Create Product Characteristics and Characteristic Options
Overview
Product characteristics and characteristic options define the specific attributes, properties, and options that distinguish a product offering, influencing its configuration and pricing.
Required Characteristics
Since the integration relies on storing billing and plan-related data as characteristics on Order Line Items, it is essential to ensure that all required characteristics are created and properly associated with the relevant catalog items in the Product Catalog. The required characteristics vary depending on the type of plan or offering: Master Plan, Supplemental Plan, or Non-Subscription Offering (NSO).
Note: All characteristics should be configured as "Single Line Text", unless explicitly specified otherwise.
Special Note: The "Sync to Aria" characteristic needs to be added to the Master Plan, Supplemental Plan, and NSOs Product Specification Characteristics or Product Offering Characteristics, if you want the products to be defined in Aria during the Product Catalog and Configuration Process.
For Master Plans, the following characteristics must be created:
● Alt Billing Day
● Alt Billing Start Date
● Aria Rate Card
● Assignment Scope
● Bill Lag Days
● Bill Through Date
● Billing group description
● Billing group idx
● Billing group name
● Client Plan Instance ID
● Dunning group description
● Dunning group idx
● Dunning group name
● Dunning process
● Effective Date
● Existing Billing Group ID
● Existing Dunning Group ID
● Invoicing Option
● List Start Master File
● Notify Method
● Override Dates MP Instance No
● Payment Option
● Payment Responsibility
● Plan Description
● Plan ID
● Responsible Master Plan
● Retroactive Bill Start Date
● Statement Contact
● Statement Template
● Terms Number
● Type of plan (options: Master Plan and Arrears Master Plan)
For Supplemental Plans, the following characteristics are required:
● Aria Rate Card
● Client Plan Instance ID
● Plan Description
● Plan ID
● Type of plan (options: Supplemental Plan, Arrears Supplemental Plan, Activation Supplemental Plan)
For Non-Subscription Offerings (NSO) items, the following characteristics are required:
● NSO Bill Immediately
● NSO Fulfillment Date
● NSO Master Plan
● SKU
● Type of plan (option: NSO)
The Type of plan characteristic must be configured with exactly five predefined options:
● Master Plan
● Arrears Master Plan
● Supplemental Plan
● Arrears Supplemental Plan
● Activation Supplemental Plan
● NSO
These values must be spelled exactly as listed, as they are directly referenced in the integration actions. Additionally, the characteristic name itself must not be changed, unless you update all corresponding references within the integration actions. Modifying the name or options without updating the logic may result in broken functionality or failed processing during the integration.
Populating Required Aria Characteristics in ServiceNow
- From the CSM/FSM Configurable Workspace, click on the List icon, then click on Characteristics.
The Characteristics screen displays as shown above.
- Click on the New button.
The Create New Characteristic screen displays as shown above.
- Type in the Characteristic in the Name field exactly as defined in the Required Characteristics section as detailed above.
- Type in a Description.
- Click on the Input type field's drop down arrow and select Single Line Text from the available choices. See Note below.
Note: For the GL Code characteristic, select Choice from the Input type field's drop down.
- Click on the Save button.
Repeat steps 2 through 6 to populate all Aria product catalog required characteristics.
Note: Currently, required characteristics must be populated manually as there is no automated script. However, ServiceNow provides out-of-the-box functionality to export and import characteristics between instances via JSON files, which can be shared with clients or SIs to streamline the process.