Participant and party types, and the ODS

In ShareDo, master data records are created for participant types. An example of a master data record would be an organisation's name, contact details, and the address of each branch. When we assign the organisation to a matter, they become a participant in 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 participant type, and the branch addresses are a party type of that participant type. This article explains participant and party types and how they're stored and accessed in ShareDo.

Understand the operational data store

Whenever you add a person, organisation, team or user to the system, ShareDo stores these in its operational data store (ODS). With people, organisations, and teams separately being described as ODS Entities.

Think of the ODS as being a huge list containing all of the different parties that are or were involved in your cases. However, like any list, breaking it down into smaller sub-lists is useful. ShareDo lets you break it down by:

1. Participant types – such as people, organisations, teams or users.
2. ODS or party types – these are user-defined tags or categories into which you can group your participant types.

What participant types are available?

You can see the participant types available in your solution by navigating to Launchpad > Open Modeller > Participant Types.

As of ShareDo release 7, the following types are available:

What are ODS or party types

ShareDo allows you to categorise your ODS entities further by ODS or party type. Access available party types by expanding a particular participant type node using the + icon.

These types introduce a flexible categorisation scheme for ODS entities that can be used to:

• Introduce fine-grained participant search, e.g. find me all solicitors or all recommended solicitors for a client.
• Target form builder/aspect definitions, e.g. I only want to show the Know Your Opponent form definition for ODS participants of type Solicitor.
• Introduce additional permissions around maintaining participants of a particular type, e.g. only people with the Update Client permission can amend people or organisations tagged as clients.
• Lock down a particular participant role, using role restrictions, so that it can only be fulfilled by a specific ODS tag.

ShareDo often refers to participant type sub-types as party types or ODS types/entities but to the specific sub-types of team and user participant types as team types and user types, respectively. However, there are specific settings applicable to these groups. Therefore, while ODS types is the generic term, we specifically refer to:

• Party types – for organisations and people.
• Team types – for teams.
• User types – for users.

Configuring party types

Party types represent a categorisation of people or organisations, with common examples being clients or suppliers.

Party types can be:

• Restricted by permission. This means you can prevent party types from being created or updated within the application.
• Associate with specific roles. This lets you specify that the client role can only be fulfilled by members of the client party type.

To configure party types, navigate to Launchpad > Open Modeller > Participant Types, and expand the participant type you want to configure the party type for. Then click the burger icon and click Edit for a specific type. You can also delete the party type.

To create a new party type, click the burger icon for the top-level participant type (for example, organisation or person) and click + type under Create new. The Edit Party Type blade opens. This image shows the Create new - Organisation type under the organisation participant.

When configuring a new type, consider the following settings on the Edit Party Type blade:

Setting	Notes
Details
System Name	This is a unique identifier for the party type.
Name	The name that is displayed to end users.
Description	Enter a meaningful description.
Active	Describes whether the party type is in use or not.
Display Settings
Icon	The views that show an icon use this.
Colour	The views that show a colour use this.
Search Settings
Add quick search link	Setting this On adds options to the participant menus on the Manage Participants blade and other places as a shortcut to adding ODS entities of this type.
Enable Search	Setting this to On allows users to use this type as a filter.
ODS Applicability
Person / Organisation Type	Specify whether this party type applies to organisations or people, or both.
Enable User Management
Manage users for this part type	Setting this On allows organisations tagged with this party type to have users assigned to them.
Permissions
Assign Permission	Specify a global permission that your users must have to assign ODS entities of this type to a work item.
Update	Specify a global permission that your users must have to update ODS entities of this type.
Role Restrictions
Restriction type	Specify the roles which must be fulfilled by this ODS type. You can specify whether:  This ODS type can only be used by these roles, and these roles alone; OR  Only entities of this type can populate these roles. In this case, this entity type can also populate other roles.

Create

Create participant roles in ShareDo Modeller.

1. Launchpad > Modeller > Participant roles.
2. Click the + button > Add Role.
3. Enter a Name and Icon, and optionally enter further information in the non-mandatory fields.
   
4. For more information on participant settings, see the help category Participants Overview.
5. Click Save.

Once saved, the blade refreshes, showing the following nav bars:

• Sharedo Ownership: Specify on which sharedo types (work types) this role should appear.
• Aspects: Configure any aspects for this role here. For more information, see the article on Aspects.
• ODS Settings: Complete the ODS Entity and Location settings here.

