Working with Future Dated Orders and Temporary Services

This chapter provides overviews of future dated orders and temporary services and discusses how to:

• Set up future dated orders and temporary services.

• Create future dated orders.

• Modify future dated orders.

Note. Future dating applies to orders for both products and services.

Understanding Future Dated Orders

Future order functionality enables a user to place an order or a service management request that will occur in the future. The future dated orders are queued in the CRM system and automatically resubmitted to fulfill the order or request. This approach improves performance by not submitting orders until they are due. The functionality of order queuing is configurable through the (business unit)/(order capture definition) framework. It is possible to activate/deactivate the queuing functionality.

Order queuing functionality depends on the order scheduled fulfillment date. An order will be either qualified for immediate execution, that is, the business project will be initiated immediately or will be scheduled for execution in the future. After submitting the order with future scheduled fulfillment date, the system will validate the order and change order status to Queued. The business project will not be instantiated; instead the order execution date will be calculated based on the order scheduled fulfillment date and the ordered product's lead time. A separate process will run daily to find and submit all outstanding orders scheduled to be executed on current date. One scheduled fulfillment date will be allowed per order.

Future Dated Order Terminology

The following terms are applicable to future dated orders:

Understanding Temporary Services

An installed service that has an end date on the order line details page is considered a temporary service. The service end date is stored along with the installed service and is used to validate a new service management order against scheduled product deactivation.

Depending on the product definition, the system performs these actions to carry out the eventual disconnection of the temporary service:

• If the product definition indicates Change Service Status on a specified date, the installed product status is automatically changed in the CRM system by a background process on that date. No further notification is sent to or expected from the external systems.

• If the product definition indicates Wait for External System Notification, the installed service status is updated only after receiving confirmation from the external system that the requested product deactivation is fulfilled. If the notification is not received after the scheduled termination date is reached, it is considered an error.

• If the product definition indicates Create Disconnect/Resume Order, a new service disconnection order is automatically created and submitted by the CRM system to perform product disconnection in CRM and other systems. The date when the disconnection order is created and submitted is calculated based on service disconnection date and disconnect action lead time for a product.

Note. Depending on the available actions for the service, either a Disconnect action or a Cancel action is used to change the service status or create a disconnect/resume order.

For temporarily activated services, the line action Change End Date enables the modification of the scheduled end date. The Manage Service business project is executed to update the CRM system and notify the external systems if necessary.

Setting Up Future Dated Orders and Temporary Services

This section discusses how to:

• Configure the Order Capture business unit for order queuing and temporary services.

• Define lead time for products.

• Define lead time for product actions.

• Enable temporary services.

Note. This section discusses only those fields which are impacted by future dated order functionality. Refer to the following chapters for detailed information on all fields found on these pages.

Pages Used to Set Up Future Dated Orders and Temporary Services

Configuring the Order Capture Business Unit for Order Queuing and Temporary Services

Access the Order Capture Definition: Internal page and scroll to the Order Submission section.

To enable the business unit to accept future dated orders, select the Allow Future Dated Orders check box. Also select the Use Lead Time for Start Date to automatically calculate the default for the start date from the product lead time and the scheduled fulfillment date on the order and select a queuing option from the Business Projects list.

To enable the business unit to accept orders for temporary services, select the Allow Temporary Services check box.

See link to defining order capture business units chapter

Defining Lead Time for Products

Access the Product Definition page.

Defining Lead Time for Product Actions

Access the Product Definition page: Actions tab.

Lead Time

The lead time for each action is specified in days. The lead time is taken into account when calculating the order execution date. You can define a different lead time for each action associated with the product. The lead time specified should be the amount of time needed to perform the action on the external system for the product. The field defaults to 0 and indicates that the external system can perform the change with no reasonable delay. If no lead time is explicitly defined for an action, 0 days are assumed. Lead time is ignored for Change End Date and Change Resume Date. If the lead time is updated there is no automatic update to already submitted orders.

Enabling Temporary Services

Access the Product Definition page: Installed Product tab.

Allow Temporary Services

Enables you to create a temporary service activation order. When this field is selected you can specify a future deactivation date when creating the new installed product.

External System

Select a value to designate how an external system will handle an automatic service disconnection or resumption when either a temporary service has come to its termination date, or when a service that is suspended with the Suspend/Resume action comes to its resumption date. When the temporary service is at its termination point, this information determines how CRM should handle the disconnect (or cancellation) of the temporary service. When the service reaches its resumption date, this information determines how the system should handle the resumption for the service. Options for the automatic disconnection (or cancellation) of the temporary product or automatic resumption of a service are: Change Service Status CRM automatically updates the product status on the specified date. No additional workflow is initiated within CRM nor notification from the external system expected. This option assumes the external system does not need additional notification and the information it received on the initial order is enough for the external system to respond accordingly. Wait for External System Notification CRM stores the information on the requested date for the installed product for validation purposes, but it does not update the installed product status until the confirmation from the external system is received. This option assumes the external system is driving the automatically expected change and will notify the CRM system on the specified date. Create Disconnect/Resume Order On the specified date a new Service Management order is automatically generated and executed by the system to either terminate or resume the service. This assumes the CRM system is driving and the external system needs to be notified of the expected change.

