Configuring Rate Groups, Rates and Rate Plans

Owned by Mahnoor Khan (Deactivated)
Last updated: Sept 22, 2021 by Greg Walsh
14 min read

Summary

This article describes how to setup UDR Rate Groups, UDR Rates and UDR Rate Plans. For an overview of UDR Rating and what these terms mean please review Usage Rating Overview.

UDR Rate Groups

The first step in the configuration of your rate structure is to define UDR Rate Groups.  Once complete individual rates can then be created and assigned to their respective Rate Group.

In the example below 3 basic rate groups will be created, in addition to "For Cost" rate groups.

  • Standard: for common rates (ex: Operating assistance, outbound calls, etc.)

  • Domestic: For USA rates, this UDR Rate Group can be divided into multiple groups depending on the complexity of the rates (ex: interstate vs. intrastate)

  • International: for international rates

Creating Rate Groups

  1. In the AdminPortal click on Setup

  2. Click on UDR Rate Groups

  3. On the UDR Rate Groups page click the Add button on the right side of the window

  4. The Add window will load

    • Name - the name given to the rate group

    • Display Name - this is an optional field. The system will display the value entered here on customer invoices. Use this field if you would like to display a more end-user friendly version of the Rate Group name

    • Start - represents the date on which this rate group will become active

    • Use for Cost - indicates that the Rates in this group will be setup as 'cost' rates. Cost Rate Groups are referenced by Rates that are configured with a Rate Type of 'Markup'. For example if a Long Distance Rate with a 'Markup' Rate Type exists then when rating executes the charge for this Rate will be determined by first looking for a 'Use For Cost' Rate Group within the Rate Plan and then if the cost group exists, looking for a Long Distance UDR Class Rate in the Use For Cost Group. The 'Use For Cost' Long Distance Rate Amount that is found will be the cost value that is Marked up

      • Example Scenario:

        • A Rate is configured with a Class of 'Long Distance', Rate Type of 'Rated Markup' and amount of fifty cents a minute (0.50/m)

        • During rating a Markup Rate is found triggering a check for a 'Use For Cost' Rate Group in the Rate Plan

        • If the 'Use For Cost' Rate Group in the Rate Plan includes a Long Distance Class UDR Rate with an amount value of ten cents a minute (0.10/m), the Rated Markup would result in a charge of sixty cents a minute (ten cents cost + fifty cents rated markup)

        • If the Use For Cost Rate Group does not contain a Long Distance UDR Class Rate, or the Rate Plan is not setup with a Use For Cost Rate Group then a UDR Exception will occur

    • Time Period - driven from the Time Periods configuration (Setup > Time Periods), allows you to select a preconfigured time period (e.g. peak hours, evenings/weekends, etc.) to association with this rate group. Once set, rates in the rate group will only be used if the usage occurs in the specified time period. If a group is configured to a specific time period other rate groups will need to be setup in the same rate plan to provide the rates that are applicable outside of the time period (otherwise usage will fail to rate and UDR Exceptions will be generated)

    • Currency - the currency to be used with this rate group

    • Conditions - allows you to apply conditional elements which instruct the system to preform additional checks when using this rate group (more on this below)

  5. Fill in the fields as desired

  6. To quickly produce additional UDR Groups see the "Adding Rate Groups Using Cloning" section below.

Creating Rate Groups Using Cloning

EngageIP offers a "cloning" option instead of repeating all the above steps when creating similar rate groups and rate plans.

