Teams on OpenSolar

Here we'll walk you through the Teams functionality on OpenSolar. Teams is a feature that facilitates collaboration and data sharing among different organizations involved in solar projects.  It allows you to connect with other businesses, share project data, and streamline your workflow.

User Role Access

To access Teams and any of its functionalities (connecting to orgs, sharing projects, etc.), users must have an Admin account.

Accessing Teams

To access the Teams feature, click on "Control" to access the control panel and navigate to the "Teams" section under your company settings.

Connected Orgs

In the Teams section, you will find two subsections: "Connected Orgs" and "Sharing Permissions."

Click on "Connected Orgs" to view the organizations connected to your account 

Establishing Connections

To establish a connection with another organization, click on "Connect Org" (top right).

 After clicking you will then be prompted to fill up the information to connect with an org:

• Enter the name of the organization you want to connect to.
• Choose whether the connection is enabled or disabled (controls data sharing).
• You can then select the "Sharing Permission" option which helps manage what project data is allowed to be shared with another organization. (Please see below how to manage your sharing permissions.)
• Optionally, select users from your organization who will receive notifications when projects are shared by the connected organization.
• Click "Save" to initiate the connection.

Accepting Connections

If another organization initiates a connection with your organization, you will see a pending connection in your "Teams" section. Similarly if you send a request to the org you want to make connections with will get a connection request as shown below under "connected orgs".

You can either accept or delete the connection request.

Accepting the request allows you to specify sharing permissions for project data with the connecting organization.

Sharing Control Items

To share control items or entities (e.g., pricing schemes, hardware components) with connected organizations, go to the specific control item settings.

Select the org that you want to connect to and save the changes. Similarly you can do this with applicable control items in the Control tab.

You can also view a summary of all shared items in the "Teams" section under "Connected Orgs."

How to Bulk Share Entities?

You can share bulk share entities by going into the entities. Taking an example from Pricing Schemes
When you go into pricing scheme you will notice checkbox which allows you to select multiple checkboxes to select multiple options and bulk share it with the org are connected with.

1. Navigate to the Pricing Schemes section.

2. Within the Pricing Scheme section, you'll find checkboxes next to each entity. These checkboxes allow you to select multiple entities simultaneously for bulk sharing with your organization or connected entities.

3. Look for the "Share with" option. Click on it, and a drop down menu will appear, displaying the organizations or connected entities available for sharing.

4. From the dropdown menu, select the organization or entities you wish to share the selected entities with.

5. Confirm your selection by clicking "Save Changes."

If you need to undo the sharing, simply choose the organization from the "Unshare with" option and save your changes.

Sharing Projects

Create a new project within your organization.

In the project settings, you will find the "+Share Project" in the bottom right corner on the "Info" page

Select the connected organization(s) you want to share the project with.

Define project access overrides by selecting the relevant permission option from the dropdown and toggle on the visibility settings to make the project visible to the other org.

Save the project settings.

Please note: Shared projects can be viewed and interacted with by the connected organization based on the specified sharing permissions.

Collaborating on a project

Shared entities

While working on a shared project, you can utilize entities such as equipment, pricing schemes, payment options, and more, which are shared by the collaborating organization. In Design, each entity indicates whether it is shared to or with the connected organization, as shown in the example below.

Email feature

If a project has been shared with you, you can access the 'Project Sharing' feature in the project's 'Info' section. This feature allows you to communicate with the other organization via email.

To utilize this feature, simply click on the email icon in the 'Project Sharing' section. This will generate an email sent to the users assigned to the project by the project owner organization.

Using this email feature, you can efficiently collaborate and communicate with the organization that shared the project with you, ensuring that any required project changes are implemented promptly and accurately.

Managing Sharing Permissions

To control how a connected organization views your projects, go to "Company" > "Teams" > "Sharing Permissions."

Create custom permission sets specifying which parts of the project should be visible to the connected organization by clicking on "Create A New Record".

Click on Save.

Apply the custom permission set to the org connection and then the custom permission sets apply to new projects shared going forward.

FAQs:

• When I send a connection request to another organization, how will the users of the org be notified?
  The invited org will receive a ‘Pending Connection’ in their Teams > Connected Orgs page. As of now, users are not notified via email about new pending connections.
• Can I connect with organizations in a different country?
  Yes, you can connect with organizations located in any country, regardless of your organization's location. Just remember, when collaborating on shared projects with an organization in a different country, make sure that prices are specified in the same currency for a seamless experience.