SharePoint: Power in Daily Office Practices

Session T1.07Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Melissa Holmes ELON UNIVERSITY

Overview of Our SharePoint Page

Personal Folders Search BarLibraries Forms “Regipedia” Office Calendar

Our SharePoint home

Personal Libraries

• Can be public, private or shared with specific people

• Also each document within a folder can have individual or private permissions set on it as well as each folder

Libraries• Encompass major

work areas in our office

• Used for storage• Everyone has access

and can add information

• Helps us continue to strive to be as paperless as possible

• A place were detailed instructions can be listed for processes

• Special circumstances can be documented and added to the libraries at the time of the incident

Forms

• Electronic processes and forms that have replaced our old paper formats

• All have been created and launched since May 2013.

Regipedia

• Quick access to crucial processes in our office

• Helps us promote our goal of cross training staff

• Frequently used information easily accessible to entire team

• Eliminates one person having files on their computer only they can access.

Office Calendar• Everyone has access• Double click the day to add an event• Keeps the entire office up to date on Registrar events as well as

who may be out for the day

Search Bar• Quick way to find anything housed in the Registrar’s SharePoint site • Can be searched by name, keyword or student id

Project Management• One of the major new additions to our site in Fall 2014 was the project

management site

• When you click on the PM link you are automatically sent to your project list where you can manage your ongoing projects

• You can update people along the way• Once you hit 100% complete it moves to

the completed queue below• You can also view the entire office project

management list

• The Registrar can see each employees project list in multiple different formats

How SharePoint Has Helped

• Has helped to centralize our work• Keeps office abreast of what is going on• Quick Reference• Web based, so accessible when away from office• Promotes consistency of processes• All access to all of office staff instead of defragmented

information on individual computers• Easily accessible centralized area for auditing and

reporting purposes verses paper forms that were only attached to individual student records

Part I:Forms in SharePoint

The student process and theRegistrar process

When students go to our “forms” page on our website and select the form they need they must then login with their Elon email address and password.

This is how we authenticate the form submission.

The audit and the change of address forms are the simplest forms because they both route straight to our office for processing.

The audit form routes directly to the Registrar

After submit button clicked we have a thank you view that lets submitter know it was successfully submitted.

After submission forms route to our general registrar email account so multiple people may access and process the forms.

The person who is processing chooses name from drop down box which is helpful because you can choose save and exit and come back if you need to contact student and wait for a response. This lets other team members know someone is working on it.

We key the information from the form into the students record in our student information system Datatel Colleague

You then go back to the email click the link and check entered to Datatel checkbox and submit. This action generates emails automatically from the workflow.

Two emails generate upon clicking the last submit

One email goes to the student to confirm their request and pass on other customizable information about the transaction.

The second email generated goes to the processor to send an electronic copy of the form to our electronic student record system FORTIS

Once again go back to original registrar email

Click Fortis checkbox (which behind the scenes in SharePoint moves the item out of the “To be processed” folder). Then delete the email from registrar account.

• Each of our SharePoint FORMS have a “To be processed view” in our Registrar SP site• This provides a quick overview if a student questions why a form hasn’t been processed”

or an idea of what forms are awaiting approvals etc.• This is the view when you click the Fortis checkbox while processing the form, it will

then be moved from this view.

Form Views

PART II: Where to start?

Starting a form in SharePoint

Choose site actions, more actions, then lists.

Highlight list, choose custom list and name your list.

This takes you to the landing page for that list. Click on list settings in top right.

Add the fields or “columns” you want to appear on your form.

This is where you make your form content and choose what type of informationthis entry will hold.

• Single line of text• Multiple lines of text• Choice (menu)• Yes/No check box• Person or Group

Phone Number column

Datatel column is a yes/no check box.

Click on the TEST2 FORM link under side navigation again after you add your final column.

Choose the list tab at the top and this time click on the Customize form InfoPath link.You may have to download InfoPath, the first time but it is a free download.

