Basics of oracle service contracts Document Transcript

1. SERVICE CONTRACTSWhat is service contract?Oracle Service Contracts provides a complete contract authoring execution solution to managewarranties, extended warranties, usage, subscription services, as well as complex service agreements.A contract in Oracle Service Contracts comprises: a header one or more lines one or more sub linesHeader:The header is where you enter a brief description and specify the contract duration.Header consists of: Parties: Enter information about the customer, including the bill to and ship to information for the contract. Pricing/Billing: Assign a price list and various accounting rules for pricing andbilling contracts. Renewals: Define the renewal rules applied during manual or automatic renewal of the contract. Administration: Define administrative components used to process thecontract, such as the QA checklist, contract groups, and workflow. Security/Text: Grant contract access by the resource group or user level.Lines:Lines list the individual service, usage, and subscription items included in the contract. A single contractcan have multiple lines.There are three types of lines:Service lines: Cover a broad category of items that can include activities such asfield service, depot repair, call center, technical support, or any other user-definedbusiness activities Usage lines: Charge customers for usage. For example, a photo copier companymight wish to charge for the number of copies made within a period. Subscription lines: Cover subscriptions for both tangible and intangible items.What are tangible items?Tangible items include magazines, collateral, or any other physical itemthat can be shipped through Oracle Order Management.What are intangible items?Intangible items can be collateral sent via e-mail.Sub linesSub lines specify what the service covers or the counters where the usage is tracked. 2. It consists of: Service lines: Sub lines for service lines specify what the service covers. A service line can cover aparty, a customer, a site, a system, a product, or an item. Usage lines: Sub lines for usage lines specify the counters where the usage istracked. Subscription lines: Subscription lines do not have sub lines.Service contract life cycle: Creating a Contract Approving Contracts Extending and Renewing Contracts Terminating Contracts Managing the Contract LifecycleCreating a ContractYou can create a contract manually. In addition, a contract can be created automatically through OracleOrder Management or by creating a product that has a warranty in Oracle Install Base.Creating a Template from a ContractA template makes it possible for you to speed up the contract creation process by filling in frequentlyused values.Approving ContractsThis group of topics explains the contract approval process.Oracle Service Contracts leverages Oracle Workflow to automate the contract approval process. Afteryou author a contract you must: Submit the contract for approval. Secure approval on the contract. Obtain a signature on the contract.The Submit for Approval function launches the quality assurance (QA) check. If the QA check issuccessful you can continue the approval process, which submits the contract to the approval workflow.Extending and renewing contracts:Contract Extensions:Oracle Service Contracts allows you to extend the duration of a contract or a contract line withouthaving to submit the contract to the approval workflow.A contract must be in a status of Active, Signed, or Expired to be extended. Contracts in a status ofEntered, Canceled, or Terminated are examples of contracts that cannot be extended.Contract RenewalsThe process of renewing a contract involves making a copy of an existing, active contract at a

point intime. The dates are changed to reflect a period of time similar to the existing contract; beginning on thefirst day after the existing contract expires.Terminating ContractsYou can terminate a contract, a contract line, or a contract subline. The termination date must fallbetween the start and end date of the service or services being terminated .Managing the Contract Lifecycle: 3. You must manage your contracts on an ongoing basis. You may need to change coverage, durations,versions You can streamline and control administrative processes, by leveraging functionality thatmanages updates and changes.Which tables and views contains the contract lines, billings schedule and invoices of a service contracts?Table: OKC_K_HEADERS_BProduct: OKC - Contracts CoreDescription: Top level of a contract structure and groups all the lines and terms and conditions of acontract.Implementation/DBA Data: OKC.OKC_K_HEADERS_BTable: OKC_K_ITEMSProduct: OKC - Contracts CoreDescription: Contract itemsImplementation/DBA Data: OKC.OKC_K_ITEMSTable: OKC_K_LINES_BProduct: OKC - Contracts CoreDescription: Deliverable ITEMS grouped into a logical set usually defined by unitary price,delivery or some other classification.Implementation/DBA Data: OKC.OKC_K_LINES_BTable: OKS_BILL_SUB_LINESProduct: OKS - Service ContractsDescription: Related to a lower level contract line eg. coverage level or product.Implementation/DBA Data: OKS.OKS_BILL_SUB_LINESTable: OKS_BILL_CONT_LINESProduct: OKS Service ContractsDescription: Records which are sent to AR.Implementation/DBA Data: OKS.OKS_BILL_CONT_LINESTable: OKS_BILL_SUB_LINE_DTLSProduct: OKS Service ContractsDescription: The detail of quantities and monetary amounts either regular or adjustment.Implementation/DBA Data: OKS.OKS_BILL_SUB_LINE_DTLSTable: OKS_BILL_TRANSACTIONSProduct: OKS - Service ContractsDescription: The transaction (invoice, credit etc.) which is eventually received from AR.Implementation/DBA Data: OKS.OKS_BILL_TRANSACTIONSTable: OKS_BILL_TXN_LINESProduct: OKS Service ContractsDescription: Holds the actual transaction amount and tax returned from AR.Implementation/DBA Data: OKS.OKS_BILL_TXN_LINES 4. Table: OKS_STREAM_LEVELS_BProduct: OKS - Service ContractsDescription: Service Contracts Billing Stream LevelsImplementation/DBA Data: OKS.OKS_STREAM_LEVELS_BAPIS IN SERVICE CONTRACTS:OKS_CONTRACTS_PUB.Create_Contract_Header:This API is used to create contract header information. The API is called using P_K_Header_Rec,P_Header_Contacts_Tbl, P_Header_Sales_Crd_Tbl and P_Header_Articles_Tbl.These contracts can be brought in as ENTERED, which would mean the process owners would have tosubmit the contract for approval using Contracts Approval Workflow.OKS_CONTRACTS_PUB.Create_Service_LineThis API is used to create Contract Service Line for each contract header. The API is called usingP_K_Line_Rec, P_Contact_Tbl and P_Line_Sales_Crd_Tbl.OKS_CONTRACTS_PUB.Create_Covered_LineThis API is used to create Covered Lines for each service line you create. Before you call this API you arerequired to set values for P_K_Covered_Rec and P_Price_Attribs_In.Standard APIs in SC ModuleOKC_CONTRACT_PUB (headers, lines, sub-lines) This is used for creating Headers etc.OKC_RULE_PUB (rule groups,

