This chapter describes the implementation process required for Oracle Advanced Collections.
This chapter covers the following topics:
Oracle Advanced Collections provides a user interface to guide you through the implementation process. As you answer questions and make decisions about how you will use the application, Advanced Collections sets system profile options in the background at the site level. It also performs setup tasks, such as displaying tabs and creating scoring engines. After completing your implementation, you can continue to use the Checklist to manage and update key features such as scoring and strategies.
The implementation user interface is available under the Collections Administrator responsibility and has three parts:
Before you begin implementing Advanced Collections, you must make certain business decisions about your collections process. The decisions you make will affect the choices you make in the Questionnaire and Checklist. Learn more about the following areas before you begin:
Requirements
Questionnaire, Checklist, and Task pages should be completed by someone who is familiar with your business rules and has operational and functional knowledge of your collections organization.
Use the Collections Administrator responsibility to access these pages.
Prerequisites
Set up E-Business Suite applications and configure them for use with Oracle Advanced Collections.
Note: If you are upgrading from a previous version, Oracle Advanced Collections will populate the Questionnaire and Checklist to reflect your earlier product configuration. You must review the Questionnaire and Checklist to verify that the settings correctly migrated and support your business practices. Make changes if necessary.
If you use dunning plans, you must change the default collections method in the Questionnaire from strategies to dunning plans.
The Questionnaire and Checklist set profile options at the site level and will not affect existing profile options set at the user, application, or responsibility level. Your responses to the Questionnaire and Checklist will not override any profile options previously set at any level other than the site level.
For a list of the profile options set by the Questionnaire and Checklist, see: Profile Options for Collections Questionnaire and Checklist.
The Questionnaire asks basic questions about how you plan to use Advanced Collections. It covers three areas – Operations, Transactions, and Collections Methods. Your answers to these questions determine which setup steps appear as tasks on the Collections Checklist. The Questionnaire appears automatically when you select the Setup Checklist link in the Navigator for the first time. You can also access the questionnaire from links on the Collections Checklist.
The Checklist itemizes the setup tasks to be completed for the three areas of the Questionnaire.
The Checklist is designed to make your implementation process easier and faster. It lists the setup tasks to be completed based on your responses in the Collections Questionnaire, indicates which tasks are mandatory, and shows the status of each task.
Note: The Collections Checklist sets all Advanced Collections system profile options for you except those related to using Oracle Lease and Finance Management, Oracle TeleSales, and profile options that you can only change using the Profile Navigator option.
The task pages ask additional questions about each topic. The questions are written in clear, non-technical language. On-screen tips and information provide additional information about questions when necessary and links to more information in the online help documentation. As you complete each task page, the status of the task is updated on the Checklist. You can come back to task pages to make changes in your system settings at any time.
Oracle Advanced Collections provides preconfigured elements for scoring, strategies, metrics, and correspondence. These elements include scoring components, scoring engines, work item templates, strategy templates, metrics formulas, along with correspondence templates and queries. You can use the preconfigured elements in test and pre-production environments. You can also use the preconfigured elements in your production environment if they suit your business needs.
While it is not necessary to modify preconfigured elements, the instructions are included in the Collections Checklist to show you the order in which you need to set up these elements. Work with your collections manager to determine the modifications to be performed during implementation. You can also follow these procedures when modifying or adding elements.
Related Topics
The operational data level represents the level at which you conduct your collections business with your customers.
Customer
Account
Bill To location
Delinquency
When you select a data level in the Collections Questionnaire, you set the level for running scoring and strategies.
In addition, the operational data level affects many aspects of how you use Advanced Collections and controls whether some buttons are enabled or not. It affects sending correspondence, territories for assigning collectors, and whether data from multiple operating units can be displayed.
Related Topics
Multiple Level Strategies for Different Operating Units
Displaying Collector's Work Queue Nodes
Viewing Customer Information, Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide
Setting Up Oracle Advanced Collections
The Collections Manager sets up the default levels at which the business unit can run, view and do collections using the in the Collections Administration checklist. Click Define the Operating Unit Collections Level in the Operating Setup tasks. The Collections Administrator can default at three levels namely the System level (basic level at which the organization does business with its customers and collects- either at party level or at account level or at bill to site level or delinquency level), the Operating Units level and the Party level, if any, as per the policies and scenarios of the business in which the operation exists. The priority order of the defaults are as follows: Customers, then Operating Unit, and last, System, as the defaults are applied from the lowest level to the topmost level.
So the Collections level specified at customer level or party level has priority over the Collections level specified at the operating unit. And further the Collections level specified at operating unit level has priority over the Collections level specified at the system level. In System level, you define at what level does the organization do business with its customers with four options either at party level or at account level or at bill to site level or delinquency level.
