🛠 Create Your Own - Touchless™ NDA Workflow

Learn how to create a workflow for effortlessly setting up new vendors & contracts in Gatekeeper

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   Estimated Read Time: 8 Minutes                 Estimated Configuration Time: 15-30 Minutes

 


 

Sections in this Article

Introduction & Demonstration

Workflow Diagram

Configuration

Walkthrough 🎬

Mandatory Configuration Steps

Additional Configuration Steps

Before you Start - Other Considerations

Getting Started - How to start using your new workflow

Additional Reading




 

The Workflow - Introduction & Demonstration

 

For an introduction to this feature, see our webinar:

🧑‍💻  Gatekeeper Touchless Contracts™

 

 

 

This workflow is designed to remove the administrative burden of getting new Vendors added to your Gatekeeper repository by:

a) Shifting some of this burden onto your vendors

b) Leveraging  our AI Autobuild solution to pre-populate key vendor metadata

c) Pairing this setup with the automatic creation & signature of a new contract

With this workflow, you and your users will save time filling out forms and speed up the time it takes for you to begin new partnerships!

Not only that, but this workflow will handle the automatic generation of a initial contract document so you can rest assured that - during any further discussions & negotiations with your new vendor - they have already reviewed and agreed to your initial contracting terms.

💡 In this article, those "initial contracting terms" take the form of an NDA.

However, you are free to use this workflow for any other template agreement of your choice like a Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, DPA, MSA and so on!

 

Example Demonstration of a new NDA Request

 

 

Workflow Diagram: XML / PDF

 

 

 


 

🛠 Configuring the Workflow 🛠


Adding the Template Workflow

Step 1) Head to the Workflows page

Step 2) Hit Add > Workflow Template

Step 3) Select the Touchless NDA Request Template

Step 4) If necessary, you can amend your new workflow's Title here

For example, If you prefer to call these CDA's (Confidentiality Disclosure Agreements) or are using the workflow for a different contract type

Step 5) Hit ✅ Create

 


 

🛠 Mandatory Configuration Steps 🛠

To complete the necessary steps to turn this template into a fully functioning workflow, you can follow along with the below video

Alternatively, you can follow the step-by-step instructions which start below the video

 

 

Configure your Contract Draft Template

Part 1 - Adding the contract Template

Step 1) Head to Settings > Configuration > eNegotiate Contract Templates

Step 2) Hit Add > MS Word Template

Step 3) Use the Handlebar Instructions page to set up all the sections of your template's dynamic/configurable content in Microsoft Word

Step 4) Once finished, upload your MS Word template as the Document file along with the other values (Title, Status & Contract Type)

Set Status to Live to make the template available for use in your workflow

Step 5) Hit ✅ Save to store this template

For a full Walkthrough guide showing how to create this template, see our below article:

📖 Configuring Contract Templates

Part 2 - Add a Contract Template PDF Preview

To enable the Contract Preview within the Touchless Form, a PDF Document needs to be uploaded to the eNegotiate Template

This is also required to provide vendor users with the option to either "Suggest changes" or "Proceed to eSign" within the Touchless Form

Step 1) While in the eNegotiate Contract templates screen, click to open your NDA

Step 2) Hit View Test Template - this will cause Gatekeeper to generate a PDF copy for you

Step 3) After this PDF Preview downloads, hit Edit

Step 4) Upload this newly-downloaded PDF for the PDF Document option & hit ✅ Save

Part 3 - Selecting this template in the Workflow

Step 1) On the workflow, click to edit the 📄 AutoCreate NDA Draft 📄 phase 

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Alongside AutoAction | Generate Draft from Contract, hit Edit AutoAction Values

Step 4) Alongside NDA, choose the new template you have just created

Step 5) Hit ✅ Save

 

 

Set the ⚙️ AutoAction default values

Within the AutoAction: Create Contract phase, there are key fields such as Category*, Entity & Team which are mandatory in order to store a valid contract record in your Gatekeeper Repository

Below, you can set defaults for these & amend other dynamic values like Dates & Owners.

