What is the time line for an assessment?

Picture representing general FAQs

Introduction

Every assessment has a timeline. it is made up of a number of periods. The periods are:

  • Invitation Period
  • Invitation Grace Period
  • Assessment Period
  • Assessment Grace Period
  • Turnaround period

The maximum lengths of each of these Periods are determined by EntreBahn.The Turnaround Period is the sum of all the other Periods. The Grace Periods may be zero.

From the roster of available experts, the client can explicitly select N experts to assess their submission; or ask the system to choose the N advisors to do the assessments, or explicitly select N experts and ask the system to select M Experts for a total of N+M experts, each doing an independent assessment. Each expert is issued a personalized invitation at the start of the Invitation Period during which the invitation is valid.

To be eligible to do an assessment, each chosen expert must accept an invitation during the Invitation Period. The Invitation Period ends when:

  • The expert agrees to the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA),
  • The Expert declines the Invitation.
  • The Expert does not respond to the Invitation within the Invitation Period.

If the Expert accepts the Invitation and agrees to the NDA, the Assessment Period then starts and each Expert has an Assessment Period to complete their assessment and send it to the client.

If the Client has allowed the system to select the experts, then an Invitation is issued to each system-selected expert and they must accept the invitation and signed the NDA within the Invitation Period, just like the explicitly chosen Experts.

[I am not sure if we can do the following:

If an explicitly selected expert has declined the invitation to do an assessment, they can be replaced by a system-selected Substitute Expert who has until the end of the Invitation Period to accept the invitation and agree to the NDA. If the chosen Expert declines the invitation near the end of the Invitation Period, the Substitute Expert may not have adequate time to accept the Invitation and agree to the NDA. One solution to this problem is to restart the Invitation Period for the Substitute Expert. However, this would extend the Turnaround Period and make the time the Client needs to wait for the assessment more than the initially promised. This may be acceptable to the Client if the system notifies the Client of the substitution. But what happens if the Substitute Expert declines the Invitation or allows the Invitation Period to lapse. Does the system select yet another Substitute Expert, extend the Invitation Period again and notifies the Client again, ad nausium.

Lastly, there is a Invitation Grace Period after the Invitation Period and the Assessment Grace Period. The length of the Grace period is defined by EntreBahn. This allows all the requested and accepted assessments to be completed witihin the Turnaround Period.

Example 1

In this simple example, the client asked for a Chosen Expert and let the system select another Expert. Both experts accept their invitations during the Invitation Period and wrote assessments within the Turnaround Period. They then send their assessments to the client before then end of the Turnaround Period.

 

Example 2

The client chose 3 experts to do assessments. If these 3 were not available, the client wanted the system to select replacement experts. 
  • Invitation Period 1 started when Expert 1 received an Invitation 1 from Client 1.
  • Assessment Period 1 started when Expert 1 accepted Invitation 1, agreed to the NDA, and started to write the assessment. Expert 1 completed the assessment during Assessment Period 1 before the end of the Turnaround Period.
  • Client 1 sent Invitation 2 to Expert 2 during Invitation 2 Period. Expert 2 declined the Invitation 2 during the Invitation Period 2. The system then selected Expert 4 and sent Invitation 4 to Expert 4 to do an assessment. Expert 4 has either the remainder of Invitation Period 2 to respond or a new Invitation Period 4 to respond - see above for possible problem.
  • Chosen Expert 3 ignored the Invitation 3 during Invitation Period 3. The system then selected Expert 5 and sent a new Invitation 5 after Invitation Period 3 ends. This is a possible problem because there is no time left in Invitation Period 3 to accept the Invitation 5 so a new Invitation 5 Period must be started, extending the Turnaround period.
  • If chosen Expert 1 completes the assessment, but after the end of the Assessment Period, then Expert 1 may be paid less than the full amount for the assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

FAQ Topic: 
General FAQs