In the checklist, the operating unit default can be setup by one-to-one mapping of operating unit with the Collections level or by selecting multiple operating units and assigning them one-to-one with the Collections level. So each concurrent program is run at the default collection level is assigned to the program or request based on the lowest level of the Collections defaults. Also in the checklist, you define whether the business organization would want to override the defaults at the party level or not. If set to Yes, then the Collection Manager or Administrator in the Collections Workbench can override the other defaults by selecting specific Collections level for that party and saving the record. Basically when the Party or Customer or Organization name is selected in Collections Workbench, the Collections level attribute is first set based on the operating unit, if any, selected in the header level. If not available then, the Collections level attribute is set from the system level given in the checklist.
Related Topics
Displaying Collector's Work Queue Nodes
Using Collector's Work Queue, Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide
Set Up Additional Oracle Advanced Collections Profile Options
To optimize your collectors' efficiency, organize the information presented in Collector's Work Queue to match the operational data level at which your collectors work with customers: customer, account, bill to location, or delinquency. When you use the Advanced Collections Setup Checklist to configure your system, the work queue nodes are automatically set to reflect your operational data level, your collections method, and other collections settings.
The nodes available for each operational data level are:
Strategy Work Node: Displays all the strategy work items assigned to the collector, including customer information, and work item summary information.
Broken Promises Node: Displays broken promises assigned to the collector. Even though promises are taken at the transaction level, you can display them grouped by customer, bill to location, or account.
Delinquent Node: Displays delinquent customers, accounts, bill to locations, or transactions assigned to the collector.
You can also display a Task Node to list broken promise and dunning callbacks, approvals, meetings, problem resolutions, and other items that make up the Collector's Work Queue.
Note: You should displays nodes for only one data level, either customer, account, bill to location, or delinquency, and show all collection nodes available at that data level. Data is refreshed when you run the IEX: Populate UWQ Summary Table concurrent program. This program only populates information for the data level at which you run strategies. For more information, see: Running Concurrent Programs, Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide.
The IEX Populate UWQ Summary concurrent program is submitted only once. The program loops for each collections definition level specified on the Operation Setup task. The IEX Delinquency Management concurrent program updates the summary data based on the Collections level for that particular party.
All the nodes can be enabled based on the following profile options at the specific business level of the organization. The UWQ summary data is populated for each party based on Collections level only one node at a time.
IEU: Queue: Account View Delinquency: Set to Yes.
IEU: Queue: Account View Promises: Set to Yes.
IEU: Queue: Account View Strategies: Set to No.
Note: If you use dunning plans instead of strategies, you should hide Strategy Work Item nodes since they are related to strategies.
Note: Marketing lists are used for high volume outbound collections campaigns. If you do not want marketing lists displayed in the Collector's Work Queue, then set the AMS: Queue: Marketing Lists profile option to No.
Even though you use the Advanced Collections Setup Checklist to determine the nodes displayed in the Collector's Work Queue, you can also set theIEU: Queue Order profile option to indicate the order in which each node appears. For example, if you want to display collectors' work items organized by customer, you set the following profile options to Yes:
IEU: Queue: Customer View Delinquencies
IEU: Queue: Customer View Promises
IEU: Queue: Customer View Strategies
You could set the order they appear in UWQ as follows:
IEU: Queue Order: Customer View Delinquencies: 3
IEU: Queue Order: Customer View Promises: 2
IEU: Queue Order: Customer View Strategies: 1
Related Topics
Multiple Level Strategies for Different Operating Units
Using Collector's Work Queue, Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide
Set Up Additional Oracle Advanced Collections Profile Options
The IEU: Desktop: Work Selector profile option controls the appearance of the UWQ desktop. You can display Collector's Work Queue nodes as either:
Hgrid: Work queue nodes are presented in a navigator frame and work items are displayed in another frame based on the node selected. Users can drill down or roll up to display the appropriate level of detail.
Cascade: Work is displayed in a single frame based on the node selected from a drop down list.
For information on setting this profile option, see: Set Up Oracle Additional Advanced Collections Profile Options.
Reusing Application Windows
The IEU: Non-Media: Navigate profile option determines whether a new Advanced Collection window is opened every time the user selects a new work item. Set to Yes to tell UWQ to reuse the same window when a user selects a new work item. Set to No if you want UWQ to open an additional window when users select a new work item. Set to Yes to save computer resources. The profile option can be set at the site, application, responsibility, and user levels.
Related Topics
The Collections window has two tabs that you can customize to provide functionality specific to your organization or industry, that is not provided elsewhere in Oracle Advanced Collections. For example, you could program one tab to display additional customer data that relates to your industry sector that your collectors can refer to while interacting with customers.