Cloning Process:

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Locate the Rating and Usage heading and click on UDR Rate Groups

  3. Click the name of the UDR Rate Group you wish to clone

  4. On the page that loads click the Clone button to the right

  5. Enter a Clone Name, and Start Date

  6. Click the Save button

  7. Click the name of your cloned Rate Group on the UDR Rate Groups page

  8. Edit the values as desired (in the sample above "Domestic-Cost" the "Use For Cost" option would be checked)

  9. Click the Save button when finished

Sample UDR Rate Groups

Adding Conditions to Rate Groups

EngageIP offers the ability to use a specific UDR Rate Group if a certain condition is met. If the condition is not met, the system uses the UDR Rate Groups that do not have the condition. When a condition is matched the Rate Group with the condition will be used, i.e. the Rate Group with the condition that was met will take priority over other rate groups even if their 'Priority' setting indicates they should be used first. See the section 'Assigning UDR Rate Groups to UDR Rate Plans' below for information on how Rate Group Priority is set and how it functions.

Condition example: Rate inbound calls at $5.00 when the originating Identifier is 15196571111

First we create the rate group (as described above) and then we add the condition (first test box displays all the Fields in the UDR table).

From here the the rate(s) as described in the UDR Rates section below need to be associated to these UDR Rate groups.

UDR Rates

Once you have defined your Rate Groups you can now set up the individual UDR rates

Note: Rates are imported by your LogiSense implementation team during the initial EngageIP setup, the steps below should only be followed if you need to add a new rate).

Creating UDR Rates

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Locate the Rating and Usage heading and click on UDR Rates

  3. Click the Add button in the lower right

  4. The Add UDR Rates page will load, populate the fields as needed (Required fields are in red)

  • Display Name - the name you would like to appear on the customer’s invoice and reports

  • UDR Rate Group - populated from your UDR Rate Group list, this is the field that connects individual rates to their appropriate rate group (for instance, a 'North American Calling' rate group, or 'International' rate group)

  • UDR Class - this field allows you to classify your rate (i.e. Local, Long Distance, SMS, International, OnNet, etc.)

  • UDR Rate Type - Defines how you would like the value in the Amount field above to be rated. Examples include:

    • Fixed – bill as a fixed amount (i.e. $5.00 for each occurrence)

    • Rated – rate the event based on an amount/duration (i.e. 0.01/s = $0.01 per second)

    • Markup – apply a factor (percentage) to the rate based on your cost. E.g. if you wanted to markup cost by 150% you would select this option and enter an amount of 1.5

    • Rated Markup – applies an Amount/Duration markup value to your cost for this rate

    • Fixed Markup – applies a fixed dollar value markup to your cost

  • Amount - the amount billable for this rate.  For instance if the UDR Class was 'Long Distance' and configured with a UDR Unit Type of 'Time', you could bill $1.00 a minute by entering 1.00/m

  • Minimum Charge - allows you to define a minimum charge that will be applied if the charge calculated for the UDR Rate is less than the minimum charge value. For instance if you set the minimum charge at $1.00 and usage occurs that amounts to $0.50 then $1.00 would be charged because the charged amount did not meet the minimum charge

  • Connection Charge (introduced in EngageIP 8.6.1) - allows you to specify a connection charge that is applied before the minimum charge (if any) is calculated. This value is a flat rate and must be a positive number

  • UDR Location - associates the rate to a specific location in the GeoTree (e.g. a country, state, city, etc.)

  • UDR Location Group - UDR Location Groups allow you to setup custom areas (groups of locations) that a rate can be applied to. See the article GeoTree Configuration for more information

  • Additional - if enabled this UDR rate will become an 'additional rate' that can be billed for the same record. For example, you could bill $5.00 for the initial connection when dialing 911 and then bill $0.05 for each additional minute. For an additional rate to be applied in addition to another UDR rate both rates must belong to the same UDR Class and UDR Location. If the rate has Additional as True, it does not get overridden as the GeoTree is traversed, the way normal rates do. Setting the Additional flag means when you have a call further down the tree, add this rate as well

  • UDR Round - these values are populated from your UDR Rounding Rules list which predefine a Unit Type (i.e. Time, Data, Occurrences, Pages) and associated minimum value and measured increments. For example, you could have a rounding rule called 60/6 which would be configured with a Unit Type of Time, the Minimum would be set to 60s and after sixty seconds the total usage time would be rounded up in six second increments. More information on UDR Rounding Rules can be found below

5. Populate the fields as desired and click the Save button when finished, or Save/New to save the new rate and create another.

