IDI Platform Version 26.7 Release Details

Release Summary

Change Orders/Enhancements

The following change orders and other enhancements are included in this release.

Resolved Known Issues

The following known issues have been resolved in this release.

Platform System Target Deployment Dates

Bill Notification Enhancements

Bill notifications can be automated through Workflow and emails managed in the Communications module. This replaces the OnlineBill Mailer in the Desktop Client.  Bill notification emails for a bill period are automatically created once the invoices are approved for customer viewing. The notifications are sent to Customer Portal subscribers and/or account billing contacts that opt in for bill notifications.

Flexible configuration options let you:

• Control when notifications are sent. You can:

  • Turn send bill notifications on/off as needed.

  • Specify a future date to start sending them.

  • Send emails at the time of approval or at a specific time of day (after approval).

  • Control whether notifications are sent on the weekend or held until Monday in the case where approval occurs on Friday after the send time.

• Include or exclude an invoice PDF file on bill notification emails.

• Apply different formats to bill notifications based on Autopay status, Market, and Account Type. This is done through Communications template configuration and selection.

These enhancements are supported by new functionality in the Workflow, Communications, Product Catalog, and Customer Care web modules.

Automation is powered by Workflow.  New triggers and actions are available in the respective galleries. IDI provides a system-defined trigger/action pair that auto-generates bill notifications for a bill period when invoices for the period are approved for customer viewing. Approval can be done by your authorized billing associates via the RunCenter web module, or by an IDI resource on your behalf. The process is summarized and illustrated below:

• The Invoices Approved for Customer Viewing trigger fires when invoices for a completed Bill Period are approved.

• The Create Bill Notification Campaign action creates a Communications Campaign for a completed bill period containing a bill notification for each account and Customer Portal subscriber that opted in for bill notifications.

• Notification emails are formatted according to the selected Communications template and follow rules per the bill notification configuration defined in the Product Catalog.

• Customer Portal subscribers can choose to opt in or out of notifications using existing portal functionality. Billing contacts are opted in or out via a new Bill Notification account setting in Customer Care.

Setup

Setup occurs in the Communications and Product Catalog web modules:

• In Communications, set up one or more Bill Notification templates. You can use different templates based on Autopay status, Market, and Account Type.

• In the Product Catalog, configure settings that govern when bill notifications are sent, what template to use for formatting, and whether to attach invoice PDFs to the emails.

Note: Workflow automation occurs through a system-defined trigger/action pair that does not require any configuration on your part.

Configure Bill Notification Templates in Communications

Create one or more bill notification templates as needed. You can create different templates for special formatting based on Autopay status, Market, and Account Type. All templates you create for this purpose must use the new Bill Notification Template type provided with this release.

Note: Data look-ups are disabled and are are not available for bill notifications due to performance implications when generating/sending a large number of emails at once.

Configure Bill Notification Settings in Product Catalog

Display the Bill Notification Configuration page in the Product Catalog by choosing MANAGE > Bill Notification Configuration. This page lets you configure settings that govern:

• Whether and when to send bill notifications.

• Defaults for template selection and whether to attach an invoice PDF to the email.

• Overrides to the default settings.

The page is displayed in view mode by default. Click Edit Configuration to enable the fields for editing.

Settings for Specifying When to Send Bill Notifications

Use the Enable Bill Notifications check box in combination with Send Options to determine if/when notifications are sent.

• Enable Bill Notifications lets you turn notifications on/off at any time.

• Begin Sending Notifications After date lets you specify a future date to begin sending notifications.

• Send the notifications immediately sends notifications immediately after the invoices for a bill period are approved (either by your billing team via the RunCenter web module or by an IDI associate on your behalf).

• Send the notifications at a specific time lets you establish a specific time of day to send notifications. Note: If the approval happens after the configured time, the notifications will be sent the following day at the specified time.

• Send on weekdays only lets you avoid sending notifications on the weekend and delay sending them until the Monday following approval. This may be used in the case that invoices are approved on a Friday after the send time, or on Saturday or Sunday.

• Exclude invoices totaling zero will not send a notification to an account where the total amount due on the invoice is $0.00.

