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WPEAF > Forms Based Workflow
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Forms Based Workflow
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This survey attempts to collect information about the members use of forms tools and routing tools for forms.
1. What is (are) the primary form tool(s) in use at your company?
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| | .NET, SharePoint (newer), MS Office tools - have InfoPath but not used much |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | InfoPath |
| | | 2 (17%) | |
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| | Lotus Notes forms |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Lotus Notes |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Word Documents, Opentext Livelink Forms, |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Adobe LiveCycle, SharePoint (MOSS 2007), Skelta BPM 2007, InfoPath |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Infopath |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Lotus Notes, MS Sharepoint |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | InfoPath (2003 & 2007), Word, Oracle Forms, Outlook Forms |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Word documents on our Intranet site |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | No primary tool. Spot usage of MS-InfoPath |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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Total: 12 |
2. Are the forms primarily web based (e-forms), requires a client, or self contained (form in a file)?
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| | web based (e-forms) |
| | | 7 (58%) | |
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| | requires a local client |
| | | 4 (33%) | |
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| | self contained (form in a file) |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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Total: 12 |
3. If you route forms, what tool(s) do you use to manage the routing?
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| | email, in-house workflow tool |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | emai, beginning to learn how to use workflow under MOSS2007 |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Lotus Notes workflow |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | User-selected |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | LiveLink |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Sharepoint, inhouse developed |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Adobe LiveCycle, SharePoint (MOSS 2007), Skelta BPM 2007 |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | K2.net |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Same as above |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Will be using SharePoint 2007 workflow; currently using custom javascript enclosed in the form |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Email, by the user filling the form. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | MS-Exchange & MS SharePoint |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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Total: 12 |
4. What has been good about your forms solution?
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| | simple, lot of people can make forms |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Although all PPG desktops/laptops have the InfoPath client loaded locally, we also have the option of distributing this to web servers and allowing for web entry (some functionality does not carry over to web client.) |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Easy to use, simple to workflow, leverage existing infrastructure |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Making the user identify their manager/supervisor results in low/no maintenance of routing.
Simple, low overhead app meets basic organizational requirements, which is great as long as requirements are basic. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Obvious benefits of centralization and consistancy. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Made collecting some of the info very easy and significantly reduced errors |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | We have used both .NET based forms (requires a developer) and PDF-based Forms (requires a "Poweruser" to create and anyone can route). We have augmented our stand-alone .NET-based apps with Skelta which has a Visio-like administration interface that a competent administrator can use to create and manage workflows. Now that Microsoft includes Workflow Foundations within its 2007 products, our developers have begun to use it to integrate SharePoint & MS Office workflows. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Reduction of paper. Faster approvals. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | They work for both simple forms and more complex forms |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | InfoPath
* InfoPath is the future direction of Microsoft support for forms, so there is a product roadmap we are confortable with.
* Ease of integration with SharePoint.
* Potential for use with mobile devices.
I'm not as familiar with the others enough to comment. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | It gets the complete set of information to the people who need it. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | We automated our FDA Validation methodology with it. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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Total: 12 |
5. What has been not-so-good about your forms solution?
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| | not very feature rich, simple if any data validation |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Forms with complex logic can/will require extra coding and this can create an additional support burden if the Form is around for several years (supporting some standard business process.) Try to keep the form as simple as possible. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Limited skills - the one guy who knew how to do this left so we have made no changes to any forms in 2 years |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Can't update within mail message, approver must log into separate app.
No longer have strong Notes skills, so enhancements/modifications have been limited.
Recipient of approved form must verify approvers have authority. Organization small enough that it hasn't been issue. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Difficult to ramp up users |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Setup of InfoPath required a certificate and at times form changes can pose a problem, other than that it has been well received.
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| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | We used Adobe's LiveCycle product for what started as a simple forms-based workflow but evolved into a full application (requiring persistent data storage in a database). While LiveCycle is a good PDF Forms manager, it is a terrible development platform. We had to augment its API with a large number of Web Services of our own. LiveCycle is a good PDF (and web-based forms manager) but it has its own user interface that is significantly different from other Microsoft interfaces (e.g., SharePoint). A key decision that you need to make up front is whether the forms solution might some day eveolve into a full application.
Also, be careful to determine if you want to use full business process monitoring through the use of a Business Activity Monitor (BAM). Utilizing BAM can provide significant transparency into a process but it takes some analysis and thought to set up.
We conducted a formal evaluation of workflow products about two years ago. It's somewhat dated but can be scrubbed and provided if requested. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | People still don't always choose the correct form. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Skills/effort for forms development (in the case of Lotus Notes/Domino) |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Not as easy to take advantage of the SharePoint workflow as you are lead to believe. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | Not really a work-flow solution. Forms hard to find on our Intrante site (poor search tools and lack of organization of the site). Our Intranet site is in maintenance mode, expecting to move to NetWeaver on SAP within 1-2 years. A lower priority effort in these difficult times. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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| | It is fairly new technology; no in-house expertise; consulting community is just learning the tool also, despite their advertising that they are experts in it. |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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Total: 12 |
6. Would you be willing to discuss this topic further in a one-on-one session?
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| | Yes |
| | | 11 (92%) | |
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| | No |
| | | 1 (8%) | |
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Total: 12 |
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