The major addition to iPath with the introduction of the $FA Module is the introduction of Quotes. The ability to generate Quotes within iPath gives vCom and it's employees a number of benefits, for example:
Pricing is no longer "guess-work". Prices are displayed for each Service as well as the optional features. The $FA module even allows users to adjust pricing based on margin in competitive pricing situations.
Service Orders (SO's) are now automatically generated directly in iPath. This means that we no longer need to manage S.O.'s outside of iPath, they are integrated into iPath. Additionally, since they are auto-generated, the Sales Associate no longer needs to manually create S.O's.
Automation of the vCom Forecast - because Quotes are in iPath, the need for a Sales rep to "manage" the vCom Forecast pipeline is eliminated. All tracking is done based on the Quotes that have been generated by Sales Associates. This improves efficiency overall and lets the Sales Associate focus on managing Sales and not managing Sales pipleline's and reporting.
The $FA module has a very complex pricing architecture on order for it to support all the various methodologies for pricing. In general, it must be noted that pricing is determined by the following components:
The Service selected - obviously, the selected Service (DIA, Local DS1, Local Line etc.) is a major component of price
The Carrier selected - again, a major component of pricing. Since different carriers charge different prices for the same product, our pricing will differ dependant on the selected Carrier.
The State the Account is located in - this is a not so obvious pricing component. For many services (such as Local Lines) the pricing will differ based on the location where the Service will be installed. The $FA module determines this based on the selected State for the Account where service is being quoted.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Because State is so important in pricing, you MUST be sure to enter the correct address for each of a Customer's Accounts when you create them as part of the New Quote process. Failure to do so will either result in no pricing being displayed (e.g. trying to Quote a BellSouth Local Line for an Account located in California), or in the incorrect pricing. To avoid this, be sure that the Account's State is always correct.
The Pricing Attributes and Features selected for the service (see below for further explanation).d
There are number of components that comprise a Quote in iPath. These are further detailed in the Creating a New Quote section. An overview is below:
As with Orders in iPath, Quotes are first created by creating a new Quote Package. Think of a Quote Package as a group of individual Quotes. Because Quotes are "service-specific", we combine all related Quotes into a Quote Package. This is beneficial for a number of reasons, however the primary reason is to reduce duplicate data entry, since many required fields would contain the same information for each quote. As such, we are able to gather the information once and apply it to each Quote in the Package.
Additionally, in order to simply our Customer experience, the use of a Quote Package allows us to generate one Service Order for the entire package. This means the Customer need only sign one document for all services quoted.
As noted above, Quotes are the individual quotes for Services that are quoted in the Package. A Package may contain Quotes for multiple services such as a Local DS1, a Toll-Free number, some Local Lines and a DIA. Each of these would be individual Quotes in the Quote package. As the Quote Package is created, the user will create each of these Quotes individually.
Because Pricing is dependant upon many variables, when configuring Quotes in a Package, the user will be required in some instances to populate certain Pricing Attributes. These attributes will determine the pricing for the Service being quoted. For example, when ordering a Local Line, if you select Measured vs. Flat-Rate as the Local Usage Type. The choice made here will modify the pricing of the service overall. Additional attributes will be presented based on the Service, Carrier and State that the Account is located in (as noted above).
Because pricing is partly determined on these attributes, it is essential that the Sales Associate select the correct Pricing Attributes when configuring the Quote.
Features differ from Pricing Attributes in that they are optional. The simplest example would be adding an optional feature to a Local Line. For example, selecting Call Forwarding as a feature on a local line will incur a non-recurring and a recurring charge for the feature. As such, it is again, imperative that the Sales Associate select the appropriate desired features when configuring the Quote.
Because each Service Order has a unique set of Terms & Conditions for the Services ordered, the $FA Module will present the "default" Ts&C's for the Services selected in the Quote Package. These Ts&C's will be associated with the Service Order as well as with the Customer as a whole, so if any additional Services are ordered at a later date, the same Ts&C's will be associated with the newly ordered Services.
In cases where a Customer is requesting modifications to the Ts&C's, see a member of the Executive Management team, they have the ability to modify the Ts&C's on Quotes.
As previously mentioned, S.O.'s are now auto-generated in iPath and integrated with Inventory as it is installed. This means that manual creation of SO's is no longer required.
The content of the SO will be determined by the Service(s), Carrier, State, Pricing Attributes and Features selected on the Quotes in the Package. Additionally, the Terms & Conditions presented will be those listed on the T&C tab of the Quote Package.
Multiple SO's can be created with different pricing attributes (e.g. 1 year Term vs. 2 year Term). A history of all generated SO's is kept with the Package.
As part of the process required to Order the Quotes, a Signed SO is required to be uploaded to the Quote Package.