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Table of Contents

• Project

1. What is TNSConnect?
2. What functionality will TNSConnect provide?

3. Will the NAMS (Name Address Management System) be replaced by this system?

4. Will this affect hardware – will we need to purchase new equipment?

5. Will this affect our phone devices?

6. Why can’t this be added to workflow now?

7. Can TNSConnect workflow notification be adjusted per department?

8. Can there be more than one department liaison?

9. How many people from a department can attend training?

10. Will you create a customer portal?

11. Will calling cards be affected by the new system?

12. Is there a way to verify and review departmental contact information and how do we update that information?

13. What is the next step?

14. How did you match a phone extension with a person’s name?

15. Will there be multiple names listed for people that share the same phone extension?

16. Will the requisitions be segmented by job numbers in the new system?

17. How do departments handle long distance detail verification?

18. What about phones in the hospital?

19. Do you have to log out?

20. How are user names associated with Directory numbers?  How will they be kept up-to-date?

21. The ITS Help Desk has a lot of phones and want to tie the person to the phone they're at. How do we do that?

• Billing

1. Is it possible to make the authorizations at org level?

2. Does the system allow for multiple funding sources to be set up?

3. If we review bills and there are some items that are not billed to the correct MFK, does this link to the General Ledger (GL) so that they may be corrected online?

4. Can there be more than one billing contact?

5. Will the work order number be on the GL voucher field?

6. Who do we submit changes to?

7. How will the TNSConnect system help me to do CV's every month?

• Service Requests & Work Orders

1. Will it be easier for electronic request of service ordering than it currently is now?
2. Is this just for new business orders or is it for all services?

3. When services are requested will the description of work completed be more defined?

4. Why do we get two signatures on orders?

5. How do we know that the appropriate services are being ordered if each requisition does not require approval?

6. Are you saying the Internal Auditors have approved having only one signature on the requisition?

7. Why do we need to submit a blanket blue requisition?

8. Do you need to indicate on the blanket blue requisition who the billing coordinator and department liaison’s are?

9. Can we have a back-up name on the blanket blue requisition?

10. Do the two signatures on the blanket blue requisition mean they are the signing person authorized to submit service requests?

11. Once the blanket blue requisition has been submitted will another requisition have to be submitted when the customer portal is up and running?

12. After a blanket blue requisition has been sent to TNS how does the departmental  liaison know if someone else has sent in a blue requisition?

13. When do you have to do a blue requisition as opposed to calling the helpdesk?

14. If TNS creates an on line web form now for service requests, will it change the timeline when the work order will be scheduled?

15. Will the work order number appear on the report?

16. Is it possible on the web based report to link it back to a work order for more detail?

• Reports

1. Are we getting away from paper altogether?

2. Will we be able to see name and location of services for users?

3. Will you be able to see international country and city codes dialed by users and how many calls to a certain country for a given year?
4. What format will be used for the departmental service verification?

5. What type of billing reports or files will be provided?

6. When will we start getting TNSConnect invoices with the new system?

7. Can you provide delivery of reports to a department delegate?

8. Can the long distance call detail report have a signature and date lines added?

9. How will the Long Distance Call Detail reports be sorted?

10. What is the length of time you will keep reports available on the system?

11. Will billing coordinators be notified when billing reports are ready?

12. Will long distance charges show by Auth Code?

13. How will we relate the new TNSConnect reports with the G/L reports we currently receive?

14. Would it be possible to put the Call Detail Starting Date in the title?

Project

1. What is TNSConnect?

   • The ITS/TNS Facilities Management System (FMS), branded TNSConnect, is a software package/database application that is the foundation of the TNS information architecture which tracks voice, video and data equipment and infrastructure, billing data, work orders and trouble tickets.

2. What functionality will TNSConnect provide?

   • Customer Requests

     • Work Orders

     • Trouble Tickets

     • Reporting

   • Customer Tracking

     • Building, floor, room and jack location

     • Equipment services (telephone, voicemail, data connections)

     • Billing/Costs (monthly charges, purchases, one time charges)

     • Port-to-jack mappings

     • Component (data gear) tracking

     • Warehouse inventory (including asset management)

     • Phone number, IP address, and subnet tracking

     • Cable plant management

   • Other Features

     • Costing/Billing

     • Time Accounting

     • Business process workflow

     • Customer portal (Phase 2)

     • And more!

3. Will the NAMS (Name Address Management System) be replaced by this system?   

   • No.

4. Will this affect hardware – will we need to purchase new equipment?

   • No, unless you are running a very old computer or operating system.

5. Will this affect our phone devices?

   • No but there is a separate project going on that will replace all Single-Line (analog) phones on campus.

6. Why can’t this be added to workflow now?

   • Workflow is not accepting any new applications at this time

7. Can TNSConnect workflow notification be adjusted per department?

   • No. We need to build a consensus of the advisory group regarding email notification.

8. Can there be more than one departmental liaison?

   • Yes

   • Each departmental liaison will have access to all services in their department.

9. How many people from a department can attend training?

   • There is no limit but we would need to know the number of individuals to ensure the room is large enough.

10. Will you create a customer portal?

    • Yes.

