Bcommunities Manual ENGLISH

QuickGuide & Terminology
Introduction to bCommunities 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 The Basics Integrated CRM Dashboard Control Unparalleled Project Management Integrated Communications Getting Started 5 6 7 8 9 10
My Profile 2.1 2.2 Personal Profile Organization Profile 13 15
Contact Management 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Invite external contacts to your network New bCommunities user Existing bCommunities user Add an employee (Premium Accounts) Accessing Contacts Rating Partners 18 20 22 24 26 27
Project Management 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Creating a Project Creating Tasks Assigning Tasks Checking details on Projects 31 34 39 43
4.5 5
Checking details on Tasks
46
Communications 5.1 5.2 Starting Conversations Writing updates 49 53
General Settings 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 My Preferences My Users bCommunity Account Production & Communications 57 60 62 63
Concepts and Definitions 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Projects Tasks Document Control Communications Structure 67 71 77 79
Introduction to bCommunities
QuickGuide & Terminology - 4
www.bcommunities.com
The Basics
bCommunities is the first online tool that allows business organizations and professionals to, out of the box, interconnect their operations with clients, providers and collaborators in a shared platform environment. No need to force (or beg) your partners to log into your particular tool and environment.
Requirements
On its web version, bCommunities can be run on any computer running the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. You can check if you have it by visiting this page.
Integrated CRM
With the Directory tab, keep track of all your contacts, add new partners...
...see latest common tasks and rate them internally as clients or providers.
Dashboard Control
The Home tab will allow you to keep track of your clients', providers' and colleagues updates. Select relevant widgets to start your day knowing... what's due today? Any updates on my opportunities?
Unparalleled Project Management

Your Projects tab will help you manage projects like never before. Control of your long supply chain? Done!
Your whole ecosystem integrated and really working together through workflow automation!
Integrated Communications
Communicate with your external partners and internal colleagues in a walled environment through yout Communications tab. No more spam! The kind of collaboration tools you're used to with your online friends at home.
In bCommunities, conversations are designed to allow you to communicate about a project, and the system will keep track of the communication, so that team members can refer back to it later.
Getting Started
The following sections will introduce you to various tasks that can be performed within the bCommunities application. This guide is not meant to give you a full description of all the possibilities but it will help you to start seeing your bCommunity come alive! My Profile - adjusting the information that displays for your personal and organizational profile Invitations - the core of your collaboration network Project Management - working with projects and tasks Communications - using bCommunities integrated communication features General Settings - adjusting preferences. If you need to change your language jump to this section first! Concepts and Definitions - this section describes a number of related concepts. You might want to start by reviewing it, and then return as needed
Questions? Feedback? As a Beta tester of bCommunities youll have a number of advantages once we launch the platform to the larger business community. We really appreciate your help and feedback. From the app itself, you have access to help.bcommunities, our online Knowledge Base and Community Support environment, where you can check updated forums that will guide you through your experience of the platform and its functions and collaborate with other users. You can also Ask a Question if youre stuck. If your doubt is not answered in the forums and articles, please feel free to start a ticket with our customer service reps by using the option to Submit a Request . Our foremost goal is to help you become successful and tap into the power of bCommunities. You can also access this environment at: http://help.bcommunities.com
My Profile
Personal Profile
To set up your personal profile, log into bCommunities and click My Profile from the main menu.
There, you will find options to set up your Personal and Organizations Profile.
Select personal profile and enter information as desired.
For example, you can click the Upload Image button and upload a profile icon. You should upload a square picture of yourself no larger than 250k for best performance and look.
There is space to enter a variety of contact information. Keep in mind that the email address you see here is your login and can only be changed from the My Preferences section of Settings.
When youre finished entering information as desired, click Apply Changes.
The personal profile page also provides a way to share messages internally on a collaboration network, similar to Twitter, for communicating on projects (See the Writing Updates topic in this Quick Guide)
Organization Profile
If you have an Administrator role, you can setup and modify your Organizations profile by logging into bCommunities and clicking My Profile from the main menu. An Organizational Profile is similar to Personal Profile setup:
You can upload an image (Eg: a company logo) and change various kinds of information. You should upload a square version of your logo no larger than 250k for best performance and look. If youre a freelancer, we suggest that you still setup the Organizations profile.
When you're finished entering information, click Apply Changes.
Contact Management
Invite external contacts to your network