Use the ribbon bars at the top to “make pretty” and add the submit button which you will find under controls.

• You can drop and drag items to the form• You can delete items from the form

I chose properties and renamed this student view. I removed the Datatel and attachment fields. Changed the font bolded and added a submit button.

Next I added the Registrar and thank you views. The registrar view needs the student name and the Datatel button so I added those to this view.

Now we can add rules to our submit button by choosing manage rule and the add drop down button. First we want to submit the data to the main data connection and then add another rule to switch the views. (You also need to go add rules to the registrar submit button as well). Then you publish (blue up arrow with lightning bolt in top left corner). After saving (PUBLISHING) cancel out of InfoPath.

Last we will submit a form as a student from our TEST 2 list (or form) by clicking add new item. You will see our default student view pops up and we can submit information to our SharePoint site.

After clicking submit our thank you view switch rule takes place.

When you refresh the page you see the item is then in our SharePoint TEST 2 list which we would eventually connect this form to our website, after writing the workflow.

PART IV: Workflows

Making forms work for you using automated workflows

Notice the name column came up with “no title” in it. We need to tell the form what information we want in that area. This along with routing the form for approvals etc. happens through “workflows”. Click on Edit List in the top right.

On the bottom right click to add new workflow and name your workflow

We need to set the name field in the form to be the display name of the person who created the item. This is where our form authentication we discussed earlier comes into play. We electronically verify the submitter of the request by who created the item. Therefore, if an advisor helps a student by letting them use their computer, a name and id number may not match up. This also prevents another student from dropping someone from a course etc., although I can say we haven’t had any circumstances like that.

In SharePoint Designer you have to both save and publish workflows in order for them to be saved and added to the form.

Choose the Edit List tab again to actually start the workflow.

Open the workflow you created

• Check the start workflow automatically when an item is created and the allow to be manually started (should already be checked). Save and Publish once again.

• Each time a new item is entered, the workflow will start automatically now.

• Go back to our list and add a new item.• You will see the person who submitted the forms name automatically fed into the list

this time.

Samples Workflows

Simple audit and address change form workflows

Two much more complex workflows

499 Form

Summer course proposal

Responses when asked: “The SharePoint processes have

almost nearly eliminated the need

for paper forms in our office.”

“Using SharePoint for our forms keeps all of the requests uniform and makes reporting on that data quick and easy.”

“What do you think about the new SharePoint forms?”

“Online SharePoint forms are great

because there is no longer a need for

file folders, which provides extra office

storage and reduces clutter.”

“SharePoint forms have streamlined my work because I am able to access the forms, update the student record, and attach the form to the student’s electronic

record all from my desk in extremely laid out process.”

“The online access has made the process much easier for our students and faculty.”

I like the fact that I can process all forms

at set times that are convenient during

the day verses interruptions scattered

throughout the workday one by one.

Tips for launching into SharePoint Forms

• Take time to “play” in SharePoint. Our multimedia department headed up our first two forms and the rest have been created by our office by trial and error. It was very slow going at first but very much worth it now. Don’t be afraid to try things, MAKE notes when something does work.

• Use online support, join SharePoint webinars, workshops and forums and google your questions when you get stuck. There are lots of resources online.

• Make friends with your multimedia/Web department. I cannot express enough, that I would not have been able to learn the things I have without the mentoring by JP Lavoie in our Multimedia Technology Department.

• My one regret is not making how-to’s for myself and others from the beginning. Things you develop in one form normally appears in other forms and spending an hour trying to figure out how you got something to work the first time is frustrating.

• Make one fake form to “experiment” with. If there is something you want to try and don’t want to break a real form there is an outlet for your creativity.

• Soft launch each form. Inevitably, when you first release a new form a faculty member or student will have question or suggestion that will make the process smoother. “Slide” the forms onto the website instead of making a facstaff announcement right off the bat. Save that for after a few have ran through properly.