The tabs are labeled Custom1 and Custom2. To be able to use the custom tabs, your implementation team or system administrator must:
Unhide one or both tabs according to standard procedures for including and excluding menus.
Add Oracle Forms code for the desired functionality for each tab.
Setting up the custom tabs to be used by your collectors will not alter your support agreement with Oracle. However, it is recommended that you save the custom code before applying patches or mini-packs.
Related Topics
Setting Up Oracle Advanced Collections
Create new metrics
Modify existing metrics
Select the metrics you want to display on the Profile tab
Set the display order
Set rating ranges for a metric
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Function |
Indicates if the metric uses a function call to derive a value. |
| Value |
The select statement or function for the metric. |
| Object |
The database entity for the metric. |
| Rating |
The value (High, Medium, Low) of a specific metric in relation to all possible values. |
Related Topics
Profile Tab, Oracle Advanced Collections User Guide
Use the IEX: Metric Calculation Method profile option to determine whether Advanced Collections calculates the information each time you navigate to the Profile tab or in batch mode. If you set the profile option to batch mode, you must schedule the IEX: Refresh Metrics Summary Table concurrent program to run to refresh the data.
Do I have to display all metrics on the Profile tab?No. You can select which metrics to display by updating the details for each metric. Select the Enabled box for only those metrics you want to view on the Profile tab. You can also set the display order for the metrics.
To select the metrics to display on the Profile tab, go to the Create Metric section of the Collections Checklist using the Collections Administrator responsibility.
Can I create a new metric?You can define new metrics based on your corporate policies and formulas. Since metric formulas use SQL/Plus statements or function calls to calculate data, you will need a qualified DBA to do this.
How are ratings used with metrics?Ratings tell the collector how to interpret or evaluate a metric value. For some metrics, such as Average Days Late, the meaning or relevance of the calculated value is clear to the collector. To increase the usefulness of a metric, you can define high, medium, and low ranges of possible metric values to clarify the number returned by Advanced Collections for a customer.
What is the test button used for?Verify the accuracy of metric values and ranges with test data before you use the metric with production data. Select a party in the Identifier field with known metric values and click Test.
In addition to the profile options set by the Collections Questionnaire and Checklist, you can set additional system profile options to define how Oracle Advanced Collections behaves for users. You can set up your application according to your company's business requirements.
The procedure for setting up and changing profile options is the same for all Oracle applications. For a detailed description of the procedures, refer to the Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide - Maintenance.
For information on profile options available for Advanced Collections, see: Category and Profile Option Descriptions.
Steps
Using the Collections Administrator responsibility, choose Profiles to open the Find System Profile Values window.
Enter your search criteria in the Display region.
Click in the Profile Field. Enter a partial name of the profile using "%" as a wild card.
Click Find. The found profiles are displayed in the System Profile Values window.
Click in the field of the profile you want to set or change.
Select a value from the List of Vales (LOV).
Click Save on the toolbar.
Related Topics
Profile Options for Collections Questionnaire and Checklist
The Collections Header includes a Status field for the customer. This status represents the most critical status of the customer and indicates to the collector what delinquency issues this customer has. Often, the status of Bankruptcy is the most critical and the company using Oracle Advanced Collections identifies the prioritization of the various statuses using the Customer Status Prioritization menu item. Use this procedure to set up filters and priorities that control the status displayed in the header for each customer.
Prerequisites
Steps
Using the Collections Administrator responsibility, select Customer Status Prioritization .
The Customer Status Prioritization page lists existing prioritizations with their start and end dates.
Click Create.
The Create Customer Status Prioritization page appears.
Enter a name.
Enter a description.
Enter start and end dates for the prioritization to be active.
Click Create.
The prioritization is saved and appears in the Customer Status Prioritization page.
If you want to associate a filter with this prioritization, then perform the following steps:
In the Filter Name column, click Create.
The Customer Status Prioritization Filter page appears and the filter type is Customer Status Filter.
Enter a filter name.
If you want the filter to be active, select Y.
Select the view name to use for the filter.
Select the column name to filter.
Click Create.
The filter is saved and the Customer Status Prioritization page appears.
Click the prioritization that you created.
The Status Prioritization Details page appears.
Click Add Line.
Several blank lines appear.
From the Customer Prioritization LOV, choose the status that will be the first priority.
In the Priority field, enter 1.
Select Y to enable the delinquency line.
Optionally, enter additional status lines for priority 2, 3, and so on.
Click Update to save your record.
