Telecommunications

Telecom Billing Problems

In the interest of brevity while still providing additional details re how we arrived at this situation and how we will recover, general references are used in this document.  If any individual requires an in-depth explanation, please contact Telecommunications at Telecom@utdallas.edu, and we’ll be glad to address your specific situation.

As some of you are aware, our billing system administrator suddenly resigned last Oct.  No documentation was left for anyone as to how to manage or operate the system.  We did have some personnel with cross-training, but those staff members were not fully trained on the everyday operating details of the system.

In an effort to provide a minimal level of customer service during the search for a replacement administrator, various staff began operating parts of the billing system.  However, because their knowledge was either incomplete or imperfect, mistakes in data entry were made.

A new administrator was hired and began work in late March.  In an effort to make some corrections, Telecom contacted the billing system software vendor for support.  The vendor instructed staff to make changes in certain billing parameters which corrected some small earlier errors, but resulted in double billing for some services last month.

Compounding that error, some subaccount numbers were dropped from some customers, resulting in all Telecom charges going into a single subaccount, rather than distributed across several as they should have been.  The result is some subaccounts are showing insufficient funds.

The good news is that all of these problems are correctable, and now we know how to go about that process without creating additional unintended consequences.  As stated in the covering staff e-mail, most of the corrections in FINS will be seen this month.  The balance will be corrected before the end of the FY, so that accounts can have full reconciliation.

There are a few individual situations that will also receive attention, but those will be dealt with on an individual basis.  As always, thank you for your patience while we work through these issues and continue our training regimen in fast-forward mode.