Please note, the External Owner field must be set as the 'First Supplier User'

Step 1) Click to edit the 🛠 AutoCreate Contract Record 🛠  phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Alongside AutoAction | Create Contract, hit Edit AutoAction Values

Step 4) Populate & Amend the default values for your NDA records

Step 5) Hit ✅ Save

*If you wish to eventually leverage the ⚡️ RBAC for All: Total Vendor Visibility use case, it is advisable to create a new Contract Category called "Confidentiality Agreements" and use this in the above AutoAction field settings!

 


 

🛠 Additional Configuration Steps 🛠

 

Add Personalised Links

Personal links can be created for the touchless form so that - when new vendors initiate an NDA request - the link they used will assign a specific Internal Contract Owner based on the internal user who shared the link & instigated the request

If you do not use Personalised Links, Gatekeeper will assign a default Internal Contract Owner to all new NDAs

See below article for a full explanation of this feature:

📖 Personalised Touchless Links

Step 1) Click to edit the first phase of the workflow

Step 2) Navigate to the Form Access tab

Step 3) Hit Manage Personal Links then Add Personal Link

Step 4) Select a list of users to create links for by typing names or simply hit Select All to create one for every user in your tenant

Step 5) Hit ✅ Save

 

 

Apply/Amend your Company Name

The name of the Start Phase will appear at the top of the form when opened by suppliers. Changing it to your own company name is useful to add reassurance that the supplier is in the right place

Similarly, the Vendor | Draft Review notification email sent to suppliers can include your Company Name in the Email Subject line.

Part 1 - Form Title

Step 1) Click to edit the first phase of the workflow

Step 2) Change the value in the Phase name field (you can also tweak other parts of the name)

Step 3) Hit ✅ Save

Part 2 - Email Notifications

Step 1) Click to edit the 👷‍♂️ Supplier | Draft Review  👷‍♂️ phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Notifications tab

Step 3) Alongside the enabled email, hit the Edit icon

Step 4) Edit the Names (& any other text) from the email Subject/Content

Step 5) Hit ✅ Update &  ✅ Save

 

 

Branding: Form Header Logo

This logo will appear at the top of the form being initiated by suppliers.

If this is not set, the (left-hand) Gatekeeper logo below will be the only one visible so suppliers expecting to complete a contract for your organisation may be confused!

 

If you do not have access to the Branding sidebar menu option, please contact your CSM or reach out to our CS Team here for assistance & they can set this logo for you

 

 

Create/Assign Workflow Group

For the 👨‍💼 Internal | Draft Review 👨‍💼 phase, it may be necessary to assign a responsible team in case the Internal Contract Owner is not appropriate to perform legal revisions

💡 LegalContract Management Teams are usually recommended here

See 📖 Creating a Workflow Group for more guidance.

Part 1 - Creating the Workflow Group

Step 1) Go to Settings > Users

Step 2) Hit Add > Workflow Group

Step 3) Title your group then hit ✅ Save

Step 4) Edit your group to assign its Members

Part 2 - Assigning the Group to your Workflow

Step 1) Click to edit the 👨‍💼 Internal | Draft Review 👨‍💼

Step 2) Navigate to the Form Access tab

Step 3) Unselect 🔘 Contract | Owner then check 🔘Workflow Group

Step 4) Select your desired group from Part 1 & hit ✅ Save

 

 

Joint vs External-Only Signatures

If the eNegotiate template being used does not require an internal eSigner (maybe it's a pre-signed version), "External eSign Only" can be selected within the eSign AutoAction to only request signature from the Vendor.

