In order to improve contracting in the system, partner organizations will now be able to see the name and contents of all packages which has been added to a contract. This will give partners more transparency into the contract and signing requirements. In addition, partner organizations will be able to remove maintenance and requirement packages if they were added in error.  

Additional contracting improvements have been introduced by re-engineering the process by which corporations add advisors to an existing contract. We have simplified this process to allow corporations to easily select the advisor or add and invite a new advisor to create the contract request. Upon submission of the request, an active contract will also be established between the corporation and any new advisor they invite. 

1.4.1 View and Remove Packages 

Partner organizations have been granted the ability to view all packages attached to a contract and they have the ability to remove maintenance and requirement packages.  

The intention of this enhancement is to provide increased visibility to which requirements have been added to a contract and allow flexibility for the partner to remove maintenance and requirement packages that have been added in error prior to any of the requirements being fulfilled by the target party. The ability to remove these requirements should reduce the need to re-contract in the system when an incorrect package is added.  

JIRA Ticket:  

SD-14789, SD-14790, SD-14791 

Description of Change:  

• A new menu called ‘Packages’ has been added in the contract menu. This section will display all contract packages that have been attached to a contract. This section is only visible to billable corporations and will be in the following format: 

  • Title (Link to package contents) 

  • Type (Requirement, Maintenance, Contract)

  • Added on (YYYY-MM-DD) 

  • Added by (User who attached package) 

  • Revision # (Package revision number) 

• If the user clicks on the package title, a new popup will open which will outline the package contents. 

  • Package Title 

  • Description

  • Target Party 

  • Documents  

• If the package belongs to the current organization, an ‘Open Revision’ button will be available which will take the user directly to that revision in the Assets>Packages menu for review. 

• If the package does not belong to the current organization, the following message will display in a yellow banner ‘This package belongs to a third-party, therefore you are unable to open the revision.’ 

• Contract packages cannot be removed due to the complexity of requirements for this package type, but the partner will be able to remove maintenance and requirement packages from the contract. 

  • If the package includes requirements (questions, read & accept documents, agreements), then it can only be removed by users of the organization that added it. 

  • If the package does not include any requirements (empty package) it can be removed by any user from any organization with the appropriate user permission.

  • A package can only be removed if no requirements have been fulfilled by the target party (questions answered, read & accept, any signature or field populated in an agreement etc.), but the partner does not need to be the current party on the contract to remove a package, as long as it is not locked by another party. 

  • A new permission scheme has been added to allow a user to remove a package, users must be assigned to this permission in order to remove it: 

    • Permission Name: Remove Package  
      Permission Description: Allows users to remove requirement or maintenance package from a contract. 

  • If the user selects the trashcan icon to remove the package, they will receive a pop-up to confirm the action: ‘Please confirm you would like to remove this package from the contract.’

  • Once the package is removed, the partner organization will become the current party on the contract so they can make additional changes as needed. 

1.4.2 Add a New or Existing Advisor as a Corporation 

Corporations can add an existing advisor or invite a new advisor to add them to an existing contract hierarchy. By using this feature, the corporation will be able to establish an active contract with a new advisor and create a new contract request between an advisor to a billable party. 

The intention of this enhancement is to  

• Remove the onus from the partner organization to add new advisors on behalf of a corporation. 

• Simplify the selections available when adding an advisor to an existing contract.  

• Remove the requirement for the advisor to submit a contract request to establish a relationship with their corporation.

• Reduce the volume of contract requests that need to be submitted in order to establish all the necessary facilitating contracts.  

 JIRA Ticket:  

SD-14996, SD-14803, SD-14804, SD-14990 

Description of Change:  

A non-billable corporation has the option to add an existing advisor with whom they have an active contract, to an existing contract hierarchy. Once the selections are made, the system will automatically build out the contract request between the Advisor>Corporation> Billable party which includes any relevant non-billables in the request.  

If the corporation doesn’t currently have an active contract with the advisor, the corporation can send an invite to the new advisor and when that advisor completes their profile, an active contract will be created between the Corporation>Advisor and a pending contract request will be created between the Advisor>Corporation> Billable party which includes any relevant non-billables in the request.  

The corporation will only be able to facilitate a contract up to the bottom level billable company of any of their existing contract hierarchies. For example, if the Corporation is contracted to a Carrier through an MGA1, they will only be able to facilitate a contract up to that MGA1 and not up to Carrier1. 

Sample Contract: Corporation>NonBillable1>NonBillableAGA1>MGA1>Carrier1 

 The intention behind this design is due to the fact that This was designed under the premise that once MGA1 has established a relationship with the advisor through the corporation, they will be able to facilitate any remaining related contracts up to the Carrier as needed.  

