You may have heard rumbling around the water cooler about eForms and that Lane is in the process of implementing a product called Softdocs. A small team has had initial form and workflow training and will be moving forward with advanced integration training the week of 5/20/2020. Once complete, we will be able to convert existing web and paper forms into automated eForms using the Softdocs Etrieve system.
Some of the features of Softdocs include:
- Pull data from Banner to auto-fill forms with any data known to Banner
- Push data back into Banner through Ethos (an API framework for interacting with Banner)
- Save completed forms to BDM (Banner Document Manager)
- Save completed forms along with an audit trail.
- Allow anyone to initiate a form. For example, if a student needs to submit a request to Student Services, they will be able to log into Etrieve (the Softdocs client) and initiate that form on their own. No paper or waiting in line.
- Attach documents and images to forms that can then become part of the official record.
- A form builder that nearly anyone can use to build their own forms and workflows. (Training will be provided in the near future for those interested.)
- Many more features that we will share along the way...
If your department has a form, or even a lot of forms, that you would like to see converted, you can submit them to the eDoc Form Triage sheet using the button below. Forms will be scored based on the number of forms seen in a year and whether it is student or staff facing. Obviously, student facing forms are given a higher priority, but staff facing forms that are heavily used will be scored highly as well.
If you have a form that you use and that you know is used in other departments, please don’t hesitate to submit it. As duplicates show up, we will combine them. The more forms we have in the triage sheet, the more we will be able to prioritize our work and the more we will be able to lighten the load.
Timing
As you can imagine, Lane has a lot of forms that need to be converted. Please understand that the team will be working hard to get the most needed forms done in a timely manner. The more forms we know about, the better we can prioritize them. Please don't put off submitting the forms you use! We need a comprehensive list! Please also understand that, as this project ramps up, there are a small number of form and workflow builders. Forms submitted to the triage sheet may not get attention for quite some time, based on its score and how many form and workflow builders we have. I'm afraid that's as close as we can get to a timeframe right now, but, as we get more form and workflow builders trained, the timeframes will compress.
What's Next?
In the coming months expect to see opportunities for form and workflow builder training. Let's use our tools to make our jobs easier!
If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me -- danskinem@lanecc.edu