Form-based case handling/Delivered and in service
A manual form process automated: 40 hours a week back
A long manual form process was moved straight onto the website and connected to an automated email flow. It went from needing a person at every step to running entirely on its own.
- saved every week
- 40 hourssaved every week
- manual handovers between steps
- 0manual handovers between steps
- confirmation back to the sender
- Immediateconfirmation back to the sender
Where the time went
The client had a process that started with a form and continued with people. The form was filled in, the details were read, typed in again somewhere else, forwarded to the right person and chased manually at every single step.
It was not one large time sink but many small ones in a row. Together the process tied up around 40 hours a week. That is a full position doing nothing but moving information from one place to another.
What we built
We moved the whole form onto the website and connected it to an email flow that takes over wherever a person used to be needed. Submissions are validated immediately, the details land in the right format, and the right recipient gets what they need automatically.
Whoever sends it in gets a confirmation straight away, instead of wondering whether it arrived at all.
Before
- The form is filled in and sent by email
- The details are read and typed in again somewhere else
- The case is forwarded manually to the right person
- Somebody chases it when a field is missing or unreadable
- The sender phones to ask whether it arrived
Five steps, every one of them needing a person
After
- The form is filled in directly on the website
- Validation catches what is missing as you send it
- The submission goes automatically to the right recipient
- The sender gets a confirmation immediately
None of the steps needs anyone to do anything
The form on the website
How it works
The form sits where people already are
Straight on the website, with nothing to download, print or send back as an attachment.
Validated on submission
Gaps and mistakes are caught as the form is sent, not three days later when somebody opens it.
Straight to the right recipient
Every submission goes onward in the right format to whoever needs it, with nobody retyping it along the way.
Confirmation back to the sender
The sender knows it arrived, and does not have to get in touch to ask whether it did.
What they were left with
A process that used to need a person at every step now runs by itself. The 40 hours a week that went into moving information by hand were freed up for work that actually needs a person.
40 hours a week back, and a process that no longer stops when somebody is ill or on holiday.
Technology in this project
- Form on the website
- Automated email flow
- Submission validation
- Integration with existing routines
The same recipe, other sectors
The principle holds for any process that starts with a form and continues with people. If there are many steps, and little in them that genuinely needs judgement, the gain is usually large.
- Law firms: client onboarding, conflict checks and engagement letters.
- Audit and accounting: collecting documents, records and signatures from clients.
- Consultancies: onboarding a new client, from enquiry to signed agreement.
- Trade bodies: applications, memberships and incident reports.