UDR Rounding Rules

Rounding Rules allow you to round up imported usage values by defining a Unit Type and applying an amount based on an Incremental value. For example a mobile operator could bill their customer in 6 second increments for all incoming and outgoing calls or an M2M provider could bill based on data usage.

Rounding Type: EngageIP rounding rules round values up.

Creating Rounding Rules

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Click on UDR Rounding Rules

  3. Click the Add button in the lower right

  4. Configure the various rounding rules needed

    • Name: the name of the rule

    • UDR Unit Type: the usage unit that is being rounded up (e.g. time, data)

    • Minimum: the minimum usage value (in the example above a call 10 seconds in length would be rounded up to 1 minute)

    • Increment: the usage increment, used in combination with the minimum value. E.g. 60/10 to bill a minimum of 1 minute and then in 10 second increments. A call length of 1 minute and 1 second would be billed at 1 minute and 10 seconds

    • Sort Order: controls the order the Rounding Rules will be displayed in under Setup > UDR Rounding Rules

  5. Click the Save button when finished, or Save/New to save the rule and create another

UDR Rate Plans

The final step in defining your Rate structure is to create your UDR Rate Plans. These are basically the plan that your customers will sign up for. However, simply creating a UDR Rate Plan does nothing by itself as they are simply a container for your rate groups which contain your rates.

Creating Rate Plans

  • Click on Setup

  • Under the heading Rating and Usage click on UDR Rate Plans

  • On the UDR Rate Plans page that loads click the Add button on the right hand side of the page

  • Enter a name for the rate plan (for instance "RetailRatePlan") 

    • Name - enter a value for the Rate Plan’s name

    • Display Name - value entered in this field will be displayed on the customer’s invoice and reports

    • Amount Precision - specifies the number of digits to round the amount to after the decimal place. The default is four decimal places but some organizations may choose to round up to two decimal places, in which case you would enter '2' in this field. This rounding occurs during rating. As of EngageIP 8.5.26.5 you can specify the maximum and default amount precision that rate plans will use by setting the UDRAmountPrecision value on the Configuration page. The Rounding behavior you observe will depend on your EngageIP version and setup, specifically:

      • If the Amount Precision field on the Rate Plan is left empty the result will be midpoint rounded. Meaning round up at a value of 5 or more and down at a value of 4 or less (an amount of 0.00015 becomes 0.0002 and an amount of 0.00014 becomes 0.0001). The Amount Precision field could be left empty in older versions of EngageIP, but after EngageIP 8.5.26.5 an amount precision value must be selected on rate plans

      • If the Amount Precision has a value specified the result will be 'roundup' rounding behavior (in a scenario with Amount Precision set to '2' on a rate plan and an amount of 0.051, the amount will roundup to 0.06)

      • If the EngageIP option 'UDRRatePlanPrecisionDoRoundTo' (introduced in EngageIP 8.5.26.5) is set to true then midpoint rounding will be enabled. If you need to enable this option please contact LogiSense support for assistance

  • Click the Save button when finished

Creating Rate Plans Using Cloning

EngageIP offers a "cloning" option instead of repeating all the above steps when creating similar rate groups and rate plans.

Cloning Process:

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Locate the Rating and Usage heading and click on UDR Rate Plans

  3. Click the name of the UDR Rate Plan you wish to clone

  4. On the page that loads click the Clone button to the right

  5. Enter a Clone Name (and if desired a Display Name)

  6. Click the Save button

  7. To edit the cloned Rate Plan on the UDR Rate Plans page click it's name

  8. Click the Save button when finished

Assigning UDR Rate Groups to UDR Rate Plans

Once you have created your UDR Rate Plans the next step is to assign the appropriate UDR Rate Groups to each.