Creating Future Dated Orders

This section provides an overview of future dated orders and discusses how to create future dated orders.

Note. This section discusses only those fields which are impacted by future dated order functionality. Refer to the following chapters for detailed information on all fields found on these pages.

See Managing Orders and Quotes, Working with PeopleSoft Service Management, Working with Bulk Orders.

Understanding Future Dated Order Creation

This section discusses:

• Future dated orders.

• Future dated service management orders.

• Multiple future orders for the same service.

• Future dated orders for a temporary suspension.

• Future dated bulk orders.

• Future dated bulk service management orders.

Future Dated Orders

Future dated order functionality allows you to create orders for service activation or product fulfillment in the future.

The Fulfill By date field triggers the future dating functionality. On order submit, the order execution date (date when the business project needs to be instantiated) will be calculated based on order scheduled fulfillment date and maximum lead time for products that are affected within the order.

• If the order execution date is in the past, the order will be put on hold. The CSR will be able to override the hold and submit the order taking into consideration the fact that order might be overdue.

• If the order execution date is the current date, the order will be submitted immediately.

• If the order execution date is in the future, the order status will be changed to Queued after successful validation, and the order will be scheduled for future execution.

The order will only be submitted if no holds are generated. Once an order is submitted it is queued for fulfillment/activation. At a later date, based on the time to deliver the product/service and the future date specified:

• The order configuration will be re-validated.

• The hold validation will be rerun.

• Correspondence will be generated as part of processing the business project to complete the order.

• The order will be processed for fulfillment or activation.

Only one order scheduled fulfillment date is allowed per order. The order line start dates are populated based on the order scheduled fulfillment date (or earliest fulfillment date if scheduled fulfillment date is not set) and are editable based on the Order Capture Business Unit settings for Line Dates Editable on Order. The shipment arrival date is editable, but on order submit the validation is performed to ensure that shipment arrival date is later than order scheduled fulfillment date. If the validation fails the order will be put on hold.

You can select a future dated shipment/billing/site address on the Address Book page. The link Advanced Options displays all customer address based on an effective date when the addresses are valid. The Address(es) effective as of date defaults to the Fulfill By date specified on the order. On order submit, the address effective date is validated against the order scheduled fulfillment date to assure there is no mismatch. If the validation fails, the order is put on hold. Possible holds are:

• Fulfill By date is before earliest fulfill by date.

• Future dated orders not enabled.

• Order revalidation after being queued.

• Shipment arrival date earlier than fulfill by date.

A process will be run daily to submit outstanding future dated orders scheduled for the current date. If the order execution date is current or earlier than the current date the order is submitted. The validation will be repeated to ensure the order is still valid. If the validation fails, the order will be put on hold. Otherwise the order status will be changed from Queued to Submitted and the business project initiates.

The process that is run daily is the Scheduled JobSet named QUEUED_ORDER_SUBMISSION. You must activate and schedule this process for the automatic processing of Queued orders to occur.

On submission by the Scheduled JobSet, the revalidation process repeats the hold validation that is currently performed on order submits. Additionally all effective dated order parameters will be validated against current date:

• Order contact

• Shipment addresses

• Shipment contacts

• Billing addresses

• Billing contact

• Site address

• Site contact

• Order line product for active status

See Managing Orders and Quotes.

Future Dated Service Management Orders

Future dated maintenance order functionality works in the same way as order capture. The orders with future dates are queued by the system and automatically executed on the date estimated from the scheduled fulfillment date and affected product action lead time.

Only one scheduled fulfillment date is allowed per order. Start and end date fields on order line details page are visible, defaulted to the scheduled fulfillment date value or the earliest fulfillment date value if the scheduled fulfillment date is not set. These dates are editable based on the Order Capture Business Unit setting for Line Dates Editable on Order:

• Change Features – no dates visible on the order line details.

• Disconnect Service – end date populated based on the scheduled fulfillment date.

• Suspend Service – start date populated based on the scheduled fulfillment date; end date not visible.

• Suspend/Resume Service - start date populated based on the scheduled fulfillment date; end date editable, must be filled in by the user.

• Resume Service – start date populated based on the scheduled fulfillment date.

The process that is run daily to resubmit regular orders will also handle Service Management orders. It is run daily to submit outstanding future dated orders scheduled for the current date. If the order execution date is current or earlier than the current date the order will be submitted. The validation will be repeated to ensure the order is still valid. If the validation fails, the order will be put on hold. Otherwise the order status will be changed from Queued to Submitted and the business project will initiate.

