Product: VDRPro
Applies to: Experts in VDRs that use Q&A
As a subject matter expert within your organization, you may be asked to answer questions from participants or potential buyers. Your expertise may be critical to achieving your organization's goals.
You will not have direct contact with buyers or participants. Instead, you will work with a Q&A coordinator. The Q&A coordinator can be an M&A advisor outside your organization (if your organization is selling an asset), or an individual within the organization. The Q&A coordinator is responsible for providing information to buyers or participants to help them in their decision making; the coordinator also monitors the buyers' or participants’ activity to assess which participants are most likely to make a bid on the assets being sold. When the Q&A coordinator receives questions from the participants, the coordinator may answer the questions directly or delegate them to an expert like you. If a question is delegated to you, you will receive an email alert letting you know that your expertise is needed. If you are included in a group of experts, anyone in the group can reply to the Q&A coordinator’s request for information.
To figure out who the Q&A coordinator is for your VDR, see Locating the Q&A Coordinator.
Video - Overview of Q&A for experts in VDRPro
Watch this video to learn how to navigate the Q&A feature within VDRPro to provide answers and information for potential buyers. If you are a SME coordinator, watch this video for best practices and guidance.
Video - SME coordinator overview
A SME coordinator is able to re-delegate questions on behalf of the Q&A coordinator, ensuring that questions are answered by the right experts. Watch this video tutorial for ways to optimize your workflow as a SME coordinator.
The expert role
Your role in answering buyers/participants’ questions
When a buyer/participant submits a question, the Q&A coordinator can answer it directly or delegate it to experts in collaboration groups if it is beyond the coordinator’s range of expertise. When the Q&A coordinator delegates a question to your collaboration group, any member of the group can respond to it, and only one person needs to respond. When questions are delegated, no identifying information about the buyer/participant is displayed to you. This is to protect the integrity of the selling process.
After you answer a question, the Q&A coordinator may ask for further clarification to ensure that the buyer/participant’s question is fully and appropriately answered. Other experts also may respond to your post, providing additional information or clarification. If the question submitter deletes a question that was submitted to your group, it will be removed from your Q&A screen.
Closing questions
Only Q&A Coordinators can close answered question threads. As an expert, you cannot close question threads.
Taking on a greater role
You may be asked to assist the Q&A coordinator in distributing participant questions to other experts. In this case, you will be referred to as an SME coordinator. You may be asked to be an SME coordinator if the Q&A coordinator is an M&A advisor outside your organization and is not as well acquainted with the organization’s experts as you may be. If you are asked to perform this role, the Q&A coordinator will delegate questions to you, and you can either reply yourself or re-delegate the questions to other experts. If you re-delegate questions, the experts’ replies are returned to you, and you are responsible for reviewing them and providing a response to the Q&A coordinator.
Important! You can only re-delegate questions if the Allow Subject Matter Experts to Delegate Questions VDR setting has been enabled before the question has been submitted and delegated to you. If the setting is enabled after the question has been submitted, you will not be able to re-delegate the question. You can access this setting by clicking Exchange Settings --> Modules --> Enable Questions and Answers (Q&A). For more information, see Modules (Advanced Settings).
What’s next
If you have not worked with Intralinks VDRPro before, read Introduction to Intralinks VDRPro. It provides an overview of Intralinks VDRPro, along with links to instructions for logging in, managing your password and other basic tasks.
If you have used Intralinks VDRPro in the past, you can get right to work answering questions. For step-by-step instructions, see Responding to questions delegated to your group.
Responding to questions delegated to your group
When you click the Q&A tab, a list of questions that have been delegated to you and the groups of which you are a member is displayed. You can click on questions to read and provide answers for them. You also can add additional answers to questions that have already been responded to, and you can comment on other experts’ answers to provide additional information or clarification.
Filtering the list of questions by their status
- To display the Q&A view within the VDR, click the Q&A tab.
- Click one of the quick filters above the list of questions:
- Replied (Delegated) displays all the questions that have been delegated and replied to, but still require further action. SME coordinators use this filter to review delegated questions that have been answered by experts, and then decide whether to reply to the Q&A coordinator with the answer or ask the expert(s) more questions.
- Reply Pending displays all questions that have been delegated to experts, but have not yet received a response.
Responding to questions delegated to you
- To display the Q&A view within the VDR, click the Q&A tab.
- To display a list of questions that require a response, click the Reply Pending quick filter.
- Click on the question you want to respond to, and review the question.
- To propose an answer, click the Propose Answer button.
- Enter your comments in the Add a response... box.
To include comments made by a coordinator or another expert, click the Paste Into Answer button below the comments and edit the comments as needed.
- (Optional.) If you have permission to add and permission documents, you can link to documents in the VDR or upload documents from your computer or network to the answer. If you do not have permission to add and permission documents, you can link or attach additional documents from the VDR or your computer or network to the answer.
- If the document is located in the VDR, click Link Document, highlight the document, and click Link Document.
- If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you have permission to add and permission documents, click Upload Document. Select the folder to add the uploaded document to or create a new folder, optionally set permissions and send alerts, and click Upload.
- If the document is located on your computer or a network drive and you do not have permission to add and permission documents, click Attach Document, and select up to five documents to attach.
- Click Propose Answer.
Your proposed answer appears on the Q&A coordinator’s Q&A screen with a status of “Replied.” Other members of your collaboration group can also see your answer. If the Q&A coordinator delegated the question to other collaboration groups in addition to yours, members of those groups can see your answer, as well.
Troubleshooting
Why can't SMEs delegate questions?
You can delegate questions after the SME delegation feature is enabled. You will not be able to delegate questions that were submitter prior to the feature being enabled. For example, if a question was submitted on April 1st and the SME delegation feature is enabled on April 2nd, you will not be able to delegate the questions submitted on April 1st. You will be able to delegate questions submitted starting with April 2nd.