TM Forum Community

Hello everyone,

Hope all good!

I'm currently working on product modeling and would appreciate some guidance from the TM Forum community.

In the context of TM Forum's standards and best practices-particularly around product offerings and the use of SID and TAM- are there any criteria following this framework for deciding when a product should be offered as part of a bundle, and when it should be offered independently? Should a product that can be sold both individually and as part of a bundle be represented as a single product offering or as multiple offerings?

Any insight, experience, or references to relevant TMF specifications would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance,
Federico

Hey Federico!
Great question I would say. Curious to hear what others think too.

Are you wondering when to define and use a bundledProductOffering?

Have you seen this doc?  It helped me refine some ideas I had earlier: https://projects.tmforum.org/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?spaceKey=PUB&title=IG1261+Product+Catalog+Commercial+Modeling+Patterns+v1.0.0

If an offering stands alone and isn't dependent on others, it likely doesn't need to be bundled. But if it requires or includes other products, then bundling makes sense.

Lately, I've been thinking that standardization is key when it comes to solution design. Then been thinking that going towards using bundles always, even for cases when it consist of a single simpleProductOffering, can simplify processing for product catalog's clients (such as engagement management, CPQ, cart, order engines, even for intellgence management). It also makes future changes easier on the offer. But it can add complexity now, like creating "dummy" bundles in inventory. So it's a trade-off, sometimes worth it, sometimes not, especially if rules change later to be so specific that one cannot avoid migration or separation on the customer installed base (e.g. new offers for new customers only)

Hello everyone,

Hope all good!

I'm currently working on product modeling and would appreciate some guidance from the TM Forum community.

In the context of TM Forum's standards and best practices-particularly around product offerings and the use of SID and TAM- are there any criteria following this framework for deciding when a product should be offered as part of a bundle, and when it should be offered independently? Should a product that can be sold both individually and as part of a bundle be represented as a single product offering or as multiple offerings?

Any insight, experience, or references to relevant TMF specifications would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance,
Federico

Hi Yigit!

Thanks for your kind feedback :) I actually saw the document you linked and for what I am understanding it is dealing with the modeling cross offering and not inside the offer itself. From my point of view, the consideration you added is pretty reasonable, if one product is related to another should be bundled.

About the creation of a bundledProductOffering even in cases of a simpleProductOffering, I believe that it should be more a consideration for implementation than modeling phases.

Thanks again!
Federico

------------------------------
Federico Amici
Deloitte

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 28, 2025 12:24
From: Yigit Kilic
Subject: Guidance on when to bundle or not to bundle

Hey Federico!
Great question I would say. Curious to hear what others think too.

Are you wondering when to define and use a bundledProductOffering?

Have you seen this doc?  It helped me refine some ideas I had earlier: https://projects.tmforum.org/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?spaceKey=PUB&title=IG1261+Product+Catalog+Commercial+Modeling+Patterns+v1.0.0

If an offering stands alone and isn't dependent on others, it likely doesn't need to be bundled. But if it requires or includes other products, then bundling makes sense.

Lately, I've been thinking that standardization is key when it comes to solution design. Then been thinking that going towards using bundles always, even for cases when it consist of a single simpleProductOffering, can simplify processing for product catalog's clients (such as engagement management, CPQ, cart, order engines, even for intellgence management). It also makes future changes easier on the offer. But it can add complexity now, like creating "dummy" bundles in inventory. So it's a trade-off, sometimes worth it, sometimes not, especially if rules change later to be so specific that one cannot avoid migration or separation on the customer installed base (e.g. new offers for new customers only)

------------------------------
Yigit Kilic

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 23, 2025 09:47
From: Federico Amici
Subject: Guidance on when to bundle or not to bundle

Hello everyone,

Hope all good!

I'm currently working on product modeling and would appreciate some guidance from the TM Forum community.

