THE NEXT GENERATION OF WORKFLOW SOFTWARE

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1 THE NEXT GENERATION OF WORKFLOW SOFTWARE Executive Summary What is PerfectForms? PerfectForms is a web-based application development platform that enables both IT professionals and business users to create workflow applications without any programming knowledge. With PerfectForms, you can: Build engaging applications with a drag & drop graphical editor Design simple or complex workflows without coding Send automated notifications and escalations Create impressive drill down reports with data grids, graphs, & charts Get full visibility to your business process Integrate easily with LDAP, databases and other systems Host on your server (on-premise) or our server (on-demand) How can businesses use PerfectForms? PerfectForms customers utilize the solution to address numerous business problems, including but not limited to: Employee on-boarding Expense reporting Help desk requests Project management Customer satisfaction surveys Order and inventory management Vacation requests Customer relationship management (CRM) Why should businesses use PerfectForms? IT departments are busy and frequently stretched thin, leaving little time for them to develop applications from scratch or alter applications to fit ever-changing user needs. When they can dedicate resources to these tasks, it takes time from both the IT and end user side to discuss a project, and then multiple revisions to get right. PerfectForms lets the people closest to the workflow problem build applications to suit their needs. They can create solutions in just hours or days instead of weeks or months at a fraction of what large packaged applications or traditional custom development projects cost. While saving time for everyone, PerfectForms provides insight and oversight to IT departments. Administrators can log-on from any Web browser to view the applications being created and altered by business users to ensure that they comply with corporate policies. With PerfectForms, your organization can: Reduce development and deployment time Minimize dependence on IT resources Ensure process compliance 1

2 Improve collaboration Reduce errors and miscommunication Increase organizational efficiency Get full visibility to the entire business process Significantly increase productivity Enhance your return on investment (ROI) PerfectForms customers can choose between two distinct delivery models, depending on their needs: PerfectForms On-Demand No workflow software or hardware to maintain No upfront investment Secure 24/7 monitoring and back-up Low monthly payments PerfectForms On-Premise Workflow software installed on your servers Maintain complete control Can be moved to the cloud in the future Affordable one-time fee PerfectForms customers say: With PerfectForms, we can make sure that the business side builds workflows that conform to our specific infrastructure standards while giving us the freedom to work on more technical issues. -Elino Munsayac, CIO, Madison Life Insurance "We were able to replace a very manual process of sending, receiving and consolidating spreadsheets with an efficient, easy-to-use automated system." - Thomas Duncan, Vice President, Wholesale Banking Risk Management, U.S. Bank The use of PerfectForms campus wide has been amazing. Because PerfectForms is so easy to use and can address almost any challenge our users are faced with, the product is in continual use. -Jenny Walsh, Director, Office of Web & Administrative Systems for University of Portland An Introduction to PerfectForms PerfectForms application development platform was designed to help people who don t have a background in Web design or programming to automate any process using a simple, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). Anyone can use PerfectForms to make their businesses more efficient; the company s customer base includes educators, human resources professionals, artists, attorneys, marketers, healthcare professionals, bankers people who have neither the time nor the need to learn HTML. The innovative smart-form technology marries back-end processes, such as BPM and workflow automation, with a compelling front-end interface. 2

3 PerfectForms incorporates an easy-to-use, what you see is what you get interface that makes it easy for business users to customize their own applications, and even easier for IT professionals who are still charge with application development. The solution is available via both traditional (on-premise) and emerging software-asa-service delivery models. Using PerfectForms PerfectForms has been designed to offer an instinctive, customizable user experience. Creating smart forms that can automate business processes and manage the information collected through input takes just four simple steps. By following these basic benchmarks, individuals of any technological knowledge level can manage their business processes efficiently. Step 1: Design a form: Customers can use PerfectForms intuitive drag-and-drop graphical designer (see Image 1) to create the form s user interface. The graphical editor includes text boxes, buttons, checkboxes, drop-down menus, tables and many other objects that the user can incorporate to build the form. Then add intelligence to the form through the definition of behaviors, which determine how the form will respond to user actions. Examples of behaviors include showing/hiding options depending on selections or permissions, performing calculations, branching to questions based on responses. The possibilities are endless. The smart forms can also easily read data and write data to databases, Web services, text files, other forms and directory services, such as Active Directory. Image 1: Form Designer Canvas View Step 2: Map the workflow: Using the Workflow view in the Form Designer (see Image 2), customers can define how forms should route and when notifications should be sent. They can also set notifications and escalations in the workflow. For instance, using the Capital Expenditure Request as an example, if an employee were to submit a request for approval, the workflow could be defined to prompt their manager to approve or deny the request immediately and send reminders after any specified number of days. 3

4 Image 2: Form Designer Workflow View Step 3: Design a report: Customers can design comprehensive reports from the form data that enable you to monitor the entire business process (see Image 3). With PerfectForms, customers can create impressive drilldown reports complete with data grids, graphs, charts and gauges. These reports can then be embedded in Web pages, if desired. This step harnesses the power of business analytics with the convenience of automated data collection. Image 3: Report Designer 4

5 Step 4: Deploy the form or report: The form or report can be easily published and embedded in a web site or another application. Users can also access the form directly through an message or from the PerfectForms Dashboard (see Image 4). Image 4: Forms Dashboard Customer Case Studies PerfectForms is proud to have a customer base 100,000-strong, consisting of some of the world s most treasured brands, including: Procter & Gamble, GE Medical Systems, Shell, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and Cessna. However, it s small and medium-sized organizations that comprise the majority of PerfectForms clientele. PerfectForms is tailored to meet the needs of SMBs offering on-demand technical support and affordability that can t be found elsewhere. The implications of PerfectForms on small business productivity are limited only to the imagination. For instance, PerfectForms can dramatically reduce a school s reliance on paper printouts or help an HR consultancy systematically track the amount of compensation given to a group of workers based on seniority, title and department. The most common forms created using PerfectForms include: Human Resources Vacation and Absence request; Finance Purchase order and expense report; IT/Operations Maintenance and support request; Surveys Customer satisfaction; and Medical Patient intake The following cases studies illuminate how businesses of all kinds can use the PerfectForms to their advantage. 5