Once the Role is saved, you can click the Action menu button to edit the role, edit the Sharedo (work type) ownership, mark it active/inactive, or delete it.

Edit Roles

Clicking this option opens the Role blade and allows you to edit any of the previously configured settings.

Mark Roles Active/Inactive

Use this setting to mark the Role as active or not. You can only use the Role if it is active in the system.

Delete Roles

Use this option to delete the role from the system. It will also delete existing data from matters for this role.

Review

You have now seen how to create and edit a participant role. For details on settings, see Participants Overview.

You can define what ODS entities can fulfil a participant role in ShareDo Modeller. For example, you could say a defendant can be a person or an organisation but can't be a vehicle.

1. Open Launchpad > Modeller > Participant roles.
2. Select the participant for which you want to define the ODS types and click the Action burger menu > Edit Role.
   
3. At the bottom of the Edit Role blade, click on the navigation bar for ODS Settings.
   
4. You can now select which ODS entities can fulfil the participant role using the check boxes on the ODS Entity Configuration aspect.
   
   

   While the other types are self explanatory, the Title Role is used in real estate work types; it refers to the title or deeds of a property.
   The following are core Role Participants that are of type Title Role:

   - Excluded Title
   - Included Title
   - Related Title

    

Review

You can now successfully define the ODS types on a participant role. The result of this configuration can be seen in the UI when adding the participant role to a work type. The search function for adding the participant is restricted to the ODS entities you selected.

When a user adds a participant to a work item, a list of participants can be presented to the user as possible assignments to the role. This is done if Role Sourcing is setup on the role on that work type.

Modeller > Participant Roles > Edit Role from burger menu > Sharedo Ownership nav bar > Edit from burger menu on relevant work type

Role Sourcing aspect

Configure the settings in this aspect to determine which participants are queried for possible assignment to this role.

You can make a participant role manually assignable in sharedo Modeller. It is important to check this if you want to be able to manually assign your selected role on your selected work-type in the UI.

If you are not able to add a participant from your work-type, this is the most common reason.

1. Open Launchpad > Modeller > Participant role modeller > Roles.
2. Select the participant you want to be manually assignable and click the Action burger menu.
   
3. Edit Sharedo Ownership > Select the work-type which you want to make manually assignable and click the burger menu.
   
4. Edit > check the Manually Assignable checkbox.
   

Review

You can now successfully make participants manually assignable.

You can enable ordering of participants in sharedo Modeller to allow multiple participants in the same role to be assigned an order of precedence, for example Defendant 1, Defendant 2.

1. Open Launchpad > Modeller > Participant role modeller > Roles.
2. Select the participant for which you want to enable ordering and click the Action burger menu
   
3. Edit Sharedo Ownership > Select the work-type for which you want to configure the role ordering and click the burger menu.
   
4. Edit > check the Allow Ordering checkbox.
   

Review

You can now successfully enable ordering of participants.

You can add participant roles to one or more work-types to define how you want the entity assigned to that role to participate.

1. Open Launchpad > Modeller > Participant roles.
2. Select the participant role you wish to add to your work-type and click the burger menu on the right side of the screen, then click Edit ShareDo Ownership. 
   
   
3. Click the Add icon in the top right corner of the ShareDo Settings blade.
4. Select the work-types you want for the role, and click OK 
   
6. The last step is to configure the work-type settings, so that it does not show as inactive. Click the burger menu on the Edit screen to open the ShareDo Settings blade. Check the options you need for your requirements. For details of individual settings, see Participants Overview. 
   

Review

You can now successfully add a participant role to a work-type.

You can configure whether a role participant is mandatory or recommended in ShareDo Modeller.

1. Open Launchpad > Open Modeller > Participant Roles.
2. Select the participant you wish to configure as mandatory, recommended, or optional, and click 'Edit Role' in the Action burger menu.
   
3. Click the Sharedo Ownership nav bar to edit ownership. Then, click the burger menu for the work type for which you wish to configure the requirement level, and click Edit.
   
4. Select the Requirement Level drop-down and select your requirement level.
   

Review

You can now successfully configure the requirement level of participants.

