Bundles
A bundle ties one provider charge to the services it pays for. The charge is split to its members when the bill is accepted: by bandwidth, equally, or all on its anchor service.
Every service, in one record
Every service the group pays for, in one record and on one map, priced from what was billed in the latest billed month.
The map
The estate, on a map and a globe
The estate is drawn on a map and on a globe, with a switch between them, and each viewer’s choice is remembered. The full map draws streets, cities and coastlines from map tiles the instance serves itself.
- Each link coloured by its type: data, voice, mobile, hosting or satellite
- A switch to colour the links by utilisation
- A satellite link drawn as a hop up to the satellite and down
- A key with a count beside each entry
- The link pane
- Its ends, type, committed rate, monthly cost, provider and utilisation.
- Allocation
- The companies its cost is allocated to, each with its share and amount.
- Use
- The committed rate against inbound and outbound use, hour by hour.
- Cost
- From the bills, so it shows whether or not monitoring is connected.
- Configure
- Opens the link’s configuration page.
Structure
The group, set out as it runs
A group sets out its structure as divisions between the group and its companies.
- Levels
- As many as the group needs, such as a sub-holding between its divisions and its companies, each named in the group’s own words.
- Moves
- A company moves to another division from a chosen date, with its people’s access carried across. Its earlier place is kept as history.
- New companies
- Placed in the group structure when they are created.
- Onboarding
- An optional step sets out the group’s divisions.
- From a file
- A structure loads from a CSV or XLSX file. The file is checked first, and the check writes nothing.
Imports
An inventory file becomes the record
For one company or the whole group, every file runs as a dry run before anything is committed.
Upload one file
One inventory file can cover several of the group’s companies. A person confirms which company each row belongs to.
Confirm the mapping
A saved column mapping is reused when a file with the same headers arrives, and a person confirms a new one. One confirmed for a group file is offered to every company’s part of it.
Run the dry run
Each company’s rows become that company’s own import, run as a dry run before anything is committed.
Commit, and undo
Commit all commits every company’s part of a group file in one step. A committed import can be undone as one batch until a carrier confirmation names its services.
Cleanup rules change stored data only when they are switched on in the confirmed column mapping.
Placeholders
A row with a placeholder identifier is held for review instead of being stored.
Split
A cell holding several identifiers adds each one to the service the row creates.
Bandwidth
A down/up pair is stored as two values when it agrees with the committed rate.
Role words
The company’s own words for circuit roles are mapped to roles; a word not yet mapped is flagged, not guessed.
The record
What each service carries
Mobile lines
Each line with its holder, employee reference and cost centre, those with a holder first. Its page shows the monthly charge, the plan and usage down to each call, data session and roaming record.
Holders
From a line’s page, a holder is assigned, changed or marked as having left.
Link configuration
One page per link, with tabs for details, ends, monitoring, allocation and thresholds. It opens from the service page and from the map’s link pane.
Monitoring
The tab shows what feeds the link: the interface, the device, the connection and the last measurement. An interface another link already holds is never offered.
Allocation
A link’s cost is allocated to the group’s other companies in shares that add up to the whole, and a new split can take over from a future day. A split circuit says so.
Utilisation alert
A data link has its own utilisation alert, measured at p95 against its committed rate.
Your own fields
A group adds its own fields to a service, beside the fields each service type already asks for.
Carrier confirmation
Providers confirm what you hold
Each provider’s page shows how much of its estate it has confirmed, and the date of its last answer.
A frozen request
A request covers one company’s services at one provider, or at one of its accounts, as a snapshot of what Riopex holds on the day.
Sent to the provider
The file downloads as CSV or XLSX, with the same content in each, and the request is emailed with the CSV attached.
The answer, checked
The provider’s returned file is checked in a dry run before it is committed.
A person decides
The answer is kept as evidence and never overwrites the service. Where it differs from the record, a person decides.
Lists
Every list sorts, filters and saves
Services, sites, contracts, provider accounts and the provider directory all work the same way.
| On every list | How it works |
|---|---|
| Sort | By any column, or by several at once. |
| Filter | By text, by choice, or by a number, money or date range; a money filter can keep to one currency. |
| Chips | Each active sort and filter shows as a chip, removable on its own, with Clear all. |
| Saved views | A list’s filters and sort saved under a name, to return to. |
| Download | A CSV file, exactly as filtered on screen. |
Questions
Questions about the inventory
What happens if a structure file has a bad row?
If any row is refused, nothing from the file is written. Companies left out of a structure file stay where they are.
Do we have to set out a structure?
No. A one-company customer is never asked to set out a structure.
What if the same file is uploaded twice, or an import was wrong?
The same file uploaded twice by one company is stored once.
A committed import can be undone as one batch until a carrier confirmation names its services, and nothing is ever deleted.
Will a cleanup rule change our data on a hunch?
No. A rule changes stored data only when it is switched on in the confirmed column mapping, and a check that only suspects a problem flags the row and changes nothing.
Can a bundled charge be re-matched by mistake?
No. A bill line bound to a bundle is never re-matched to a single service.
What happens to a line when its holder leaves?
It stays linked to them until it is reassigned.
Does carrier confirmation cover mobile?
It covers fixed services; mobile services are not included.
What if the provider names a circuit we do not hold?
It becomes a proposed match for a person to confirm.
A provider’s answers are matched only to the services it was asked about, and a committed return can be undone.
Will a utilisation alert fire on poor data?
No. It never fires on a thinly measured month or on a link with no committed rate.
Are amounts converted when we sort and filter?
No. Amounts sort and filter in their own currency, never converted.
What does the map draw?
A link is drawn between its two ends, not along its cable route.
The allocation in the link pane is the split in force for the month on screen.
What if a link has gaps in its measurements?
An hour with no measurement breaks the line and is never drawn as zero.
Where nothing has been reported for a link, the pane says so instead of drawing a chart.
Does the map work on every browser and for every reader?
Where a browser cannot draw the full map, it falls back to an outline map; where it cannot draw 3D, the globe shows its links as a table.
The globe works from the keyboard, its links are also listed in a table, and with reduced motion set it cuts between views instead of flying.
Place names are shown in English wherever the map data has an English name.
Start with one company’s invoices
Three invoices, as the provider sent them, show what Riopex reads.
Request a pilot