2013-09 Wolverine Release Notes

Overview

The Wolverine release provides enhancements and bug fixes to several areas within TBS including Commissions, Provisioning, Traditional Products, Integrated Products and the portals.

The release notes below provide an overview of all changes:

 

General TBS - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

29366: PONS:  New Install Date Field

PONS (Purchase Order Numbers) is used to track external Purchases in TBS.  Typically, this is used for Local and/or VoIP Provisioning.

A new "Install Date" field has been added to PONs.  This date is used to track the "Actual installation date for the product/equipment".

29569: Orders Tree:  Create Application setting to adjust Cutoff date

The Orders Tree (on the left side of the Order Processing Page) shows ALL Orders by Status.  There is a "Cutoff Date" which limits how many Completed Orders are displayed in the tree. 

The Cutoff Date was originally set at 30 day in the past.  A new OrdersDaysBack application setting can be updated to change this default.  For example, setting this value to 10 will set the Cutoff Date to 10 days in the past instead of the 30 day default.

29470: TBS Add, Edit, Delete Buttons: Visibility Changes

Previously within the TBS Command Buttons (Add, Edit, Delete, etc.) for the newer administration screens, if a user did not have a certain command permission, the button would be completely hidden.

Now, the buttons are shown but disabled if permissions to that action are disabled. Hovering over the disabled button will also provide a message stating the reason for the disabled button.

Note: In addition to these visibility changes, please note that throughout upcoming releases, these command buttons will be moving to the top of maintenance screens vs. the bottom.

29308: Orders & Trouble Tickets: Email notification on 'Assigned To' change

UPDATE: Please be sure to review the new email functionality implemented with the Yogi Release for feature changes surrounding email functionality.

IMPORTANT: A very important feature was added to TBS that will impact when emails are sent out for Trouble Tickets and Orders. Previously, only emails are sent for certain status changes and may or may not be sent to the AssignedTo depending on application settings.

Below outlines the complete rules for sending emails for Orders and Trouble Tickets and highlights the new functionality surrounding the AssignedTo field. Please take note.

For Orders:

  • When a new Order is set to "Received" status, a "New Order" email is sent to the Agent for that customer (if the Agent has selected to receive Order emails from the Agent Admin tool) and also to any email addresses in the Notification Email textbox that appears on the Order Processing Screen.
  • When an Order status set to "Completed" status, an "Order Completed" email is sent to the Agent for that customer (if the Agent has selected to receive Order emails from the Agent Admin tool) and any email addresses in the Notification Email textbox that appears on the Order Processing Screen.
  • New Functionality: In addition to the rules above, within any order status, any time an Order's AssignedTo is set or changed, an "Order XXX is assigned to you" email will be sent to the email address of the AssignedTo.

For Trouble Tickets:

  • When a new ticket is Added, a "New Trouble Ticket" email will be sent to the Agent (if the Agent has selected to receive Order emails from the Agent Admin tool).
  • If the client supports an application setting called "TroubleTicketRepairEmailBehavior", when a new ticket is Added, a "New Trouble Ticket" email goes to the BaseInfo Trouble Ticket Distribution email setup on the Baseinfo record for that customer. A "New Trouble Ticket" email is never sent to the AssignedTo email in this scenario.
  •  If the client does not support the above application setting, when a new ticket is Added, a "New Trouble Ticket " email goes to the Trouble Ticket AssignedTo Email address.
    • If the AssignedTo email is empty/null, this setting will trigger the system to fall back to the Trouble Ticket Distribution email setup on the Baseinfo record for that customer.
  • Regardless of above application, when a trouble ticket status is set to "Completed" a "Trouble Ticket Complete" email is sent to the Agent of that customer (if the Agent has selected to receive Order emails from the Agent Admin tool) to let him/her know the issue is resolved.
  • New Functionality: When a trouble ticket AssignedTo is set or changed, a "Trouble Ticket Assigned to you" email will be sent to the email address of the AssignedTo unless that user was already notified via the "New Trouble Ticket" email.

 

26382: Download Forms Administration Screen

TBS has long supported the ability to make documents/forms available for download by users. This module is called "Download Forms".  This module allows clients to provide Downloadable forms and documents targeted to different user types (Internal, Agents, Customers, and Wholesalers) who can then log into their respective portals and download the documents/forms.

Examples of some current forms provided include Pricing Sheets, Order Forms, Escalation Lists, Customer ACH Forms and Instructions. Download Forms are available within TBS in the following ways:

  1. Agent Portal: Resources Menu ► Sales Tools ► Download Forms
  2. Standard & Custom Customer Portal: Home Tab ► Download Forms sub tab
  3. Wholesale Customer Portal: Resources Menu ► Download Forms
  4. Internal TBS users: Utilities ► Sales Tools ► Download Forms

Until now, clients had to work with TBS Client Support to add or update these documents to make them available within TBS.

