E-rate EPC Portal – Did You Receive Your Log-In E-mail Yet?
July 17, 2015
~ Series of EPC-Related E-mails Coming ~
USAC is just completing the initial roll-out of its new online E-rate portal system, the “Erate Productivity Center” or EPIC for short. By now, USAC sent emails to most applicants, service providers, and consultants, urging them to login to establish their accounts. As I mentioned in my initial EPIC announcement on June 26 (http://e-ratepa.org/?p=8131), the EPIC portal will soon be used for all electronic E-rate news, contacts, and application filings (starting with the FY 2016 Form 470). After you have established your account, there are several tasks that must be performed within the system,but before we get to those steps, I want to first make sure that all PA applicants’ Account Administrators have received their initial log-in EPIC e-mails.
USAC sent the initial EPIC login email to theindividual who signed the FY 2015 Form 471 for your Billed Entity (not the contact person) — hereby known as the Account Administrator. The USAC e-mail would have come from EPC.Application.Administrator@usac.org with the subject line: “USAC EPC – Account Creation.” Only the person sent the invitational email – the Account Administrator – can set up the Billed Entity’s account. Once the account is established, the AA can turn over AA rights to another individual, and/or add additional users with different types of permissions (more on that in subsequent messages).
If you did not receive your initial EPIC login email, it is likely for one of these reasons:
· If the e-mail address of the person who signed the FY 2015 Form 471 was generic and not assigned to a specific person at a specific entity. For example, ‘director@berkslibrary.org’ is not assigned to a person, and would not have received an e-mail. Why? Because the new EPIC Portal Account Administrator’s accountmust be assigned to an actual person.
· If an Account Administrator is associated with two or more applicant accounts, different email addresses must be used for each account.
· If an IU receives E-rate services for itselfand acts as a consortium lead, they will be required to have two different billed entity numbers (BENs), each linked to a different EPIC portal account (meaning two different e-mail addresses).
· If a person has signed multiple BENs Form 471s (such as a library system employee or Diocesan employee) and used the same e-mail address for each BEN, they would have received only one EPIC login invitation to set up an account.
What should you do if you didn’t receive your initial EPIC login e-mail or can’t find it? Call the USAC Client Services Bureau at 888-203-8100 (press 0 to reach a representative) and explain that you need to establish your EPIC account. They will walk you through the steps to have an account created in the EPIC system, and have your initial login e-mail sent (or resent). In some cases, you will have to establish an alternative e-mail address (can be ‘aprilsmith@gmail.com’ but can’t be ‘mohawksd@gmail.com’) to set up your BEN’s account before you call CSB.
What’s Next? In a few days, I’ll send the next EPIC-related message that will focus on creating your initial passwords/accounts. After that, we will focus on creating additional users and types of permissions for each of those users, assigning consultants to your account (if applicable), and ensuring that the entities associated with your BEN are all listed correctly in the portal.
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at jtschell@comcast.net.
– Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
PA E-rate Coordinator
717-730-7133 – o
717-730-9060 – f
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
penn*link