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Configure Geography Rules

Geography Pricing Tiers

From the Rules > Geography > Pricing Tiers menu , you can set up standard pricing by geography type (State, MSA, City, SWC CLLI, Country, Zip Code) or custom pricing at the building level by Location.

Geographies is an optional feature that you can use to define your standard pricing catalogs by geographic areas. You can add up to a maximum of ten geographies per customer instance; however, you can add multiple geography values to a single geography. For example, you can add multiple states to a single geography.

Supported geography types include:

  • State

  • MSA

  • City

  • SWC CLLI

  • Country

  • Zip Code

  • Location (custom geography type used for building-level pricing. See "Setting Up Customized Pricing by Location" below).

  • Boundary

  • LATA

Note

When processing pricing catalogs with geographies, the higher the priority, the more precedence it receives. For example, if you set MA state pricing as Priority=1, it would supersede Boston city pricing, if it is ranked with a lower priority.

From the Rules > Geography > P2P Zone Rules menu, you can configure zone geographies and pricing calculations to be applied between two target locations, such as end user to end user or end user to Data Center, referred to as A and Z locations.

A and Z locations are used to describe points on a telecommunications circuit that is connected to a customer. This can be a circuit used for voice, data, or both. Each letter indicates a specific position, either physical or logical, on the circuit. The A point indicates the carrier's location or network, and the Z point indicates the customer's location or network. These locations can be facilities, rooms in a facility, or specific connections to cabling or equipment. The use of A and Z designations to describe locations can be seen on new circuit orders, pricing, customer or carrier trouble tickets, and circuit disconnect orders.

Note

A and Z locations are applicable for Point-to-Point, Ethernet - Dedicated, Ethernet - Switched, and MPLS networks.

Configuring Point-to-Point Pricing

Within TCW, Admin users can configure zone geographies and pricing calculations to be applied between two target locations, such as End User to End User or End User to Data Center, referred to as A and Z locations.

Note

A and Z locations are applicable for Point-to-Point, Ethernet-Dedicated, Ethernet-Switched, and MPLS networks.

A and Z locations are used to describe points on a telecommunications circuit that is connected to a customer. This can be a circuit used for voice, data, or both. Each letter indicates a specific position, either physical or logical, on the circuit.

  • A location indicates the carrier's location or network

  • Z location indicates the customer's location or network.

These locations can be facilities, rooms in a facility, or specific connections to cabling or equipment. The use of A and Z designations to describe locations can be seen on new circuit orders, pricing, customer or carrier trouble tickets, and circuit disconnect orders.

Note

P2P Pricing Optimization

For improved P2P pricing performance response time, the system breaks the locations down into small batches, processing approximately 20 - 30 threads in parallel to reduce the number of times required to identify individual pricing zones.

Prerequisites
  • At a minimum, the instance must have default pricing configured.

  • Pricing Tier geographies, were applicable, have been defined.

Configuration process flow
  • Step 1: Define your P2P Zone Rules. When you configure P2P Zone Rules for P2P pricing, the zone rule geography is mapped to the Pricing Type fields within My Buildings for those locations. See Defining the P2P Zone Rules

  • Step 2: Configure the pricing calculations to be applied between two target locations. See Configuring the Pricing Calculator

There are two methods available for defining your P2P Zone Rules:

  • Import P2P Zone Rules in bulk format

  • Manually define P2P Zone Rules

To import P2P Zone Rules in bulk format:

  1. As Admin user, click Rules > Geography > P2P Zone Rules from the navigation sidebar.

    Result: The P2P Zone Rules page displays.

  2. Click the Actions menu (three dots ...) to the right of the Manage Columns field.

  3. Click Import.

    Result: The Import Zone Geographies dialog box displays.

    GR_import_zone_geo.png
  4. Click Download Sample Excel File to confirm that your CSV file for import matches the required format. You can use the template to create your import file.

    Result: The sample excel file is downloaded to your local system.

    Important

    Connectbase recommends that you limit the size of your import file to no more than <2500 records at a time.

  5. Prior to uploading your CSV file, click Upload Tips and Cautions to review the requirements and recommendations.

    Result: The Upload tips and Cautions dialog box displays.

    GR_import_upload_tips.png
  6. Click Chose .xlsx file and select your file for import.

  7. Click Import.

    Result: The P2P Zone Rules display on the P2P Zone Rules page.