This is a very important step to see your bCommunity come alive. To invite external contacts you can click the NEW button at the bottom of the page, or go to your Directory and add your new contact.
If you choose the NEW button, click on Contact. A screen will come up where you can search to see if the contact is already on the bCommunities platform.
Type the contacts email address and click Search.
If the user is new to bCommunities go to lesson 3.2 New bCommunities User. If the user is already in bCommunities go to lesson 3.3 Existing bCommunities User.
New bCommunities user

If you invite somebody that is not a user of the bCommunities platform yet, it will say User not found. Choose the nature of the relationship. Please keep in mind that bCommunities is not to be used as a solicitation tool and you should only invite people youre already in contact with.
On the left side of the screen we encourage you to enter as much information as you have available about each of your contacts. It will make it easier on them once they log in for the first time. They will be able to edit it once they log in. On the right side you can click and enter a personalized greeting before the Beta invitation. Click Send.
The invitees will receive your invitation in their email inboxes. They might reply to your message as they would with any regular email and youll get that message in your Communications Tab and by email.
Once they accept your invitation (which implies they also accept our Beta Agreement) they will be welcomed to the platform and automatically be connected to your bCommunity as an external contact.
Existing bCommunities user

If a contact already has an account on the bCommunities platform, the screen will indicate so. Choose the nature of your relationship with contact. Please keep in mind that bCommunities is not to be used as a solicitation tool and you should only invite people youre already in contact with.
When you invite an existing platform user, they are already in charge of their data and you will not be able to modify it. Make sure this is the person you intend to invite and send it.
Your contact will receive your invitation...
...and will be connected to your directory once the invitation is accepted.
Add an employee (Premium Accounts)