6 PerfectForms Customer Success Story: Visalia Unified School District BUSINESS CHALLENGE The Visalia Unified School District (USD) provides approximately 27,000 (K 12) students and 25,000 adults with the educational tools and skills necessary to succeed in life. Visalia USD serves 44 educational sites in California s San Joaquin Valley. Visalia USD utilizes paper based forms for over 100 administrative processes, which are labor intensive and inefficient. Faced with mounting budget cuts and rising materials costs, Visalia USD needed to implement a flexible form automation solution that could streamline processing and easily be deployed within Visalia s secure Intranet system. Visalia selected PerfectForms, so they can effectively support all of their administrative processes. Al Foytek, Visalia s Director of Business Information Systems, was initially drawn to PerfectForms because of the product s extensive functionality and affordability. PerfectForms worked with the district to provide workflow solutions, which are scheduled to gradually phase out Visalia s existing manual administrative procedures. By introducing PerfectForms in their print order process, the staff will be more efficient due to the ease of online ordering, electronic distribution, automated approval routing, and online status tracking. They are now on track to realize a savings of over $10K annually, on the print process alone. According to Al Foytek, In today s current climate of drastic state funding cuts, I believe every school district needs an automated solution like PerfectForms because efficiency is more important than ever. Automated solutions mean teachers have more time available to focus on the children. FORM AND WORKFLOW SOLUTION Over the next two years, Visalia is scheduled to fully integrate PerfectForms into the district s administrative workflow, leading to the conversion of over 100 paper forms to PerfectForms applications, which will be used by over 2400 users. For example, the district expects to use PerfectForms to automate accident reports, substitute teacher requests, and transportation requests. The customizability of PerfectForms also enables Visalia s staff to create automated forms that look exactly like their paper based counterparts. This ensures an easier transition from paper to electronic forms and requires less training for teachers and staff. In addition to providing custom form creation and processing, Visalia USD is looking to implement PerfectForms as a complete workflow solution, which will dramatically reduce processing time and save the district substantial resources. BUSINESS RESULTS PerfectForms automation will allow Visalia USD to dramatically increase efficiency and reduce costs. By cutting down the amount of time Visalia s staff spends on administrative tasks, they are able to devote more time to students and parents, therefore improving school performance. 6

7 Additional benefits include: Reduced printing costs. Through transitioning their print process to PerfectForms, Visalia is able to realize a $10K annual cost savings and provide a more eco friendly solution. Expanded opportunities. Visalia USD s implementation of PerfectForms for the print order process was simple, timely and can be easily adapted to create new workflow solutions. PerfectForms will be expanded to cover the range of over 100 administrative processes in the next two years. Reduced maintenance costs. Any technical problems are easily solved with the assistance of PerfectForms on demand support staffers, who personally assist the district in finding quick answers to their questions and concerns at no additional cost. Return on investment. Visalia USD expects to recover their investment in the PerfectForms solution within two years of implementation on the cost of multi part forms alone. Added savings are gained in efficiency of ordering on line, electronic distribution, electronic approval routing, on line status checking, not having to drive orders/forms over for rush situations, electronic forms archiving, automated management summary of data, and not having to wait as long for processes overall amounts to labor savings that far exceed the cost of all forms. PerfectForms Customer Success Story: Trilliant, Inc. BUSINESS CHALLENGE Trilliant provides network solutions and software for monitoring and controlling electric, gas, and water utility use in real time through the Trilliant Smart Grid Network. Trilliant's services provide utility companies with state of the art metering and communications infrastructures that can reduce energy consumption and costs for consumers. As a cutting edge energy solutions firm, Trilliant s business operations rely on the ability to quickly react to customer concerns and requests. Trilliant s CIO Tom Hines initially approached PerfectForms due to its affordability and simplicity, compared to other SaaS solutions. Tom s experience while implementing the service helped him realize that Trilliant s entire Non Disclosure Agreement process could be easily automated using a PerfectForms application. Since that time, PerfectForms has become an essential tool in streamlining Trilliant s day to day operations. WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS In addition to providing form creation and automation capabilities, PerfectForms is used by Trilliant as a powerful process mapping tool, which allows administrators to understand and streamline workflow processes. By identifying daily work connection points, Trilliant is able to document all pending items and procedures, better address inefficiencies and manage time and resource investments. This internal management process has been greatly improved thanks to the versatile nature of PerfectForms, saving Trilliant significant time and money. 7

8 BUSINESS RESULTS Through the implementation of PerfectForms, Trilliant was able to substantially decrease customer service response time and simplify their organizational change management process. By shoring up efficiencies within its Smart Grid solutions framework, PerfectForms was able to greatly assist Trilliant s efforts toward providing customers with better, more reliable and economical energy solutions. Additional benefits include: Off site simplicity. PerfectForms reduces adoption costs and allows Trilliant to keep all documentation secure within a reliable framework. Reduced maintenance costs. All technical problems are quickly and easily solved with the assistance of PerfectForms on demand management staff. Increasing productivity through streamlining workflow. Trilliant reports that the workflow management system allows administrators to identify process bottlenecks, allowing the company to drastically streamline processes. Expanded business opportunities. Trilliant cites that PerfectForms flexibility easily adapts to new and existing workflow solutions. If you are interested in learning more about how PerfectForms can benefit your organization, please: Contact us: or Sign up for a trial: 8