In ShareDo, master data records are created for different types of entities, e.g. organisations, persons or teams. An example of a master data record would be an organisation's name, contact details, and the address of each branch. It is best practice to use master data records as participants so that there is no duplication in the system. Ideally, you want to have master data records for orgs etc so that you aren't duplicating data.. When we assign the organisation to a Matter, they become a participant on that Matter, and you need to select what of the organisation’s information is relevant to the Matter.
For example, which branch address will you use for the Matter? In this example, the organisation is the master data record, and the branch addresses are a party type of that participant type.
Terminology
- Participant: this is the entity that participates in a case.
- Participant Role: the role the participant will play in a piece of work. For example, a person who raises a complaint is given the role of Complainant. Other typical roles include Employer, General Practitioner, and Member of Public.
Managing Participants
In ShareDo, there are several entry points to assigning and managing participants to a case; this guide covers all of them. The easiest method is the Manage Participants function, which provides a step-by-step approach to assigning and editing Participants.
From the Action bar, click Participants, followed by the Manage Participants option.
Another method is to configure a Participants view in the Work Item view (left-hand navigation) that allows you to perform the same functions as the Manage Participants option.
Participants Currently Assigned
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A blade opens and shows unassigned participants and participants currently assigned to the case. You can filter the unassigned participant list to show mandatory, recommended, and optional participants. The participants shown are a mixture of entities (individuals, organisations, teams, etc.). The icon to the left of their name helps identify this. You can also tag each entry with multiple tags like party type or role ole to indicate the nature of their involvement in this case. E.g., Matter Owner, Defendant. The assigned list shows all participants involved in this case. However, note the following Ribbon Bar buttons, which act as filters:
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Security Team displays a list of all users and teams with access to this case and their level of access as defined by the ShareDo administrators. For example, a Contributor can amend case details, whereas a Reader cannot. Use the Use the |
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toggle to view the contact details for each Participant for this case.
icon to reassign or remove the participant and the . . . icon for more actions or activities configured for that participant.Mandatory / Recommended / Optional Roles
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Note the Unassigned aspect at the top of the blade. Some work types may insist that Participants are assigned to specific mandatory roles. If so, a red warning message appears if the participant is missing. There may also be phase guards or other controls that prevent a case from progressing until a participant is assigned to the mandatory role. Some work types may classify specific roles as recommended. The case can progress without these, though warnings will appear in orange. All remaining roles on a work type are classed as optional. |
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Assigning Participants
The process of adding a participant to a case always begins by selecting the type of participant you wish to assign and then checking to see if there is an ODS entity for that participant, in other words, if they already exist in ShareDo. If a participant does not exist, you can create them and add their contact and location details and any competencies they may have. If a participant already exists in ShareDo, you can review and amend their details if required. You can also check their involvement in other cases for reference or conflict purposes.
Entities are then assigned a role. At this stage, you may need to capture further information about the participant that relates specifically to their involvement in this case. The participant is then added to the case, and their details can be seen from a portal widget.
This assignment process can start with the user either:
- Selecting the role that they wish to assign the participant to. ShareDo will use this to help locate the participant. For example, when searching, ShareDo will display suggested participants from this and other cases based on the selected role.
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- Selecting the party type of the participant that they wish to assign. As mentioned above, this helps drive the process. For example, when searching, ShareDo will display suggested participants based on the party type, such as expert.
After that, the process is essentially the same, regardless of the method chosen.
We will begin with the By Role path.
Add Role
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To the top right of the ribbon bar are two buttons. Select Add Role. |
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The system lists all possible roles for this type of case, grouped by category. The roles available will also vary according to the phases of the case.
The list of roles may cover more than one screen. Use the arrow buttons on the top left to navigate back and forth.
To filter the list of roles, begin typing the role name into the search filter at the top right. Select a role you wish to add a participant to, for example, witness. ShareDo will use this selected role to assist the user in selecting a participant.
Once the role is selected, a new blade opens. Use this blade to search for existing participants in the selected role or create new participants using the Add new + button.
