Mulesoft Product Catalog Connector FAQ

What is the purpose of the Aria Product Catalog Synchronization Template?  

It is a set of MuleSoft templates that enables external product catalogues (such as Salesforce EPC) to create or update products and promotions in Aria's product catalog before orders are placed. 

It comes ready to call using TMF620 (Product Catalogue Management) and TMF671 (Promotion Management) standards. 

The connector accelerates deployment and reduces integration costs when introducing a new advanced billing automation capability into subscription management and customer support eco-systems. It can be customized to support attribute/model extensions in any product catalog being linked.

Out of the box it supports the following integration scope:  

• Uni-directional synchronization of catalog assets from an external EPC (e.g. Salesforce EPC) to Aria Billing Cloud
• Offers and their constituent products, including recurring and one-time items, promotions and static discounts 

How does this relate to Salesforce EPC? 

This accelerator is not limited to the Salesforce EPC or the Communications Data Model and can be utilized by other Salesforce Industry or Core Clouds, or by 3rd party EPCs.

However, it was designed and tested around the Salesforce EPC (part of Salesforce Communications Cloud and its associated Communications Data Model), to be the single point of control for product catalog management.  This updates Aria Billing Cloud with new or updated 'offers' and with new promotions. Salesforce EPC must be configured to call this connector during deployment of Salesforce EPC and/or Aria Billing Cloud, using Salesforce's outbound API for TMF620 and a custom outbound event for promotions.

What are the benefits of using this connector? 

It accelerates deployment and reduces integration costs by up to 80% when synchronizing product catalogs across a federated best-of-breed architecture for synchronized product lifecycle management. 

It complies with standards that simplify interoperability and portability across complex ecosystems aiming for seamless integration. 

It delivers a holistic approach to TMFC001 ODA component for Product Catalog Management in relation to telecommunications.

What are the benefits of a synchronized federated product catalog?

• A single point of control (master catalog) over your federated product catalog estate. 
• Reduced risk of order error/fallout due to manual updates across your order-to-cash-to-care systems. 
• Reduced effort in managing products and their lifecycles. 
• Faster time to market for new products, product changes and new product related promotions. 
• Ability to upgrade systems gradually over time as part of continual business and digital transformation program. 
• Ability to select the most appropriate and innovative solutions to give you a digital advantage, whilst ensuring real-time synchronicity between them all.

Is this template a product or SDK?

It's an SDK. It can be extended and customized to support attribute/model extensibility on either side of the Aria and EPC application. Once deployed, the deployer must maintain enhancements as required. 

Extension and maintenance of the deployment will need to take place in a Mulesoft Anypoint environment.

Is it aligned to any standards? 

The connector is aligned to support TMF620 and TMF671 Open APIs standards from the TM Forum.

The core of the connector is Mulesoft Anypoint template code to call Aria product catalogue APIs using TMF620 and TMF671 standards. 

How else could it be extended? 

The connector can be extended to also call other downstream catalogs, not just Aria's. For example it could be used to update the catalog of an Online Charging System/Convergent Charging System (OCS/CCS). 

What are the skills required to deploy it? 

Mulesoft. You require a Mulesoft engineer to deploy and further configure it for your specified environment. Mulesoft installation and operational expertise will also be required. 

How is this licensed?  

Aria Systems owns and licenses this connector. Contact Aria for more information via www.ariasystems.com/contact-us/