Price Determination Using Dynamic Price Groups

Use

You can use this function to group media products in a price group, so that you can offer your customers a fixed price for a package of products if they subscribe to all the media products in this price group. As a special case, you can also give discounts based on the number of products in the price group to which the customer subscribes.

When performing pricing during billing for deliveries or in the billing schedule, the system takes account of the media products for which there are currently subscriptions; this means the current price group and level are recalculated dynamically each time pricing takes place. This approach is different from that used in functions such as rebate processing in Sales and Distribution (SD) , which analyze a period in the past.

Caution Caution

When subscriptions are terminated or new subscriptions created, it is not possible to retroactively refresh prices and billing documents that have already been created . As an alternative, you can create credit or debit memos.

End of the caution.
Complete Price Group

You usually use dynamic price groups to offer your customer a rebate if they purchase all the products in the price group. For this reason, we refer to complete price groups .

In the above graphic, products A and B are grouped in the complete price group G1. The subscription price for Product A is USD 100, and the price for Product B is USD 200. If a customer subscribes to both these products, price group G1 is complete and the customer is offered a new price: USD 80 for Product A, and USD 160 for Product B.

If the customer only subscribes to Product A, the subscription price is USD 100. If they subscribe to Product A and Product B, Product A has a price of USD 80 and Product B a price of USD 160. If they only subscribe to Product B, it has a price of USD 200. This means the rebate is only granted if the customer subscribes to all the products in price group G1 at the same time.

Special Case: Layered Price Group

If you want to grant rebates based on the number of products to which the customer subscribes without them having to subscribe to all the products in a group, you can assign pricing levels to the price groups. The system uses these layered price groups together with the price group to determine the price during invoicing.

In the above graphic, products A, B, and C are grouped in the layered price group G1. A rebate is calculated depending on the level – that is, the number of products in G1 that are subscribed to at the same time: 5% rebate for one product, 10% for two, and 15% for three.

If the customer subscribes to one product, the rebate is 5%. If they subscribe to two products, they are granted a rebate of 10%, and for three products a rebate of 15%. Even if the customer has three subscriptions to Product A, they still receive a rebate of 15%.

Prerequisites

Before you can use the function Price Determination Using Dynamic Price Groups , you must define the dynamic price groups and assign them media products and, if applicable, pricing levels. You must also specify the allowed order types and, if applicable, media issues.

To do this, choose the following functions under the menu path Start of the navigation path Logistics Next navigation step Media Sales and Distribution Next navigation step Series Sales and Distribution Next navigation step Master Data Next navigation step Dynamic Price Groupsform theSAP Easy Access End of the navigation path screen:

Function

Description

Dynamic Price Group

Enter the name of the group and a description. To define a price group as a complete price group , select the Complete indicator.

Assigned Media Products

You can select the following indicators when assigning media products to dynamic price groups:

  • If you select the Count and Pricing indicators, the system also enters these as default values on the Dynamic Price Groups tab (see below).

    Caution Caution

    Please note that you must select the Count and Pricing indicators for complete price groups.

    End of the caution.
  • If you select the Qty Rel. indicator, the quantities of media products are taken into account when determining the number of units. Otherwise, the item is counted as one unit.

    Caution Caution

    The Qty Rel. indicator must be left blank for complete price groups.

    End of the caution.

You can also assign a media product to several price groups.

You can enter a multiplier in the Weighting field to define a weighting for the rebate or fixed price determined using the dynamic price groups for a package of products.

Pricing Levels for Price Group

Caution Caution

Please make sure that you assign pricing levels in continuous intervals ( number from and to ). For example, 1-5 and 6-10 as opposed to 1-5 and 7-10.

You cannot define levels for complete price groups.

End of the caution.

Permitted Order Types

You can use this function to specify which contract types and item categories are taken into account when determining a dynamic price group.

If you select the Order New indicator, price determination takes place using dynamic price groups when new orders are created (otherwise this only takes place for contracts).

Allowed Media Issues

You can also obtain the special price for the price group for orders with one media issue, if you have active series contracts that are assigned to a dynamic price group.

In addition, you must define the conditions, access sequence, and pricing procedure for the dynamic price groups (fields DISCOUNTGROUP and DISCOUNTLEVEL in structure KOMP) in pricing for Sales (SD) (see Conditions and Pricing ).

Activities

To display or change the dynamic price groups, choose the Dynamic Price Groups tab on the Media tab in the Item Data view for the contract functions.

The dynamic price groups are also listed in orders that belong to the relevant contract.

Note Note

You can also edit the dynamic price groups in orders that were not generated.

End of the note.

The system enters the Count and Pricing indicators as default values according to the settings you made under Assigned Media Products (see above). You can select or remove these indicators regardless of the default values entered by the system.

  • Count

    If you select the Count indicator, the item in question is taken into account when determining the number of units.

  • Pricing

    If you select the Pricing indicator, the price group to which the media product is assigned and the pricing level are used for price determination (determining conditions).

Please note that you cannot select or remove the Count and Pricing indicators in complete price groups . (If the customer subscribes to all the products in a complete price group, an X is entered in the Complete column.)

Caution Caution

If several dynamic price groups are displayed, you must only select the Pricing indicator for one of them before saving.

End of the caution.

Note Note

You can only select or remove the Qty Rel. indicator in the Assigned Media Products function (see above).

End of the note.

To obtain an overview of the units contained in a dynamic price group, select the entry in the No. Units column.

If required, you can refresh the billing schedules based on new price groups. To do this, choose Start of the navigation path Logistics Next navigation step Media Sales and Distribution Next navigation step Series Sales and Distribution Next navigation step Master Data Next navigation step Dynamic Price Groups Next navigation step Adjust Billing Plans for Contract Next navigation step Adjust Prices for Billing Planon theSAP Easy Access End of the navigation path screen.

Enhancements Using Business Add-Ins

You can enhance the function Price Determination Using Dynamic Price Groups using the following methods of the Business Add-In ISM_SE_PRICESETCHECK:

Method

Description

ADJUST_PRICEGROUP

You can use this method to change the price groups determined by the system. For example, you can change the default setting for the Pricing indicator.

ADDITIONAL_VALUES

You can use this method to add fields to the list of price groups and assign them values.

Example

The following examples illustrate how pricing takes place for complete and layered price groups.

Pricing with Complete Price Groups

To determine the procedure, you assign the customer and document determination procedures to a pricing procedure within a sales area. In the pricing procedure, you define which condition types are to be taken into account and in which order.

In the graphic above, pricing procedure XYZ is assigned the condition types XXX1 and XXX4 . Condition type XXX1 is assigned the access sequence XXX1 .

You use the access sequence to stipulate:

  • Which condition tables and condition records are used to access the data

  • The order in which these condition tables are used

  • The field contents that are used to read them

Access sequence XXX1 makes access 1 to condition table 900 and access 2 to condition table 950 . Condition table 900 contains the access fields Price Group and Issue .

In our example, condition table 900 is read successfully, since price group A and the material Issue 1 are entered in the condition table. The system determines a price of USD 80 for issue 1. If the Group field is blank, access to table 900 will not be successful. The system then accesses condition table 950 and determines a price of USD 100 for issue 1.

Pricing with Layered Price Groups

The access displayed in the above graphic is basically identical to that displayed in the example for the complete group (see previous graphic). In this case, the level determined is passed on to pricing in addition to the group.