Implementing Rule Sets for the Entitlement Generation Process

In the previous unit, we created a new entitlement model that structures our entitlement. Now, with this entitlement model, we can assign the entitlement to an offering from a sales document. This brings us to the third master data set: Maintain Entitlement Generation Rules.

The Maintain Entitlement Generation rules step defines and refines the rules that govern the automatic generation and assignment of entitlements. These rules can be edited, enhanced, or removed throughout the duration of the entitlement, maintaining evolving business needs and changes.

In the SAP Entitlement Management system, the entitlement model provides the framework for the structure of entitlements. The offering to entitlement mapping expresses the mapping of entitlements from sales documents. The attributes can be set based on static values, variables from sales documents, and through conditional assignments.

Entitlement generation isn’t always straightforward. Multiple business scenarios can come into play with many rules that, for example, manage direct creations, up-sell and down-sells, and renewals. A generation rule and the configuration of a rule set enable the system to manage multiple different generation business scenarios.

The following figure shows a diagram of a typical entitlement generation data flow in the SAP Entitlement Management system.

SAP Entitlement Management receives sales documents from various sale systems based on S/4HANA, ECC, and other third-party platforms. Integration middleware converts these sales documents into a format that the SAP Entitlement Management generation API can manage.

SAP Entitlement Management follows these steps to generate the entitlements:

1. The integration server checks and converts the data type and value.
2. The offering to entitlement mapping converts the sales document into the corresponding entitlement. This is based on the mapping configuration and the values from the sales document.
3. The generation rules process chooses the appropriate generation process based on the rule set condition.
4. The rule set runtime manages the entitlement business processes, such as upscale, downscale, renew, or create entitlement with a relationship.

The step of maintaining entitlement generation rule is a major step in the entitlement generation process. Users define and modify rule sets that govern how the system generates entitlements. Users specify the conditions for generating certain entitlements. These conditions are based on several factors, such as the type of product or service sold, customer or geographical region, and specific sales channels.

Maintaining these rules involves:

1. Defining the rule set serve range: the sale of a particular product or service.
2. Specifying the conditions that must be met for the entitlement to be generated.
3. Identifying the entitlements that should be generated when the conditions are met.

In this step, you can also adjust these rule sets, depending on changing business needs or the introduction of new products or services.

This critical step ensures that the right entitlements are generated for the right customers or partners, enhancing customer satisfaction, business efficiency, and regulatory compliance.

Generation rule sets are an essential system feature that offers the flexibility to deal with different scenarios. The rules determine how entitlements are created, updated, or changed based on the type of sales transaction or the conditions met. You configure generation rule sets in the Configure Entitlement Master Data app.

Here's more information on some standard scenarios that a rule can address:

1. Upsell: If a customer decides to buy a higher-level service or product, the generation rules adjust the entitlements accordingly.
2. Downsell: If a customer downgrades their service or product, the generation rules modify the entitlements to match the new lower-level service or product.
3. Direct Update: If there’s a direct update to an entitlement (perhaps from a policy change or an error correction), the generation rules must ensure that these updates are correctly reflected.
4. Renewal: When a product, service, or subscription is renewed, the system must extend the validity of the entitlement.

To define conditions and parameters for entitlement generation rule sets, use Rule Set in Configuration Overview → Maintain Entitlement Generation Rules.

When the incoming data matches the defined condition, the condition triggers the rule set, processing the entitlement generation rule.

In the Rule Sets list screen, the list of all the rule sets is displayed in a table. You can filter the rule sets based on list view, rule set name, generation rules, entitlement model, or priority.

You can sort the list in each column of the table. You can create, copy, and delete rule sets.

Creating a rule set is a three-step process. You can maintain the information in the following sections:

General information defines the rule set code and name for the new rule set. You can also set priorities (ranging from 0 to 5). Setting the priority ensures that conditions that can’t be met simultaneously can, instead, be placed at a priority level. Priority '5' is the highest priority and '0' is the lowest priority. If the data matches the higher priority rule set, the rule set with the lower priority isn't selected.

Select the generation rule based on which rule tasks are determined.

Rule set conditions: Defines the scenario using this rule set while generating entitlements. When the incoming data matches the defined condition, this rule set is triggered to process the entitlement generation rule.

Rule tasks: A generation rule containing multiple steps or tasks with parameters and output data. Once you select the generation process ID, the corresponding process tasks display.

There are five types of tasks:

Query task: Queries existing entitlements to be updated or to be associated with other entitlements.

Decision task: Determines the next step of the process.

Relationship task: Creates new entitlements associated with existing entitlements. Association in entitlement management is a one-to-many, parent-child relationship. The system permits a maximum of five association levels.

Update task: Configures how to update an existing entitlement.

Script task: Allows the insertion of JavaScript code to manipulate the value of new entitlements and updated entitlements.

The following video shows an overview of a rule set.