Default Notification Options

Use these settings to set defaults which may be overridden by Market and Account Type in the Overrides section below.

• Attach PDF lets you specify whether or not to attach the invoice PDF file to the notifications (yes/no).

• Notification Template lets you select a Bill Notification template (configured via Communications). Only templates configured as Bill Notification type are available for selection.

• Autopay Notification Template lets you optionally specify a separate template for notifications to accounts enrolled in Autopay.

Overrides

Use this section to configure overrides for the above defaults based on Account Type and/or Market. Click Add Override to add a new override rule.

This displays the Add Override form. Select a Market and/or Account Type where the rule should apply. Then choose:

• Whether to attach the Invoice PDF for the selected Market and/or Account.

• A different template for the selected Market and/or Account, and whether to use a different template for Autopay accounts.

Opting In/Out of Bill Notifications

A new account setting to opt in or out of bill notifications is configurable via Customer Care. The setting is available on the Account Summary and Account Details pages. Note: Opting in or out for Customer Portal subscribers is done using existing portal functionality.

Account Details Page > Billing information section:

Setting the Default for Receive Bill Notification

Customer Field Configuration (MANAGE > Customer Field Configuration) has a new Receive Bill Notification property for setting the Opt In/Out default when adding a new account in Customer Care.

Bulk Data Import Update for Receive Bill Notification

The existing Customer Specification Bulk Data import has been updated to include the new Receive Bill Notification property. This property is optional and can be applied by including “ReceiveBillNotification” in the header row. Refer to the specification details in the IDI Knowledge Center.

Workflow Updates for Receive Bill Notification

A Receive Bill Notification property is now available on:

• The Modify Customer action to automate changing the Bill Notification setting for a specified customer account.

• The Customer Modified trigger to use as a Condition in criteria when using the trigger.

Monitoring Bill Notification Activity in Communications

Communications Omnisearch provides two new options for Campaigns and Failed Deliveries.

Campaign Search

A Campaign is a grouping (or batch) of notification emails that supports sending emails out in bulk. Bill notifications for a bill period constitute a single Campaign in Communications where they can be viewed via SEARCH > Campaigns.

All existing Campaigns (if any) are listed by default. You can search by Campaign Name or Description or show additional search criteria to use.

Results show the following for each Campaign:

• Name

• Type – Currently Bill Notification is the only available Type.

• Status – Possible statuses are Created, Processing, Canceled, Errored, Pending Mail Send, and Completed.

• Recipients – Total number of intended recipients.

• Delivered – Number of intended recipients that received their notification successfully.

• Failed - – Number of intended recipients that did not receive their notification.

• Created – Date and time when the Campaign was created.

• Send Date - Date and time when the notifications were sent.

The far right column in each row provides a kebob with several options, depending on Campaign status:

• Cancel: Available for Campaigns that have not yet processed. This action will cancel the Campaign completely and not send the emails.

• Regenerate: Available for campaigns that have processed. This will create a new Campaign that contains the same emails so the entire Campaign can be resent.

• View Segments: A segment represents a subset of the notification emails in a Campaign. For bill notifications, each Campaign is broken down into distinct segments based the template used to generate the emails (default, an override, or Autopay Notification template).

You can export the segment details to a spreadsheet downloaded to your desktop.

Failed Deliveries Search

SEARCH > Failed Deliveries shows a listing of all failed deliveries by default (if any). You can search by Recipient, Error message or Linked Object, or show additional search criteria to use.

Monitoring Bill Notification Activity In Customer Care

Bill notifications are shown on the Notifications page in Customer Care (Account > Notifications). Failed Notifications are marked with a red X.

For Bounced Messages, the kebob menu at the far right provides an option for managing bounced messages.

Orders – Modify Item and Assignment Template Enhancements

Several updates improve the web transaction experience including:

• Modify Item:

  • Clearer detail and visual cues when selecting an item to modify.

  • A Product Type filter to focus item searches on a specific Product Type  when Group By = Feature.

  • Streamlined process for modifying an item on an already staged service.