Search for Existing Participants
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Related shows participants already assigned to this case or a parent case.
System administrators who set up the system determine the rules for this, which will vary per work type. |
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Once the user selects a role, they will see either one or both of the People/Organisations tabs depending on their selection. E.g., if the role of Witness had been selected, then the tab displayed would be People, as ShareDo assumes that all witnesses are persons rather than organisations.
Finally, a Team tab will appear if the role requires an internal team to be selected.
Select the appropriate tab (e.g. People) and type in the name of a person you wish to assign to the case.
ShareDo will perform an Elasticsearch through all the participants on the system and return anything that closely matches the name entered. E.g., searching for sam returns entries with that in the first name or surname.
If the search does not find a participant, use the information in the Create New Participant section below to add them.
Add Participant
The second of the two methods of searching for existing participants uses the party type, rather than the role, to drive the process. Use the Add Participant button on the top right of the ribbon bar.
Search for Existing Participants
 From the action bar, click ts, followed by the Manage Participants option. Then click Add Participant.
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 Select the type of the participant that you wish to assign. You can further refine the search by filtering. This example uses the person party type, and we'll filter the search in the step below. | |
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Selecting the participant's party type opens the search blade. Click the filter icon to apply a filter. Add party type filters by clicking the text box and selecting the appropriate filter. The image here shows the Expert party type selected. The results will be restricted to the selected party type. If required, you can select one or more competencies or locations to refine the search criteria further. |
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Enter the name of the participant you wish to search for. Leaving the search box blank and clicking on the search icon (or hitting enter) will list ALL of the participants in ShareDo that match the applied filters.
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Edit Person / Organisation
Use the By Role or By Participant methods described above to search for the participant.
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From the search results blade, click the Amend these details as required. |
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icon to the right of a participant to view their details.Party Type Specific Information
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Note the party type entry at the foot of the Individual Details aspect. The party type entered here will determine what extra fields exist on this aspect to capture further information about the participant. E.g., if the party type is Expert, an extra aspect would be presented to capture their details. |
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A participant may belong to more than one party type. Accordingly, several additional aspects may be presented.
Competencies
| The navigation (nav) bar shows how many competencies (i.e. skills or specialisms) the current participant has. Click to open the blade and view them. |  |
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Use the box at the top to filter through the Competencies displayed on the blade. Use the Click |
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when finished.Locations
| This nav bar presents the address (location) details of the participant. The Locations nav bar shows the total number of set locations. |  |
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All locations linked to this participant are presented. Use the Use the Use the |
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Select the type of new address to be created. E.g., Correspondence. More than one location type can be selected. If you selected the wrong location type, click the X on the tag to clear the location. There are two methods of entering an address. Either use the Find Address search box by starting to type the address and then selecting the correct one from the results or click the Enter address manually link to open a form to enter the address details. Use the Map section as a visual confirmation of the address. If you use the Enter address manually link, the blade will automatically present the appropriate boxes for you to complete. |
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icon to edit a selected address.
icon to disassociate an address from the participant (but still retain the address on the ShareDo system so other participants can use it).
Connections
| This nav bar shows how many other work items the current participant is connected to. |  |
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In this example, the participant has been assigned 75 times across three main types of work: Instructions, Matters, and Tasks. Click the arrow to the right of each entry to view the details. E.g., Matters.
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In the blade that opens, use the burger menu to the right of each entry to open the matter (or enquiry or task) or the  icon to open the blade view of the matter. |
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You can also use the Connections blade to establish connections between one participant and another. E.g., employee and employer. Click Add New at the top of the blade. | |
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The possible relationships available are presented. The participants party type determines these. To add a relationship, click the appropriate hyperlink to open a search blade. |
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Search for the participant you wish to link to (or create it, if required), then click the  icon. |
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A further blade may open to capture the nature of the relationship. Complete the details, then select Save & Close |
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| The relationship now appears at the top of the user profile connections blade. |  |
. Edit Participant
The following information shows you how to edit an existing Participant. Use either of the By Role or By Participant methods described above to search for the Participant.