The process that is run daily is the Scheduled JobSet named QUEUED_ORDER_SUBMISSION and must be activated and on a schedule for the automatic processing of Queued orders to occur.

On submission by the Scheduled JobSet, the revalidation process will repeat the hold validation that is currently performed on order submits. In addition, the service structure will be re-validated to confirm that the service order is still viable in the context of any service changes that could have occurred in the lag time between order capture and the order execution date. The min/max components, product relationships, and order line actions will be validated against the current service base. The validation will fail if:

• The number of components doesn’t match min/max specified for the package.

• The product prerequisite is missing.

• The order is for the removal of an already removed product.

• The order is for the addition of an already added product.

• The order is for the suspension of an already suspended product.

• The order is for the resumption of an already resumed product.

See Working with PeopleSoft Service Management.

Multiple Future Orders for the Same Service

You can create a future dated order for a service when there are already outstanding future dated service management orders against the service. Future dated orders are scheduled for future processing and executed on the calculated order execution date. Only one order for the same service can be processed at the same time. If another order is being processed on the order execution date, it will be omitted and put on hold. Orders will be executed one after another based on order execution date (not scheduled fulfillment date).

When creating a new service order for a service or number of services, the list of all outstanding queued orders for these services is displayed. Instead of proceeding with the new order, you will be able to select and maintain the existing order.

A new link, Display All Queued Orders for Selected Services, is displayed on the order form to enable finding all currently queued orders for the selected services. The list is dynamically generated, so only current information is provided.

If there are other outstanding orders already queued for the same service , the validation check performed on order submit will ensure that order execution time frames do not overlap. If the validation fails, the order will be put on hold. Possible holds are:

• Fulfill By date is before earliest fulfill by date.

• Service disconnect or suspend before queued order.

• Order execution time frames overlap.

• Queued orders with installed products.

• Order revalidation after being queued.

• Validate start and end dates on Service Management.

Future Dated Bulk Orders

You can create a bulk order for future dated service activation or product fulfillment. The order is captured immediately; child orders are generated; submitted, and queued by the system for future processing.

Once child orders have been created from the bulk order, the scheduled fulfillment dates of the individual orders may be modified between the time the orders are generated and the time that they are submitted for processing.

The scheduled fulfillment date is copied from the parent bulk order onto each generated child order. If the scheduled fulfillment date is a future date, the child orders will be processed as future dated orders on order submission, and the child order will be queued if necessary.

See Working with Bulk Orders.

Future Dated Bulk Service Management Order

You can create a bulk service management order for future dated service activation or product fulfillment. The order is captured immediately; child orders are generated; submitted, and queued by the system for future processing.

Once child orders have been created from the bulk order, the scheduled fulfillment dates of the individual orders may be modified between the time the orders are generated and the time that they are submitted for processing.

If any child orders generated from the bulk service modification have pre-existing future dated service orders pending against them, those orders will be put on hold and must be reviewed by a CSR before they can be processed.

The scheduled fulfillment date is copied from the parent bulk service management order onto each generated child order. If the scheduled fulfillment date is a future date, the child orders will be processed as future dated orders on order submission and the child order will be queued if necessary.

Pages Used to Create Future Dated Orders

Creating a Future Dated Order

Access the Order page: Entry Form tab.

Order Status	Future dated orders display Queued Order status prior to the Fulfill By date.
Fulfill By	Select a date in the future to queue the order for future processing. By default this field will be empty. This field is not required on save, but it is required on order submit. If you do not explicitly specify this date before order submission, the order is scheduled for immediate execution.
Earliest	Calculated by the system this shows the earliest the order can be fulfilled. It is based on the products lead times from the order. If the Earliest Fulfill by is the current date it does not show.

Future Dating Addresses

Access the Address Book page.

Address(es) effective as of

The system defaults to the date selected in the Fulfill By field. If no date is selected in Fulfill By field, the system assume the order will be submitted immediately and does not show the Address(es) effective as of field.

Modifying Future Dated Orders

This section discusses how to modify existing future dated orders.

Note. This section discusses only those fields which are impacted by future dated order functionality. Refer to the following chapters for detailed information on all fields found on these pages.

Pages Used to Modify Future Dated Orders

Modifying Future Dated Orders

Access the Entry Form page.

Click the Maintenance toolbar button to edit the fields. After clicking the Maintenance button, all applicable sections will be editable. When the order is submitted after Maintenance, all holds need to be cleared if any are found before the updates are applied to the Queued order. No copy is made of the order like in Order Maintenance, changes to the Queued order are applied directly to the order once holds are passed.

Note. When you submit, the Change Summary data is transferred to the History tab.

Viewing History

Access the History page.