Only paid accounts can add additional employees to their organization. Light Edition users will not have this option but can upgrade their account easily. During our Beta program and the future 14-day trial, all accounts will be able to add as many employees as they need to test the platform.
To add employees, log in and click Directory. Then click the NEW button.
Choose the Employee option.
Fill out information as desired and click the Add employee button.
To access Employee information, log in and click Directory. Click on the bar for the company that the employee is associated with. All employees will be listed.
Click on an individual bar for more information.
Accessing Contacts
To see your new contacts record, log in to your account and click Directory. You can search for your contact by name or by company name. You can also search from the contacts list view.
Your new contact information will appear on the list.
Rating Partners
When managing settings, another feature that youll sometimes want to use is to rate the partners you work with. This provides an internal method of building knowledge about individual partners, either clients or providers, based on your experience in working with them. For example, you might want to establish a protocol within your company, so that when any individual project is completed, you ask internal team members to rate the partners they were working with, to help build up internal knowledge for making future decisions.
To rate a partner, click Directory, then find a partner and click on them.
The resulting window will show a series of ratings on the right, which are dependent on people filling them out. Keep in mind that your external partners will never have access to this information. Only employees with a direct contact established with those external partners will be able to see this information.
To rate them, move your mouse pointer over the desired star, and click. Each internal employees latest 10 votes on each category will be averaged with the votes of other people in your organization who has access to that external contacts profile.
The small red icon in the upper right indicates the internal comments about this partner and allows you to view the latest comments and add one if you want.
You can also view the latest comments on providers and clients in your dashboard.
To set this view, go to My Preferences area in Settings.There, you will find a menu that allows you to enable/disable what panels appear on the dashboard. Just click the checkboxes to enable/disable the internal comments view. When done, click the Apply changes button.
Project Management
Creating a Project
The very definition of 'project' depends very much on the nature of an organizations work and the frame of reference of the different stakeholders in their projects. A commonly recognized set of characteristics is that a project is a one-time effort to accomplish an explicit objective by a specific time. It has a distinguishable start and finish and a time frame for completion. It includes a unique set of coordinated tasks or activities, which also have definite starting and finishing points. bCommunities projects can be adapted to offer a temporary management environment suitable for most organizations and regardless of the kind of business objectives they intend to accomplish.
To create a new Project, log in and click Projects on the main menu.
You can either choose the +New Project button or go to the bottom menu and click NEW and then PROJECT.
Youll be given an opportunity to enter various kinds of information. You can read more details in our Terminology section about Projects.
To select a date range for the project, click the small calendar icon.
Click on a day to choose it; you can also switch months by clicking the arrow icons.
You can create a project you want to manage or create a project for one of your clients to manage, in which case your organization will mostly take the role of provider or resource.
If you choose another organization as the Project Owner, youll be asked to select a project manager from the list of contacts you have in that organization.
You can also select an existing repository in the drop down menu. If youd like to create one, click the Create a new one checkbox. If you do, then you will have to name by clicking on the empty field to the left.
You can also enter a description and/or upload your project charter. When done, click Create Project.
Creating Tasks
After a project is created, a New Task window will automatically come up. Please note that all projects must contain at least one task. This means that if you click on the x in the upper right-hand corner of this window to cancel the first task, the Project itself will also be deleted.
Another way to create a new task is to select a project, navigate to the desired task phase and the level youd like to create your task in, and type in a name in the blank field as shown in this diagram or select the green "plus" button.
Lets create the task then. Click in the top field to enter a task name.
One of the unique features of this platform is that, besides allowing for any sort of task through the Generic task type, it also provides a way to request tasks that are industry-specific. There will be a growing number of task types available. The type of task you choose has an impact on the subsequent screens that come up.
Click on the drop-down menu to choose a task type, and then click the Opportunity or Confirmed button.
Next, youll get a step-by-step wizard. The options on each wizard are related to what type of task you choose (Eg: generic, translation, etc.)
After entering the task details (start date, completion date, instructions) you can indicate whether there are source files. If there are, you can either upload them or indicate that the files will be available as soon as the resource from a predecessor task uploads them as his or her deliverables and completes the task.
If you choose the Upload source files option, then you can click the Upload File button to upload a file.The file will appear on the left panel.
On the right side, the reference materials already available in the selected project repository will appear. You can choose to make those files available to your resource or erase them and upload new ones as required. Click the Add reference files button to upload new files.
In this step you can also choose the workflow automation set ups for this task (see Project Workflow Automation for more information).
When done, depending on the type of task you're creating, you can choose Assign to myself or Assign to others. Other task types will require you to fill out one more step or two before selecting a resource.
Assigning Tasks
If you assign the task to yourself you will automatically see it as part of the project it is related to.
If you click Assign to others, you will be directed to the resource selection step. Here, you are presented with two columns. The column on the left contains people you can choose to select as resources for this task.
Click to select the desired person.
Then click on the arrow to move the person over to the selected column. You can also just double click on them.
The selected person will show up on the right.
You can click the Internal Users to restrict the view to people within your company.
If your task is selected as an Opportunity you will be able to send it to Multiple Providers.
While on the Resource selection task wizard step, you can also click the New Partner button to invite someone who is not in your network yet. When you click on the button, the New Contact window will come up. See section on Inviting external partners. Whether they are a bCommunities user or not, they will receive an invitation to participate in your project.
At the bottom menu of this window you have the options to Save Task or Save and Send to Resource/s.
If you decide to not send the task yet to the Resource you click Save Task. The task will then appear in the project related with an action button saying Send to Resource.
If you decide to send the task to the resource at this time, you select Save & Send to Resource/s. The selected person will then get an email and see the task you sent in their list of tasks. They will be asked whether they want to accept it or not.
Meanwhile, until the contact decides to accept it or not, you will see in your account an "Awaiting Acceptance" notification on the task. Task status will be set to Sent.
If your resource accepted the task they will see its status either as On Hold (if start date is still in the future or you have not Confirmed the task) or Active to indicate that they can start working on it.
Checking details on Projects

To review the details on a project, log in, and click Projects.
Find the desired project and click the Details button on the right side of the project bar.
The project details view lists basic information.
If youre the owner of that project, the actions menu will allow you to set it and all its tasks on hold or to cancel it. Youll also be able to edit its dates, etc.
If you want to collapse the detail view, you can click on the small triangle or anywhere on the left edge.
At the bottom of the project details window, you can click on Project Tasks to access a list of tasks in the project.
Checking details on Tasks

