Last Updated on March 15, 2022 by Rakesh Gupta
Workflow automation has become an increasingly popular topic for organizations looking to streamline processes, reduce employee burnout, and save time and resources. Automation is especially important for data collection processes using web forms, no matter the business or industry. Clean, automated data collection is what drives organizations to make smarter decisions that influence revenue while improving efficiency and streamlining operations.
While it’s one thing to capture data in forms and send them into your Salesforce org, automating these data collection processes can get tricky without the right platform. Today, we’re covering FormAssembly Workflow and how it provides streamlined process automation for organizations in any industry.
FormAssembly Workflow overview
FormAssembly is a powerful, all-in-one data collection platform built for security-conscious organizations across industries, including healthcare and financial services. The platform offers an intuitive, no-code web form builder, advanced Salesforce integration, and many additional features. The recent release of their new process builder, FormAssembly Workflow, provides users with a way to visually map out complex data collection processes for a variety of use cases.
Prior to the release of Workflow, FormAssembly’s platform, though an all-in-one solution, still required users to move between different areas of the platform to access web forms and connectors. However, Workflow makes it possible to visualize all these steps in a single view, without needing to navigate to other sections of the platform. An additional benefit is that non-technical users can easily build out automated processes in Workflow without needing to understand code or involve IT or admins.
Understanding the Workflow Builder
The Workflow Builder makes it possible to easily map out the steps of a more complex data collection process involving conditional paths. This means Workflow is great for any processes that need to connect multiple web forms, emails, integrations, and decision makers, such as student admissions, new customer onboarding, or event organization. The interface of the Workflow Builder, called the Workflow Map, is where users visually build out data collection workflows using steps and paths.
Using powerful conditional rules and connectors (to Salesforce, PayPal, and other systems), a workflow begins with a single web form, but can branch into several directions based on criteria established on each path. This means that users have full transparency and control over even the most complex data collection workflows, from the initial form to integrations between systems, auto-notifications with emails, and page redirects. And this is all managed in a single view within a no-code, drag-and-drop interface.
FormAssembly Workflow use cases
Workflow helps to simplify and increase control over large, complex data collection processes. Non-technical users can take these complicated, multi-participant processes and easily build, connect, and automate them within the Workflow Builder. For example, Workflow makes it easy to build out the following use cases, regardless of industry, security requirements, or complexity.
Workflow for applications
Applications are everywhere, from higher education admissions to home loans and unemployment claims. With Workflow, users can automate how data travels from people, to web forms, to key decision-makers in the process. Once an applicant submits a form, a workflow triggers automated notifications for stakeholders who need to make approval decisions.
Conditional routing based on these decisions sends applicants down different paths depending on if their application was approved or rejected. From there, a workflow sends the applicant to the next step in the process or redirects them to a page with further instructions.
Workflow for employee reviews
Employee annual review processes can quickly become disorganized and tedious, especially if an HR department conducts many of these reviews each month. Using the Workflow Builder, HR teams can control and automate notifications related to these review processes. An initial form asking for the employee’s information (such as name, email, manager name, and department) kicks off the workflow.
Upon submission, the manager is automatically notified that the process has started, and a self-review form is sent to the employee. The submission of the self-review form then triggers a notification for the manager to fill out the manager review form. In each step, automated notifications alert the participants to proceed to the next phase of the process once the previous phase is complete, without any additional lift from the HR team.
Benefits of process automation with Workflow
Workflow is a powerful solution that only adds to FormAssembly’s already robust data collection platform offering secure, web-to-anything forms and advanced integration with Salesforce. By automating data collection processes with Workflow, organizations can experience several benefits, including:
- Cross-departmental efficiency: Workflows accept multiple respondents and make it easy to automate notifications, providing greater efficiency for participants regardless of workflow complexity.
- Clean, high-quality data: Advanced validation, dynamic picklists, object lookup, and prefilling help ensure data entered in forms is in the proper format for Salesforce orgs.
- Strategic decision making: Teams across departments have full control over data collection workflows and know how, when, and where data travels at any given time.
- Streamlined processes: Workflows can prefill data gathered at any point during the process to eliminate tedious back-and-forth and errors.
- Cut down costs: An all-in-one platform with advanced external integrations reduces costs associated with juggling multiple software and systems to achieve the same result.
- Better user experience: Automated workflows minimize errors, delays, and user frustrations that are common with manual, paper-based processes.
- Significant scalability: A platform that automates data collection workflows doesn’t require additional staffing and resources even if there’s a large influx of respondents.
Learn more about FormAssembly
FormAssembly’s data collection platform and its new Workflow feature are essential tools for Salesforce users who need to streamline processes for organizations in any industry. The platform is especially ideal for organizations with high security and compliance standards who need a simple way to build custom forms and collect data in Salesforce. Their tiered plans make it easy for any organization to streamline workflows — including nonprofits with a single user, a large healthcare organization needing HIPAA compliance, or a government agency with FedRAMP requirements.
You can visit their website to learn how their platform works, get an overview of each plan, and explore Workflow more in-depth.