Step 1) Click to edit the ✍️ eSign ✍️ phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Underneath ⚙️ AutoAction | Send for eSign, check ☑️ External Signatory Only

 

 

Remove "I Need to Propose Changes" option

Depending on the Vendors you usually deal with, you may encounter the problem that many of our clients do:

"If we give our vendors the option to suggest changes, they may think it's expected and create unnecessary work for us"

Especially if you are using a pre-signed template & you want to avoid vendors making updates to your NDA, you can remove their option to hit "I need to propose changes"

This will effectively force them to agree to your standard NDA terms or not register at all

 

 

Enable "Reject" for Supplier Draft Reviews

By default, the ability for a supplier user to Reject a draft during the revision cycle has been removed because it can be seen as "unproductive"

➡️  i.e. Suppliers may only Accept the current draft or Submit a new draft

However, "Reject" can be re-enabled if you want suppliers to be able to opt-out of continuing negotiations

Step 1) Click to edit the 👷‍♂️ Supplier | Draft Review  👷‍♂️ phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Alongside Submit Contract Draft, uncheck ☑️ Email - Submit & Approve Only

See below article for more context & guidance:

📖 Configuring eNegotiate

 

 

Enable OFTW (Microsoft "Office for the Web")

If your company uses Microsoft Office for the Web to perform document editing, you can enable this within the workflow to facilitate the Internal Draft Review phase redlining.

Step 1) Click to edit the 👨‍💼 Internal | Draft Review  👨‍💼 phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Underneath Submit Contract Draft, check ☑️ Office for the Web


 

 

Add Local Workflow Collaborators/Administrators

Aside from the stakeholders within each phase (and any Global Workflow Admins), there may be members of your organisation who should be added as "Local Workflow Administrators/Collaborators"

💡 This means they will possess Control (Administrators) & Oversight (Administrators & Collaborators) of all cards created on this specific workflow

Step 1) Head to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit the workflow then select the Local Workflow Authorisation option

Step 3) Hit ADD to select a user to be a new Administrator or Collaborator, then ✅ Save

 

 

⚡️ Gatekeeper Expert: Connecting a Vendor Onboarding Process ⚡️

See this Knowledgebase article for an introduction to this use case:

📖 Parallel Workflows: NDA & Automated Vendor Onboarding

Part 1 - Amend the Vendor Approval Status

At the end of this workflow, AutoActions will update the status of your Contract/Vendor records in your repository;

Once fully signed, The NDA Contract Record will be set to Live & Approved.

The Vendor record will also be set to Live & Approved.

However, you may wish to instead require a more thorough Vendor Onboarding/Due Diligence assessment take place before you class this Vendor as "Approved".

Step 1) Click to edit the NDA Executed ✅ phase

Step 2) Navigate to the Actions tab

Step 3) Alongside ⚙️ AutoAction | Update Vendor, hit Edit AutoAction Values

Step 4) Change the Approval dropdown value from Approved  to Awaiting Approval

Step 5) Hit ✅ Save

Part 2 - Triggering your Onboarding Workflow

The combination of Live but not fully approved ("Awaiting Approval") is what you can use to trigger the next process in your Vendor Management Lifecycle.

💡 NB. Once your Vendor has been set to Live by the NDA workflow it can now be used for other internal contract requests by your users.

Step 1) Head to the Workflows page

Step 2) Click to edit your Vendor Onboarding Workflow then select the Workflow Triggers option

Step 3) Hit ➕ ADD TRIGGER & name this something like "NDA Executed, ready for Onboarding"

Step 4) The 2 conditions for this onboarding workflow should be those values set in Part 1

Vendor / Status is one of Live

Vendor / Approval is one of Awaiting Approval

 

 


 

 

✋ Before you start - Additional Configuration to Consider 🤚

 

If you have followed all the steps above, your workflow is almost ready to go

However, to ensure this process runs as smoothly and reliably as possible, there are some other areas of your Gatekeeper environment you should check over!

 

Configuring your Signatories

The ✍️ eSign ✍️ phase of this workflow comes preconfigured to automatically send your NDA out for signatures as soon as any card arrives on it

If you plan on having your contracts signed by both internal and external signatories, the Internal Signatories need to be configured in advance of using the workflow

Without doing this, you will find that the eSign Action Fails and needs to be manually restarted!