To review details in tasks, log in, click Projects at the top, and then click anywhere in the project bar area to select a project and see its first level tasks.
When looking in the project, locate the desired task, and click the Details button.
There are various kinds of details you can review and edit within a task. Basic information will appear.
If you want to collapse the detail view, you can click on the small triangle on the left edge, or anywhere in that darker edge bar:
Towards the bottom, you can click on the Task Communications bar, and start or update a conversation about this task. It will show any messages that have been created related to this task.
You can also click on the Task Document Control section. It will show files associated with the task. The tabs at the top allow you to access and/or upload various kinds of files to associate with the task. Note that some actions and options will only be available if you are an Owner or a Resource on a particular task. Eg: company sends confidentiality agreement or purchase order, resource sees it on the Legal tab and accepts or rejects the terms.
To perform additional actions, click the checkbox next to the desired file and click the Actions menu. To upload a file, click the Upload File button. To access a file, click on the filename. In deliverables section, the resource can choose to make files invisible to others until she makes sure task is ready to submit.
Communications
Starting Conversations
There are different categories of conversations. Some are designed to allow you to communicate with others on a task, and the system will keep track of the communication, so that team members can refer back to it later. Others can be started as ad-hoc conversations on anything and are not related to any particular task. There will also be bCommunities administration communications that will keep you updated on platform scheduled down times and other important announcements. There are several ways to start a conversation. To start one thats not related to a task, you can log into bCommunities, click the New button at the bottom, and select the Conversation option.
You can also start ad-hoc conversations from the Communications screen...
...or by clicking on the envelope found on a particular contacts directory bar. In this case, the conversation will be directed to that contact by default.
To start a new topic on a particular task, youll need to access that tasks Communications section on its right panel. This way, the conversation will be tracked as part of that task.
Conversations in bCommunities work similar to email. Choose a subject, a recipient, and type in a message, then click Send.
The To field allows you to type in the first letters of the name of a person.
You can click what the pop up window suggests.
Please note that you will not be able to just write the email address of a person you want to contact. You can only communicate with those already in your directory. When ready, you can click the Send button.
The recipient will get an email and will also receive a copy of the message in their bCommunities inbox (Communications screen).
To check and/or access conversations, a user can log in and click the Communications link at the top of the screen . Any conversations will be listed there. By default, conversations are listed in order of the conversation with the latest activity.
After you select the conversation and you see it appear on the right side of your screen, you can click in the field below to type a reply. When done, click Send Message.
Writing updates
Updates are the microblogging tool within bCommunities. All your internal and external contacts will see your updates. The ability to choose whether an update is visible by all your contacts or just those within your company is on our roadmap. There are two ways to write a new update. You can log in and click My Profile. Then click in the white box above the Update status button and type a message.
You will receive an indication of how many characters youve typed so far. When done click the Update status button.
You can also write an update from the top-right drop-down tab.
To see a status update, go to Directory and select a company.
And the update will appear. Note: you can also click the stop following updates button in this view if you dont want to see them anymore.
If you want to see a history of updates of this contact, its profile.
And click the little open book icon.
Youll see a history of any updates the person has made. When done, click the x in the upper right hand corner of the Updates History window.
When the updates panel has been added to the home page, updates will appear there:
General Settings
My Preferences
To adjust general preferences and settings, click the Settings tab. There are four general areas of settings: My Preferences bCommunity Account My Users Production and Communications
My Preferences are generally personal preferences. You can change your password, choose a different theme, change the email address that you use for your login or language.
The My Preferences area also has a panel that allows you to enable/disable what panels or widgets appear on the dashboard. Just click the checkboxes to enable/disable what you want to appear.
When done, click the Apply changes button. You can have a maximum of 6 panels display on the dashboard home page.
When you are adjusting settings, keep in mind that you might need to click on the outer scrollbar on the far right, and drag it down, to see more settings.
There is a panel that allows you to choose from the growing list of languages of the interface. Note that this selector also affects the way dates and time are shown in the application. Click to change. To make it a permanent change, youll need to click on the Apply Changes button.
My Users
The My Users tab allows you to easily change Roles, who the employee reports to, Deactivate a users account and select the task types each user can create. This allows you to adjust how various users can interact with the platform.
For example, if you wanted to change a role, find the user, and click the Edit button.
Then select the type of role you want the person to have, and when youre done, click the Accept button.
Changing Task Types

Another thing you can do in the My Users area is adjust the types of tasks that a person can create. All users with a role of Project Manager Jr. or above can create generic tasks. You can also allow them to generate other types of tasks like translation or copy-editing requests. This is one of the areas in our roadmap that will always be in expansion. For instance, an upcoming task type will allow your company to order print jobs to any print shop in the world. To change task types for a user, click on See and Edit:
Then click on the checkboxes for the task types you want to enable and click Accept:
bCommunity Account
The bCommunity Account section can only be accessed by the Account Owner. Please read carefully the notes on each one of them as they all bear consequences for your bCommunity and its users. Change Account Owner: This allows you to pass on the control of the bCommunity to someone else in your company. Here's a possible scenario. Paul was invited into bCommunities and started exploring the possibilities with a small group of people in his office. They realized it could help the rest of their division to manage their supply chain in a much more efficient way. So, when the 14-day trial was about to end, Paul changed the ownership to Marta, the Division head. From that moment, she was in charge of managing the account and of paying the bill! Cancel your Professional Account: Steve is a lone freelancer that just got a large job to manage. He decides to add a couple of his freelancer friends as employees since they will need to coordinate in a very tight manner for the next three months. They will also need to create tasks for other designers so he decides to pay for the Professional edition during that period of time. Once the project is over, Steve has the option of deactivating his friends as employees and go back to his Light Edition of bCommunities till another big project comes up. Transfer bCommunity: While Paul was testing bCommunities (the guy from two examples above) someone else in his division was also quietly checking it out. When Marta announced that the division would start using bCommunities officially, he didn't want his projects and contacts (as well as his own user) to be lost or deleted. So he transfered his account into the already formed bCommunity. Note: These features might not be available at all times during the Beta.
Production & Communications

