Reconnect Services Overview

Summary

The Reconnect Services option in the IDI platform provides an easy way for a user to re-enable services and their child features that had been previously disconnected. This article discusses what scenarios Reconnect Services is designed for and the difference between the options available.

What does Reconnect Services do?

Reconnect Services lets you take disconnected services and their child services and make them active again. When services are reconnected, the IDI platform removes disconnect dates, puts items into an active status and treats the services and features as if they had been active all along and never shut off. A simple way to think about Reconnect Services is that it puts the services in a status as if the disconnect never occurred.

By default, Reconnect Services will only re-enable items that have not yet been final billed. In other words, items that have not yet been invoiced after they have been disconnected. There is an option to override this behavior; however you should make sure you read the section on Reconnect Methods to understand the outcomes you will see.

What does Reconnect Service NOT do?

Reconnect Services does not reverse any of the billing consequences that may have resulted if the service was billed after it was disconnected. For example, it does not undo any disconnect credits or early termination fees that may have put onto an invoice for the disconnected service and features.

Reconnect Services does not prorate charges for the time in the bill period that the service may have been disconnected. The system will invoice the service as if it had been active the whole period.

Reconnect Services does not undo previous disconnects processed by automated provisioning tasks.  Automatically reconnecting services and features requires order processing and provisioning configuration be created specifically for this operation.

Using Reconnect Services

Reconnect Services is useful when there has been some temporary disruption in the service being active for the customer. The intent is to make those same services active again without having to create new instances using a New Service order.

The most common scenario for Reconnect Services is using it within account treatment processes. For example, an account that was disconnected for non-payment subsequently pays their outstanding balance and therefore are eligible to get their services restored.

Another use scenario is to reverse the disconnect when a service was disconnected unintentionally. The reconnect will undo the disconnect and put it back into is previous state.

Reconnect Service Options

Reconnect Methods

Based on Last Disconnect Order

This is default option. When reconnecting services, the IDI platform will look at what features under the service were disconnected at the same time and only reconnect those items. This is beneficial in instances where a service may have had features in the past that had been disconnected for some time and you only wish to re-enable the ones which were active when the disconnects went through.

Reconnect Item and all Children

The platform will reconnect all child features on the services regardless of when they were originally disconnected. When using this option, you should make sure that reactivation of all disconnected features for a service is the outcome you want.

Reconnect Item and Specified Children

The platform will reconnect the services but not automatically reconnect any features. Users can choose to manually add features on the order separately.

Secondary Method: Options when no Disconnect Order is found.

The secondary method is only applicable if no associated disconnect order is found in the system. This may occur in scenarios when a service was imported into the IDI platform in a disconnected state.

If you select the Based on Last Disconnect Order option and the platform cannot find an associated order it will skip reconnecting that service by default. You can override this behavior by selecting one of the other two options, Reconnect Item and all Children or Reconnect Item and No Children.

Reconnect Final Billed Items

This option will reconnect features even if they were invoiced after they were disconnected. When this option is selected, the platform will remove the final bill dates and restore features as if they had never been inactive. As detailed in the section What Does Reconnect Service NOT Do, this operation will not undo any of the billing consequences that occurred due to the final billing. Any issue of disconnect credits, proration or early termination fees will not be reversed.

IDI Desktop Client

The Reconnect Services operation in the Client works the same as the Orders Module. The only difference is in the slightly different naming used for the labels.

Why did my Order have no items on it after using Reconnect Services?

The default behavior of Reconnect Services is to skip items that:

• Have no associated Disconnect Order

• Have been final billed

If all the items selected fall into one of these two categories, then CostGuard will not find any items to reconnect. You can override the default behavior; however, as noted, when doing so you should be sure that it will produce the outcome that you want.