On the provider’s page
Each provider’s contacts are kept on its page, for the group or for one company.
Every change, approved first
Approval policies cover purchase orders and every request to add, move, change or disconnect a service.
Why it holds
Nothing on the request page skips a waiting approval.
The request page leads with one next step, and says who the request is waiting on.
How a request runs
A request, from raised to installed
Approved
Each step is decided by its approvers, under the policy fixed when the request was submitted.
Handed to the provider
An approved request goes to the provider by email, portal, phone or the provider’s ordering API (TM Forum TMF622), and each handoff is recorded.
One live order
A request holds one live order with a provider’s ordering API at a time.
Installed, milestone by milestone
Install milestones are recorded until the install is finished. A provider’s progress comes back in its own words, and only a person moves the request’s status.
Written down
A request’s history is written in words, oldest first.
The disconnect watched
After a disconnect is completed, Riopex watches the later bills, and a charge still billed raises a finding that carries the provider’s reference.
Approval policies
Approvals set by policy
- Scope
- The whole group, or one company, for each kind of request.
- Who
- Who may raise a request, and who approves each step.
- Paths
- A different path by amount, service family, company or part of the group.
- Approvers
- A step decided by any one approver, or one that needs every approver.
- Drawn as a flow
- Policies are drawn and edited as a flow, from request to approved.
- Versions
- Saving a policy creates a new version, which applies at once or from a date you set. Earlier versions stay on record.
Budget
A budget check on every request
Against the month’s budget
The budget check sets what a request needs against the month’s budget, and records the exchange rate it used.
No budget, said plainly
Where there is no budget, the check says so rather than showing a zero.
A disconnect’s full cost
The check counts a disconnect’s early-termination charge, worked out from its contract.
A step of its own
A policy can make the budget check a step of its own, decided by the budget’s approvers.
Quote requests
Prices asked for, then compared
Asked
A quote request asks one or more providers for a price by email, through the company’s mailbox, or the group’s when the company has none.
Drafted
A provider’s reply becomes a draft answer for a person to record.
Converted
Each answer is converted to the group’s currency at the rate of the day it arrived, and that rate is kept with it.
Compared
Answers are compared over the whole term, cheapest first.
Ordered
Choosing an answer raises a draft purchase order, which goes through approvals like any other.
Provider contacts
Each provider’s contacts, kept in order
Offered as you write
Quote requests, order handoffs and confirmation requests offer the provider’s stored contacts, and a typed address can be saved as a contact.
Escalation in order
Escalation contacts are kept in order, with when to move to the next level and by which channel. A request waiting on a provider shows who to escalate to next.
The mailbox
Provider mail, through your own mailbox
- Where
- Riopex sends and reads provider mail through a mailbox in your own mail system.
- What goes out
- Order handoffs, confirmation requests, quote requests, scheduled reports and digests, through the company’s own mailbox.
- Each kind
- Each kind of outgoing message is set to off, drafted for a person to approve, or sent.
- On the timeline
- An order’s timeline shows whether its email is waiting for approval, queued to send or not sent.
- Incoming
- New mail is picked up as it arrives. Each mailbox handles it automatically, within fixed rules, or holds every proposal for a person to review.
- References
- Even in automatic mode, a provider’s reference is applied by itself only on a reply to a message Riopex sent.
- Across companies
- When a thread is linked to a record of another company in the group, its files are copied to that company.
- Settings
- Mailbox settings can be changed only by someone allowed to manage integrations.
Questions
Questions about orders
What if a company sets no approval policy?
A company that sets no policy runs the standard flow.
What if a request’s amount is in another currency?
An amount in another currency is never converted to meet a threshold. The request takes the stricter path.
Does changing a policy affect requests already submitted?
No. A request’s approval route is fixed when it is submitted, so a later policy change never alters it.
Can a provider revise a quote?
A recorded answer never changes. A revised price is a new answer.
Does Riopex change anything in our mailbox?
No. Riopex never flags, moves or deletes a message in your mailbox.
Does it read our old mail?
A newly connected mailbox reads mail from that day on, unless an administrator sets an earlier start date.
How does a message get linked to a request?
By itself, only through a Riopex reference, a reply to mail Riopex sent, or a known provider contact.
The intelligence engine can suggest a record for unlinked mail. This is off by default, and only a person can apply a suggestion.
Related
What a request touches
Contracts
Every price a dated line, and every notice deadline worked out through each renewal.
Findings
A charge still billed after a disconnect, with the provider’s reference, among every other difference.
Integrations
A mailbox on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace connects by signing in, with no password stored.
Start with one company’s invoices
Three invoices, as the provider sent them, show what Riopex reads.
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