The last tab of Settings menu is dedicated to all Production & Communications adjustments.
To adjust Production & Communications settings, log in, click on Settings, and select the Productions & Communications tab.
Default Start and Delivery Time

You can set up a default start and delivery time for tasks you create. So, if you generally want to receive all your deliverables before end of business day, you can select the expected time of delivery to 4 pm by default.
Start Projects and Tasks at Number

Enter the number you want your projects and tasks to start with. This is useful in case you already keep track of your projects by assigning a project number to them and dont want to start from 0 with bCommunities. Note that you can change this at any time and that not using this feature correctly could possibly mean that you end up with two projects or tasks with the same ID.
Project Automation
You can read the effect that each of these settings by default will have in your projects and tasks by hovering your mouse over them. A tooltip will come up with a detailed explanation. Please check also our Terminology chapter on Projects for more details.
Invitation Permission Settings

Select from whom you want to keep receiving invitations and control your level of engagement from new contacts in the platform.
Default Email Notifications

This panel gives you options to control whether you'll be receiving emails automatically on each one of the types of conversations and messages listed. Once you've enabled the selector for, say, Production notifications, you will also be able to Follow or Unfollow specific conversations within that category.
Concepts and Definitions
Projects
The very definition of 'project' depends very much on the nature of an organizations work and the frame of reference of he different stakeholders in their projects. A commonly recognized set of characteristics is that a project is a one-time effort to accomplish an explicit objective by a specific time. They have a distinguishable start and finish and a time frame for completion. It includes a unique set of coordinated tasks or activities, which also have definite starting and finishing points. bCommunities projects can be adapted to offer a temporary management environment suitable for most organizations and regardless of the kind of business objectives they intend to accomplish.
New Project Creation

Project name: This is the name that will serve as an umbrella concept for all the tasks involved in achieving a project's goals. Start date: Projected initial date for your first task/s. Field is editable by project owners only. Completion date: Projected final deliverable date for last task/s of your project. Project owner: This is the organization and user that has ultimate authority over a project. Note: Even though the actual project owner is the organization that originally requests a project to be undertaken, from the point of view of intermediary suppliers downstream, their own client will be seen as the owner of the tasks/projects assigned to them. The platform allows for an organization to generate a project for their client in their name. A typical scenario might be when a client does not want to use the platform as a self-service tool and/or expects their supplier to fill in project and task details for them. In this case, the supplier selects a Project Owner other than their own organization and is required to choose the individual within the client organization who will be in charge of the project oversight. Manager in charge: This refers to the person who champions the project within the organization, providing high-level direction. He or she may add more individuals within that organization as project managers who will have administrative rights and will be updated on all new tasks created after that point. It only appears on screen if the Project Owner selected is an organization other than that of the users. If I create a project for my own organization, I become its Manager in Charge by default. Repository: Body of legacy and reference files or guidelines applied to a particular project and related to a
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department, line of business, subject, etc. They belong, and can be created by an organization in order to drive all reference materials suggested to internal and external resources throughout all project-related tasks. Project managers can add or subtract from the suggested set of repository files in every task. As files are added for a given task, they will also be available for future ones. When resources see them in their tasks, they can also add or subtract for their own resources but client's repository will not be affected by those changes. Create new repository: Project managers and administrators can generate as many repositories as needed. This is, currently, only possible when creating a new project. Project description or charter: a manager can choose to use the text window provided as a space to briefly describe the projects goals and general specifications that should be taken into account throughout the life of the project and its tasks. The note will be visible to all users downstream in their project Details pullout. It ill also be available as a reference point in the email they get when the project is created or they get the first task related to it. A proper Project Charter document can also be uploaded here. It will be posted (suggested) as reference material in all tasks related to project both internally and to all downstream providers. Project managers can choose to share it, or not, in tasks assigned to outside suppliers.
Project Status
Active: Indicates that a project is ongoing at the present time. On-Hold: Indicates that a project's starting date is still in the future or that its owner has, temporarily, stopped work on it. All active tasks will be put On Hold automatically. Cancelled: Indicates that a project has been permanently cancelled. All tasks open will be cancelled as well. Closed: Indicates a project is done and no more tasks will be added to it.
Project Workflow Automation

