Explaining Phased Contracts

Phased contracts are subscription contracts where customers prefer to split the contract into various phases, with varied requirements across each phase. Each phase is defined by a start and end date, such that one phase begins right after the end of the previous phase. All phases need not be of the same length, but they must be continuous, that is, without any gaps or overlaps.

Attributes such as quantity, configuration, and contract account can vary across each phase.

The following are the prerequisites for phased contracts in Subscription Order Management:

• The Payer and Sold-to Party must be the same across all phases of a single subscription contract.
• Phases can have different lengths, but there must be no gaps or overlaps between the phases.
• The start of the time slice for the first phase and the end of the time slice for the last phase must be the same as the start and end dates of the contract, respectively.
• The phase indicator and predecessor item number must be provided in the API structure of the subscription item.
• Information for all phases, such as the FICA contract number and item number in subscription contract, must be supplied during a contract change together with the change process information.

Phased contracts have the following features:

• You can create and change subscription contracts using the Solution Quotation API only.
  • Phased subscription contracts with individual products are created as a follow-up of the solution quotation.
  • To change existing active and future phases of a phased contract, you must pass data for all the phases along with the required changes.
• The following sets of dates are important to phased contracts and are visible under the Dates assignment block.
  • Contract start and end dates indicate the original contract duration.
  • Term start and end dates represent the planned contract duration.
  • Time slice start and end dates help to define the length of a phase.
• You can view the phases on the subscription contract UI and the phase data on the subscription item UI.

The active phases of a phased contract are distributed to the FI-CA contract, CI billing plan, and SAP Convergent Charging. Future phases are distributed to the SAP FI-CA provider contract and the CI billing plan only.

Observe the following:

• You can create phased contracts using the Solution Quotation OData API only.
• When it's defined, the phase structure is fixed.
• Phases can have different phase lengths, but overlaps and gaps between the individual phases of an item are not allowed.
• The start date and time of first phase must be the same as the contract start date and time, and the end of last phase must be same as the contract end date and time.
• A contract phase always represents the full state of an item.
  • For example, in year 1 you plan 100 PC, in year 2 you plan 500 PC
  • Then, your items must look like year 1 – 100 PC, year 2 – 500 PC
• Only main items are supported as phased items. This means that subitems cannot be combined together with phases.
• When you change a contract, you must always send all active and future phases over the API.
• If you are working with the FI-CA distribution scenario, you must plan the ODI distribution report CRM_ISX_MSG_START_PLANNED to trigger the distribution of future phases.

The contract phases are also reflected in the in the Provider Contract and the Billing Plan. The phases are continuous and do not overlap at any point of the contract lifecycle.

Phases in the FI-CA contract and Billing Plan are created with early distribution.

The CC Contract is only updated with the active time slice using a normal distribution.