With this release two new Administration Pages have been added to allow clients to upload or delete documents and also maintain the availability of these documents to the various types of users.

The following administration pages are available selecting Utilities->System Administration->Download Forms:

a) Download Forms File Manager
The File Manager is used to upload, over write, and/or delete the files that can be made available to the various system users. Files can be of any type if desired. There is a file size limit of 20MB.

Users should first upload their documents using the Download Forms File Manager. If the Overwrite checkbox is selected, the system will overwrite/replace any existing file that may have the same exact name.

Once the file is uploaded, it can be viewed by clicking the View icon next to the document in the list or can be deleted from the list. Next steps would be to use the Download Forms tool to determine who can access the document.



b) Download Forms
The Download Forms page is used to manage what files are available to the various user types and user groups.  Once a file has been uploaded using the Download Forms File Manager, it can be selected as a document and made available within either the Internal TBS portal, the Agent Portal, the Customer Portal or the Wholesale Portal.

The grid will show all the forms that are in use and which area/portal (Submenu Item) they appear on. The documents/forms can also be grouped on the page within different sections using Page Headings. Optionally, a Billing Group filter can be set to limit the views for Agents, Customers and Wholesale users. This is useful if you have different branded forms or different criteria for each billing group.


The fields on the maintenance page are:

  • Name - is the File Name and is selected from a dropdown list of files that have already been uploaded using the "Download Forms File Manager" tool.
  • Description - This is the file description displayed on the Download Forms page.
  • Submenu Item - This drop down will contain the areas where the forms will be made available in TBS. Standard options will be for Customers, Wholesale, Agents and Internal.
    • Advanced Users: Additionally, sub menu items can be added if desired using the Drop Down Menu admin tool where the ListName is either: DownloadFormsSections, AgentDownloadFormsSections, WholesaleDownloadFormsSections. This feature is not supported on the Customer portal.
  • Page Heading - This is a free format field that will be a Heading that can be used to create sections for the forms. Each unique Page Heading will group the documents in that heading together on the download forms page. These are just text, however the system does show a list of currently used page headings for reference.
  • Billing Group Filter - This optional field allows clients to filter the forms that are available to customers or agents based on that customer/agents assigned Billing Group.
  • List Order - This optional field allows clients to specify the display order on the page, within each Heading.  The system will sort based on List Order then by Description.

Example Agent Portal View - shows two Page Headings

Wholesale Portal View

Standard Customer Portal View:- tab only appears if there are Customer forms

Custom Customer Portal View:- tab only appears if there are Customer forms

For Internal Users, the Main Menu Utilities->Sales Tools menu option has been updated.  This now includes Download Forms, Agent Download Forms, Customer Download Forms, and Wholesale Download Forms.  These have been added to provide an easy way for internal users to see what the forms that are available to the other user types.

27238: Bug Fix: Credit Card Recurring check box not available intermittently

A bug was found where sometimes the recurring checkbox on the credit cards tab would be readonly when trying to add a new card.  This would usually occur if an existing card set to recurring was viewed (checkbox is readonly in this view) and then the Cancel button was selected to then add a new card.  The system was saving the checkbox readonly state when it shouldn't.  This has been fixed.

29485: Bug Fix: Transaction Deletes not saved to TBS History

When users delete Transactions or temporary (non Posted) Transactions, the system now properly logs the deletion for audit and accountability purposes.  An issue was found and fixed that prevented this logging from working in all cases.

29646: Bug: Data Defaults Type Conversion

TBS supports a feature that allows certain data to be defaulted automatically when adding new data into the system. A bug was found in the newer administration screens that was not setting these values properly. A fix has been made to address this issue and default data properly.

Provisioning Service Enhancements

 

29398: Provisioning: Long Distance Batch Report Updates and Improved Carrier Lookup Admin Tool

A few enhancements have been made to the Long Distance Provisioning process to help clients understand and correct provisioning issues themselves as well as maintain their own provisioning carrier account mappings within TBS. These items only apply to clients who have automated LD provisioning through Precision.

1. Batch Emails: When the Long Distance Provisioning Process runs, the system emails reports showing a) lines successfully provisioned (by Carrier) and b) Non-Batch report showing lines that were flagged for provisioning but were not processed for some reason.

previously, the Non-Batch report would always be attached to the email even if it was empty (ie no errors).  This caused extra work for clients because they would have to open/view the report to know if a line really failed provisioning.  This has been changed.  The system will only attach the Non-Batch Report if there was in fact an error.  The email text has also been changed to let the user know the "No errors found".

