Locating Other Partners and Sending Collaboration Requests (Initiating Partner)

As the first step, the partner who is the initiator of the collaboration uses the Partner Locator and enters criteria to find other partners to collaborate on this project. For example, it might look for other partners in a specific location with a specific expertise.

After the initiator has located other partners, it navigates to Request Collaboration to send them a message asking them to collaborate. Because the initiator does not necessarily know individuals in the partner company they are inviting to collaborate, the message is sent to the organizations of the invitee.

To locate partners and send collaboration requests

1. The initiating partner navigates to the Partner Locator screen.

2. In the Partner Locator, the partner enters criteria to identify other partner companies for this collaboration and clicks Search.

   The Partner Locations list appears, listing all partners that match the criteria.

3. The initiating partner selects the records of all the partner organizations in the list to be invited to collaborate.

   The initiating partner checks the Available column of the Partner Locator to see whether a partner organization can be involved in a collaboration.

4. The partner clicks Request Collaboration.

   The Outbound Request form appears.

5. The partner fills out the Outbound Request form with the information in the following table, and navigates to Send Request.

   Field	Description
   Initiator	Displays the organization that is initiating the collaboration.
   Recipients	Displays the partner companies being invited to participate in the collaboration. This list includes the partner companies that were chosen in the Partner Locator. The partner can also click the Multiple Select button and use the Collaboration Organizations dialog box to add or remove partners from the recipient list for the request.
   Description	Enter a description of the collaboration that gives other partners enough information to decide whether they want to join the collaboration.
   Request Type	Select the type of collaboration.
   Request Date	Enter the date of the request. The default is the date created.
   Expiration Date	Enter the date the request becomes inactive. If the recipients do not respond by this date the request is removed from the recipients' inbox.
   Name	Enter a name for the collaboration request.
   Created By	Displays the login of the creator of the request.
   Created	Displays the date the request was created.