• Assignment Template Exactly 1 rule: permits swapping an active item for another item in the same exclusive group without first doing a disconnect so you can complete the swap in a single transaction. Exclusivity (when properly configured) will drive the functionality to remove the existing item on proceeding to checkout

Modify Item - Displaying Additional Details for Greater Clarity

Presentation for Group By Feature

When Group By = Feature and the list is collapsed, each item shows an icon for the product type, and the item’s SKU is shown in italics.

When an item is expanded:

• A Charge is displayed when applicable.  

• An icon is displayed to represent Charge Cycle.

• Each available item’s Start Date is displayed when Action = Update or Disconnect; or its End Date is displayed when Action = Reconnect.

• An icon is displayed when the Action = Disconnect and the item has been final billed.

Presentation for Group By Service

When Group By = Service and the list is collapsed, the number of items is displayed in italics.

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When an item is expanded:

• A Charge is displayed when applicable.  

• An icon is displayed to represent Charge Cycle.

• Each available item’s Start Date is displayed when Action = Update or Disconnect; or its End Date is displayed when Action = Reconnect.

• An icon is displayed when the Action = Disconnect and the item has been final billed.

Presentation for Action = Renew AdvancePay

The Renew AdvancePay action automatically selects Service and disables the Group By dropdown, so there are no changes to Group By = Feature for this action.

An icon is added when the Action = Disconnect and the item has been final billed

Modify Item - Group By Feature Product Type Filter

A Product Type filter lets you narrow your search results.

Streamline Modifying an Item on a Staged Service

When you modify an existing service using the Update or Swap action, the Modify Item icon is available in addition to the previously available array of icons after the service is added to the transaction. It pre-populates the transaction with items related to that service. This saves you from having to start a new Modify Item transaction and re-select the service just to access the eligible item(s) for modification.

Enhanced Assignment Template Enforcement of the Exactly 1 Rule

The Exactly 1 rule now lets you swap an active item for another item in the same exclusive group without first doing a disconnect so you can complete the swap in a single transaction. Exclusivity (when properly configured) will drive the functionality to remove the existing item on proceeding to checkout.

 When you choose a new item, an information icon next to the top level will show that an item from that group already exists. The new item will replace it if the Exclusive Group is set up correctly.  Note: All items in an Exactly 1 group must share the same Exclusive Group in the Product Catalog.

If you try to add another item from the same group, you’ll see a warning that adding it would violate the Exactly 1 rule—even if it would replace the active item.

Support for Custom Properties on Both Serviceable Addresses and Service Addresses

The FCC requires broadband service providers to include Broadband Serviceable Location (BSL) IDs in their Broadband Data Collection (BDC) reporting on service addresses. To facilitate meeting this requirement, Service Address Management has been enhanced to let service providers specify and view custom properties on a Serviceable Address.

Setting Custom Properties on Serviceable Addresses Via Bulk Data Import

The existing Serviceable Address File Import in the Bulk Data web module can accept any number of key value pairs for storing custom information.

To add a custom property:

• Add the key in the header row as ATTR_<key> (for example, ATTR_BSL_ID). You can add as many keys as needed.

• Enter the value for the key In the detail row for each serviceable address in the file.

Viewing Custom Properties on Serviceable Addresses in Product Catalog

When custom properties exist on an address, they are displayed on a new Custom Properties tab on the Serviceable Address page in the Product Catalog.

Viewing Custom Properties on Service Addresses in Customer Care

The Service Address page in Customer Care has a new View Selector to let users view and manage custom properties.  Use the view selector to toggle between the address information and the custom properties for the address.

The capability for custom properties varies based on whether the service address is linked to a serviceable address.

Service Addresses Not Linked to a Serviceable Address

Custom Properties can be viewed from the new Custom Properties view on a Service Address. A user with the Manage Service Addresses permission can add, edit and delete custom properties.

Service Addresses that are Linked to a Serviceable Address

The service address page has been enhanced to provide a link from the service address to the Serviceable Address (when there is an associated serviceable address).

Service Address Page:

Custom Properties from the Serviceable Address are displayed on the Custom Properties tab. They are not editable.