Setting up the Consumption Item Mapping and Chargeable Item Class

Let's remember our cloud selection service business example. Our goal is to implement a service in SAP Convergent Charging that rates the usage of a cloud computing service. More specifically, users can use CPU, RAM, and bandwidth. This usage must be measured somehow, and provided to SAP Convergent Charging in a way that it can calculate the price for the usage and charge the corresponding fee to the customer's account. In SAP Convergent Charging, these usage records are called Chargeable Items.

A chargeable item:

• Contains a list of fields and their associated values describing the service usage with all information needed for the rating process.
• Is created when customers use a service.
• Is received by SAP Convergent Charging as an input of the rating and charging processes.
• Is usually created by a mediation system.

An example for a chargeable item describing the usage of the cloud selection service (CPU and RAM usage) could look like this:

To allow SAP Convergent Charging to process usage data (called "chargeable items"), the data format of a chargeable item must be defined formally. The formal description of a chargeable item's format is called a "Chargeable Item Class".

A "chargeable item class":

• Is identified by a system wide unique name.
• Formally describes the structure of a chargeable item.
• Contains a list of fields (but no values), where each field is assigned to an unambiguous field name and one of three data types:
  • String
  • Number
  • Date
• Contains three mandatory fields (a field is called a property, the default fields are called default properties):
  • User-ID
  • Service-ID
  • Consumption Date
• Can contain one or many user defined fields needed to rate the service usage, with each field being assigned to one of three datatypes:
  • String
  • Number
  • Date

From the perspective of SAP Convergent Charging, any fields beyond the three default properties are considered custom properties. The three default properties are:

• User-ID
• Service-ID
• Consumption Date

When SAP Convergent Charging is used together with SAP Convergent Invoicing (CI) and SAP Subscription Order Management (SOM), SAP Convergent Invoicing is the leading system when defining new chargeable item classes. However, the name of the class is different there. Let's see how this works next.

It is important to remember that the chargeable item class is designed in SAP Convergent Invoicing as a Consumption Item Class. SAP Convergent Charging just follows the data structure laid out there. This also applies to updates: Whenever a new field is supposed to be added to an existing chargeable item class, it must first be added to the consumption item class in SAP Convergent Invoicing. Once the field was added, SAP Convergent Charging can be told to update its associated chargeable item class accordingly.

To create a new Chargeable Item Class based on an existing Consumption Item Class, execute the following steps in the Core Tool:

1. Choose File → New → Consumption Item Mapping.
2. Select the Consumption Item Class you want to create a new Consumption Item Mapping and Chargeable Item Class for and choose Ok.The new Consumption Item Mapping opens.
3. Choose File → Save → In the Database.

   You will be asked whether the consumption item mapping and the chargeable item mapping should be created. Choose Yes. A window opens asking you for the catalog you want to store the new objects to.

4. Choose Yes.

   A window opens asking you for the catalog you want to store the new objects to.

5. Choose Save.

   The system then saves the new objects to the database. You will be prompted with a success message.

6. Choose OK.

Updating the chargeable item class is done by updating the consumption item mapping:

1. Open the consumption item mapping by choosing File → Open → Consumption Item Mapping, selecting the consumption item mapping you want to update, and choosing Ok.
2. Beside the consumption item class name, you will find an icon. Choose that icon to trigger the update process. SAP Convergent Charging will read all fields of the consumption item class again, and append new fields to the consumption item mapping and the chargeable item class. A message will state that the update process was successfully executed.
3. Choose Ok to close the message window.
4. Choose File → Save → In the Database to save the updated objects. The menu entry is disabled when the update process did not lead to any changes.

When updating a chargeable item class, it is important to note that properties can only be added during an update. They cannot be deleted once the chargeable item class has been saved to the database of SAP Convergent Charging.

Jonathan is getting ready to implement the cloud selection service offering. A colleague has already defined the consumption item classes HRB4 and HRB5 in SAP Convergent Invoicing, and created the corresponding consumption item mappings and chargeable item classes in SAP Convergent Charging. He wants to familiarize himself with the chargeable item class and have a look at the existing configuration.

Let's see how Melissa helps him with these tasks in the following video: