About Orders

The IDI platform Orders web application provides comprehensive tools for creating, submitting and managing transactions though an intuitive web-based interface. It enables a streamlined experience that simplifies the creation of even complex and very large transactions. Business rules are enforced up front in the process, resulting in elimination of downstream delays and higher costs due to inaccurate transactions.

Using Starting Blocks

It is recommended to enable configurable starting block functionality. Starting blocks support both front office sales (remote customer presence) and back office orders (no customer presence) in the Customer Care and/or Orders web modules. This is referred to as the web sales experience. Starting block functionality is also required if you intend to use direct invoice orders. Direct Invoicing is for service providers who need to immediately bill an account for a purchase or charge when the business prefers to not wait for invoicing as dictated by the bill cycle.

There are two settings for enabling this functionality – one in Orders and one in Customer Care. Refer to Settings for details.

Starting blocks are configured in the Product Catalog web module. The configuration lets you streamline transaction assembly and completion by setting default values and/or limiting options. It also lets you set up order, sale, or direct invoice transactions that use a retail location and register so you can collect tender for all or part of the transaction as applicable.

With this setup you can include billing and retail items in the same order. For retail items you can apply or modify:

• Retail discounts (either manually or by a retail promotion).

• Sales and/or use taxes based on the location.

• An installment plan based on configured profiles and rules, when applicable.

• Accept tender types for the calculated amount due at time of sale based on the location’s register policy. The system will prompt for additional tendering details when applicable.

• Have a receipt or direct invoice generated for the transaction.

• Email the generated receipt or direct invoice to the customer as a message or notification using IDI’s Communication web module.

  Consult these two articles in the IDI Knowledge Center to learn more about:

• Web Sales

• Direct Invoicing

Terminology

New Customer Orders

The Orders application lets you create and manage transactions for existing customer accounts. If you need to add a new customer account, first create the customer in Customer Care web application. From there you can jump directly into the Orders application via Service Details to complete a New Service transaction.

Refresh Service Orders

This lets you re-provision a wireless service number that gets out of sync with information in the switch without having to disconnect and reconnect. Refresh service can be initiated from the Orders web module or Customer Care. The refresh order will use your provisioning company’s existing task plan/execution plan set up in IDI Desktop Client to provision the refresh by assigning the order type to a simple workflow with a billing system update action.

Note

If you did not previously use refresh service functionality and want to start, contact your Account Manager to open a professional services work order to have this set up, or to schedule workflow training.

Notes:

• The Refresh Service action is only available to users with Refresh Services permission as set up in the Security module. Also, this action is only available on services with provisionable products.

• For details on executing a refresh service action see Refresh Service or refer to the article for Web-based Refresh Service Action in the IDI Knowledge Center.

Launching the Orders Application

The icon for launching Orders resembles a shopping cart.

Clicking the Orders icon lands you on the Orders Search page.

Note

You can also access the Orders application from the IDI Desktop Client. See Accessing the Orders Web Application from IDI Desktop Client.

Setup

For details on setting up the Orders application, including guidelines for prerequisite Admin Console and Client setup, see Orders Setup.

Using the Orders Application

To begin using Orders, see:

• Transaction Flow Overview

• Working with Billing Orders

• Direct Invoicing Orders

• Managing Registers

• Retail Fulfillment

• Managing service/installment agreements

• Restricting Actions on Child-level SKUs

Catching Up

If you're a current user, check out what's been added since the last release in What's New.