Email RFP questions to an occasional contributor

You may find you have questions in your RFP file that require review or feedback from a Subject Matter Expert (SME) who does not usually collaborate on Upland Qvidian projects and does not have a Upland Qvidian license. You can email a question to these SMEs, known as contributors, from the project workspace. When you email a question to a contributor, they will receive an email with a link to a portal where they can respond. Their response is captured on Email tab of the slice's Details panel. The Details panel displays when you right-click (or control click) on a slice and select View Details or click the Send to Contributor Show Notifications button icon.

When the contributor clicks the email link and when they submit a response, these actions are noted in Activities. When a question is sent to a contributor, the Send to Contributor Show Notifications button icon displays next to the slice. A blue dot on the contributor indicator, indicates there is an unread contributor response. Both writers and owners have the option send to contributor. Only the writer who emailed the contributor and the project owner will see the contributor indicator or any of the information on the Emails tab.

Emails tab and slice

An example of a contributor indicator next to a slice and the corresponding response and attachments in the Emails tab.

Permissions

To have access to this feature, a participant must have the Allow user to send new RFP slices out to a contributor outside of a project application permission enabled.

Sending a question to a contributor

Owners can email a contributor at any time. Writers and reviewers can only do so during their workflow task.

  1. Right-click the slice you want to send and then select More Actions > Email to Contributor. The "Email to Contributor" dialog will appear.
    2. Email to Contributer dialog\
  2. Enter the contributor's email address into the Email field.
    1. Click the calendar icon to open the calendar.
    2. Browse to the required month and year and click on a date to set the date. Use the left and right arrows on the top right to move to the previous or next month. Use the drop-down to select the year.
    3. Set the time using one of the methods below:
      • Click the clock icon to open the clock.
      • Click in the hours and minutes fields and enter a new time.
      • Click the up or down arrows on the hours, minutes.
      • Use the drop-down to select AM or PM.

      Note: You cannot change the deadline once the email has been sent. To give a contributor access to the after the deadline, you must send a new request.

  4. Type any additional information for the contributor in the Comments box. Your comments will be added to the email body.

    Note: The Request to Contributor email trigger is used to send the email for this function. For more information on viewing or editing email triggers, see Email Notification Triggers.

  5. Click Send Email. An email with a link to the question is sent to the contributor and the request is noted in the Emails tab of the slice Details panel.

    6. Note: Delete a pending email request by clicking the Delete Delete icon icon next to the Pending Requests entry in the Emails tab. When a request is deleted, the contributor receives an email notification and is no longer able to access the portal. If they click the link in the original request email, a "Content Unavailable" error message will appear. This message will also display if the contributor attempts to open the portal after the deadline.

Contributor tasks and response

When a participant emails a contributor, the contributor receives an email with the project name, the name of the participant who sent the request, the response deadline, comments and a link to the portal in which they will submit their response. The page displays the names of the sender, the project, the slice, and any comments the sender added when they sent the request.

Contributer tasks email Contributer tasks response page

An example of the request email a contributor receives (left) and the response page where the contributor answers (right).

  1. Open the email notification and click the Click here to respond link. A page opens in a new browser window.
  2. Review the request.
  3. Enter text into the Response field. There is a 2,000 character limit; if that is not sufficient, the contributor can attach files.
  4. To attach files, click Browse Files or drag and drop the desired files into the attachment area. Contributors can attach Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and PDF files.
  5. Click Submit to send the response or Cancel to cancel your response and close the portal, so that you may return to it later. If you cancel your changes, you will be prompted to confirm the cancellation and you must click the email link again to return to the portal. If you Submit your changes, your response is sent and the link is no longer valid. If you would like to add additional information, a new link must be sent.

Note: Once a contributor submits a response, the participant who sent out the questions receives a notification via email, the response is noted in the Emails tab of the slice's Details panel, and a blue dot displays on contributor indicator. The participant will open the response and either copy and paste or drag and drop the response or attached file into the project.

Viewing a contributor's response

To view the contributor’s response, go the Emails tab of the slice's Details panel using one of the methods below:

  • In the notification email, click the Open Project link, and then right-click the highlighted slice and select View Details and open the Emails tab.
  • In the project workspace, click the Send to Contributor Send to Contributor icon icon to the left of the slice.

Add the contributor’s response

You can drag and drop a contributor's text response or Microsoft Word attachment from the Emails tab of the slice's Details panel into the slice, or cut and paste content from an attached Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF file.

Adding a text response

  • For Word slices: Highlight the contributor’s response text and drag and drop in into the question slice.
  • For Excel or Word table cells: Highlight the contributor's response text, drag and drop in into the answer slice, and then select either Replace to replace the existing content in the cell, Append to insert it below the existing content, or Cancel to close without adding the response.

Adding content from an attached file

  • Word files: Drag and drop the file from the Responses area to the question slice or empty answer cell.

    • Note: You do not need to add a slice below a question slice unless you are manually typing or pasting the answer.

  • Other file types: Click the DownloadDownload icon icon. Once the file has completed downloading, open it and copy the desired content. Right-click the blank answer slice and select:
    • Word slices: Right-click on the question slice and then select Add Answer from the Actions menu. Paste the text into the editor, format as desired and then click Save.
    • Excel or Word table cells: Right-click on the answer cell and then select Edit Cell Inline from the Actions menu. Paste the text into the editor, format as desired and then click Save.

Note: To delete an attached file, click the Delete response attachment Delete icon icon.