In addition, the Non-Batch report error message contains much more detail regarding why the line failed to Provision.  One very common error is "Carrier Account Not Found".  This error has been expanded to show the users what criteria the system is using to lookup the Carrier Account.  This information can be used to filter/find records in the "LD Carrer Account Lookup".  Clients can then add or update Carrier Account Lookup records to correct the issue themselves.

2. Provisioning Carrier Account Mapping: The LD Carrier Account Lookup Administration screen has been updated.  This screen allows admin users to maintain their provisioning carrier account mappings. See examples:

Setup for provisioning by ProductID and ProductType

Setup for provisioning by Account Number and ProductType

Setup for provisioning by Account Number, ProductID AND ProductType

This tool can be access from the Administration Menu->Provisioning->LD Carrier Account Lookup. The "Maintenance" permissions module controls access to this administration screen.


Commissions

 

29046: Commissions: Update RBOC Dropdown List on LD Rate Lookup Admin Page

The LD Rate Lookup Admin page is used to maintain commissions based on Long Distance Rate Plans. RBOC is one of the look up field and the options were previously hardcoded. 

The RBOC field is now pulled from the DropDown Admin table where ScreenName = 'Rates' and ListName = 'RBOC'.  This same list is used to fill the RBOC field on Packages.

This tool is accessible from the Financial Menu - Manage Commission plans - LD Rate Lookup.

27412: Commissions: New version of the Fixed Report - Fixed By Invoice Category

Earlier in the year Precision Introduced "Invoice Categories" to TBS.  Invoice Categories are client defined values (Monthly Charges, Equipment, Enhanced Services, etc) that can be assigned to any charge in the system (USOCs, Integrated Product Detail charges, Fixed Charges, Cable Charges, Internet Charges, etc.) It is a manner to "group" or "classify" charges on the invoice within the Invoice Category invoice report.

We have created a new version of the Commissions Fixed Report to also group and subtotal Agent Commissions by Invoice Category.  The original Fixed Report is unchanged. 

The new Fixed By Invoice Category report can be found with all other commission reports under the menu option Financial->Commissions->Commission Reports.

29054: New Commissions Products Administration screen

A new administrative tool for Adding, Deleting and Editing Commissions Products Records has been created.

This tool will allow Integrated Product users to have more power over their commissions structure and for faster changes to suit their business needs.

It can be accessed through Utilities > System Administration > Commissions > Commissions Products

Traditional Products - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

 

28739: Traditional Products: Additional Fields on Devices

Traditional Products within TBS support the ability for Devices to be attached to the Local line in order to identify equipment/devices for that product. Devices can be managed via the Products - Devices tab for each Customer or all Devices for all customers can be viewed/managed via the Setup ► Products ► Devices option.

Additional fields have been added to this product feature. Devices fields now include:

  • Model Number - values maintained via the Drop Down Menus where Screen name='DevicesEditControl and ListName = 'DevicesModels'
  • MAC Address
  • Username
  • Password
  • Proxy
  • Port - numeric only
  • Codec - values maintained via the Drop Down Menus where Screen name is blank and ListName = 'Codec'.  This has been pre-populated with the current most common types of Voice/VoIP Codec.
  • Installer - Dropdown list filled from T4Users

Customer Information Products View

Administration View - shows all Devices by Account

29540: BugFix: Traditional Wireless:  Error opening the page

A bug on the Traditional Wireless page has been fixed.  The issue prevented users from opening the Wireless Product page when a DataPlan was specified on the line. 

This bug was introduced in the last release and had been already been "hot fixed" on all affected clients.

Integrated Products - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

 

29484: Integrated Product Charges & Plans Inventory: Percentage Calculation Type

Integrated Product Charge & Plan Inventory records now support a Charge that can be calculated at billing time as a percentage of the other Standard charges already on the product.

When Calculation Type is set to Percentage, the amount for that detail charge is calculated during billing as (The sum of all interval charges whose calculation type is Standard) * (The interval charge).

For example, suppose a product has two detail records using the standard calculation type with interval charges of $25 and $75, respectively.  A third detail record using a Percentage Calculation Type and an interval charge of 6.5% would generate a $6.50 charge during billing, i.e., 6.5% of $100.

Interval Discount is then based upon the calculated Interval Charge. Activation Charge and Discount are unaffected by the calculation type.

Charge & Plan Inventory with new Calculation Type drop down

Add Details Grid - shows Calculation Type in the grid

 

29179: Integrated Product: EFax Support

The TBS Integrated Product has been updated to support EFax Usage Billing.  For Clients already selling EFax products, a new option will be available in the Product Type dropdown when setting up products.

This EFax product currently uses the Voice Auxiliary fields. This Product Type can support both Detail charges (MRCs/NRCs) as well as usage/CDR billing. EFax CDRs must be presented to Precision prior to processing. Please contact Precision if this is a service you would like to begin offering from TBS.

