External Party Communication

What is an External Party?

An External Party user is a vendor or provider contact (i.e., Other Party Contact) that your organization has granted limited access to parts of specific workflows, allowing the External Party user to participate in redlining, communicate securely, and upload signed documents.

Who can do this?

• Admins and Phase Managers can invite an Other Party Contact to become an External Party user.

• Only Other Party Contacts can become External Party users.

Additional Considerations

• The External Party role is available for Other Party Contacts within a workflow.

• An External Party user can be added as a participant in the following phases:

  • In a Form Phase as a Reviewer

  • In a Negotiation Phase as a Reviewer

  • In a Signature Phase as a Signatory

• External Party users have a limited view of the workflow.

• The External Party role spans all Locations and Contract Types within an Organization. For customers with multiple organizations, when an Other Party Contact is invited to become an External Party user, that invitation applies to all organizations. 

• If a user is assigned the External Party role, then that will be the only role that user can have. 

  • Giving a user with other existing roles the role of External Party removes all other roles and permissions for that user.
    Doing so prompts the following warning: 
    Warning! Giving this user the External Party role will remove all other roles and permissions. This can not be undone.

  • Adding another role to a user with the External Party role will remove the External Party role.
    Doing so prompts the following warning:
    Warning! Adding a role to this user will remove the External Party role, fundamentally changing the access rights and screen views available to this individual.

UI Limitations

To protect sensitive information, several UI elements are restricted from users with the External Party role.

External Party users cannot see:

• Any top navigation other than Queue > Worklist, Explore > Contracts, the Org switcher, and the bell (in-app) notifications

• The search bar

• The Initiate New Workflow button

• Account Settings

External Party users see a limited version of the worklist table, which will only show workflows in which they have been added as a participant.

• External Party users will only see the following columns: Days Active | Workflow Name | Status

• They will be unable to add additional columns.

• They will only be able to filter the three aforementioned columns.

External Party users see a limited version of the contracts table, which will only show contracts on which they are listed as an Other Party Contact.

• In the contracts table, External Party users can only see the following columns: Contract Name | Status | Expiration Date | Activated Date

• They cannot add additional columns.

• They can only filter the four aforementioned columns.

External Party users see a limited version of the contract summary page for contracts on which they are an Other Party Contact.

External Parties can see:

• The Contract Name

• The Contract Expiration Date

• The current version of the contract (no access to previous snapshots)

• Comments accordion 

• Signatories accordion

• Documents and attachments that they have been granted permissions to see

User Lists

External Party users are excluded from the following user lists:

• Modals for adding and editing user groups

• Critical Date notification list

• Scheduled Report recipients

• Add Participant triggers

Comment Feature

External Party users can use the comment feature to communicate with relevant system users.

• Unlike regular system users, External Party users won’t see a list of participants and Admins when they type “@” to tag a user in a comment. To tag a user, the External Party user must type “@” followed by the user's email address.

• Workflow participants can tag External Party participants in comments.

  • The External Party participant will receive an in-app (bell) notification of the comment.

  • The External Party participant can only see comments in which they have been tagged, regardless of whether they're part of a thread.

  • Threads will be preserved and organized for External Parties just as they are for regular users.

  • If a top level comment is inaccessible to them, they will see the following text: This comment is unavailable in its place.

Out with External Party Column in the Worklist

The Out with External Party column allows users to quickly filter for workflows that are awaiting action by an External Party.

• The column is not displayed by default, but it can be added via the Filter Table and Manage Columns widgets.

• For workflows currently out with an External Party, the value is Yes. For all other workflows, the value is No.

Workflow Attachments

Internal users determine whether attachments they add to a workflow are visible to External Party users.

• By default, attachments are not visible to External Party users.

• To make an attachment visible to External Party users, check the Visible to External Party Users box.

• To make a confidential attachment visible to External Party users, check the Mark as Confidential and Visible to External Party Users boxes, then select the Allowed External Viewers.
  (Allowed External Viewers appears as a required field when both the aforementioned boxes are checked.)

