XCELSOFT OfficeX
 Proposals
World Wide Web Info Page

The OfficeX Proposals adds sophistication to ordinary e-mail messages. It is an e-mail of a proposal that can be sent to multiple users, but each user must first approve of the proposal before the next user receives the e-mail.

Proposals can accept a list of recipients or groups as well as provisions for approval requests and proposal status. Similar to e-mail, you can attach any OfficeX document to proposals up to and including forms.

It also serves as a a storage area for approved proposals. Based on the folder's permissions, proposals that are currently in progress can be viewed and modified as needed.

OfficeX has built-in support for proposals and digital approvals. When a new proposal needs to be created and sent to various users for approval, the creator of the proposal must first go to the Proposals Section of OfficeX and select a folder to place the new proposal in. The folder can either be his own private folder or a public shared folder for others to see. Please refer to the folders section of this document for more information about folders and permissions.

The below screen image shows what the proposals section of OfficeX looks like with a series of proposals that are currently in progress:

Screenshot of Proposals section

Proposals provides the following features:

  • Send proposals to single/multiple users with each user approving the proposal along the proposal "line" (also viewing the status).

  • Receive, review, approve or unapprove proposals, and send off to the next user so that the recipient(s) can look at it.

Closeup of Storage folders

The Proposal folders have the ability to view:

  • Public folders viewable by the entire intranet.
  • Private folders, with options to permit other user's access.
  • Other user's private folders, if access is permitted.
Proposals are, by nature, documents that are constantly moving from one person to another. The Inbox section of OfficeX is therefore integrated very tightly with the approval process. Documents that need to be approved by a particular user are sent to that user’s Inbox for review and approval.

The purpose of the Proposals Section in OfficeX (as shown above in the proposals screen image) is to provide a convenient location to view all proposals that are currently in progress (granted that you have the adequate permissions to view certain folders). Completely approved proposals can also be stored in this section for archive purposes.

All proposals are based on a concept of envelopes with a recipient list and an attachment list. The envelope can be sent around to various recipients in a specified sequence order. In addition, the recipients found in the list can be required to approve the envelope.

The below screen image shows what the envelope looks like (notice that the envelope concept is identical between e-mail, proposals, and bulletin for maximum ease-of-use and familiarity):

Envelope Viewer

As shown above, envelopes are divided into three major sections. The envelope cover, main message, and the attachments. The envelope cover consists of the subject area and the recipient list. The main message can be any free-format message in rich-text format. The attachments section allows you to attach any OfficeX document in your envelope. Attachments can include voice messages as well as text annotations (particularly useful for proposals).

OfficeX allows you to type in recipients manually or select from a list. If you type in the recipient name manually, you can type in either the user name or the group name and then press CTRL+K to verify that the name is correct.

You can also choose to select from a list of users and groups. Simply click on the To button and another dialog box will display showing the recipient list information. This recipient window not only shows the recipient list but also the sequence of who to send the envelope to next.

In addition, a sequence number is provided in the recipient list allowing you to send the envelope from one user to the next. Users in higher sequence numbers will not have the envelope delivered to their Inbox until the prior users (in previous sequence numbers) have all seen and sent the envelope.

Furthermore, you can specify whether or not a particular user must approve the envelope before sending it off to the next recipient. Approval requires that a digital "signature" be validated before proceeding to the next recipient. The below screen image shows what the recipient list looks like:

Once the envelope has been sent and is in progress, the recipient list cannot be modified. Only the original creator of the envelope can modify the contents of the envelope including the main message as well as the attachments list.

The recipients window provides a convenient location to view the status of an in-progress envelope whether it be an e-mail, bulletin or a proposal.

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