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Process of Managing Collections in Siebel Communications (End User)

Collection management is the process of collecting payment from a subscriber after the end of the grace period for the amount due. Collection management involves performing a sequence of actions to collect the past due amount. If payment is not made after the grace period, a typical sequence of collection actions might, for example, consist of a reminder phone call or email, a reminder letter, a demanding phone call, a dunning letter, referral to a collection agency, suspension of service, and cancellation of the account. The specific collection actions you perform may be different, depending on your company's business requirements.

Collection management involves integrating Siebel Communications with an external credit management application or the external Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management application. The integration functions as follows:

• The external application identifies bills that are past the due date and require collection. The external application transmits a notification that becomes a credit alert in Siebel Communications.
• When an account enters collections in the external application, its Billing Profile status changes from green to yellow. Collection actions are performed, and billing statuses are updated in Siebel Communications automatically by the external application. When the account exits from collection, the billing profile status changes from yellow back to green.

  NOTE:  The billing profile status of an account can be updated automatically only by the external application and cannot be changed manually in Siebel CRM.

• Billing statuses that have been updated in Siebel Communications are then synchronized with and updated in Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management.

To manage collections in Siebel Communications, perform the following tasks:

1. Updating Collection Actions in Siebel Communications
2. Processing Collection Payments in Siebel Communications
3. Closing Collections Actions in Siebel Communications