rules)OKC_CONTRACT_ITEM_PUB (items)OKC_CONTRACT_PARTY_PUB (customers, contacts)OKC_CONTRACT_GROUP_PUB (groupings)OKS_SALES_CREDIT_PUB (sales credits)OKS_CONTRACTS_PUB (billing schedule)Core TablesOKC.OKC_K_HEADERS_BOKC_K_HEADERS_TLOKC.OKC_K_LINES_BO KC.OKC_K_LINES_TLOKC.OKC_RULE_GROUPS_BOKC.OKC_K_RULES_BOKC .OKC_K_ITEMSOKC.OKC_K_GRPINGSOKC.OKC_K_PARTY_ROLES_BOKC.OK C_K_HISTORY_BOKC.OKC_K_PROCESSESOKS.OKS_K_SALES_CREDITSOKS. OKS_LEVEL_ELEMENTSTo create billing schedules through the API: 5. OKS_CONTRACTS_PUB.CREATE_BILL_SCHEDULE.This API creates billing schedules for both sub line and service line. It createsbilling streams and individual billing lines.For updating billing schedules, we can use:OKS_BILL_SCH.CREATE_BILL_SCH_RULES.This API also creates billing schedules for both sub line and service lineThe only difference between the two APIs is that the second API always deletesalready existing billing schedules if present and then creates fresh ones. Whenschedule is already created and if you call OKS_BILL_SCH.CREATE_BILL_SCH_RULES for updating thenwhat would happen is it would create additional billing streams and one would get to see two billingstreams instead of a single one.Billing Schedules :A billing schedule determines when the customer is billed for the services they receive.For contracts with service lines you can bill the customer either at the line level or thesubline level, but for contracts with usage lines you can bill only at line level.For service lines, this means that you can bill at the level of the service that is sold to thecustomer (called the Top Level in the application) or individually at the level of each ofthe items that is covered by that service (Covered Level), be it an individual item, asystem, a covered location, an account, or party. INSTALL BASEInstall Base is a product to track an Item from Cradle to grave.Lets say you want to track a component hard drive in a computer, you can do so once you have the itemset up in Inventory as trackable.Oracle Install Base is an item instance life cycle tracking application that facilitates enterprise-wide lifecycle item management and tracking capability.Oracle Install Base tracks an instance from the time that it is received in inventory, in work in process, inprojects, at customer sites, and throughout the return and repair process.It records a history of changes to tracked items and supports the creation and maintenance of OracleInstall Base configurations.Oracle Install Base is a centralized repository of information for an item instance and its tracking detailsincluding location, status, ownership, party, account and contact relationships, configuration data, andthe change history of customer items or corporate assets. The application includes drill-down capabilityto obtain details of inventory, work in process, and order management transactions affecting anitems tracking attributes.Oracle Install Base provides links to detailed information from contracts, service requests, repair ordersinitiated for an item instance, and counters associated with the item instance.FEATURES OF ORACLE INSTALLED BASEOracle Installed Base is an item instance life cycle tracking application that facilitates enterprise-wide lifecycle item management and tracking capability 6. Basic TrackingYou specify which items you want to track in the Master Item list in Oracle Inventory. Subsequently,when a particular real-world instance of the item is created, an item instance record is created in OracleInstalled Base. Any significant

changes to the item instance will also be recorded in Oracle Installed Base.Item Instance Movement TrackingOracle Installed Base can track an item instance from the time that it is received in inventory, in work inprocess, in projects, at customer sites, and throughout the return and repair processTangible ItemsItem instances can be used to track tangible items, that is, physical, real-world objects, that can beassembled and shipped, such as computers, engines, machine parts, and soon.Intangible ItemsItem instances can be used to track intangible items such as software, services, licenses, andagreements. For example, a telephone number can have different services such as call waiting andconference call. These can all be defined and tracked as components of the telephone service.Serialized ItemsWhen a trackable item is defined in Oracle Inventory as serialized, each item instance derived from thatitem requires a unique serial number and individual tracking. The item instance will always have aquantity of 1.Non-Serialized ItemsWhen a trackable item is defined in Oracle Inventory as non-serialized, it is typically for smaller objectswhose real-world instances do not require individual tracking. For example, a screw could be defined asa non-serialized, trackable item; an order for 100screws would result, after order shipping, in thecreation of one item instance, with quantity 100.See also Serialization and Levels of Tracking