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Return to the search results blade. Click on the Depending upon the chosen role, this will either:
Or
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The Edit Participant blade opens, allowing you to add further information about the selected Participant, specific to their role on this case. If the By Role method above was used to begin the process, the role will be automatically selected. Add a Reference which is specific to this person against this case. When writing to this person on this case, this will appear in correspondence as Your Reference. |
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Role Specific Information
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Dependent upon the role selected, further aspects may be presented. These will capture information specific to the selected person, in that role, for that particular case. In this example, we are capturing witness details concerning a statement. |
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| In this example, we are capturing whether the Complainant is a vulnerable person. |  |
Locations
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The type of role will determine how many / what type of Locations can be used for this matter. Find the Locations aspect at the bottom of the blade. E.g., the role may permit only a Correspondence address and a DX address. The example (right) shows that there are two location types allowed for this work type for a Witness. Click the To disassociate an address and use another on this case, click the |
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icon to amend any of the Participant's location details.
icon. Then click the 
icon to open a new blade with a list of all possible addresses for this Participant.All the addresses listed in this Edit Participant blade are now available for use on this case. i.e. they can be selected when creating letters and documents.
Activities
| Find the Activities that can be run in the Edit Participant Ribbon Bar icons. |  |
Assign
When satisfied with the Participant details, click on the 
icon at the top of the Edit Participant blade. The selected Participant will be added to the list of Assigned Participants in the chosen role.
The Participant widgets will be updated to show the new Participant (see below).
Create New Participants
If the Participant you wish to add does not already exist in ShareDo, you can create it and then assign it to a case. To do this, as per the guidance above, select Manage Participants from the Action bar, followed by Add Role or Add Participant
Now, search for the Participant just to be sure it doesn't exist.
When you are confident that the Participant doesn’t already exist, click the 
button at the foot of the Search blade.
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As before, ShareDo will use the options selected previously to help refine/speed up the process. E.g., if you chose to Add Role and select a Witness, ShareDo will assume that a Witness is a person rather than an organisation or other Party Type, and the Add/Edit Person blade is shown. Enter the details of your new Participant, including the Contact details and preferences. |
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| Note that selecting a Party type may present further fields to capture details specific to that Party type. | |
| Click Save to save progress and present the nav bars at the foot of the blade. See the notes above for how to complete this data. |  |
Click  . The selected Participant will be added to the list of Assigned Participants in the chosen role. | |
Participants Summary Widget
This widget contains options to add/edit or remove the Participants from the case. When configuring the portal for this work type, you can rename the widget. This example uses Key Participants.
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Key Participants As the name suggests, these are the important Participants on this case. |
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Add New Participant
Use the + icon at the top of the widget to assign a new Participant. ShareDo will allocate the Participant to the correct widget after the Participant has been created.
This will start the By Participant method described above.
Select the appropriate party type to begin the process.
Remove / Reassign Participant
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Use the hamburger icon to the right of a Participant to access the Actions menu, including the Remove/Reassign blade. Validation Depending upon the Participant’s role, ShareDo will warn/limit what actions can be undertaken when attempting to Remove or Reassign Participants. Mandatory Roles The Case Owner Role cannot be left blank as it is a mandatory role. However, the role can be reassigned to another Participant. Note the orange button that starts the reassign process. |
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Tasks If a Participant had tasks assigned to them, a warning appears if you attempt to remove the Participant. The Review tasks button shows the list of the Participant's Tasks and allows the user to manually reassign the tasks to another Participant if required. Alternatively, another Participant can be assigned to the role instead, and they will inherit the Tasks from the previous Participant. |
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Edit Participant
| The Participant, and their role in this case, can be edited via the Actions Edit option. This functionality is described in detail in the Edit Participant section above. |  |
Activities
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The Activities options are also action buttons in the Edit Participant blade. See the separate guides on working with documents and working with tasks for full details of how these functions work. |
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