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TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

  • 1.  TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 29, 2021 07:55
    Hi,

    sporadically, there are some rumours that TMF651 agreement resource should only be used for frame contracts, e.g. as applicable in the large business customer segment.

    However, in TMF651 OpenAPI itself, I cannot find such semantical restrictions. Instead, TMF651 indicates that this "agreement" resource can be used in a very broad context: "An agreement represents a contract or arrangement, either written or verbal and sometimes enforceable by law, such as a service level agreement or a customer price agreement."
    Using the type / baseType mechanism I would expect that one could derive special agreements (such as frame contracts or other agreements) from this general base resource - whilst not restricting the agreement resource to frame contracts only.

    Could you pls shortly comment on this?​​ Thx.

    BR Thomas

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    Thomas Dupré
    Deutsche Telekom AG
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  • 2.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    Posted Jan 29, 2021 08:12
    Hi Thomas,

    Sure. Agreements are not restricted to frame contract and the polymorphic mechanisms can be used to extend the Agreement resource to model further types of business agreements.

    Regards

    Alexis

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    Alexis de Peufeilhoux
    Deutsche Telekom AG
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  • 3.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 31, 2021 07:21
    Hi
    Definitely agree with Alexis that the Agreement resource can cover any type of agreement.
    There is perhaps a case to be made for producing an API for the specialization of Framework Agreements in the business/corporate world, to capture the specific aspects of negotiation of such agreements and their impact on ordering and assurance processes.
    The Open API team is always open (subject to priorities) to community contributions :) .
    Hope it helps

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    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
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  • 4.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Feb 01, 2021 05:02

    Hi,

    thanks for clarification, that meets my expectation.

    BR Thomas



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    Thomas Dupré
    Deutsche Telekom AG
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  • 5.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 18, 2024 16:11

    Hi,

    Can TMF648 Quote Management refer to Frame agreement to get the special prices or terms and then we can go ahead with contracting using TMF651, does in this case we are going to have two references of Agreement Items on Quote Item level? How can we drive the frame agreements auto application with Contracting?



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    Ameenuddin Mohammed
    Saudi Telecom Company
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  • 6.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 19, 2024 02:39

    Hi Ameenuddin Mohammed,

    APIs are for specific objects. 

    648 is used for creating and managing a Quote. 

    651 is for creating and managing agreements (contracts)

    If during the quotation process that was created and managed via 648 (owned by the Quote object), the customer specific pricing , terms and conditions are to be referred to or fetched, then 651(owned by the Agreement object) should be invoked and the contract  /agreement terms of that customer need to be fetched and updated into the quote.

    Regards,

    Jag



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    Jag Baddukonda
    Deutsche Telekom AG
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  • 7.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 22, 2024 02:14

    Thanks Jag for response!

    Here i mean if i have a Quote with three Quote Line Items

    • Customer Quote# Quote123
      • Quote Line 1 - Postpaid 50
      • Quote Line 2 - Landline 100
      • Quote Line 3 - Satellite connection 900

    and Postpaid 50 i have a frame agreement to give 30% discount discount for a period of 1 year.

    • MSA123
      • MSALine#88828282 - Postpaid 50 - 30% Discount from 1st Jan 2024 to 31st Dec 2024

    Now my Quote will be like this. 

    • Customer Quote# Quote123
      • Quote Line 1 - Postpaid 50 - Linked to MSALine#88828282
      • Quote Line 2 - Landline 100
      • Quote Line 3 - Satellite connection 900

    with this quote i will go for contract then a new contract will be generated as below.

    • Contract#8937893903
      • AgreementLine1 Postpaid 50 - Linked to MSALine#88828282
      • AgreementLine2 - Landline 100
      • AgreementLine3 - Satellite connection 900

    However the Quote will have two references now like below.