To manually define the P2P zone rules:

  1. As an Admin user, click Rules > Geography > P2P Zone Rules from the navigation sidebar.

    Result: The P2P Zone Rules page displays.

  2. Click the Add New button located at the top right corner of the page.

    Result: The Add New Zone Geography dialog box displays.

    GR_add_new_zone_geo.png
  3. Complete the Add New Zone Geography dialog box as follows:

    Field Name

    Action

    Zone (required)

    Assign a number or name to uniquely identify this zone.

    Geography Type (required)

    From the drop-down list, select the type from the following options: State, City, MSA, SWC CLLI, or Country

    Note

    Connectbase does not recommended the use of “Location” as a Geography Type for P2P pricing.

    Geography Value (required)

    In the Search field, search for the geography value(s) to associate with the selected Geography Type. For example, if you choose State as the Geography Type, search for the respective state(s) that you want to include in this zone.

    Priority (required)

    Select the desired priority number from the drop-down list.

  4. Click Add (or Add and continue if you have additional zones to define).

  5. The next step requires you to configure the pricing calculator. See Configuring the Pricing Calculator

At a minimum, you must configure at least one default formula for P2P pricing to be returned.

To configure the Pricing Calculator:

  1. As an Admin user, click P2P Configuration > Pricing Calculator from the navigation sidebar.

    Result: Pricing calculator page displays.

    GR_pricing_calculator.png
  2. Click the Add New button located at the top right corner of the page.

    Result: The Add New Formula dialog box displays.

    GR_add_new_formula.png
  3. Complete the Add New Formula dialog box as follows:

    Field Name

    Action

    Zone A

    Assign a number/name to uniquely identify Zone A.

    Zone A Type

    From the drop-down list, select a type for Zone A.

    The Zone Type must match the Pricing Type in the building record to return pricing.

    Options include:

    • End User

    • Data Center

    • POP

    Zone Z

    Assign a number/name to uniquely identify Zone Z.

    Zone Z Type

    From the drop-down list, select a type for Zone Z.

    The Zone Type must match the Pricing Type in the building record to return pricing.

    Options include:

    • End User

    • Data Center

    • POP

    Formula

    Enter the formula calculations to be applied between the two target locations into the P2P calculator.

    Combinations must be unique based on A Zone + A Type +Z Zone + Z Type. The system displays an error message if repeat A-Z combinations are attempted.  

    Example calculations include:

    A+Z (add the two access prices together)

    (A+Z)*1.1 (Add access prices and add 10%)

    Note

    All fields are required and must be completed prior to proceeding.

  4. Optionally, click the Default toggle button to ON (blue) if you want this calculation to be used as your default formula to be applied to all pricing, when the specified criteria does not match a given formula.

    For example, you create a formula between Location A “Massachusetts” and Location Z “Virginia”, and Zone Type “End User”. If one of the locations does not match the specific criteria, then the default formula would be applied to that location. For example, Location A is “Massachusetts”, but Location Z is “Kansas”, not Virginia.

  5. Click Add or Add and continue if you have additional formulas to define.

From the Rules > Geography > NNI Geography menu, you can set up your NNI inventory and pricing by geography to be carried through to the CPQ quoting process.

Once configured, Cross Connect MRC/NRC and Cross Connect Cost MRC/NRC pricing is automatically pulled into all applicable quotes in CPQ. A cross connect is a physical hardwired cable that provides a direct connection between two different termination locations within a Data Center.

For more information, see Setting up your NNI Locations for CPQ

Setting up your NNI Locations for CPQ

This feature enables you to set up your NNI inventory and pricing by geography to be carried through to the CPQ quoting process.

Once configured, Cross Connect MRC/NRC and Cross Connect Cost MRC/NRC pricing is automatically pulled into all applicable quotes in CPQ. A cross connect is a physical hardwired cable that provides a direct connection between two different termination locations within a Data Center.

This configuration is a two-step process:

  1. In step 1, you set up your NNI locations.

  2. In step 2, you set up pricing geographies and associations to your NNI locations.

You can add pricing geographies in two ways:

To bulk upload (import) pricing geographies:

  1. Click Rules from navigation sidebar.

    Result: The Pricing Tiers page displays.

  2. Click Geography > Pricing Tiers under Rules menu.

  3. Click Eclipse-Horizontal.png 3 dots to the right of the Manage Columns field.

  4. Select Import.

    Result: The Import Pricing Geography dialog box displays.

