CMS User Group: MachForm

Talk given by Paul Abbott

Transcript

1. Introduction and Overview Paul Abbott, Sr. Admin. Analyst Student Affairs Technology Services
2.  In 2011/2012 SATS decided it wanted to offer online forms to our clients, because we noticed they were starting to utilize Google Docs forms, and we were concerned about data security.  Our initial idea was to utilize a platform that lived on our servers and resolved to our installation of SharePoint.  After working with that idea for a while we realized A) the original forms solution didn’t meet all our needs and B) SharePoint wasn’t the best answer to every aspect of data storage.  One of our customers (AEP) was using a solution called MachForm, and had a lot of good things to say about it, so we checked it out. We’ve been using it ever since.
3.  A web-based form creation solution.
4. Why Should You Care? • UC San Diego collects a lot of information in the “analog domain,” asking students to fill out (and hand in) paper forms. • This is slow and ineffective. • Online forms allow students to submit information easier. They allow staff to process data faster, as well as see some trends (gather metrics).
5.  For ease-of-use and collecting/analyzing: ◦ analog is bad ◦ digital is good
6.  Easy-to-build, flexible platform  Web-based login to access submitted data ◦ Admin. access based on simple account creation  Ability to modify form “theme” so it integrates seamlessly with campus-wide CMS  Can integrate Single Sign-On (SSO) to automatically pull data from database  Flexible auto-reply/confirmation to submitter  Flexible notification routing for admin.
7.  Workshop and conference sign-up  Fund proposals  Tutor applications  Travel requests  Student move-in/move-out room assessment  Submitting feedback  Evaluations
8.  Sample form:  http://stage- students.ucsd.edu/_draft/pabbott/cwo- demo.html  Get form data:  https://sa-devforms.ucsd.edu/forms/