bCommunities facilitates the arrangement of tasks, and the stakeholders within a project, in order to get a desired outcome in a way that minimizes manual steps and maximizes execution reliability and efficiency. It automates tasks hand-over while providing monitoring capabilities to all stakeholders throughout the whole project life-cycle. Most of these processes can be predefined globally or task by task according to project specifications. Project Auto-Complete When selected by default on Production Settings, projects will show automatically their status as Closed once all their tasks are complete or cancelled. Downstream Notification One of the huge advantages of working on a platform environment is the level of control it offers beyond your company walls. Downstream notifications allows providers (even down a long supply chain of unknown ones) to be notified whenever you cancel or put a task or project on hold. This functionality reduces unwarranted costs of communication delays in a way unseen before. Automatic Task Handover When two tasks are joined by dependency, once the resource of the parent task sets that task as complete, the resource of the next (child) task gets an email letting her know that she can start working on her own task and gets handed the parent task deliverable files, if any, as source material for her to work from. This functionality can be set by default on Production Settings and overrun by task settings.
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If Activated: Dependent tasks will become active and resources will be notified without you manually activating. If Deactivated: Dependent tasks will not become active and resources will not be notified until you manually activate them. This will give you a chance to previously reviewing this task's deliverables. Task Auto-Rescheduling This functionality can be set by default on Production Settings and overrun by task settings. If Activated: Dependent tasks will automatically adjust their start and finish times after parent task is delayed or delivered early. This is useful in case the nature of the task and its resource are flexible with time of performance. The cumulative efficiency gains brought by this feature can reduce significantly the amount of wasted time and effort in complex projects with multiple players involved. If Deactivated: Dependent tasks will not adjust their start and finish times after parent task is delayed or delivered early. This is useful to keep tight control tasks and resources.
Tasks
A task is an activity that contributes towards a deliverable within a project. A project cannot be completed until all its tasks are delivered.
Task Stakeholders
Defined as any bCommunities user that has rights to view, modify or interact with the rest of users who also have such rights over a given task. A Task is administered by a project owner and is assigned to a resource. The resource could be the task owner herself (self-assigned), a person within her own organization or a supplier outside the organization. Owner: The organization and, by extension, its project managers with administrative rights over the task. They can Edit, Cancel, Put on-hold, Reassign, modify its start date and deadline, etc. The task owner might or might not have been its creator, since a resource can also create a task to be completed by themselves for a project owner outside of his or her own organization. Resource: The organization and, by extension, its project managers, or an individual within an organization, in charge of providing a concrete outcome (a deliverable) for the task owner. Administrators: Users within the owner or resource organizations who, by default, do not participate directly in a task nor get notifications by email but have rights to see and monitor any tasks others are managing in their organization. They are not displayed in the task details panel but can manage it if need be.
Task Assignement options

In bCommunities, as well as in the real world, communicating the existence of a particular need does not necessarily mean that he related task or tasks constitute a formal request for work for a particular resource. It might just mean that they expect quote back on it or that the project manager is assessing whether she can count on a particular set of resources when, and if, the particular need becomes a reality. On the other hand, being able to communicate clearly the expectations and potential work ahead is crucial for internal teams and providers alike. This basic functionality in bCommunities helps respond to the question So, do you expect us/me to execute and deliver on this or is it still pending approval? Opportunity: An Opportunity is a task that is offered to a resource but has not been assigned yet. The project owner might not know if they will actually need to complete that task or might have not decided whether the particular resource will be the one selected to complete it. Heres an upcoming task, I want you to take a look at it Confirmed: A Confirmed Task is a task that is assigned, or becomes assigned, to a particular provider. Resource now knows that this task is their responsibility as soon as it becomes active. This is a go, do it as soon as it becomes active.
Task Hierarchy
Related tasks are linked together by defining dependencies. bCommunities allows for complex task organization that can be adapted to the particular project management culture and method of any project-based company. Tasks can be categorized depending on their position in relation to others in the following way: Independent: These tasks are seen in the first level of Projects screen (Dependencies View only) as they are not related to any predecessor nor successor tasks. Dependent: Tasks shown at any level of a given project that have other tasks attached to them, either proceeding or after them. These tasks are part of a workflow from the point of view of a given user. Predecessor: Task that precedes another in a given workflow. This task must be completed in order for the next one to begin. If the tasks deliverable includes files, those files might be the ones needed as source files for the next task. Successor: Task that follows another in a given workflow. If the resource for its predecessor task completes it before or after its deadline, the owner and resource for this task/s will be notified of the date modification whenever Auto-Rescheduling functionality is enabled. Subtask: A set of two or more tasks created with the goal of dividing the workload of any task between several resources. A phase is a collection of activities grouped together in a logical order. It consists of a number of related tasks and a milestone to mark the completion of each phase within the project.
Generic and Specialized Tasks