EFax Rate Plans: A new EFax Plans rate table and administration tool has been added to TBS.  Rates for EFax can be managed by going to Utilities ► System Administration ► Products ► EFax Plans.



The EFax Rate Plan consists allows rate plans to be setup based on Per Fax and/or Per Sheet or page within an EFax. It also supports rating for both Sending and Receiving. The example below shows a rate plan setup to charge $0.20 per sheet sent and $0.20 per sheet received.

EFax Maintenance Data Fields:

  • Rate Code - User Defined rate code
  • Description - User defined description of the rate
  • Per Fax Rates - One for "Send" and one for "Received".  This rate is applied to each Fax record processed.  This would be similar to a "Per Call" rate.
  • Per Sheet Rates - One for "Send" and one for "Received".  This rate is applied to each Page of a fax, similar to a "Per Minute" rate.

Once the EFax plan is created, it can be tied to a Charge & Plan Inventory record and added to the EFax product.

EFax Free Faxes and Sheets: New options within the Free Plans maintenance tool now allow the setup of free fax and free sheet plans for Efax.

Step 1 Free Plan Setup: Clients must first setup the Free Plan using the maintenance tool located at Utilities ► System Administration ► Products ► Free Plans ► Free Plans. The Free Plans tool defines what type of usage component will be free (in this case, Faxes or Sheet) as well as the number of usage components in the plan. Example below shows a Free Plan for 2000 Free Sheets.

Step 2 Free Bundle Setup: Clients must then define what type of usage component they want to give away using the maintenance tool located at Utilities ► System Administration ► Products ► Free Plans ► Free Message Bundles. In the case of EFax, there are two types or usage components - "EFax Send" and "Efax Receive". The example below shows a Bundle setup for both EFax Send and EFax Receive.

Step 3 Free Product Plans: The final step is to tie the Free Plan created in step 1 that defined "how many usage items" to the Bundle plan created in step 2 that defined "what type of usage". Using the Free Product Plans tool located at Utilities ► System Administration ► Products ► Free Plans ► Free Product Plans, we can tie the 2000 Fax Sheets free plan to the FaxSendReceive bundle resulting in a Free Product Plan that provides 2000 Send or Receive EFax Sheets .

Step 4 Tie Free Product Plan to Detail Charge: Once the EFax Free Product Plan is created, it can be tied to a Charge & Plan Inventory record and added to the EFax product.

29604: Bug: Integrated Product Add

Upon the creation of an Integrated Product, the following bugs were fixed:
- An unused information icon displayed in the heading
- The Actions tab was enabled but should not be accessible until the record is saved.

29570: Bug Fix: Integrated Product Inventory - Account Number not shown in grid

Fixed a minor issue on the Integrated Product Inventory page that prevented the account number from being displayed properly.

Portals - Enhancements & Bug Fixes

 

29028: Custom Customer Portal: Online Bill - Corporate Account Invoice Viewing

Within one of our custom customer portals, there was an issue displaying the Invoice PDF to Corporate Parent Accounts. 

Previously the invoice shown was the single Corp statement.  This has been updated to show the invoice that includes the Sub account statements along with the Corp statement.

29224: Bug Fix: COOP Portal Create Order / LOA oddness

TBS has a customized COOP Portal that provides certain user with the ability to Create Accounts/Orders via an LOA page.  The following bugs were found and fixed:

1. Sub Account Detail report flag was incorrectly set to Summary.  It is now set to None. 

2. After an initial login, if a coop user navigated directly to Orders->Create Order/LOA, they would get system a error.  The error did not occur if they navigate somewhere else first (like Customers->Search).  This issue has been addressed.

3. When an internal user (Provisioner) used the "Accept Account" Customer level Status Action, the system would sets both the Account Number and CorpAccount Number.  The CorpAccount Number should not have been changed on these accounts.

29518: Agent Portal: Permission Fixes

The Agent Portal is used to provide Agents access to TBS.  The Agent Portal menu is built based on Module Permissions assigned to the current user.  However, for the Agent User Type a few "hardcoded" rules still existed.  These have been changed to provide clients more flexibility regarding the level of system access they provide to their agent base.  The following updates have been made:

1. Agents have the ability to add Customer Accounts based on the Customer Module, Add flag.  When an Agent adds a new account, the system will default the Agent Dropdown list to the current user.

2. All user types, including Agents now see all fields on the Order Processing screen.

3. Agents have the ability to add Trouble Tickets based on the TroubleTicket Module, Add flag.

4. Agents have the ability to add Orders based on the Orders Module, Add flag.

5. (Bug Fix).  When accessing an account, the Comments tab is displayed first.  However, a system error occurred if a user did not have permissions to the Comments module.  This has been changed to open the Customer Information tab for these users.