To start selling a service offering, you need to create a service plan and make it available for customers to buy. This is done using such objects as service templates, plan categories, sales categories, and unique groups (see below). This chapter will be useful to those who want to create new such objects or change some of the existing ones, and then create a service plan using those objects. If you need to create a service plan reusing the objects that already exist in your system, you may skip this chapter and proceed to Creating a Service Plan.
Objects Necessary to Create Service Plans and Make Them Available for Customers to Subscribe
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The resource is a component of (or a "building block" for) service offerings that you sell. Each service offering consists of several components, such as, for example, virtual disk space, premium support, DNS security, a mailbox, or a long-distance communication license. The more convenient the building blocks, the more efficient your offer management. For more information, please see Managing Resources.
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The service template is a template used for the creation of service plans. It determines the required and optional resources to be offered by the service plans built on it. It also defines the information customers will be asked to supply when purchasing such service plans. For more information, please see Managing Service Templates.
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The service plan category links the included service plans to a tax category. For more information, please see Creating a Plan Category.
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The sales category is used for grouping service plans by service type (and other criteria) in the CloudBlue Commerce Online Store and in the customer control panel. For example, "Windows Shared Hosting", "SSL Certificates", "Domain Registration", and so on. For more information, please see Adding a Sales Category.
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The unique group is a group of mutually exclusive service plans. If you include a service plan in such a group, you will not be able to use this service plan as an up-sale option for another service plan of the same unique group. For more information, please see Configuring Mutually Exclusive Service Offerings Through Unique Groups.
Note: We recommend not grouping domain hosting plans. We also recommend not grouping all non-domain-related hosting service plans in the same unique group.
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