Configuring Sterling Order Management for WebSphere Commerce pricing

For the WebSphere Commerce integration with Sterling Order Management, the WebSphere Commerce Pricing Engine performs and maintains all pricing and promotion calculations.

To bypass the Sterling Order Management pricing engine and enable the WebSphere Commerce pricing engine, complete the following configuration steps in Sterling Order Management:
  1. Configure Charge Categories.
  2. If your integration includes Sterling Business Center, remove permissions for the Pricing Administrator Group. You must also set the bundle pricing strategy for pre-configured and configured kits.
  3. Configure order date for pricing orders.

Configuring charge categories

To harmonize promotions between WebSphere Commerce and Sterling Order Management, you must define Charge Categories and associate them to Charge Category Rule types, as follows:
  1. Define Charge Categories in the Sterling Business Center.
  2. In Sterling Business Center Pricing Organization Rules, assign Charge Categories to each Charge Category Rule Type.

Charge Categories are then associated to promotions and stamped on orders during the order process. Defining these promotion rules also enables WebSphere Commerce to create promotion statistics for analysis.

The following table explains each Charge Category Rule Type.

Charge Category rule in Pricing Organization Rules window Promotion description
Charge Category for Combination For promotions that require a coupon or promotion code, such as "Buy A, get B at x% off; buy A, get B free." A and B can be an item, category, item attribute, and so forth.
Charge Category For Item Quantity For promotions that require a coupon or promotion code, such as "Buy 2 of A, get x% off; buy 5 of A, get y% off." A can be an item, category, item attribute, and so forth.
Charge Category For Order Total For promotions that require a coupon or promotion code, such as "Spend $100, get x% off; spend $100, get $10 off."
Charge Category for Ship Order Total For promotions that require a coupon or promotion code, such as "Spend $100, get x% off shipping charge; spend $100, get $10 off shipping charge."
Charge Category For Combination For auto-promotions, such as "Buy A, get B at x% off; Buy A, get B free." A and B can be an item, category, item attribute, and so forth.
Charge Category For Item Quantity For auto-promotions, such as "Buy 2 of A, get x% off; buy 5 of A, get y% off." A can be an item, category, item attribute, and so forth.
Charge Category For Order Total For auto-promotions, such as "Spend $100, get x% off; spend $100, get $10 off."
Charge Category For Shipping Surcharge For auto-promotions, such as "If order has item with attribute X or in category Y, apply a shipping surcharge of 5% or $5."
Charge Category For Ship Order Total For auto-promotions, such as "Spend $100, get x% off shipping charge; spend $100, get $10 off shipping charge."

Configuring shipping charge name

Any orders originating from WebSphere Commerce have a shipping charge when being used in the Sterling Order Management integration. This is a supplied feature.

Configure the Shipping Charge Name as Shipping Charge and the Shipping Charge Category as Shipping for integration. Ensure that you configure the shipping charge name and category for the store organization and not the DEFAULT organization. For example, Aurora. When you configure enterprise attributes for the store, ensure that the Inherit Configuration from Enterprise option is not selected. Configure this on the Sterling side.

WebSphere Commerce always addresses shipping in the order item level. In Sterling Order Management, the CarrierServiceCode/SCAC is either in the order level or order line level, which is also known as the order item level. WebSphere Commerce treats all order item levels in the order with the same ship mode and spreads the shipping charge to each item. Sterling Order Management passes the shipping information in the order level.

Removing permissions for the pricing administrator group

If your integration includes the Sterling Business Center, disable pricing for the Pricing Administrator Group so that WebSphere Commerce can run pricing:
  1. Go to Applications Manager > Application Platform > Security > Groups.
  2. In the Group Details window’s Permissions tab, click Permissions for the Sterling Business Center.

    The Permissions tree displays.

  3. Expand the tree fully and clear the Pricing Administration box. Save your changes.

Setting the bundle pricing strategy

If your integration includes the Sterling Business Center, the bundle pricing strategy is set as Only include parent under Manage Sales Information for preconfigured items. For configurable items, it is set as Include both parent and component.

Set the bundle pricing strategy for pre-configured and configurable bundles as follows:

Go to the Components screen:
  1. Go to the Products tab.
  2. From the Products home page, enter the item ID in Quick Find Item, and click Go.
  3. In the Primary Information screen, click Manage Components.
Go to the Merchandising and Sales screen:
  1. Go to the Products tab.
  2. Click Find item. In the Item Search screen, search for your item in search criteria.
  3. Use the Item ID link to view the item details in the Primary Information screen.
  4. Click Sales Information to view the Merchandising and Sales Fields screen.
Note: Sterling Business Center requires the values to be set. When integrating to WebSphere Commerce, bundle pricing is determined on the configuration of the Dynamic kit pricing rule in WebSphere Commerce Management Center. For information about the Dynamic kit pricing rule, see: Creating Dynamic kit pricing rules in the Integrating Sterling Configurator Visual Modeler section.

Configuring order date for pricing orders

This setup influences whether a promotion date that applies to an order is based on the order date or the system date. If you enable Use Order Date, promotions and pricing calculations will be applied for the date and time of the order. If you enable Use System Date, the current system date and time will be applied for promotions and pricing calculations when the order is created, and when it is repriced.

  1. Navigate to the Sales Order Financial Rules screen. To navigate to the Sales Order Financial Rules screen, perform the following steps:
    1. Log in toSterling Business Center as a system administrator or a system setup administrator.
    2. From the System Setup home page, expand the Order menu, and then click Financial Rules.

    The Sales Order Financial Rules screen is displayed.

  2. In the Date For Pricing Confirmed Orders pane, select the radio button for Use System Date or Use Order Date.