  5. Download the Sample Excel file to verify that your import file contains the required values as shown in the example.

    GR_sample_file.png

    Note

    To accommodate larger geography field values that exceed the character limit of an Excel cell, the sample import CSV file includes two additional (optional) fields "Geography Value 2" and "Geography Value 3", as shown in the above example.

  6. Review the Upload Tips and Cautions.

    GR_upload_tips_cautions.png
  7. Click the Choose .xlsx file icon.

  8. Select the file for import from your local drive.

  9. Click Import.

Result: The pricing geography requirements are validated and imported. If the import fails, recheck your import file to ensure that it meets the requirements for import and retry.

To manually add pricing geographies:

  1. Click the Rules from the navigation sidebar.

  2. Click Geography > Pricing Tiers.

    Result: Pricing Tiers page displays. If geographies have already been added, they are listed here.

  3. Click the Add New button located in the upper right corner of the page. You can add up to a maximum of ten geographies (zones).

    Result: The Add New Pricing Geography dialog box displays.

    GR_add_new_pricing_geo.png
  4. Complete the fields as indicated in the table below:

    Field Name

    Description

    Zone Name

    Enter a zone number or name to uniquely identify this zone.

    Geography Type

    From the drop-down list, select the geography type you wish to add.

    Options include:

    • Country

    • State

    • City

    • MSA

    • SWC CLLI

    • Country

    • Zip Code

    • Location (see "Setting Up Customized Pricing by Location" below)

    • Boundary (custom geography type that supports the import of closed boundary files (SHP, KML, KMZ, or Geojson).

      providing system administrators the ability to define pricing zones for Product Pricing throughout the system.

    • LATA (Local Access and Transport Area)

    Search <Geography Type Value>

    Search for the geography value(s) you want to associate with the selected Geography Type. For example, if you choose

    State as the Geography Type, search for the respective state(s) that you want added to the geography.

    All Locations/My Buildings toggle

    All Locations - If the toggle is set to All Locations, the scope of the pricing will be applied to all buildings that are

    positioned within that geography, regardless of whether they exist in My Locations (Buildings).

    See Setting up customized pricing by Location for details.

    All Locations Use Case: User can set a pricing geography for an entire country and toggle the setting to All Locations. When any location within that geography is priced, it will be successfully priced to the geographical pricing. In this case, the company does not have to load or inventory all buildings they can service into My Buildings in their instance. This is useful, for example, when there is a single provider in an area (country, region, etc.) and they provide service to every location in that area.

    My Buildings (default) - If the toggle is set to “My Buildings” the scope of pricing is restricted to only those buildings

    that have been imported into My Buildings.

    Priority

    Click the Priority field, then click the up or down arrow to select the priority that you want to assign to this geography.

  5. Click Add (or Add and continue if you have more geographies to configure).

    Note

    If you try to add more than ten geographies, the message “Pricing geography values cannot be greater than 10” displays.

To export geographies:

  1. Click Rules from the navigation sidebar.

  2. Go to Geography > Pricing Tiers.

  3. Click the Eclipse-Horizontal.png 3 dots to the right of the Manage Columns field.

  4. Click Export.

    Result: The file downloads to your local system in an .xlsx format. The export file contains all columns and values that are visible within the Pricing Geography page.

Note

To accommodate larger geography field values that exceed the character limit of an Excel cell, the export CSV file includes two additional (optional) fields "Geography Value 2" and "Geography Value 3". Additionally, the import / export templates also contains these two extra fields to accommodate the import of large number of geographies.

To modify geography values:

  1. Click Rules from the navigation sidebar.

  2. Go to Geography > Pricing Tiers.

  3. Click the vertical ellipsis Eclipse-Vertical.png (three dots) to the left of the Pricing Tier ID field.

  4. Select Edit.

    Result: The Edit New Pricing Geography dialog box displays.

  5. Edit the fields as needed.

  6. Click Save.

    Result: The message “Pricing Geography is Successfully Updated” displays.

To delete geographies:

  1. Click Rules from the navigation sidebar.

  2. Go to Geography > Pricing Tiers.

  3. Click the vertical ellipsis Eclipse-Vertical.png (three dots) to the left of the Pricing Tier ID field.

  4. Select Remove.

    Result: A confirmation dialog box displays, “You are going to remove a Pricing Geography. Are you sure?”

  5. Click Yes to remove the geography, or No to cancel the deletion.