Supplier Work and Conversations

Operations tracks the work you ask suppliers to carry out on customers’ products, from provisioning a new line to cancelling a number, and the email conversations you have with suppliers about it.

What you need: the Operations CRM section and the Operations permissions for the work. Operations work, supplier Cases and billing referrals need the CRM Operations module, part of the Platform Pack. Go Live does not.

Work types

Each Operations request has a work type:

Work type	What it is for
Provisioning	Arrange a new product or service with the supplier
Divert	Redirect incoming calls to another destination
Change	Change the configuration of an existing product or service
Port In	Transfer a number into your account with the receiving supplier
Port Out	Transfer a number away to another provider
Suspend	Temporarily stop service, usually for Credit Control, with reinstatement expected
Reinstate	Resume service following a temporary suspension
Disconnect	Stop service on an expected-permanent basis while keeping it in your supplier account; a number may later be resold to another customer
Restore	Return a previously disconnected product or service to use
Investigate	Investigate a product or supplier issue and record the outcome
Cancel Number	Remove the number entirely from your account with the supplier

Divert, Port In, Port Out and Cancel Number apply to numbers only.

Administrators can switch off work types you do not use with the Enabled Operations Task Types setting under the CRM module. It applies across the whole installation. Disabled types are removed from the menu and from new-request choices; existing work of that type stays in Operations Work.

Work the queue

Open Operations > Operations Work for all supplier work, or the page for one work type.

• Attention required shows unassigned work and anything marked New, In Progress or Blocked. Assigned work awaiting confirmation, sent to a provider or scheduled returns on its review date.
• All active and History show the rest.

Filter by work type, a product, order or supplier reference, progress and owner. Choose New Operations request to raise work yourself.

Operations Home shows cards for Operations work and Supplier Cases needing attention, and Deals to go live.

Refer work to Operations

Other teams can ask Operations to carry out supplier work without leaving their own task.

From a product action: the Suspend, Unsuspend, Reinstate, Drop and Make Non-Billable actions on numbers, services and features have an Operations section.

1. Tick Request Operations.
2. Enter a Requested effective date, or leave it blank to use the action date.
3. Add Instructions for Operations, then save the action.

The product action takes effect as usual, and Operations receives the request straight away, so the supplier can be given notice. Supplier dates and billing dates stay separate. Request Operations is also on the Action menu of a number, service or feature.

From Credit Control: a chase case offers Request Suspension and Request Reinstatement.

From Billing Errors: number-related rows on the Billing Errors page have an Operations column. Choose Disconnect or Investigate for a row, or use Set all…, including for numbers not on any customer. This needs access to Billing Errors.

In the CRM, Operations requests made from the form, a customer or a chase case offer only products the CRM shows, following each status’s Visible in CRM setting. A Billing Errors referral still links its number.

Supplier conversations

Conversations with suppliers are held as Operations Cases, separate from customer Cases. Open Operations > Cases to work them. Supplier Cases have their own attention counts.

What you need: the CRM Cases View and Edit permissions and Operations edit permission. Sending to the supplier also needs Operations Case Sending.

Email a supplier about a request

1. Open the Operations request and choose Email supplier in its Supplier Cases panel.
2. Choose the supplier and select the work lines to include. Every selected line must have the same supplier.
3. Choose Create draft.
4. Check To, Cc, Subject and Message, and add any attachments.
5. Set a Review date if you want the request to come back to you. It is applied when the email is first sent.
6. Choose Save draft, or Send to supplier.

If a draft cannot be sent, the page says why, for example because the draft has changed or no work is selected.

The recipients and signature come from the carrier’s Operations Email settings: Operations To, Operations Cc and Operations Email Signature. Review the recipients before each send. Some email services, such as SMTP2GO and the Postmark API, cannot send supplier email to several different To and Cc recipients; the send is refused before it is queued.

Replies and new enquiries

Supplier replies to an existing conversation land on its Case, provided the sender’s domain is listed in the carrier’s Operations Reply Domains and the sender is verified.

New supplier email sent to one of your Operations Inbound Addresses opens a new supplier Case. Set these addresses per dealer under the CRM module. Leave the setting blank to stop inbound mail opening new supplier conversations.

A new supplier Case starts unlinked. On the Case:

1. Choose Identify supplier / Link work.
2. Choose the supplier and select Identify supplier.
3. Find an existing request and choose Link request, or choose Create Operations work to raise a new one from the conversation.

Case categories for Operations

In the Case category editor, choose Operations as the Workspace Section for supplier conversations. New request conversations take the category’s Default Department, so the whole team can see them in a shared queue. See Cases.

When Operations is not available

Without the CRM Operations module, Operations pages show a padlock. Supplier emails not yet attempted wait, and are sent through normal processing once Operations is available again.