Role categories are used to segment participants into similar groupings. For example it could be experts or service providers.

1. Go to Launchpad > Modeller > Participants > Participant Roles
2. The system will display a list of participant roles. Select the Role Categories button at the top right hand side of the screen
   
3. The Role Categories screen is displayed listing all the role categories within the application
   
4. Click on the Add button at the top of the screen to add a new category
5. The screen will provide you with fields to enter a System Name and Name for your new category. Then use the green save button to save.
   
6. You can edit a role category by clicking the pencil icon. You can delete a role category by clicking the trash icon but you can only delete a role category that is not in use.
   

Review

You can now successfully add and remove role categories

When you're managing participants in a case, you can manage their case and network connections, depending on their participant role, from the edit participant blade.

For user details see Manage Participant Case Connections.

Configure Participant Role Connections

To configure the participant role connections, which include their categories, work type context, roles, and labels, navigate to Launchpad > Modeller > Participant roles > Role connections.

Connection Categories

To add or edit Role Connection Categories, click Edit Categories. Then click Add.

Enter a System Name and Name, and click save.

You can also edit existing categories.

Role Connections

ShareDo comes with various role connections already configured out of the box. Edit, disable, or delete these or any created in your system by using the burger menu in the Actions column.

To create a new role connection, follow these steps:

1. Click New in the top right of the screen.
2. The Add new participant role connection blade opens.
   
3. In the Details section, select a Category from the list and find the Work Type Context. The System Name is automatically generated. You can also enable or disable the role connection here.
4. Select the Left and Right Roles and enter Labels for them.
5. Click Save & Close to continue.

The new Role Connection is now available for use in the appropriate work type context.

Display Role Connections

You can select which role connections to display in participant list views and the Participant Summary portal widget.

When you edit the scope of the Participant List View you can select which roles connections to load as an additional column.

Handling unknown participants

As part of your case data capture journey, it is common that you may not have all of the information required at the point of entry. An example is that a participant of a particular type isn’t known.

Often case handlers will create an unknown participant, and very soon, you will most likely have many of those within the system.

The problem of unknown ODS entities is made worse when they are referenced in multiple cases and eventually updated to be the real person or organisation. When this unknown person or organisation is updated, many cases suddenly have actual but incorrect data.

This guide presents you with two options for handling these circumstances.

Option 1 – relax your mandatory data capture

The simplest way to avoid the capture of unknown participants is to relax your data capture rules by changing the participant role to Recommended or Optional. With this change in place, your case handlers are not required to enter this information and should not seek to circumvent it by using unknown ODS entities.

You could then configure data quality rules or phase guards to enforce the mandatory presence and capture of this data later in the process (see the article Data Quality Rules and Guards).

Option 2 – Configure an Unknown party type and lock down the ability to edit or create them.

Your second option is to create an Unknown party type and configure it so it can’t be edited. By locking its editing down, you can prevent an update to an unknown person used on multiple cases, which will also reflect on those cases. To configure party types, perform the following configuration steps:

Step 1: Configure the Unknown party type

Use the information in the article Understanding Participant Types to create an Unknown party type.

Take note of the following settings:

Step 2: Assign the party type to unknown people or organisations.

1. As an administrator (or someone with the update permission you specified above), go to the Operational Data Store menu options in Admin.

2. Find and edit the relevant unknown people and organisations.

3. Apply the Party type of Unknown.

Step 3: Test it.

By logging in (or impersonating) a user without Admin permissions (or the permission you specified) above, you should be able to add unknown people or organisations to your cases but be prevented from editing them.

Participant synchronisation rules specify how participants defined on one work type are synchronised or copied to another.

Typical user cases for this configuration are:

• Ensuring security groups are copied from a statement of work to a matter or claim.
• Enabling child cases such as claims to inherit parent’s participants automatically. E.g., matter participants.

To facilitate these two scenarios, the configuration can allow for both:

• Automatic copy-down of participants and roles where this is performed seamlessly for users behind the scenes.
• Manual copy-down of participants, where the user is prompted as to whether they also want to add the participant to a child case.

Viewing Configured Rules

Within the Modeller > Participant roles > Synchronisation rules portal, you can see all of the rules that are currently configured:

Here, you can edit an existing rule or create a new one. This article walks you through creating a new rule.

