Navigate Opportunity Workflows in Inova Next Generation

Inova Next Generation allows you to speed up your decision-making process by following a configurable workflow through which the opportunities can be tracked and evaluated by Search and Evaluation and Business Development teams.

Overview

The standard opportunity workflow is based on two parameters working together: the stage and the status.

Disclaimer: The names of the stages and statuses in this article reflect the default names offered by Inova Next Generation. As workflows can be customized according to your company's preferences, the names of the stages and statuses displayed in your personal instance might be different. However, the behavior patterns are the same.

You need to have a Manager role to be able to move through the workflow and update the stage and the status of an opportunity.

Opportunity Stage

The stage of the opportunity reflects the phase of the project.

The number and the names of the stages are configured with the help of Inova when your company starts using Inova Next Generation.

Your company can configure several workflows to fit different opportunity types: in-licensing, out-licensing, research collaboration, acquisition, investment, etc...

However, all your workflows share a common structure:

• A first stage, the identification stage.
• A second stage, the triage stage.
• After the second stage, a succession of custom stages is specifically configured to fit your company's process.
• A closing stage.

You can see the date of transition between stages under each stage name in the workflow ribbon. These dates can be updated to reflect the reality of the work done by you and your team. You must be a Manager user with a Business Admin role to perform this action.

Opportunity Status

The status of the opportunity reflects the state of the project. 

The names of the statuses are configured with the help of Inova when your company starts using Inova Next Generation. By default, all opportunities have four statuses available (these are the default names, they may vary depending on what your company configured, except for Active that isn't customizable):

• Active: An opportunity is set as Active when you and your team are currently evaluating it. 
• On-hold: You can use the On-hold status to pause an opportunity that is too early or lacks information to be properly considered.
• Declined: You can decline an opportunity when you have determined that it's of no interest to your company.
• Closed: An opportunity with a Closed status means you've reached a positive conclusion for this opportunity. 

The opportunity stage and status are visible in the list of all opportunities or within each opportunity's overview materialized by a workflow ribbon.

Opportunity list:

Opportunity overview:

Update the Opportunity Stages

First Stage - Identification

In the first stage (called Identification by default), you identify and create drafts for potential new opportunities. You can provide initial non-confidential information, review high-level information, and perform a quick assessment.

By default, all newly created opportunities are set to start in the first stage. You can't create an opportunity and directly set it to a stage further down in the workflow.

In the first stage, the opportunity status can either be Active or Declined. Select Declined to filter out and decline opportunities that don't fit your company strategy. 

A confirmation message will pop up. Here, you need to provide a reason to decline the opportunity, then click Confirm. 

Second Stage - Triage

The second stage corresponds to a triage step (called Triage by default) when you begin your research and determine how to proceed with the opportunity's evaluation. You can add additional non-confidential documents, e.g. a company presentation, some data, or meeting notes. This stage typically involves a few experts that you regularly collaborate with.

Warning: Once you moved the opportunity to the second stage (Triage), you won't be able to move back to the first stage (Identification), so make sure the opportunity is fully ready to be moved to this triage stage.

To move an opportunity to this stage, click the Triage stage on the workflow ribbon. A confirmation message will pop up, click Move.

In this triage stage, the opportunity status can either be set to Active, On-Hold, or Declined. You can: 

• Change an Active opportunity to On-Hold or Declined.
• Change an On-Hold opportunity to Active or Declined.
• Change a Declined opportunity to Active. To move a Declined opportunity back to On-Hold, you must first move it to Active and then to On-Hold. 

Third Stage - Choose Your Opportunity Type

Reaching the third stage, you'll be asked to choose the opportunity type (i.e. workflow type) that fits best your project.

Click To be defined in the workflow ribbon, a pop-up will appear. In this pop-up, you can see the list of stages that will apply once the opportunity type selected, as well as a description of the projects the opportunity type can cover. Select the opportunity type and click Next.

The pop-up will display a confirmation message with the name of the stage your opportunity will be moved to. Click Move.

Warning: After clicking Move, you won't be able to move back to the previous stage, so make sure you've selected the right opportunity type.

After clicking Move, the pop-up will close and the workflow will be consequently updated following the opportunity type you chose to apply. The ribbon displays the dates you last reached each stage.

Navigate Up and Down the Workflow

To move further up or down through the stages of the workflow, simply select the stage on the ribbon and click Move on the confirmation pop-up that appears. You can skip one or several stages by clicking directly the stage you want to jump to.

All the stages strictly between the triage (second stage) and the opportunity closing (last stage) can be set as Active, On-hold or Declined.

Close an Opportunity

Once the opportunity reaches the last stage of the workflow, the ribbon turns grey to show that the opportunity came to its conclusion.

The only possible status for this stage is logically Closed. If you realize that the opportunity needs additional work before being actually closed, you can return the opportunity to the Active status and therefore to the previous stage before the closing stage.

A Few Comments on the Opportunity Statuses

Active

Your opportunities are in the Active status when you and your team are currently evaluating them. By default, all newly created opportunities are set as Active. 

On-Hold

You can use the On-Hold status when an opportunity is too early or lacks information to be properly considered.

When you put an opportunity on hold, you need to indicate a reason. You also have the option of setting a reminder date to know when to return to it. Then, click Confirm.

Declined

You can decline an opportunity when you have determined that it's not of interest to your company.

Once you set an opportunity status to Declined, a confirmation message will pop up. You need to indicate a reason and click Confirm.

Closed

An opportunity with a Closed status means you've reached a positive conclusion for this opportunity. This status is only available at the closing stage of the workflow and is set automatically when you reach this stage.

Important Notes on Workflow Structure Maintenance

It's possible to delete full workflow templates or specific stages within a workflow template if they're not already used in existing opportunities in both cases. Please send a request to your Inova CSM to perform those actions.

If the structure of the workflows used by your company changes over time (e.g. change of stage/status names, deletion of a stage, etc...):

• Existing opportunities aren't impacted: The workflows of all opportunities created before the changes will remain unchanged.
• Newly created opportunities are impacted: Only the newly created opportunities will use the updated version of the workflow.