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TeamCollaboration Tutorial: Design a Custom Product Catalog

Zuora

TeamCollaboration Tutorial: Design a Custom Product Catalog

This portion of the TeamCollaboration tutorials walks you through the creation of products and price plans in the Zuora product catalog.

The exercises will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Scenario

TeamCollaboration wants to expand its offerings but is limited by its current billing system. Many of its customers have asked for additional storage. However, its billing system cannot support that today. TeamCollaboration believes it can immediately increase revenue if it can accomplish the following three goals:

  1. Charge customers for additional storage: TeamCollaboration currently limits customers’ storage to 5 GB, but wants to give its customers the flexibility to utilize more storage if needed. For example, customers exceeding the initial 5 GB allotment will be charged overage fees. The ability to charge for additional usage would allow TeamCollaboration to quickly and easily monetize existing customers.
  2. Offer new pricing options: TeamCollaboration needs better cash flow to grow its business. TeamCollaboration feels it can expedite its cash flow by offering discounts to customers who pay upfront for a year, or even a quarter, at a time.
  3. Launch new products: TeamCollaboration wants to launch Premium and Enterprise editions with different price points and features. This would allow it to better segment the market, attract larger customers, and give existing customers a path to upgrade.

TeamCollaboration's Planned Offerings

TeamCollaboration would like to offer the following product editions.

Product Edition Basic Premium Enterprise
Set Up Fee (One-Time Charge) $25, waived if customer signs up for annual plan $25, waived if customer signs up for annual plan $100, waived if customer signs up for annual plan
Recurring Fee $19.99/mo, $55.99/quarter, or $199.99/year $29.99/mo, $85.99/quarter, or $299.99/year $69.99/mo, $199.99/quarter, or $699.99/year
Storage Fee (Usage Charge) 5 GB included, $0.50/GB thereafter 35 GB included, $0.50/GB thereafter Unlimited Storage Included

 In the Zuora Application Settings section of this guide, we've included a brief tutorial highlighting how TeamCollaboration can configure to sell its products in multiple currencies using Zuora. If your business is contemplating selling in multiple currencies, review and complete that tutorial.

Exercise 1: Define Your Invoice Periods

Objective: To set up the invoice (or billing) periods that you want to be available when you define charges in the product catalog.

  1. Click your username at the top right and navigate to Settings > Billing.
  2. Click Define Billing Periods.
  3. On the page that appears, select the invoice periods needed based on TeamCollatboration's planned offering shown in the table above: Month, Quarter, and Annual. These periods will be available in the Billing Period field when you create a rate plan charge in your product catalog.
    The changes are applied automatically once you select the billing periods. You do not need to save these changes before navigating to a different page. 

Exercise 2: Define Units of Measures to Use

Objective: To enable the units of measures you want to be available when you charge customers based on usage. This exercise adds the following units of measure: GB (gigabytes) and Seat.  

  1. Click your username at the top right and navigate to Settings > Billing.
  2. Click Customize Units of Measure.
  3. Click add new uom.
  4. Complete the following fields:
    • Active: Select
    • Name: GB
    • DecimalPlaces: 0
    • Usage Log File Label: GB
  5. Click save.
  6. Click add new uom.
  7. Complete the following fields:
    • Active: Select
    • Name: Seat
    • DecimalPlaces: 0
    • Usage Log File Label: Seat
  8. Click save.

Now when you define usage based charges, GB and Seat will appear in the UOM field as options.

Exercise 3: Launch TeamCollab Basic

Objective: To launch the first basic edition product, TeamCollab Basic. Refer to the preceding table (TeamCollaboration’s Planned Offerings) to complete this tutorial.

Add the TeamCollab Basic product:

  1. Navigate to  Products > Product Catalog in the left-hand navigation section.
  2. Click add new product.
  3. On the New Product page, complete the following fields:
    • Name: TeamCollab Basic
    • Effective Start Date: Select today.
    • Effective End Date: Select the date 2 years from today.
  4. Click save.

Add the Basic Monthly rate plan in TeamCollab Basic:

  1. In the Rate Plans section, click add rate plan.
  2. Complete the following fields:
    • Name: Basic Monthly
    • Effective Start Date: Select today.
    • Effective End Date: Select the date 2 years from today.
  3. Click save.

Add the monthly charge to the Basic Monthly rate plan:

  1. In the Recurring Charges / Period column, click + add new.
  2. Complete the following fields for the recurring charge:
    • Charge Name: Monthly Fee
    • Charge Model: Flat Fee Pricing
    • List Price: 19.99 / Billing Period
    • Trigger Condition: Upon Contract Effective
    • End Date: Align to Subscription End Date
    • Billing Period: Month
    • Billing Day: Default from Customer Account
    • Billing Period Alignment: Align to Charge
  3. Click save.

Add the one-time setup fee to the Basic Monthly rate plan:

  1. In the One-Time Charges column, click + add new.
  2. Complete the following fields for the setup fee:
    • Charge Name: Setup
    • Charge Model: Flat Fee Pricing
    • List Price: 25.00
    • Trigger Condition: Upon Contract Effective
  3. Click save.