• For an External Party to add a confidential attachment, they are required to select at least one user in the Allowed Internal Viewers field.

The rules regarding External Party users that apply to workflow attachments also apply to contract detail attachments.

• External Party users can only see those attachments marked as visible to them.

• The confidential attachment feature is available for both internal users and External Party users

• Rules regarding required fields is based on the role of the user doing the uploading.

Inviting an Other Party Contact to become an External Party User

During a Form, Negotiation, or Signature Phase, when adding one or more Other Party Contacts, the Admin or Phase Manager can invite them to become users.

• Before an External Party can be added and sequenced as a participant, an Admin or Phase Owner needs to select them as an Other Party Contact within the workflow.

• The Other Party Contact list is populated by the Other Party Contacts listed in the Vendor or Provider profile. If you don’t see the contact you need, check the Vendor or Provider profile to make sure they’re there.

• The Admin or Phase Manager can click the Invite icon to invite the Other Party Contact to become a user. 

  • An Other Party Contact in a workflow who is already a user has a User icon (person's head and shoulders) next to their name.

  • An Other Party Contact in a workflow who is not already a user has an Invite icon (envelope) next to their name.

• Once invited, these Other Party Contacts will receive an automated email from symplr, and they will be available as participants and can be sequenced.

• The acting role of the External Party participant is listed in the Participant Info accordion.

  • In the Form and Negotiation Phases, any External Party participants are listed under Participant Info as External Party (as Reviewer).

  • In the Signature Phase, any External Party participants are listed under Participant Info as External Party (as Signatory).

Removing an Other Party Contact or External Party User

• Removing an Other Party Contact from the workflow phase removes the user as an available participant.

• Removing an Other Party Contact from the workflow phase removes the user from Participant Info and deletes any sequenced actions that have not already been completed. However, completed actions are be recorded. (This mirrors the application's handling of regular users as workflow participants.)
  For example, an External Party user is added as an Other Party Contact in a Negotiation Phase, then added as a participant to that phase and sequenced three times. He completes his first action, a review. The Phase Owner then deletes him as an Other Party Contact. He will be removed as a participant, and his remaining two sequenced actions will be deleted. However, the External Party's completed review will remain. 

• Removing an External Party user from Participant Info does not remove the user as an Other Party Contact.

UI Elements and Alerts

When the Admin or Phase Manager clicks the Invite icon for an Other Party Contact, they'll see the following in the confirmation popup:

Other Party Contacts registered as users will be able to:

• Be added and sequenced as Reviewers in Form and Negotiation Phases

• Be added and sequenced as Signatories in Signature Phases

• Communicate via comments in any phase in which they are added as participants

• Access selected attachments in any phase in which they are added as participants

• Access executed contract documents and selected attachments on contracts for which they are listed as an Other Party Contact

Do you wish to proceed?

When adding an Other Party Contact, the following information displays as hover text when the user hovers over the info icon:

Other Party Contacts registered as users will be able to:

• Be added and sequenced as Reviewers in Form and Negotiation Phases

• Be added and sequenced as Signatories in Signature Phases

• Communicate via comments in any phase in which they are added as participants

• Access selected attachments in any phase in which they are added as participants

Access executed contract documents and selected attachments on contracts for which they are listed as an Other Party Contact

When an internal user is performing an action in a workflow that will result in allowing an External Party user gaining access to the in-app document editor, the internal user will see the following warning:

External Party User Document Editor Access

Alert: An External Party user is the next sequenced user in this phase. The External Party user will be able to edit documents.

Please click Cancel and alert the Phase Owner or an Admin if you are unclear as to how to proceed.

• If there are documents with unresolved markup, the warning will address those as well.

• The warning will never display to External Party users.

• Workflow actions taken by internal users that could prompt this warning include:

• A Reviewer or Approver submitting their review or approval

• A Phase Owner or Admin clicking Start Phase

• A Phase Owner or Admin skipping a current Active participant

• A Phase Owner or Admin sequencing an External Party user after the phase has started