    • In Phase II of the project TNS and the departmental liaison advisory group will design the customer portal which will facilitate on line work orders, service information requests and report generation.

    • The customer portal will require authorization using your Hawk ID.

11. Will calling cards be affected by the new system?

    • Calling cards will be managed and billed using TNSConnect. This should be a transparent change to the users.  

    • There are  ongoing discussions regarding UI provided calling cards through the ICN versus departmental purchase of prepaid calling cards at a much reduced per minute rate.

12. Is there a way to verify and review departmental contact information and how do we update that information?

    • Yes. See http://www.its.uiowa.edu/tns/tnsconnect/680 departmentalcontactslist.pdf to verify departmental contact information.

    • If departmental liaisons or billing coordinators change you will need to fill another departmental contact information form at http://www.its.uiowa.edu/tns/tnsconnect/contacts/.

13. What is the next step?

    • See project time frame.

14. How did you match a phone extension with a person’s name?

    • Active Directory was used to find a unique match of Hawk ID and telephone extension number.  If there was more than one Hawk ID with the same telephone extension number then the department number was used for that extension number.

15. Will there be multiple names listed for people that share the same phone extension?

    • No.

    • It is possible to list a name instead of a department number for a given extension if provided to TNS.

16. Will the requisitions be segmented by job numbers in the new system?

    • Yes, if departments identify the customer number in the blue requisition

17. How do departments handle long distance detail verification?

    • Handling of signature responsibilities for long distance charges will be up to each department.

18. What about phones in the hospital?

    • There are a number of phones in the hospital that are in Public Health and are managed by the hospital switch. These will remain in the hospital system. The hospital is working on implementing the same system that we are.

19. Do you have to log out?

    • Just X out - you don't have to log out.

20. How are user names associated with Directory numbers? How will they be kept up-to-date?

    • Populated names on extentions are pulled from the Active Directory. The phone number is pulled down and if we find a unique match, we are able to get the name. If several staff are using the same phone number, we can not put a name with the number, and the departmental user id will be used instead. User name to directory number will be updated periodically by an automated process using the same matching criteria as the initial data load. Billing Coordinators and Departmental Liaisons may submit requests for name assignments after the system goes live.

21. The ITS Help Desk has a lot of phones and want to tie the person to the phone they're at. How do we do that?

    • TNSConnect will be able to do this. Billing Coordinators and/or Departmental Liaisons must provide the information to TNS Customer Service.

Billing

1. Is it possible to make the authorizations at org level?

   • We want to meet your needs and plan to be as flexible as possible.
   • It is possible that there will be one liaison for all these areas.
   • The authorizations will be set to meet the needs of each department. Some will be the organization or department as a whole, others will be broken down as needed.
2. Does the system allow for multiple funding sources to be set up?
   • Yes.
   • The new system allows for billing to be split across multiple MFKs for recurring and non-recurring charges by percentages.

3. If we review bills and there are some items that are not billed to the correct MFK, does this link to the General Ledger (GL) so that they may be corrected online?

   • No, the system isn’t linked.
   • You may go online and correct the GL; however, the correction will not show up in our records. Optimally, we would like departments to contact TNS so that we can make manual adjustments to the billing.

4. Can there be more than one billing contact?

   • Yes

5. Will the work order number be on the GL voucher field?
   • The TNSConnect Work Order Number will be on the G/L entry, space permitting.
   • TNSConnect will also provide reports that will facilitate matching G/L entries with work orders.
   • This is also a planned discussion and decision with the advisory groups.
6. Who do we submit changes to?
   • There is an e-mail address on the web site - we are asking that you send them to that e-mail.
7. How will the TNSConnect system help me to do CV's every month?
   • When a user is working with multiple grants and is using auth codes, the billing coordinator is required to CV amounts to each grant monthly. There is no way to separate long distance except the way you are doing now. It may be possible to give them five different auth codes to separate.

Service Requests & Work Orders

1. Will it be easier for electronic request of service ordering than it currently is now?
   • The electronic work orders will assist the user with lookups and drop down list for selection data.
2. Is this just for new business orders or is it for all services?
   • This system will replace legacy systems – all records are being imported to the new system.
   • Once all data is imported, we want to send out information to departments to verify that we have the correct information.

3. When services are requested will the description of work completed be more defined?

   • Yes. The work order number, MFK and requisition number will be tracked all the way through the process of service delivery. Work order item numbers are used to define separate items on the work order. Work order items can be closed and billed individually.
   • When work order is initiated on TNSConnect an email will be sent to the customer with the work order number and details.
   • The invoice transaction will carry work order number and work order item number so more information can be printed on the invoice.

4. Why do we get two signatures on orders?

   • The blanket blue requisition allows the authorized person to make purchases for the department.
   • If a department does not want to do a blanket order, blue requisitions may still be done.

5. How do we know that the appropriate services are being ordered if each requisition does not require approval?

   • If a department is comfortable with the blanket order, we will have a way to set a limit. We could establish a certain dollar amount not to be exceeded without authorization from the department billing coordinator.

