Laserfiche Forms: The Customer Perspective

Editor's Notes

• #2: Welcome to today’s Webinar. I’m Melissa Henley, Director of Marketing Communications at Laserfiche, and I’m pleased to be joined today by Mark Williams, CFO for the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia. Mark says the impact of Laserfiche Forms can only be described by one word: “Wow!” – so I’m thrilled he’ll be joining me today to share his experiences with you. We’re also joined by Presales Engineer Ege Ersoz, so never fear – if you have a question about what Forms can or can’t do, you don’t have to rely on just my knowledge. Let’s get started!
• #3: Since I know you want to hear Mark talk about how PCGA is using Laserfiche Forms, we’ll get to that pretty quickly! Before we do, I’ll give you a brief overview of Laserfiche Forms – including what’s coming in Forms 9.1. Mark will share with you how Laserfiche Forms—along with Laserfiche Workflow and Laserfiche Quick Fields—transformed his organization by streamlining a number of business processes including AP processing, requisition, travel reimbursement, purchase requests and more. Just to give you a little sneak peek of what’s coming - the way PCGA is using Laserfiche Forms is really pretty exciting. Over 900 employees at 49 circuit courts across the state are submitting personnel action request forms via the Laserfiche Forms portal, dramatically simplifying the process and reducing the processing time of reimbursement requests, and Mark will tell you a little about how that process works, and what they have planned for the future. After Mark’s finished, I’ll share with you some ways you can learn more about Laserfiche Forms, and then we’ll have some Q&A time. A quick note – if you have any questions, please enter them into the FAQ. We’ll be monitoring them throughout the Webinar, and will get to as many as we can at the end.
• #4: So let’s start off with just a brief overview of Laserfiche Forms.
• #5: Since you are giving us an hour of your life today, I’m assuming you’re interested in hearing about Laserfiche Forms. For those of you who don’t know, Laserfiche Forms quickly and accurately captures and processes vital information so that business processes can proceed without the delays of paper forms.Did you know that according to IT research firm Gartner, 85% of business processes are initiated by a form, but up to 40% of those submitted forms contain missing information that must be corrected manually? That’s why it’s so important to control the information you’re capturing from forms – whether they’re coming from your staff or your customers.  With a straightforward, web-based design and publishing tool, Laserfiche Forms allows processes to be launched from outside the traditional enterprise. Customizable online forms can be embedded into—or linked from—any page on your website, intranet or public portal so that it’s easy for employees, customers and other stakeholders to access, complete and submit them. Because of its easy-to-use design, Laserfiche Forms allows people with varying levels of IT experience to design and include web forms in their business processes. As such, it provides flexibility in form design and creation while still allowing IT and Operations to maintain security and management controls.
• #6: I thought it would be neat to hear from you all how you are interested in using Laserfiche Forms at your organizations. Please take a minute and vote in the poll on your screen!
• #7: So it looks like most of you are interested in using Forms to … (Freestyle here).I thought I’d share with you a few of the ways we’re using Laserfiche Forms here at Laserfiche. I’m excited to be hosting this Webinar because the Marketing Department wasn’t just the first department to use the beta version of Forms in a real process - we’re also the department that is the heaviest user of Forms! So we have a lot of insight into how it works for us. In fact, if any of you entered for the Run Smarter Awards this year or last, you used one of our Laserfiche Forms. We use it in other ways too – to manage incoming requests from other departments – and I use Forms to approve travel requests and associated expenses, submit my expense reports, and even to RSVP for our events like the Christmas party or our annual flu shots. In fact, to request Ege’s help at this Webinar, I filled out a Laserfiche Form.
• #8: That form I filled out to get Ege’s help here today is the Presales Assistance Request Form. We were so impressed by how it worked (and how it was integrated with our Inhouse Laserfiche repository) that we decided to implement our own form in the Marketing Department.
• #9: So welcome to MARS – the Marketing Assistance Request System! When we worked with Presales to implement this, we requested one improvement on the PAR – that it automatically generate tasks in Scrumworks, our project management system, based on the requests submitted through the form. This would save us from retyping information that already existed in digital form.
• #10: Presales was able to do this for us, and it worked so well they implemented it on the PAR, too! And we shared how it all works – using Laserfiche Forms, Laserfiche Workflow and Scrumworks – on the Solution Exchange. If you’re interested in this solution, take a look!
• #11: I’m especially excited about the changes that are coming in Forms 9.1. Expected in December, Laserfiche Forms 9.1 will build on the first release of Laserfiche Forms by improving the user experience, enhancing reporting and expanding functionality. These enhancements fall into three main areas: an improved look and feel, new reporting capabilities, and an simpler way to approve Forms – right from your email!
• #12: Improved Look and FeelOne thing I think is particularly interesting in Forms 9.1 is “Timer Events,” which can automatically start a process at a certain time. This makes automatically launching routine processes – like weekly reports or monthly reviews – much easier. In addition, you can wait a certain amount of time or wait until a certain time and continue your process, which makes it much easier to enforce process policies. For example, if you have a process that must wait 30 days until a contract ends and then move it until the next step, you can easily configure that in the process modeler. And most exciting as someone who manages processes, you’ll be able to set time-based escalations and schedule email reminders when user tasks take longer than expected. So if you have a form that needs to be approved and it’s not done in a timely manner, you can send an email notification to the process manager (like me!) and reassign the task automatically – so that your processes always keep moving. You can even schedule notifications based on dates on the form. As an example, even if you submit a travel request 3 months in advance of your trip, Forms can automatically notify your travel coordinator to book the ticket 30 days before the date of your trip. This way, nothing falls through the cracks!
