We at RPM Telco have noticed the large amount of work supplier mergers/acquisitions and general account number changes can cause. This article will highlight the many scenarios as we have run into and our best practices on how to deal with them. There can be small details that make some of the scenarios listed here a little different than described, if you have any questions related to them please reach out to [email protected] for clarification as account merges are permanent.
As we develop new features for the RPM Telco platform, we may create better ways to manage these scenarios, if so, we will be updating all our users through our mailing list. If you have not yet joined and would like to keep up to date on all of our updates and best practice webinars please click here.
Scenarios
Supplier Acquisitions - Two or More Suppliers Already Existing in Your RPM
When one or more existing suppliers are acquired by another supplier (will be referred to as a technology service distributer (TSD) supplier for context of this scenario).If a supplier acquires another supplier, they may consolidate their commission reports into one report over time. This can pose a problem if in your RPM you have them setup as separate suppliers due to them providing two different spreadsheets before the acquisition. If the supplier consolidates their acquired supplier into their own company, you will run into a situation where you will no longer need the previous supplier you setup in your RPM.
Currently there is no way to merge suppliers or accounts across different suppliers in RPM. The best way to deal for now is to just move forward with importing the commission data as you get it from the suppliers. If the acquired suppliers' commission statements are still coming over as they were before no need to do anything yet. If the acquired suppliers' commission statements are combined are rolling up under the TSD supplier now, then you will need to import the commissions as you get them and deal with the new assignment code warnings.
It is unavoidable to have duplicate accounts and account history to be split out in this scenario, but you can save yourself from having to re-assign the accounts or assignment codes.
Refer to the general assignment code video guide on how to quickly assign your accounts to your agents based on your old assignments.
Supplier Acquisitions - One Supplier Already Existing in Your RPM
When one of your existing suppliers is acquired by another supplier (will be referred to as a TSD supplier for context of this scenario).If you have an existing supplier in your RPM Subscription that is now being acquired by another there may be some changes to the way you get commissions and with the billing account numbers. You will need to know for sure how the merge will change the way you are receiving commissions.
If nothing changes other than the supplier having their name changed, you can change the supplier's name in your RPM to match the new naming scheme (E.G New Supplier Name (Previously Old Supplier Name) or just New Supplier Name). Historically all your commission items that appear under the supplier will just appear under the new supplier's name.
If the account numbers changed then you will need to merge the account numbers. There are two ways you can choose to do this currently, the options being to keep the new account numbers or to keep the old ones.
Merge Accounts (Keeping New Accounts)
Keeping the new accounts is more work upfront as it requires you to use our account merge tool to combine the old accounts with the new account numbers. This will allow you to combine the history of the old accounts into the new ones and it will also take care of any references (Orders, Commission Inq, etc.) as well.
Accounts Alias Import (Keeping Old Accounts)
Keeping the old account numbers is the much faster way to manage account history merge. Since you can do an account import to associate the new accounts as aliases under the old account numbers.