Related Topics
Setting Up Oracle Advanced Collections
Enable Web Directory Assistance if you want your collectors to be able to automatically access the directory assistance Web site used by your organization to look up calling numbers.
Steps
Using the Collections Administrator or Collections Manager responsibility, navigate to the Web Assistance page.
Click Create Web Assistance.
Using another browser window, navigate to the web directory assistance service you want to use.
Perform a search for any individual. Keep the page with the results open. You will need to refer to it for the rest of this procedure.
For example, navigate to www.superpages.com, select the People Pages tab, and search for John Doe in California.
The search returns a page with the following URL: http://directory.superpages.com/wp/results.jsp?SRC=&PS=15&PI=1&STYPE=WS&WF=John&WL=Doe&T=&S=CA&search=Find
In the Search URL field, enter the part of the URL before the question mark (?).
In the SuperPages.com example, you copy and paste the following: http://directory.superpages.com/wp/results.jsp
In the Header Constant field, enter the part of the CGI portion of the URL header that remains constant when you perform different searches.
Note: You may need to perform additional searches to determine what portion of the URL remains constant.
In the SuperPages.com example, this is: SRC=&PS=15&PI=1.
In the Trailer Constant field, enter the constant part of the URL after the search terms.
In the SuperPages.com example, this is: &search=Find
Enter the switch separator. The switch separator is always the ampersand (&).
Enter the URL separator. The URL separator is always the question mark (?).
Click Update.
The Web Assistance page displays the web assistance you saved.
Click Detail for the web assistance you created.
In the Web Assistance Details page, click CGI Switches.
The Oracle Advanced Collections Web Directory Administration page displays switch information for the web directory.
Create each switch to include in the search. The switches are the CGI script variables used for your search criteria. Each switch is followed by an equals (=) sign. In the SuperPages.com example the switches are: WF, WL, T, and S.
For each switch:
Click Create CGI Switch.
Enter the switch in the Switch Code field. The entry is case sensitive.
Enter a number in the Sort Order field indicating the order this switch appears in the URL.
Select Y next to the search criteria related to this switch. For SuperPages.com, WF is used for first name, WL for last name, T for city, and S for state.
Set the Enable field to Y. Any disabled switch has a corresponding disabled field on the Directory Assistance page.
If user entry for this switch is required by the web assistance service, then select Y for the Required field. Look on the search web page to find out what fields are required. In the SuperPages.com example, last name is the required field.
Click Update.
The Web Assistance Details page displays the new switch.
After testing your settings, set Enabled to Y.
Note: You can enable only one directory service at a time.
Click Update to save your changes.
Related Topics
Setting Up Oracle Advanced Collections
If your business process requires manager approval before a collector can record a promise to pay for a customer, you can set up a workflow to automate the approval process.
Prerequisites
For information about creating workflows, see: Defining a Workflow Process, Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide.
Steps
Using the Collections Administrator responsibility, enter the name of the promise approval workflow in IEX: Item Type of Promise Workflow profile option.
Set IEX: Approval Required for Promise profile option to Yes.
Related Topics
Setting Up Oracle Advanced Collections
Oracle Advanced Collections supports the ability to collect from Receivables and Lease and Finance Management invoices in the same instance. If you are using Oracle Lease and Finance Management, you must configure Oracle Advanced Collections to integrate the functionality of the two applications.
In the Operations section of the Collections Questionnaire, select Lease Contracts when answering the following question:
For which of the following does your organization collect?
Oracle Advanced Collections exposes the Case Management and Contract tabs on the Collections page. It adds Leasing Payment and Leasing Promise to the list of history types available on the History tab. It adds Leasing Invoice to the list of transaction classes available on the Transaction tab.
The Collections Leasing Agent and Collections Leasing Administrator responsibilities are added in Oracle Advanced Collections, which are used to manage and use the Report to Credit Bureau and Transfer to an External Agency functionalities from Oracle Lease and Finance Management.
In addition, verify or enable the items listed below.
Set the following profile options used in a Collections/Lease and Finance Management operation:
Enable IEU: Queue: Delinquency View Delinquencies (Case Level)
Enable IEU: Queue Order: Delinquency View Delinquencies (Case Level)
Enable IEU: Queue Order: Delinquency View Promises (Case Level)
Enable IEU: Queue Order: Delinquency View Strategies (Case Level)
Enable the following concurrent programs:
Set the following default workflow background processes:
Change the following graphical elements in Oracle Advanced Collections:
Report to Credit Bureau
Transfer to External Agency
Leasing Center
Expose Case Column Number in the Strategy table on the Lifecycle tab
Expose Case Column Number in the top Strategy table on the Strategy tab
Expose case-related scoring engines in Collections Manager:
Related Topics