New connections: coverage, RICA and signed agreement
How the Telecom pack takes a South African new connection from coverage check and RICA documents to a signed agreement and an installation job.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Telecoms businesses in South Africa
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
A new subscriber is the best kind of call an internet or mobile provider gets, and also the one most likely to go wrong in the first week. Sales promises a connection before anyone has checked coverage. The SIM goes out before the RICA documents are in. The installer arrives at a house where nobody has signed anything, and the first invoice goes to a subscriber who later says they never agreed to a two-year term.
None of these are hard to prevent. They come from doing the right steps in the wrong order, or skipping one when the office is busy.
The Telecommunications pack in Achekam's Industry CRM runs a South African new connection as one workflow, in order. This article walks through each step and what the pack leaves to your team.
The new connection, step by step
The Telecom pack is built for internet, voice or mobile providers and resellers. It keeps service subscriptions, support tickets, and installation jobs with the equipment installed. For a new connection, its workflow:
- checks coverage
- requests identity and address documents, with RICA documents for SIM cards
- has the service agreement signed electronically
- opens an installation job
In the Industry CRM, a workflow step can send the customer a request for documents or a document to sign electronically, and the customer's answer moves the task on. The subscriber's own response is what moves the connection forward, not a salesperson's note that "they said they'd send it".
Checking coverage first
Coverage comes first for a simple reason: everything after it is wasted if the address cannot be served.
The pack provisions nothing on a network and is connected to no network, so the coverage check is done by your staff, using the tools your network operator or wholesaler gives you; the workflow step makes sure it happens before anything else. Note what was checked, against which operator's coverage, and the result. A note that says "covered" is less useful three weeks later than one that says which operator's map was checked, for which address, on which day.
If coverage is marginal, say so to the customer now. A subscriber told honestly that their area is on the edge is far easier to deal with than one who discovers it after signing.
Identity, address and RICA documents
Once coverage is confirmed, the workflow requests the customer's identity and address documents, and for SIM cards, the documents RICA requires. The request goes to the customer in writing, and it is the customer's answer that moves the task on, rather than documents arriving in a salesperson's WhatsApp.
Your obligations under RICA, and exactly what must be collected and verified before a SIM is activated, are for your compliance officer to set out. The starting point is the text of the RICA Act, including section 40, which sets the duty on mobile service providers to obtain and keep customer information before activating a SIM card. The pack asks for the documents and tracks whether they arrived. A person checks them.
Practical habits:
- Check the name on the identity document against the name on the order before anything else.
- Check that the address document matches the installation address.
- Do not hand over or activate a SIM until the documents are in and checked.
The service agreement, signed electronically
Next, the workflow has the service agreement signed electronically. Achekam's e-signing places signature and initials fields, sends to signers in order or all at once, sets an expiry and reminders, and files the signed PDF and a completion certificate back into Documents. These are simple electronic signatures; the certificate cites section 13 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and says they are not advanced electronic signatures.
A signer from outside the business must be linked to a client or a CRM lead before an envelope is sent. For a business customer, check who has authority to sign before you send.
The signed agreement is what answers "I never agreed to that term" later. It belongs before the installation, not after.
Opening the installation job
With the agreement signed, the workflow opens an installation job. Because the workflow opens the job only after the signature, the normal path never books an installation for someone with no contract in place. Book the installation date with the customer as soon as the job opens, while they are still keen, and confirm which equipment the installer needs to take. That job is where the operator's order number, the equipment serial numbers and the customer's sign-off are recorded; installation jobs: order numbers, serials and sign-off covers it in detail.
Starter wording to review
Every contract or agreement in the industry packs is marked as starter wording that the business must review before use. The service agreement is no exception. Your existing terms on contract length, cancellation, fair use, equipment ownership and outage credits are specific to your business and your suppliers, and the starter wording cannot know them.
Before the first new connection runs through the pack, have your attorney compare the starter agreement with your current one and settle a version.
What the pack does not do
The pack runs no credit check. If you check a customer's credit before connecting them, that stays a separate step, done the way you do it now. And because the pack provisions nothing on any network, activating the service with the operator is still done in the operator's own system. Statuses in the pack are recorded by your staff.
Your first connection through the pack
Settle the agreement wording, agree who checks coverage and documents, and run the next new subscriber through the workflow from first call to installation job. For what happens when that subscriber later has a fault, see support tickets escalated against an SLA.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