Like with any other project management tools, you can use bCommunities to manage any kind of task collaboration. But one of the unique features of this platform is that it also provides a way to request tasks that are industry-specific. For instance, using a generic task request form if you need a translation of a document from English into 10 different languages is possible but communication between users becomes much more efficient if the form they use has been designed to ask for the kind of information that is relevant in that particular industry. Generic: To be used for any kind of task not covered by one of the platforms specialized verticals. Generic tasks allow for source files, reference material files, and the rest of task features common to any other kind of task. Translation: Facilitates communication of task requirements and expectations to and between language professionals and agencies as well as internal resources tasked with the conversion of files into a different language. Translation-specific features are: - Selection of one source and multiple target language/s, industry the text to translate is related to. - Selection of type of Industry the files to translate belong to. This gives proper context to outside resources when contrasting the task owners needs with their current capabilities. Other future tasks types includes voice, copywriting, interpretation and copyediting.
Task Flags
Milestone The nuances and amount of particular definitions of the term Milestone in general Project Management documentation can be quite numerous. Generally speaking, a milestone is not something that it done, it is something to be reached. bCommunities offers the possibility of employing this flag in a particular task in a way that allows for adaptation to different PM environments and methods. For instance, here are some definitions and their implementation through bCommunities' tasks: - A point intimerepresenting a key or important intermediate eventin the life of aproject. - A particular task might be flagged as a milestone just to highlight its importance. The observations, place in the project and deliverables required will stress its importance. - A clearly identifiable point in a project or set of activities that commonly denotes a reporting requirement or completion of a key component of a project. - A task flagged as a Milestone in this context could actually be a reporting task and its title, ownership and resource will reflect this deliverable. - An important project event placed at the end of a major project phase. - A company that uses tasks chains as phases would always place a Milestone flag in their last tasks. Urgency Indicates that the task must be completed with a tighter turnaround than task owner and resource have convened as the standard time needed to complete such a task. Resource Acceptance Check Indicates that the task has been accepted by resource. Should the resource choose to reject a task, a comment will be generated automatically, along with resource's own comments in the task main conversation, and their picture will disappear from task. Also, task's status will be set to Rejected.
Task Status
Pre-Setup: Indicates a task that user started creating but was left incomplete or its settings and preferences were not correctly saved. Setup: Indicates a task that has been correctly setup, or is being setup, and a resource has been selected for it but has not been notified yet. No email is sent and resource cannot see it in their bCommunities environment. The only exception being where resource has administrative rights over the task and can see it as anyone else within the requester organization with such rights. Sent: Indicates a task that has been setup correctly, a resource has been selected and notified and is expected to accept or reject it. Rejected: Indicates a task that has been sent to resource and has been rejected by said resource. Task needs to be reassigned. On-Hold: Indicates a task that has been accepted by resource and is now in pause because a) the start time is still in the future, or b) Owner of task has put it on hold temporarily. Active: Indicates a task that has been accepted by resource or a self-assigned task that is now being worked on by resource. Cancelled: Indicates a task that has been cancelled by owner. Partial Delivery: Indicates a task that has been partly fulfilled. Only applicable for tasks where deliverable files were expected. Resource has uploaded and notified owner of one or more files being submitted but more files are to be sent in order for the task to be considered complete. Completed: Indicates a task for which all expected work has been completed.
Document Control
Documents and their control are a major aspect of bCommunities. The application allows for an organized view of all project-related files for easy future recovery by all stakeholders. Each task offers four differentiated folders. Following is a description of those folders, how the files get there and the actions available for user interaction and operability.
Source Files
Some tasks require a file-related deliverable that involves the analysis of a given set of base files or their alteration (i.e. Translation, text editing, review). Source files can be uploaded from the Task Right Panel directly, when the task is being created or it can show as a source file once the predecessor task deliverable is completed. When creating a task, user is given the following options: No source file: The user will not be adding any source files because the nature of the task itself is such that there are no files associated with it at all. Upload source file: In this scenario, the project manager already has the file or files and can upload them for resource to work with. Files from predecessor task: The deliverable requires resource to analyze or transform a source file but the project manager does not have that source material available yet since it is the deliverable of a predecessor task. Rather than downloading said deliverables from the previous task and uploading to the present task when available, the project manager can automate that process selecting this feature.
Reference Materials
Offered to give additional instructions or context for the correct understanding and development of the task at hand. They can be uploaded at any time and also at task creation. Files in this category can also be produced automatically from a Documents Repository.
Deliverables
Here is where the task resulting files are uploaded. Files are automatically visible to all task stakeholders but user uploading them can hide them from others if file is not ready for delivery quite yet.
Legal Documents
Allows for the exchange and confirmed agreement with legal documents posted by a partner. An example of this could be the assignment of a task for the sole purpose of sharing and signing a non-disclosure agreement before other tasks are created in a project. Any document that requires signoff by another bCommunities user can be posted in this section.
Communications Structure
All conversations feature three levels of user engagement: Conversation: This is the central trunk of all communications. It is composed of a header that shows the first message Comments: These are created when a user with access rights to any conversation writes a message in response to the main conversation trunk. Replies: These are created when a user responds to a particular Comment.
Categories - Production Conversations