6. Are you saying the Internal Auditors have approved having only one signature on the blanket blue requisition?

   • The blanket order covers the signatures for all orders processed under that blanket order.
   • Two signatures applies for external orders (off campus supplier), internal orders (on campus supplier) are processed with one signature. If the department is not comfortable with that process, then they may continue to submit blue requisitions.
   • You will need to follow the departments procedures for requisition signatures. Some departments require one end user approval where other departments require both, the end user approval and departmental approval signatures.
   • We will be forming smaller focus groups to address some of these issues.

7. Why do we need to submit a blanket blue requisition?

   • The blanket blue requisition will be necessary to use the customer portal.

   • You will need to do a blanket blue requisition listing each department you are responsible for and departmental MFK. You may use the e-forms requisition and MFK addendum at http://forms.uiowa.edu

   • The blanket blue requisition requires the departmental approval signature. See Sample.

8. Do you need to indicate on the blanket blue requisition who the billing coordinator and department liaison’s are?

   • The billing coordinator has already been identified and unless this changes we do not need to be notified.

   • The departmental liaisons should be identified as well as their Hawk ID on the blanket blue requisition. Paper blue requisitions sent after that only requires the departmental liaison signature.

9. Can we have a back-up name on the blanket blue requisition?

   • Yes.

10. Does the signature on the blanket blue requisition mean they are the signing person authorized to submit service requests?

    •  No. The signature indicate approval for the named individuals as departmental liaisons to initiate service requests and bill against their departmental MFK.

    • Once this has been done future blue requisitions will only require the departmental liaison signature.

11. Once the blanket blue requisition has been submitted will another requisition have to be submitted when the customer portal is up and running?

    • No.

12. After a blanket blue requisition has been sent to TNS, how does the departmental  liaison know if someone else has sent in a blue requisition?

    • If a blue requisition comes in after the blanket blue requisition has been submitted, the departmental liaison signature must be on it.

    • Signatures will become unnecessary when the customer portal is up and running due to authentication using Hawk ID.

13. When do you have to do a blue requisition as opposed to calling the helpdesk?

    • The helpdesk phone line 335-2949, is used for calling in trouble reports or you can submit a trouble report at http://www.its.uiowa.edu/tns/Request/voicerepair.htm .

    • Anyone can submit a trouble report.

    • A blanket blue requisition is required for billable repairs and service orders.

14. If TNS creates an online web form now for service requests, will it change the timeline when the work order will be scheduled?

    • No.

    • The decision was made by consensus with the attendees at the 2/27/2007 open forum not to bother with creating a web form for the interim but to wait for the customer portal.

15. Will the work order number appear on the report?

    • Yes

16. Is it possible on the web based report to link it back to a work order for more detail?

    • It might be possible.

    • This will be investigated in Phase II.

Reports

1. Are we getting away from paper altogether?
   • Legally, we have to keep records archived for the appropriate period, and not all records will be kept online. However, we will keep billing records for the previous 6 months to one year online for customers to refer back to.

2. Will we be able to see name and location of services for users?

   • Service location and inventory reports will be available, broken down by each user.
3. Will you be able to see international country and city codes dialed by users and how many calls to a certain country for a given year?
   • Currently only the country dialed is printed on the invoice.
4. What format will be used for the departmental service verification?
   • Excel.

5. What type of billing reports or files will be provided?

   • There will be 3 basic reports:

     1. Invoice Call Detail by MFK

     2. Invoice Summary by MFK

     3. Invoice Summary ONLY by MFK

   • Billing information will be provided as formatted reports which will be retrieved from TNSConnect via a web page. These reports can be printed or saved as a PDF on the local system.

   • A second format of the billing information is specifically formatted to be exported to Excel. These reports contain the same information as the formatted reports but without headings and totals. These reports will also be retrieved from TNSConnect via a web page and may be saved locally as an Excel file.

6. When will we start getting TNSConnect invoices with the new system?

   • The current plan is to run the first billing invoices in the January 1, 2008 timeframe.

7. Can you provide delivery of reports to a department delegate?

   • Yes.

   • The delegate and related MFK responsibility information will be needed to set this up in TNSConnect.

8. Can the long distance call detail report have a signature and date lines added?

   • Yes.

9. How will the Long Distance Call Detail reports be sorted?

   • Organization, Department, User Id, Date/Time of Call and User Number

10. What is the length of time you will keep reports available on the system?

    • TNS will keep a minimum of 12 months on the system but will keep past years archivals’ in data storage.

    • Departments are required to keep 3 years of long distance call detail in hard copy form.

11. Will billing coordinators be notified when billing reports are ready?

    • Yes, an e-mail will be sent with a link to the site along with any message(s)/updates regarding the system.

12. Will long distance charges show by Auth Code?

    • They will show a limited number of digits and can be sorted based on number type.

13. How will we relate the new TNSConnect reports with the G/L reports we currently receive?

    • The TNS general ledger entries will be generated by TNSConnect so your monthly GL statements will match TNSConnect reports. The billing periods generally the 20th-23rd of the month.

14. Would it be possible to put the Call Detail Starting Date in the title?

    • Yes. On the menu we will modify the report name, possibly to "Call Detail for (month)."