Process:

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Locate the Rating and Usage heading and click on UDR Rate Plans

  3. Click on the name of the Rate Plan that you wish to assign a Rate group to

  4. On the Edit Rate Plan page you will see a section titled UDR Rate Groups, click the Add button in that area

  5. Select the UDR Rate Group and Priority on the page that loads 

    • UDR Rate Group - populated from the UDR Rate Group list. Select the group you would like to add to this UDR Rate Plan

    • Priority - defines the priority level of this UDR Group. For example, if you have two UDR Rate Groups associated with a UDR Rate Plan – the first an International Rate Group (Priority set to 1), second, Everywhere (Priority set to 2) , EngageIP would process the rates within the International Rate Group first and then Everywhere for any rates not found in the previous group. If all priorities are set to 1 on your groups then EngageIP would have to cycle through all your groups to apply the appropriate rates instead of matching based on your priority groups and ending the process once a match is found.
      Note: Rate Groups with Conditions that are met will be used first, regardless of the Priority setting

  6. Click the Save button when finished or Save/New to add another Rate Group to the Plan

 

Note:

  • The system will not rate a UDR if its rate plan does not have the billing (non-For cost) rate group, even if it has the For Cost rate group

  • The system uses the priority =1 as the first rate group to search for the needed rate, if not found it moves to 2 till they all finish

  • Newer versions have the option to add / override a rateplan in a user package if two rate plans are added to the same customer with the same userservice, the latest one is used

Adding UDR Rate Plans to Packages

Assumption: you have You have already created your package and it includes at least one service within EngageIP which UDR Rate Plans will be added to. If this has not been done please create your packages first (see: the Package and Service Setup article)

Now that you have your Packages and UDR Rate Plans setup and configured you can now link them together so that when a customer signs up for a package the appropriate UDR Rate Plan will be added to their account as well.

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Click on Packages

  3. Click on the name of the Package you wish to add a UDR Rate Plan to

  4. Under the Components heading click the Add button

  5. Click on UDR Rate Plan from the components list

  6. The Add UDR Rate Plan page will load, select a UDR Rate Plan and Package Service Connector 

    • UDR Rate Plan - populated for the UDR Rate Plan list. Select the plan you would like to associate with this package

    • Package Service Connector - Although you are adding the UDR Rate Plan to the package they are associated with a service. This helps you make the connection between which services are tied to a rate plan and which are not. This also help the end-customer quickly identify (on their invoices) what is included in a packages as it might include other services (one time services, email, internet, cable, etc.) which are not connected or require a rate plan

  7. Click the Save button when finished

Retiring / Retiring and Cloning Rate Groups

To retire a Rate Group, or retire a Rate Group and clone the group for future use do the following:

  1. Click on Setup

  2. Click on UDR Rate Groups

  3. Click on the Name of the Group you wish to retire to edit the Rate Group

  4. On the edit screen click the Retire button

  5. On the Retire page that loads specify the Retirement options:

    • Date - when the Rate Group will be retired / no longer used

    • Create New Clone - creates a new Rate Group using the selected Rate Group's configuration (useful if you need a new Rate Group with nearly the same Rates/configuration as the Rate Group that will be retired). When using this option the cloned Rate Group will have a Start date which matches the End date of the Rate Group that is being retired. The cloned Rate Group will also be automatically added to the appropriate Rate Plans (e.g. if you cloned a 'Domestic' Rate Group then Rate Plans which contain the Domestic Rate Group will be updated to include the cloned Domestic Rate Group as well). The Rate Groups Start/End date configuration and automated Rate Plan assignment will ensure a seamless switch over from the current Rate Group to the cloned Rate Group when the retirement date is reached

  6. Click Save

  7. The Rate Group in the UDR Rate Groups list will be updated to reflect the Retirement Date you specified

    • the Name field will have the Start and End dates appended on the Rate Group name (making the previous Rate Group Name available again)

    • the Retired field will indicate if the Rate Group is retired (the End date has been reached)