Navigate opportunity workflows in Inpart Deal

Inpart Deal allows you to speed up your decision-making process by following a configurable workflow through which the opportunities can be tracked and evaluated by Search and Evaluation and Business Development teams.

To configure the opportunity workflow, see Manage opportunity workflow configurations.

Overview

Plan availability: Essential/Advanced
Required user role: Manager

The standard opportunity workflow is based on two parameters working together: the stage and the status.

Disclaimer: The names of the stages and statuses in this article reflect the default names offered by Inpart Deal. As workflows can be customized according to your company's preferences, the names of the stages and statuses displayed in your personal instance might be different. However, the behavior patterns are the same.

Opportunity type

Workflows are associated with a deal type (also called opportunity type): in-licensing, out-licensing, research collaboration, acquisition, investment, etc. Each type will require different activities and tasks to be completed.

The opportunity type can be:

• Defined during the opportunity creation.
• Defined at the third stage of the workflow if it was not selected during the opportunity creation.
• Modified at any stage of the workflow by going back to the second stage.

Opportunity stage

The stage of the opportunity reflects the phase of the project.

The number and the names of the stages are configured with the help of Inpart when your company starts using Inpart Deal.

Your company can configure several workflows to fit different opportunity types: in-licensing, out-licensing, research collaboration, acquisition, investment, etc...

However, all your workflows share a common structure:

• A first stage, the identification stage.
• A second stage, the triage stage.
• After the second stage, a succession of custom stages is specifically configured to fit your company's process.
• A closing stage.

Opportunity status

The status of the opportunity reflects the state of the project. 

The names of the statuses are configured with the help of Inpart when your company starts using Inpart Deal. By default, all opportunities have four statuses available (these are the default names, they may vary depending on what your company configured, except for Active which isn't customizable):

• Active: An opportunity is set as Active when you and your team are currently evaluating it. 
• On-hold: You can use the On-hold status to pause an opportunity that is too early or lacks information to be properly considered.
• Declined: You can decline an opportunity when you have determined that it's of no interest to your company.
• Closed: An opportunity with a Closed status means you've reached a positive conclusion for this opportunity. You can rename this status (e.g., Signed) to fit your organization's terminology. To do so, please contact your CSM at Inpart.

The opportunity stage and status are visible in the list of all opportunities or within each opportunity's page, materialized by a workflow ribbon.

Opportunity list:

Opportunity page:

Change the opportunity stages

You can see the date of transition between stages under each stage name in the workflow ribbon. 

The opportunity owner can update these dates to reflect the reality of the work done by you and your team.

First stage - Identification

In the first stage (called Identification by default), you identify and create drafts for potential new opportunities. You can provide initial non-confidential information, review high-level information, and perform a quick assessment.

By default, all newly created opportunities are set to start in the first stage. You can't create an opportunity and directly set it to a stage further down in the workflow.

In the first stage, the opportunity status can either be Active or Declined. Select Declined to filter out and decline opportunities that don't fit your company's strategy. 

A confirmation message will pop up. Here, you need to provide a reason to decline the opportunity, then click Confirm. 

Second stage - Triage

The second stage corresponds to a triage step (called Triage by default) when you begin your research and determine how to proceed with the opportunity's evaluation. You can add additional non-confidential documents, e.g., a company presentation, some data, or meeting notes. This stage typically involves a few experts with whom you regularly collaborate.

Warning: Once you move the opportunity to the second stage (Triage), you won't be able to move back to the first stage (Identification), so make sure the opportunity is fully ready to be moved to this triage stage.

To move an opportunity to this stage, click the Triage stage on the workflow ribbon. A confirmation message will pop up, click Move.

In this triage stage, the opportunity status can either be set to Active, On-Hold, or Declined. You can: 

• Change an Active opportunity to On-Hold or Declined.
• Change an On-Hold opportunity to Active or Declined.
• Change a Declined opportunity to Active. To move a Declined opportunity back to On-Hold, you must first move it to Active and then to On-Hold. 

Third stage - Choose your opportunity type (optional)

If you haven't selected the opportunity type (i.e. workflow type) when creating the opportunity, reaching the third stage, you'll be asked to choose it.

Click To be defined in the workflow ribbon, a pop-up will appear. In this pop-up, you can see the list of stages that will apply once the opportunity type selected, as well as a description of the projects the opportunity type can cover. Select the opportunity type and click Next.

The pop-up will display a confirmation message with the name of the stage to which your opportunity will be moved. Click Move.

After clicking Move, the pop-up will close, and the workflow will be rightfully updated following the opportunity type you chose to apply. The ribbon displays the dates you last reached each stage.

Navigate up and down the workflow

To move further up or down through the workflow stages, simply select the stage on the ribbon and click Move on the confirmation pop-up that appears. You can skip one or several stages by clicking the stage you want to jump to directly.

When moving an opportunity to the next stage of the workflow, you can have some instructions displayed to make sure users have completed all the requirements to properly start the next stage.

Modify the opportunity type

If the opportunity has passed the third stage, where the initial opportunity type was selected, you can choose another opportunity type by moving the opportunity back to the second stage of the workflow.

Click the second stage of the workflow.

Go to the General information section of the Details tab, and click the Edit button. 

Select another opportunity type in the drop-down list and click Confirm.

What happens when changing the opportunity type?

• The workflow stages will be updated to reflect the new type.
• Existing default tasks linked to specific stages will be archived with an updated status, and new default tasks will be added.
• The opportunity details will adjust based on the selected opportunity type.
• The change will be recorded in the activity stream.

Close an opportunity

Once the opportunity reaches the last stage of the workflow, the ribbon turns grey to show that the opportunity has come to its conclusion.

The only possible status for this stage is logically Closed. You can rename this status (e.g., Signed) to fit your organization's terminology. To do so, please contact your CSM at Inpart.

If you realize that the opportunity needs additional work before being actually closed, you can return the opportunity to the Active status and therefore to the previous stage before the closing stage.

A few comments on the opportunity statuses

• Active

Your opportunities are in the Active status when you and your team are currently evaluating them. By default, all newly created opportunities are set as Active. 

• On-hold

You can use the On-Hold status when an opportunity is too early or lacks information to be properly considered.

When you put an opportunity on hold, you need to indicate a reason. You also have the option of setting a reminder date to know when to return to it. Then, click Confirm.

• Declined

You can decline an opportunity when you have determined that it's not of interest to your company.

Once you set an opportunity status to Declined, a confirmation message will pop up. You need to indicate a reason and click Confirm.

• Closed

An opportunity with a Closed status means you've reached a positive conclusion for this opportunity. This status is only available at the closing stage of the workflow and is set automatically when you reach this stage.

You can rename this status (e.g., Signed) to fit your organization's terminology. To do so, please contact your CSM at Inpart.

Important notice

The ability to move out of the current stage of the workflow might be temporarily unavailable if mandatory fields have not been properly filled in. See Configure additional fields for opportunities.