    • Customer Quote# Quote123
      • Quote Line 1 - Postpaid 50 - Linked to MSALine#88828282 and AgreementLine1
      • Quote Line 2 - Landline 100 - Linked to AgreementLine2
      • Quote Line 3 - Satellite connection 900  - Linked to AgreementLine3

    So i want to understand this scenario presented valid per TMF651 and TMF648 and same would be send to TMF622 for order processing, 

    Questions

    1. Final Quote send to TMF622 is correct wrt to multiple agreement line linkages ?
    2. How OM will process these Quotes, Do they query TMF651 and get the understanding of contract terms and conditions to apply in billing or do we need to integrate the MSA and Contracts first in billing before sending Order?
    3. How does the amendment should work here? we take Contract#8937893903 and amend for any changes in future or remove the MSA if the product characteristics are getting changed or MSA is inactivated?


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    Ameenuddin Mohammed
    Saudi Telecom Company
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  • 8.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Sep 10, 2024 10:08

    @Jonathan Goldberg, @Lutz Bettge, @Thomas Dupré,  @Jag Baddukonda - can anyone help here.



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    Ameenuddin Mohammed
    Saudi Telecom Company
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  • 9.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted 25 days ago
    Edited by Jag Baddukonda 25 days ago

    Hi Ameenuddin,

    Let us take 2 steps back. We need to understand the process.

    You are creating a Frame Contract upfront and this quote for the customer will refer to the frame contract for the pricing of at least one item i.e. Postpaid 50 line item. 

    Assumption: The Frame contract does not contain any other details except the discount to be given to PostPaid50.

    During the Quote configuration, you added 2 more line items and now have a  Quote summary (with 3 line items - One priced via the Frame contract and 2 priced via the Catalog)

    You have 2 options:

    Option1:

    The Frame Contract is the Agreement and you update the agreement with the additional configuration after the quote was confirmed - provided the frame contract is always against the Customer Account with the Service Account. If the Customer Account has multiple Service Accounts and you need a frame contract at the legal Account level, and each of he Service Accounts has a different configuration, this will not work. 

    Option2:

    If your business rules do not allow modification of the Frame contract, then please do not create another agreement. Your Quote summary is a Summary (Quote object) which anyway is reflected in the PI (Source of truth) and Billing Instance. It has a relationship to the Frame contract (Agreement)

    While it is technically possible to create multiple agreements, this will lead to more issues than solving something :-)

    The example you have given is a simple Product Offering. If you take a multi site, multi domain product offering or a solution, an agreement (or a contract) is created  before the Quote is configured. 

    In TMF, the term Agreement is also used to define the agreement that the Marketplace owner and the business partner have (no relation to the end customer's agreement or quote).

    There is some work happening on this topic in the ODA API Call flows project - ODA for B2B2X.

    Hope this helps.



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    Jag Baddukonda
    Deutsche Telekom AG
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  • 10.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 19, 2024 04:18

    what's a "frame" agreement?

    Could it be the same as "framework agreement"?

    For B2C, TMF Product terms are enough to support most needs.



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    Kind regards,

    Matthieu Hattab
    Lyse Platform
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  • 11.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 20, 2024 05:35

    There are cases where - mostly with very large customers - no "standard" product offerings are sold, but for that one customer special solutions are defined. They can be documented as structures of ProductSpecifications and ProductOfferings, even with customer-specific ServiceSpecifications etc, and they are then agreed with the customer in form of a "Frame Contract" that defines which items that customer can order, probably also with adapted prices. The frame contract can also define that the customer can get reduced prices if he orders at least so and so many items, and much more. The Frame Contract may or may not cover the actual purchase, it only defines what the customer can order under the terms defined by the frame contract.

    The above statement from 2021 originated in the fact that in a former version of SID there was no association between Agreement and Product, so that Agreement could not be used to buy a single Product; it only had a connection to ProductOffering, therfore it could be used to model a Frame Contract in the above sense. In a later version of SID, the connection to Product was added, so it is now possible to use Agreement also for simple purchases.



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    Lutz Bettge
    Deutsche Telekom AG
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  • 12.  RE: TMF651 agreement: Semantical Meaning?

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Aug 22, 2024 02:15

    Thanks Lutz,

    can you check the recent reply to Jag and help in answering.



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    Ameenuddin Mohammed
    Saudi Telecom Company
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