ISP Ordering/Provisioning options

[pjulian]

Hi, we have been trialing WHMCS for a couple of months now using the month to month license but we are really struggling to try and get it to do what we want for order provisioning and tracking etc.

 

We have a small ISP business where we provide wireless, ethernet, DSL, etc, not much web hosting, more communication services.

 

When we get an order from a customer we want to enter it into a system from the paper based or emailed application form. Then we need to place an order with our carrier and add an order reference into our system so that we can track the order and update ETA's etc. Once the service has been provisioned by our carrier then there may be things we need to configure, for example radius setup, IP allocation, equipment configuration, etc, so we need to then update the order for those things. Once they are all done we then need to organise installation with the customer and book a time, then do the install and test the service if required, then the order will be deemed as complete, and it should then generate a recurring invoice into the billing system by using the data already in the order about contract length, customer, services, pricing, etc etc.

 

I'm not sure if this is too much to expect, but really it's just a lifecycle of a typical order for an ISP I would have thought.

 

We have tried using the order function of WHMCS with custom status's and custom fields to hold all of the information we need but when we have to repeat so many things for each product it is looking very difficult, plus we want to be able to email the customer to advise them of progress at most stages of the order lifecycle, but the order system provides limited features for template based emails using custom fields with a mix of data from differing areas required, and once you have created an order you can't even add another product or service to it which we find quite strange.

 

Perhaps we aren't doing something right, or perhaps we are expecting too much, but I would appreciate any advice or suggestions on how we could achieve this result, and preferably with WHMCS and without spending thousands of dollars developing something, which frankly I could probably build myself.

 

Regards

Paul