.
During configuration it is also possible to define restrictions which are used to prevent “campaign riders” from taking advantage of the campaign. If restrictions are in place, the will prevent the customer from signing-up to the campaign within a given period, for example 6 months. If that restriction is violated, the customer may be offered the same campaign, but a different price or the customer may be offered a completely new campaign.
The bundles are checked in the sequence defined by the client, and once a campaign is found to be eligible, checking is terminated. However, if restrictions are in place, the current campaign may reference another campaign in which case that campaign is used.
Delivery Charges
During the sales process the external sales platform is notified if any delivery charges may apply for a given product. Before the purchase is completed, a check is made to see what the delivery charge will be for a given address, and the customer is then allowed to confirm or decline the offer. With the charges it is possible for the client to define that certain products are not charged extra for delivery in certain areas. If delivery charges apply, the customer is assigned the appropriate rate and is then charged both the subscription and the delivery charge. The delivery charge is split into two areas, namely:
- DeliveryRestNat – a product supplemental field used to specify if any domestic or national delivery charges must be applied. The delivery charges are provided as a set of postal code ranges, for example "0000/0999/POSTAL" which would require any customer living in a postal code between 0000 and 0999 pay the delivery charge identified by the rate schedule as identified by the third field (POSTAL). The value "POSTAL" is appended to the rate schedule ID to determine the delivery charge.
As with restrictions, it is possible to define multiple delivery charges for the same product, for example "0000/0999/POSTAL1" and "3000/9999/POSTAL2" which would require customers living in postal codes from 0000 to 0999 to pay the delivery charges identified by "POSTAL1" and when living in postal codes from 3000 to 9999 to pay the delivery charges identified by "POSTAL2". Note the delivery charge may also be identical for each range.
- DeliveryRestIntl – a product supplemental field used to specify if any international delivery charges must be applied. The delivery charges are provided as a set of country code ranges, for example "AA/AZ/POSTAL" which would require any customer living in a country with a code between "AA" and "AZ" to pay the delivery charge identified by the rate schedule as identified by the third field (POSTAL). The value "POSTAL" is appended to the rate schedule ID to determine the delivery charge.
As with restrictions, it is possible to define multiple delivery charges for the same product, for example "AA/AZ/POSTAL1" and "IA/ZZ/POSTAL2" which would require customers living in countries with a country code from "AA" to "AZ" to pay the delivery charges identified by "POSTAL1" and when living in countries with a country code from "IA" to "ZZ" to pay the delivery charges identified by "POSTAL2". Note the delivery charge may also be identical for each range.
Delivery Management
For products having a product type of "PRINT" or "COMBO" the solution allows the customer to define a delivery address and have the subscription sent to this address for a specified set of delivery days. The delivery address is maintained per subscription, though the actual address can be shared among all subscriptions. If required, the customer can also choose to split delivery between two or more delivery addresses over the course of a week, for example:
- Deliver the newspaper to address #1 on Mondays and Tuesdays.
- Deliver the newspaper to address #2 on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
- Deliver the newspaper to address #3 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Note that it is not possible to overlap the delivery days, for example having the Tuesday edition delivered to both address #1 and address #2 at the same time. Changing an address to be valid from a certain date and indefinitely will cause all future address changes to be removed.
Delivery Restrictions
During the sales process the external sales platform, can check if there are any delivery restrictions in place for a given product. With the restrictions it is possible for the client to define that certain products are not delivered in certain areas, or rather the delivery is confined to a specific area. If the delivery restriction is applied, the customer cannot purchase the subscription.
Key parameters for Access Control are:
- DeliveryRestNat – a product supplemental field used to specify if any domestic or national delivery restrictions must be enforced. The restrictions are provided as a set of postal code ranges, for example "0000/0999" which would prevent any customer living in a postal code between 0000 and 0999 to order the subscription. It is possible to define multiple restrictions for the same product, for example "0000/0999" and "3000/9999" which would prevent customer living in postal codes from 0000 to 0999 and from 3000 to 9999 from purchasing the subscription.
- DeliveryRestIntl – a product supplemental field used to specify if any international delivery restrictions must be enforced. The restrictions are provided as a set of country code ranges, for example "AA/AZ" which would prevent any customer living in a country with a country code between AA and AZ from ordering the subscription. As with domestic restrictions, it is possible to define multiple restrictions for the same product, for example "AA/AZ" and "IA/ZZ" which would prevent customer living in countries with country codes from AA to AZ and from IA to ZZ from purchasing the subscription.
Discounts
The client uses discounts as incentives to get existing customers to buy additional subscriptions and products. Subscriptions on BUNDLE or SPECIAL products are not eligible for this incentive-based discounts. The rules supported by the solution are:
- A discount (percentage) is given to customers who subscribe to X number of eligible products. When creating a product, it is possible for the client to define that a product is or is not eligible for discounts under this rule. Only products where plan product field EligibleForDiscounts is true are considered. The discount can be applied only to new subscriptions.
- A discount (percentage) is given to customers who subscribe to a set of specific products. When specific products are used, the product field EligibleForDiscounts is not considered. To be eligible for the discount, the customer must have all the listed subscriptions active. The discount can be applied only to new subscriptions.
When determining whether a discount rule applies, the following rules are adhered to:
- The discount rule must have a status indicating that it is active
- The discount rule must have a validity period spanning the date on which the discount rule is to be applied.
The discount rules are checked in the sequence defined by the client, and once a discount rule is found to be eligible, checking is terminated. It is therefore only possible to apply a single discount rule at any given time.
The customer service representative may assign other discounts at their own discretion, for example if there have been complaints.
Invoice Formatting
On the master plan level, it is possible to define how the subscription and any underlying add-ons are format¬ted by the external invoice formatting engine. The codes assigned to each subscription (master plan) must be agreed with the provider of the formatting, as they will need to react on it when received in the document file transferred to them. A blank indicates that no special formatting is required.
Payment Method Restrictions
The client can define that a given product can be purchased using specific payment methods only. For example, it is possible to define that digital products can be purchased only using credit cards. Other products may allow any kind of payment method or may extend the choice of payment methods.
Purchase Restrictions
The solution can apply purchase restrictions on individual products. The purchases restrictions are checked right before the subscription is purchased by the customer, and in some cases also with regular intervals. The following types of purchase restrictions are supported:
- Age restrictions – the age of the customer is used to determine if it possible to purchase a given product, for example students can buy a student subscription only if they are younger than 30 years. If the age restriction is fulfilled at the time purchase the customer can purchase the product. If the subscription is active, regular checks will be performed to validate if the customer is still eligible for the product. If not, the subscription reverts to the normal product. An example configuration for an agreed restriction of under 33 would be ‘AGE|<|33’.
- Product restrictions – it is possible to define that for the customer to buy a given product, he/she must already have active subscriptions to one or more specific products. For example, the customer can buy the SPORT product only if he/she has also purchased the PRINT edition of the newspaper.
Segmentation
Each product can be assigned one or more market segments. When requesting eligible offerings, the external applications can request products that match the segment provided. Only the segments that match are returned and offered to the end-customer. This provides the ability to define where and how offerings are made. If, for example a product is assigned to segment "B2C", and the external application requests offerings related to segment "B2B", then the product will not be offered.
Key parameters for Segmentation are:
- Segmentation – a product supplemental field found on the product which determines what segment a given product belongs to. A specific product can belong to multiple segments at the same time. To be offered to the end-customer only one of the segments must match the criteria provided.