A Zenskar concept that defines any service or product you sell to your customer as part of a contract.
This guide helps you understand:
- the concepts of product and product catalog in Zenskar
- how to use products in contracts and contract templates
What is a product
Product
In Zenskar, a product is any service or product you sell to your customer as part of a contract.
- In a metered product, you measure customer activity or consumption of resources.
- In a non-metered product, you do not measure customer activity or consumption of resources. You charge the customer based on the number of units purchased.
Components of a product
Pricing models
| Pricing model | Description |
|---|---|
| Flat fee | A simple pricing strategy in which you charge a fixed fee for a particular service, regardless of the time it takes to complete. |
| Per unit pricing | You charge customers for each item sold. |
| Volume pricing | Your customers get a different price per unit as the quantity of the units they purchase increases. |
| Tiered pricing | A pricing strategy in which you present customers with several product or service options, with corresponding pricing levels. |
| Package pricing | A pricing model that includes everything so that each product or service is not charged for separately. |
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Free units | The number of free units available to the user before being charged for usage. You can configure free units to expire: - Never: - End of contract billing period: - End of product billing period: |
| Discount | A contract-level discount applicable on the overall invoice value. |
| Tax | Choose this feature if you would like to handle the collection of taxes. |
| AvaTax | ⚠️ Choose this feature only if you have a properly configured Avalara AvaTax account. Avalara AvaTax uses automation to make tax determination faster, easier, and more accurate. Avalara tax codes can be found here . The Avalara tax codes determine the taxability of the goods and services you sell.  |
| Minimum commitment | A minimum amount that you can charge even if the products and services are not availed during the billing period. |
Sub-product
A sub-product is a type of product that has a parent product. A sub-product has all the properties of a product.
A sub-product can be added by clicking on the + ADD SUB PRODUCT button.
Important
A parent product that has sub-product(s) cannot have a pricing model or aggregate attached to it. However, you can add features to the product.
Add-on
An add-on is a type of product that cannot be sold individually. An add-on contains has all the properties of a product. However, it must exist in the context of a parent product or sub-product.
An add-on can be added by clicking on the + ADD ADD-ON button.
These product groups of subproducts and addons can be added directly to the contract/template to load the default values. These values can then be edited. One can also remove subproducts/addons.
Even from contract page one can save the product to the catalogue when prompted
Product Catalogue
Product catalogue is a place where the organisation can define the list of products/services that they offer to their customers. These products then can be directly used in a contract or templates. This avoids the unnecessary need of defining the product everytime a new contract needs to be created.
Putting it all together using an example
Let us assume:
- you are a cloud service provider who provides compute resources in different regions of US
- your services are priced differently in every region
In plain English, the product can be defined as shown below:
Compute (product) with Minimum Gurantee - 100 USD
Compute East Zone (sub-product)
- Per-unit pricing - 0.01 USD/min (metered)
Compute West Zone (sub-product)
- Per-unit pricing - 0.02 USD/min (metered)
Compute North Zone (sub-product)
- Per-unit pricing - 0.05 USD/min (metered)
Block storage
- Per-unit pricing - 0.01 USD/GB (metered)
Your customer is allowed to use a compute resource in any of the regions. The combined charges for all the sub-products will be 100 USD, irrespective of the usage.
The product
The same product when defined in Zenskar will look like the following:
Here, Compute is the parent product that contains three sub-products:
- Compute East Zone
- Compute West Zone
- Compute North Zone
You can notice that the parent product does not have a pricing model or an aggregate attached to it.
The Minimum Commitment feature is assigned to the parent product, Compute. The baseline charge irrespective of usage is set to 100 USD.
The sub-products
Compute East Zone
- The compute resources are provided in the east zone at 0.01 USD/min.
- The usage is metered. You must select an appropriate aggregate from the Usage Aggregate drop-down.
Compute West Zone
- The compute resources are provided in the west zone at 0.02 USD/min.
- The usage is metered. You must select an appropriate aggregate from the Usage Aggregate drop-down.
Compute North Zone
- The compute resources are provided in the north zone at 0.05 USD/min.
- The usage is metered. You must select an appropriate aggregate from the Usage Aggregate drop-down.
The add-ons
The compute resource already comes with enough storage to install an operating system. However, if needed, the customer can add more block storage. Block storage is never sold individually and must be purchased in the context of a compute product. Therefore, block storage is an add-on.
To keep the example simple, let us assume that the block storage is charged at 0.01 USD/GB (metered) in all the zones.
A new network-related add-on
Imagine a scenario where you are forced to charge for network usage in the east zone:
- from 0–1 TB/month, 1 USD/month
- from 2 TB/month onward, 1.5 USD/month
The new contract for east zone can be described in English as follows:
Compute (product) with Minimum Gurantee - 100 USD
Compute East Zone (sub-product)
- Per-unit pricing - 0.01 USD/min (metered)
Compute West Zone (sub-product)
- Per-unit pricing - 0.02 USD/min (metered)
Compute North Zone (sub-product)
- Per-unit pricing - 0.05 USD/min (metered)
Block storage
- Per-unit pricing - 0.01 USD/GB (metered)
Network
- Tiered pricing
- from 0–1 TB/month, 1 USD/month (metered)
- from 2 TB/month onward, 1.5 USD/month (metered)
You can edit a product and add a new add-on for network related usage and charges.
The Compute East Zone sub-product will now have a Block Storage and a Network add-on:
