In the OWL Intelligence Platform, External Collaborators are approved users from outside your organization who can be granted view-only access to specific records or case-related information.
They are typically partners, such as outside agencies, third-party investigators, or other authorized entities, who need limited, controlled visibility into certain data without full system access.
External Collaborator Policy and Access Rights:
- View-Only Access: External collaborators can access the information shared with them but are not permitted to modify it.
- Approval Required: Their access is granted only after completing an approval workflow in which the request is reviewed and either accepted or declined.
- Time-Limited Access: Their permissions are controlled by an expiry date to ensure access does not extend beyond the intended duration.
- Secure External Sharing: OWL enables safe and controlled information exchange with outside agencies or partners while maintaining compliance and security standards.
- Integrated Collaboration Feature: The OWL collaboration system supports the sharing of records between internal users and authorized external collaborators.
- Ability to Create Records: External collaborators with WRITE permissions may create new records and link them to the case they are collaborating on. Those with READ permissions can only view the records associated with the shared case.
New External Collaborator Users
Users can request to add new External Collaborator Users. All requests to add a new external collaborator to OWL must go through a review and approval workflow involving the respective department administrator and the organization administrators. Based on this review, the request will either be approved, resulting in the collaborator being added as a user, or rejected.
External collaborators can be added only if the following conditions are met:
- External Collaborator Licenses (Read/Write) are available, including:
- External Collaborator – Full
- External Collaborator – Read
- Sufficient license quantities must exist to assign the appropriate external collaborator license to the new user.
- If the external collaborator requires write permissions, an External Collaborator – Full license must be available.
Reviewing External Collaborator Pending Requests
When a requester submits a request to add an external collaborator along with their agency details:
- Department Team Administrators and Organization Administrators receive notifications.
- Team Administrators can view and approve requests for the departments they manage.
- Organization Administrators can view and approve all external collaborator requests across the organization.
Accessing External Collaborator Requests
To review pending requests:
- Open the Administrator module from the OWL header.
- From the admin side menu, navigate to Information Sharing → Collaboration.
- Select External Collaborators.
- You will be directed to the page with all pending external collaborator requests.
Viewing Pending Requests
- The Pending Requests page lists all external collaborator requests awaiting approval.
- Organization Administrators can view all pending requests across departments.
- Team Administrators can view only the requests associated with the departments they manage.
Request Details
Each external collaborator request includes:
- Collaborator’s name and email
- Contact information
- Language and timezone
- Department
- Agency details
- Requested access rights (Read/Write)
- Access expiration date
- Requester’s name and request date
Agency information can be viewed by clicking on the agency name within the request.
Editing a Request
Reviewers may update the following during review:
- User information
- Access rights
- Expiration date
To edit:
- Open the Action Menu for the request.
- Select Edit.
- A pop-up will appear, allowing you to modify the details.
Approving a Request
To approve:
- Open the Action Menu.
- Select Approve.
During Approval:
- A confirmation pop-up will appear.
- If read access is requested, the pop-up displays:
- Number of available External Collaborator – Read licenses
- Number of licenses already used
- If no licenses are available, the request cannot be approved.
- Optional reviewer comments can be added before final approval.
Post-Approval Actions
Once a request is approved:
- OWL creates the user account with the appropriate External Collaborator license (Read or Full).
- The collaborator receives an activation email with login credentials.
- The requester is notified that the collaborator has been added and can be assigned to cases.
Rejecting a Request
To reject:
- Open the Action Menu.
- Select Reject.
- Enter the reason for rejection in the pop-up window.
- Confirm to complete the action.
The request status will then be updated to Rejected.
Filtering Requests
The Pending Approvals page includes filters to help locate specific requests. You can filter by:
- Collaborator Name
- Collaborator Email
- Agency Name
- Department or Teams
- Access Rights (Read/Write)
- Access Expiration Date
- Request Created Date Range
Approval Validations
- A request cannot be approved if its external collaborator's expiration date has already passed. To proceed with approval, the reviewer must first update the expiration date by editing the request.
- The collaboration expiration date cannot be set beyond the software edition’s subscription end date.
Viewing Previously-Approved Requests
Once a request is approved, it is moved to the Approved Requests page.
The Approved Requests page displays all requests that have been fully approved, along with approver details, approval comments, and the current status of the external collaborator within the organization.
If you need to extend a collaborator’s access, you can do so using the Extend Collaborator option available in the action menu.
Even if the collaborator’s access has already expired, it can still be extended through the same option.
The expiration date cannot be extended beyond the organization’s subscription end date.
The Approved Requests page also includes filters that allow you to search for specific requests by:
- Collaborator Name
- Collaborator Email
- Agency Name
- Department or Teams
- Access Rights (Read/Write)
- Access Expiration Date
- Request Created Date Range
Viewing Previously-Rejected Requests
When an external collaboration request is rejected, it is moved to the Rejected Requests page.
The Rejected Requests page displays details about the reviewer and the reason provided for rejecting the request.
Organization Administrators can view all rejected requests across every department, while Team Administrators can view only the rejected requests belonging to their assigned departments.
Rejected requests cannot be approved or deleted.
The Rejected Requests page includes filters that allow you to search for specific requests by:
- Collaborator Name
- Collaborator Email
- Agency Name
- Department or Teams
- Access Rights (Read/Write)
- Access Expiration Date
- Request Created Date Range