Exercise 4: Add Usage Charge to the Basic Monthly Plan

Objective: To add a usage charge so that TeamCollaboration can charge $0.50/GB for storage usage over 5 GB.

  1. Navigate to  Products > Product Catalog in the left-hand navigation section.
  2. Click the TeamCollab Basic product.
  3. In the Rate Plans section, click + add new under the Usage Charges / UOM column to add a new usage charge to the Basic Monthly rate plan. 
  4. Complete the following required fields:
    • Charge Name: Storage
    • Charge Model: Overage Pricing
    • UOM (Units of Measure): GB
    • Included Units: 5
    • List Price: 0.50
    • Trigger Condition: Upon Contract Effective
    • End Date: Align to Subscription End Date
    • Billing Period: Month
    • Billing Day: Default from Customer Account
    • Billing Period Alignment: Align to Charge
  5. Click save.

With the new usage charge, TeamCollaboration can now charge $0.50/GB for storage used over 5 GB.

Exercise 5: Create an Annual Rate Plan for TeamCollab Basic

Objective: To launch a new rate plan for TeamCollab Basic that charges annually. This plan differs from the monthly plan in that there is no setup fee, and the recurring price is $199.99/year.  

While you can create a new rate plan from scratch by clicking + add rate plan, this exercise shows you how to take a shortcut by cloning and then editing the existing rate plan.

  1. In the Rate Plans section of the TeamCollab product page, mouse over Basic Monthly. Three links appear to the right: Edit, Clone, and Delete. Click Clone. This creates a new rate plan named Copy of 'Basic Monthly'.
  2. Mouse over Copy of 'Basic Monthly' and click Edit.

  3. Change the name to Basic Annual. Click save.

  4. Remove the setup fee because the annual plan will not charge a setup fee. Mouse over Setup Fee in the Basic Annual plan and click Remove
  5. Mouse over the Monthly Fee charge and click Edit.
  6. Complete the following fields:
    • Charge Name: Annual Fee
    • List Price: $199.99 / Billing Period
    • Billing Period: Annual
  7. Click save.

Exercise 6: Create a Quarterly Rate Plan for TeamCollab Basic

Objective: To create a pricing plan that allows customers to pay quarterly.

  1. In the Rate Plans section of the TeamCollab product page, mouse over Basic Monthly and click Clone.
  2. Mouse over Copy of 'Basic Monthly' and click Edit.
  3. Change the name to Basic Quarterly and click save.
  4. Mouse over the Monthly Fee charge and click Edit.
  5. Complete the following fields:
    • Charge Name: Quarterly Fee
    • List Price: $55.99 / Billing Period
    • Billing Period: Quarter
  6. Click save.

Exercise 7: Launch a New Premium Product

Objective: To launch a new Premium product edition. Refer to the preceding table (TeamCollaboration’s Planned Offerings) to complete this tutorial. 

 While it is possible to create a new product from scratch with + add new product, we will take a shortcut by cloning the existing product and then editing it.

  1. Navigate to Products > Product Catalog in the left-hand navigation section.
  2. Click the TeamCollab Basic product.
  3. On the TeamCollab product page, click more and select Clone this product
    This will create a new product called Team Collab BasicXXXXXX, with XXXXXX being a number.
  4. Click edit to modify the product information.

  5. Change the product name to TeamCollab Premium and click save.

  6. Mouse over each rate plan and click Edit to change the name of the rate plan:
    • Change the rate plan name from Basic Monthly to Premium Monthly.
    • Change the rate plan name from Basic Quarterly to Premium Quarterly.
    • Change the rate plan name from Basic Annual to Premium Annual
  7. Update the pricing.
    • The Setup fees for the Premium product will remain the same as for the Basic product. For the annual plan, the setup fee is waived as for the Basic product.
    • Mouse over Recurring Charges for each rate plan and click Edit to change the following. Click save after updating each rate plan.
      • Change the List Price of the Monthly Fee charge from $19.99 to $29.99, and leave everything else the same.
      • Change the List Price of the Quarterly Fee charge from $55.99 to $85.99.
      • Change the List Price of the Annual Fee charge from $199.99 to $299.99.
    • Mouse over Usage Charges / UOM for each rate plan and click Edit to change the following:
      • Change the Included Units from 5 GB to 35 GB, which is the storage included with the Premium edition.

Exercise 8: Launch a New Enterprise Product

Repeating the instructions from the previous exercise, launch the Enterprise product edition. Refer to the TeamCollaboration’s Planned Offerings table for pricing of the Enterprise product.

Remember to remove all usage charges for the monthly, quarterly, and annual pricing plans, as TeamCollaboration offers unlimited storage for the Enterprise product at no charge.

TeamCollaboration launched the new Premium and Enterprise products, allowing it to target larger customers and increase revenues.

What's Next?

Learn: Advanced Charge Models