These types of conversations are generated from tasks either automatically (i.e. a new task has been created) or manually from a particular task right panel. Each conversation is composed of Comments. Again, those comments can be generated by the system automatically (i.e. task has been put on hold) or by a particular participant.They cannot be started from Communications view since they must be related to a particular task and project.
Categories - Ad-Hoc Conversations

A user can also start a conversation at any time with whoever they choose. Conversations can be started from Communications view or from the +NEW button from any screen.
Functionality- Participants
All conversations started from a task include in it, by default, all users who have hand-on or monitoring rights over that task and their names can be seen within the header for editing. bCommunities allows users to invite anyone in their directory into any conversations at any time. This allows for maximum flexibility. New participants get to see the initial header and all messages available after they joined it. This is valid for both Production and Ad-hoc conversations. In order to avoid privacy issues, only the name and last names first letter are allowed in conversations. Participants removed from a conversation will not be able to see future comments made.
Functionality - Receiving Notifications

In order to keep updated on new conversations or comments to a current conversation a user is participating or monitoring, an email can be sent to their regular mail client (i.e. Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail). Also, the notifications tab at the top of the screen will come down indicating a new message has arrived and a brief summary will be included.
Functionality - Following Conversations

Anytime a user has monitoring or managing rights over a Conversation, they will see it in their Communications tab. This does not mean that they will be notified anytime there is a update . A user can setup whether they want to be notified on any incoming message or select the kind of messages they want to be updated on in Settings (Production & Communications tab). Then they can add granularity to their choice and choose o Follow or Unfollow particular conversations from the Communications View or right from a task.
Functionality - Replying from email client

bCommunities allows user to reply to a message without having to log into the application. They can just hit Reply from Outlook or Gmail as they would normally. This will place their message at the right conversation and position. Just like if they where doing it from inline communications.
Microblogging - Updates
An Update is a short, 140 character maximum length, message that a user broadcasts to their whole bCommunity. This message will then be seen in a Home widget where they will be able to see all such updates from anyone in their Directory. This includes users both internal and external to his or her organization. These updates are also visible in their Directory bar. Any user directly connected to him or her will see the latest update next to their contact information and can also see their history of updates if they visit their Public Profile. Updates dont generate emails and can be turned on and off on contact per contact basis in Directory.

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QuickGuide & Terminology

My Profile 2.1 2.2 Personal Profile Organization Profile 13 15

Checking details on Tasks

Communications 5.1 5.2 Starting Conversations Writing updates 49 53

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Unparalleled Project Management

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Select personal profile and enter information as desired.

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When youre finished entering information as desired, click Apply Changes.

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When you're finished entering information, click Apply Changes.

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Invite external contacts to your network

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Type the contacts email address and click Search.

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New bCommunities user

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Existing bCommunities user

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Your contact will receive your invitation...

...and will be connected to your directory once the invitation is accepted.

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Add an employee (Premium Accounts)

Choose the Employee option.

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Click on an individual bar for more information.

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Your new contact information will appear on the list.

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Click to select the desired person.

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The selected person will show up on the right.

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Checking details on Projects

The project details view lists basic information.

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