Configuring a new synchronisation rule

Clicking Add Rule opens a configuration blade, allowing you to set up details, types, roles, and synchronisation rules.

Step 1: Details

The Details section has the following options:

• Enabled - Enable or turn off the rule with this toggle.
• System - Indicated whether this rule is a system rule, in which case you cannot edit or disable the rule.
• Synchronous:
  • Enabled - the copy-down happens as part of the same transaction as creating the new work item. This can greatly slow things down if attached to a user action. However, it may be necessary if another workflow triggers the Sharedo-Created event and needs those participants to be present immediately.
  • Disabled - the request to copy the participants gets added to the long-running events backlog and processed when it has time. This is generally the preferred approach unless you need the participants in place immediately. 

Step 2: Configure the source and target work types

To configure the source and target types, specify the following:

• From Type – the work type this configuration item applies to and the work type from which the participant should be synchronised.
• To Type – the work type that participants will be copied to.

Step 3: Configure the source and target participant roles

To configure the source and target roles, specify the following:

• From Role – the role that is to be copied. Roles are restricted to those that are enabled on the From Type.
• To Role – the target role for this participant. Roles are restricted to those that are configured on the work type.

Step 4: Configure the Synchronisation Rules

Set the rule For Relationship Type as either Parent/Child or Related Sharedos (work items).

Participant synchronisation is triggered at two key points in the application:

• On Sharedo Create – This is executed whenever a child work item is created.
• On Participant Create – This is executed whenever a new participant is added to the parent or From Type. Note that if a participant in that role already exists on the child work item and the role does not allow multiple participants, then the participant will not be replaced. This function is designed to add new participants to a work item, not replace them.

For each of these events, you can independently specify the behaviour you want from the following options:

• Automatically – the participant will be created behind the scenes without user involvement.
• Manually – the user will be prompted before the change occurs. When configuring a manual synchronisation, you have three possible configuration options.
  • Recommend to the user that this participant is copied down – if this is a recommended user-driven copy, this will result in the user having to “opt-out” of this synchronisation by unchecking a checkbox.
  • Require That the user copy the participant role down – if it is mandatory, then the participant must be synchronised. However, the user can change certain things.
  • User can change the target participant role to something else – if this is set, then the user is not given the option of changing the target role, but instead, the configuration from the rule will be forced.

Exporting Sync Rules

Participant synchronisation rules are exported as part of the work types they are associated with when using the solution modeller's Export Configuration feature.

Once you have created a custom data capture form (form builder) you can add it to your participant in the ShareDo Modeller.

Adding data capture to a participant.

Use the following steps to configure the participant blade.

1. Select Launchpad > Modeller > Participant roles.
2. Select the participant role you wish to work on and double-click or select Edit Role from the Action menu.

   If you have a large number of participant roles you can filter the list by clicking on the Name column header to open up a search window.

    
3. Select the Aspects navigation bar.
4. Click the Add+ button on the section of the screen where you want to add form builder.
5. Choose the Form Builder aspect and Save.
   
6. Set the attributes for your form builder aspect using the configuration which is visible when hovering over the Form Builder aspect. 
   

Attribute	Description
Display Rules	Add business rules to control when your form is displayed. For example, If you only want to show this form when the participant is related to a particular work type, you can use the ShareDo type descends from the business rule option.
Settings	Configure the settings for your form builder aspect. This includes specifying which form you want displayed. Decide how you want your form to be displayed. Inline - displays within the main blade form. Nav Bar - displays as a navigation bar and the form opens on a new blade. Use this for longer forms or forms that are less frequently used.

7. Click Save.

Review

You can now successfully add custom data capture for a participant.

What Does the Widget Do?

The Participant Summary widget gives you quick and easy visibility of a case's key participants. Use the filtering functionality to display different groupings of participants in other widgets. For example, you can highlight the client or show your internal participants separately from external stakeholders.

You can configure this widget to display as a list or in a card view. The card shows a larger view of each participant. You can set the widget up so it shows as a card if a certain number of participants are present or a list if more than that exists.

You can have more than one participant summary widget on your portal - this enables you to separate the display of participants into logical groupings. 

Configuration Settings

Back to the widget catalogue

The ODS Entity Picker aspect can be added to a blade on a work type and is used to add/show specific participant roles.