• #13: Improved Task ListsAlso in Forms 9.1, you’ll be able to create priority rules for user task in a process, which have a color coded priority on the task page. This makes it much easier for staff to work on tasks based on priority, rather than just which one happened to arrive in last and is at the top of their task list. As you can see, right here we’re in the task pane and you can see the high priority task is to book travel because of a deadline. To use this travel request example, you can set priority by step (like booking flight will always appear high priority) or by time (for example, 30 days before the trip, the booking flight step will move to high priority). This gives you flexibility in how you prioritize. The task list is also improved – now tasks are categorized by business process, and pending or complete status. Tasks can be further grouped by date, task name, and priority. Users can search for a task with the search pane. In the task overview pane, you can view a summary of the process or even approve tasks inline if "Direct Approval" is allowed for that task. That means no more clicking into the form if you just need to click “yes” or “no” on a Travel Request – very exciting!In this example, you can see that we’re commenting on and then rejecting this PO right from the task list. Because the new task list enables you to see the forms you submitted and where they are in the Forms process, it will be easier to follow up on delayed or impeded processes.
• #14: Basic ReportingForms 9.1 also includes improved reporting to give managers a clearer perspective on the current status of their processes as well as aggregate captured information. Managers will be able to quickly generate reports by configuring columns and filters (system variables) on process results (instances). These reports can be made available to other full named users. You’ll be able to configure reports on things like start/end date/time, actor, status, and more. Here you can see that we’re tracking this order form based on the customer, when it was started, who it was started by, what step in the process it’s currently at, and whether it’s urgent or not.
• #15: Email ApprovalIn Forms 9.1, you’ll be able to approve or deny a form by responding to the email notification, without having to open the form or Laserfiche Forms. All you do is reply “yes” or “no” – or whatever your form requires – right in the body of your email. No more logging into Forms if you’re out on the road or stuck in meetings. As someone who approves A LOT of forms and is in A LOT of meetings, this is very exciting to me!Some other improvements you may be interested in: A new "Save to Laserfiche" configuration tool will give process creators more control over where completed forms are saved and how the captured information is mapped to metadata. We’ll be expanding global flexibility by supporting international address and date formats. And you can add "Captcha" to a form, which prevents bots from submitting public forms.
• #16: And now for the part of the Webinar you’ve all been waiting for!
• #17: I’m pleased to introduce Mark Williams, the Chief Financial Officer of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia. When Mark entered for the Run Smarter Awards this year, he said the best way to quantify the results from his organization’s use of Laserfiche was “wow!” So I am very excited to turn things over to him and hear what he has to say about how his organization is using Laserfiche Forms.
• #35: Thanks, Mark! That was such a great presentation. I know I learned a lot, and I’m sure everyone else did too. Besides the tips & tricks Mark passed along, there are some other ways to learn about Laserfiche Forms.
• #36: Looking for direct examples of how Laserfiche Forms can work in your office? Laserfiche has published a new how-to book on using Laserfiche Forms, “Quicker, Better, Safer: Laserfiche Forms.”This e-book offers screenshots, step-by-step explanations and advice on how to set up and configure Laserfiche Forms for five daily business processes. Interested in getting a copy? We’ll be sending it out after the Webinar!
• #37: And coming soon, we’ll be releasing a CPP class focusing just on Laserfiche Forms. If you take this course, you will learn how to use Laserfiche Forms to collect and route information. If you’re in the process of digitizing paper-based processes, this course will be a great resource for getting started. To help you map out a process, the course will cover the basics of business process management. With that background, you’ll be able to make use of the information collected in your forms and get it to the people who need it. By the end of the course, you’ll be comfortable building web-based forms and making them available for use by your coworkers and customers.We’re expecting this new CPP course to release in the next few months. And as a special bonus for attending today’s Webinar, we’ll be sending you a promo code so when it’s ready, you can try it out for free!
• #38: For those of you planning to attend the Empower conference or who are thinking about it, we have more Forms resources than ever before!
• #39: You can find all of these classes in the Recommended Courses section under “Products – Forms.”
• #40: Most exciting, this year some of our customers will be sharing their successes with Laserfiche Forms. Here are a few to look out for:In EDM106: From Traditional to Transformational with Laserfiche, Jim Anderson, Chief Systems Officer from NorthStar Financial, will be share how his organization transformed using Workflow and Forms. He’ll also give you some practical advice on change management that can be adopted by any industry and organization to garner stakeholder support to initiate a Laserfiche project. In EDM107: Going Paperless Enterprise Wide with Laserfiche, Adam Galvan Jr. from Texas’s Edgewood ISD will share how the complete implementation of Laserfiche and Laserfiche Workflow within his organization allowed a paper-free environment. Adam has implemented more than 200 electronic forms and workflows across 18 departments and 20 campuses!In EDM108: Business Automation in 18 Months, another Texan – Bob Allen from Frisco ISD – will share how in just 18 months, this fast-growing school district implemented automated workflows and forms that impacted nearly 6,000 employees and more than 60 separate offices, campuses, and facilities. In CD 125: Optimizing Mobile Strategy with Workflow and Forms, Dr. Majed Alhaisoni from Saudi Arabia’s University of Hail offers a behind-the-scene tour of how a Laserfiche-enabled mobile approval process has become the new way of life for university staff members, and what it took to get there.
• #41: Interested in how your organization can become one of these success stories? Curious about how Forms can work with your existing Laserfiche system? Wondering how much work it will take to transform your paper forms into Laserfiche Forms? Sign up for a demo and find out!
• #42: Now we’ll be happy to answer any questions.