• When a nonbillable corporation selects the Contract Request>I want to add one of my advisors to an existing contract option, they will be taken to a new screen where they will be able to select the name of the billable party with whom they would like to facilitate a contract in the ‘Who will this advisor be working with?  dropdown. 

• This drop-down list will be populated with any bottom level billable company with whom the corporation has an “Active” or “Pending” contract 

Example: 

Sample Contracts:  

Kelsi Inc.>Dream Financial>PPI>Manulife 

Kelsi Inc.>Smith Financial>IDC>SunLife  

Kelsi Inc.>Cloud Financial (AGA)>HUB Financial>BMO 

Kelsi Inc.>Desjardins 

Dropdown to Include:  

PPI  

IDC 

Cloud Financial (AGA) 

Desjardins 

• Helper text will be available under this field. When the user hovers over the following text ‘I don’t see the company, I am looking for in this list’, the following popup text will be displayed: ‘You will only see the MGAs, AGAs or Direct Carriers you already have an active contract within this list. If you need a new contract with an MGA, AGA or Carrier, you can request one here.’ 

• When user clicks on the link, they are taken back to the contract request screen so another request type can be submitted.  

• The corporation will also be able to select from a list of advisors with whom they have an active and direct relationship.  

• If the corporation is contracted with the advisor through another non-billable, they will not be able to select the advisor. The advisor must already have a direct relationship with that corporation (Advisor>Kelsi Inc. vs. Advisor>Kelsi Inc.>Dream Financial) 

• If the corporation wants to add an advisor to a contract, with whom they do not currently have an active relationship, they can select the ‘The advisor I want to add is not in the list’ checkbox and enter the following mandatory information to invite a new advisor:

  • Advisor First Name

  • Advisor Last Name

  • Advisor Email

  • Language (English/French) 

• Once an advisor is identified, the corporation will be able to select the ‘Submit’ button to continue.  

• The system will identify the contracts the corporation has to the billable party selected and display them in the pop-up.  

• If there are no other non-billables in the chain, the corporation will receive a confirmation that they want to proceed only ‘Are you sure that you wish to submit this contract request?’ 

• If there is only one hierarchy through which the corporation has an existing contract to the billable party, the following message will be displayed based on the relevant parties: 

Example:  

The advisor will be added to the following contract:   

Kelsi Inc.>Dream Financial>PPI 

Their information will be shared with [CorporationLegalDreamFinancial] and [CorporationLegalNamePPI]  

• If there are multiple hierarchies through which the corporation has an existing contract to the billable party, all hierarchies will be displayed, and the corporation will be required to select from a radio button which hierarchy they would like to add the advisor to. They will not be able to continue until a selection has been made.  

Example: 

Please select which contract you’d like to add the advisor to:   

Kelsi Inc>Smith Financial>IDC 

Kelsi Inc>Doe Financial>IDC  

• Once a radio button has been selected, the following text will be displayed in the same popup be based on the selection made. The intention behind this messaging is to ensure that the corporation is aware and consenting to the fact that the advisor’s information will be shared with the identified parties:  

Example: 

Their information will be shared with [CorporationLegalSmithFinancial] and [CorporationLegalNameIDC]  

• A ‘Send Request’ button will be available if an existing advisor was selected and a ‘Send Invitation’ button if a new advisor was identified. 

• If the Send Request button is selected: 

• A pending contract request between the identified parties will be created automatically. 

• If the Send Invitation button is selected, the system will automatically send the following email to the email address of the advisor they identified: 

Example: 

(Advisor Name) you are invited by [CoporationLegalNameKelsiInc] to join APEXA.  

Wait are you already on Apexa?   

Then you just need a contract with this corporation. Click on the link below to learn how to request a contract. 

[Request a Contract]  

If this is your first invitation to join APEXA, please click on ‘Get Started’ below.  

[Get Started] 

• If the user already has a profile and clicks on the ‘Request a contract’ button they will be taken to a Confluence page which will provide steps on how to request a contract with the corporation in the system. Once that active contract is established, the corporation will be able to pick them from the list of advisors to facilitate the remaining contract(s). 

• If the user selects ‘Get Started’ to create a new profile, upon completion of the profile. 

• They will receive an alert on their dashboard to indicate: 

Example:  

‘Welcome to APEXA! [LegalCorporationNameofCorpWhoInvitedAdvisor], [LegalCorporationNameDreamFinancial] etc. and [LegalCorporationPPI] have been advised that you have completed your profile.  [LegalCorporationNameDreamFinancial] is reviewing your information and you’ll receive an email once further action is required.’  

• An active contract between the Corp>Advisor will be created automatically. 

• A pending contract request between the identified parties will be created automatically.