In the context of TM Forum's standards and best practices-particularly around product offerings and the use of SID and TAM- are there any criteria following this framework for deciding when a product should be offered as part of a bundle, and when it should be offered independently? Should a product that can be sold both individually and as part of a bundle be represented as a single product offering or as multiple offerings?

Any insight, experience, or references to relevant TMF specifications would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance,
Federico

#General

Hi again!

Let me explain why I mentioned the simpleProductOffering case and the related modelling-patterns reference. 

First, it's an issue I've struggled with myself. The TMF620 API and the productOffering data model allow the use of productOfferingRelationships, so you can express a dependency between two product offerings that way as well.

Though I am now realizing that productOfferingRelationships are not really meant to be used for selection criteria (say during sales or offer/agreement change) because it lacks cardinality expression, e.g. expression of saying that as a customer you can get 1 to 10 out of these group of offering if you pick this other offering...

For example, you might offer a broadband connection with a CPE/router, or a mobile line with a handset. In both cases you have two simpleProductOfferings, and one can be linked to the other by a dependency relationship or with a bundledProductOffering on top that connects them together. 

In practice, most offerings are bundled for telcos I would say because telcos compete by selling package deals, so fully standalone offerings are rare in contrast with a retailer scenario (though market consideration must be done...)

The tricky part is handling the same product under different conditions. Do you reuse a single productOffering instance, or do you create a distinct instance for each "branched" case (for example, when price or product term like the commitment period changes depending on the related offering)?

------------------------------
Yigit Kilic
Solution Architect
Telenor Sverige

Original Message:
Sent: Aug 01, 2025 10:52
From: Federico Amici
Subject: Guidance on when to bundle or not to bundle

Hi Yigit!

Thanks for your kind feedback :) I actually saw the document you linked and for what I am understanding it is dealing with the modeling cross offering and not inside the offer itself. From my point of view, the consideration you added is pretty reasonable, if one product is related to another should be bundled.

About the creation of a bundledProductOffering even in cases of a simpleProductOffering, I believe that it should be more a consideration for implementation than modeling phases.

Thanks again!
Federico

------------------------------
Federico Amici
Deloitte

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 28, 2025 12:24
From: Yigit Kilic
Subject: Guidance on when to bundle or not to bundle

Hey Federico!
Great question I would say. Curious to hear what others think too.

Are you wondering when to define and use a bundledProductOffering?

Have you seen this doc?  It helped me refine some ideas I had earlier: https://projects.tmforum.org/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?spaceKey=PUB&title=IG1261+Product+Catalog+Commercial+Modeling+Patterns+v1.0.0

If an offering stands alone and isn't dependent on others, it likely doesn't need to be bundled. But if it requires or includes other products, then bundling makes sense.

Lately, I've been thinking that standardization is key when it comes to solution design. Then been thinking that going towards using bundles always, even for cases when it consist of a single simpleProductOffering, can simplify processing for product catalog's clients (such as engagement management, CPQ, cart, order engines, even for intellgence management). It also makes future changes easier on the offer. But it can add complexity now, like creating "dummy" bundles in inventory. So it's a trade-off, sometimes worth it, sometimes not, especially if rules change later to be so specific that one cannot avoid migration or separation on the customer installed base (e.g. new offers for new customers only)

------------------------------
Yigit Kilic

Original Message:
Sent: Jul 23, 2025 09:47
From: Federico Amici
Subject: Guidance on when to bundle or not to bundle

Hello everyone,

Hope all good!

I'm currently working on product modeling and would appreciate some guidance from the TM Forum community.

In the context of TM Forum's standards and best practices-particularly around product offerings and the use of SID and TAM- are there any criteria following this framework for deciding when a product should be offered as part of a bundle, and when it should be offered independently? Should a product that can be sold both individually and as part of a bundle be represented as a single product offering or as multiple offerings?

Any insight, experience, or references to relevant TMF specifications would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance,
Federico

#General