What is a Service Type?
A 'service type' in Emersion is a very specific type of billing object. It is a very simple concept, with a complex and powerful set of abilities.
The simplest description of a service type is that represents a single type of subscription-based service that can be sold to an customer. Conversely, it is something that a customer can subscribe to. It is literally some type of service and it can be thought of as simple as this. That said, Emersion service types have some specific characteristics that separate it from other things that can be bought and sold between parties.
- It is subscription-based
- It is not sold via a one-time payment like a physical item you would buy and take home.
With such a broad definition and limitless possibilities, it is easy to see why Emersion has hundreds of service types with new service types regularly added. When you first engaged with Emersion, our Sales team will have discussed what you sell and how you sell it. The output of that analysis is a list of service types needed for you to build plans against, and sell. With a diverse customer-base of businesses selling subscription-based services, our system has to support all manner and types of services. Ultimately anything sold via subscription can become an Emersion service type.
Examples of Service Types
These are some service types that exist in Emersion's platform today.
- Telstra 3G
- AAPT National Wholesale Broadband
- AAPT Inbound
- AAPT ADSL
- Vodafone Pivotel
- Foxtel
- Rhipe Microsoft CSP
- Optus DSL
- Optus Mobile
- Service Level Maintenance
- Domain Registration
- Web Hosting
- A software licence
- Electricity
- Water or other utility
- Marie Claire magazine
- The Australian newspaper
- A health monitoring service for the elderly
If a user can subscribe to it, it's a service type.
'Under the hood' in Emersion, a service type is a far more complex object. As of writing, Emersion supports 350+ service types, with the figure growing due to the ascension of subscription-based services in the global market. More and more of Emersion's client base are selling subscriptions of varying types to their own customers. Emersion's development strategy is always underpinned by the mission to provide an agnostic software solution that is compatible with any type of subscription and can support the billing and provisioning needs of all service that can be subscribed to.
Service types are subscribed via building and maintaining a catalogue of service plans, package plans, rate cards and other objects that define all the billing rules, pricing and systemic behavior. By subscribing to one of these plans, a customer will receive a set of subscriptions.
Here are some other objects used to facilitate billing - all that relate into a service type either directly, or indirectly:
- A package subscription is an instance of a package plan sold to a customer.
- A service subscription is an instance of a service associated with a service plan.
- A bolt on subscription is created when a bolt on is linked to a service plan.
Usage
A service type can include a usage component. Usage can be collected from the service supplier as regularly as needed.
Selling some types of services come with regulatory obligations pertaining to accurate and timely usage notifications to the users of the service. Usage for these service types will be processed hourly, while other service types only need to process usage daily or even monthly. Usage that can be identified, rated and processed ends up on the customer's invoice at the end of the billing period.
Usage that cannot be billed is redirected to an area of the system called Quarantine where it can be treated manually.
Not all service types have a usage component. Some service types attract only a regular recurring access fee with no further billing impact for frequently the service is used. For example a subscription to TV streaming services is generally based around the channels - or channel packs - the customer subscribes to.
Usage is received and processed by Emersion's propriety usage mediation and rating engine called 'BMS'. BMS stands for 'Batch Mediation System'.
Provisioning
Provisioning pertains to the physical supply of the service being subscribed to.
Provided the carrier/service supplier is technically able to support provisioning integration, Emersion's software platform is built to integrate with these service suppliers to physically provision services in addition to billing the services. This makes Emersion attractive as a single source for ordering, provisioning and billing services and typically results in reduced double-handling and a significant increase in both productivity and accuracy.
Service types can fall into three primary categories where it comes to provisioning:
- Manually provisioned
- Semi-manually provisioned
- Automatically provisioned
In the case of semi-manual provisioning, should you be buying services from a wholesale service provider who is also billing from Emersion, the wholesaler will control provisioning via the Emersion system.
Automated provisioning is conducted via one of Emersion sub-systems called 'Cyclone'.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most frequently asked questions we get around service types.
What service types do I currently have?
To see the list of service types you sell via Emersion, go Report > List > Reference. Run the report titled Service Type List. This report shows a list of service types available to your service provider account. If you have both a wholesale and retail account, the service types are mapped to your wholesale account, unless there is a specific reason not to do so.
I'm going to start selling something new soon I've never sold or billed before. Do I need a new service type?
Most likely. All things that can be sold via subscription are by definition, a type of service, and therefore a potential Emersion service type. If it's a different type of item such as a physical item or a once off charge, you may want to leverage the products section, another billing object, or method.
I need a new service type. How can I make one?
Emersion creates and maintains all service types in the system. Service types are global objects, meaning that changes to a service type affects all subscribers selling the service type. If a new service type of needed, see this article about requesting one.
I don't want these service type names and carriers exposed to my End Users. Can this be changed?
Yes. While the system default name of the service type is set by Emersion, service providers can override these names with their own. See this article to get started.