A key aspect of Q4 Press is the concept of working in Phases. This allows you to set up distinct groups that you need to collaborate with prior to moving to subsequent groups.For instance, a typical use of phases includes working with an initial draft, management feedback and finally disclosure committee approval.

Within each phase you are able to selecta distinct group of participants. This allows you to work freely with each group to evolve the document to the point where you are ready to share it with the next group. For example, in many cases you don’t want to involve the Disclosure committee until the document has been finalized.)

Using phases also provides the ability to generate detailed reports regarding all activity related to each specific phase, such as what versions were broadcast to whom, who responded, the content of their feedback and much more.

When a new phase is created, the participants of the previous phase no longer have access to the most recent version of the document and can view a “read-only” version of the latest version they were broadcast. This means they are not able to provide feedback during subsequent phases. They also cannot view the edits or comments of participants involved in subsequent/other phases. This allows the author to create a phase specifically to limit those who are able to view comments or edits of specific individuals.

Of course authors can always add participants to acurrent phase at any time in order to receive feedback.

The ‘Phase’ feature helps ensure that the author of the document maintains control of the versions being distributed and the reviewers and approvers who require feedback.

To get start a new phase is easy. When you create a new press release you’re required to provide a name and an expected completion date for the phase. Use a simple name to get started like ”Initial Draft” .

When you are ready to create a new phase click the link “Create a new phase” from the author screen.This takes you to a screen that provides 3 steps to creating the new phase.

1.Select the Participants

This is the same interface you used when creating the release. Select the users you wish to be reviewers or approvers during this phase.Users can also be both an approver and reviewer during the phase (you can choose their role when you broadcast the document for feedback)

2.Enter Phase Information

Provide the name of the phase. Using a distinctive phase name will help properly set expectations of the phase participants and will be a useful guide when viewing workflow reports. (e.g. Management Feedback, Disclosure Committee Approval, etc…) As well, you must select a date for the end of the phase and it must come before the due date of the press release itself(which is displayed just below the phase date field)

3.Start the Phase

The final step is to simply click the button to “Launch Phase Now”.Once this happens, participants from the previous stage can no longer provide feedback on the previous version of the document as they will now have read-only access to the previous documents.

Upon clicking “Launch Phase Now” you will be taken back to the author screen and your document. From here you then broadcast the document to all selected participants in order to receive their feedback.