Clicks & Notes

Step Two Designs - Step-by-step: implementing online forms

Online forms should be a key component of all corporate intranets, as they deliver clear productivity benefits and cost savings. Few organisations, however, have taken the next steps beyond simply publishing forms in PDF format.

• instead of merely serving as a static repository, an intranet can be used to enable business processes within an organization
• online forms can speed up both the initial information capture and back-office processing; however, it is more common for people to print out PDFs to be completed and processed by hand
• companies can use an incremental approach to implementing online forms:
  1. use simple HTML forms to capture information and generate an email
  2. pre-populate some form fields, ideally using information based on a user’s intranent login ID
  3. set up a simple workflow – still email based – with a limited number of steps ; additional code can be added to the initial capture form to provide some “form logic”
  4. implement full workflow and integration, which could be done by:
     • additional custom development of the existing forms
     • using workflow functionality of a CMS or EDM system
     • integration with an “enterprise workflow solution”
• using the workflow functionality of a CMS is recommended as an effective way of short-cutting the steps noted above
• addtional suggestions:
  • ensure ’single sign-on’ across all intranet systems
  • forms should be linked with the supporting information/policies
  • forms should appear in search results near the top of the list