INFORMED FORMS PROCESSING, FORM TRACKING DEMONSTRATION.
INSTALLATION AND DEMONSTRATION INSTRUCTIONS.
*** DISCLAIMER
This demonstration is comprised of various products, some of which are shipping, and others which are prototypes, pre-release applications, or demonstration versions. Below is a list of the products and their status.
- Informed Designer version 1.4.2r2; status: shipping
- Informed Manager version 1.4.2r2; status: shipping
- Informed Number Server version 1.0.2; status: shipping
- Informed Database Extensions version 1.0; shipping
- Informed Form Tracking extension version 1.0p1; status: prototype
- Butler demonstration version 1.2.6; status: shipping
Informed Designer is the design application used to create electronic forms. Informed Manager is the filler application that users use to fill out, route, approve, submit and manage electronic forms. Informed Number Server is a network application that acts as a server for unique form numbers. As multiple users on the network fill out forms, Informed Number Server assigns a unique form number to each new form. Informed Database Extensions is a set of Informed extensions that enable data access with popular SQL databases. This demonstration includes the Informed DAL database extension. This extension is used to access Butler, a DAL database.
The Informed Form Tracking extension is a prototype Informed extension which accesses a DAL database to track the movement of forms. THE INFORMED FORM TRACKING EXTENSION IS A PROTOTYPE EXTENSION. Although functional, the Informed Form Tracking product is currently under development. The prototype extension is being distributed in a controlled manner to individuals and companies for evaluation and research purposes. The feedback that we receive as a result of this seeding will be used to refine our product specification and develop the actual form tracking product. Please base no assumptions about the functionality and utility of the product on the prototype version provided with this demonstration.
Butler is a DAL database that runs on the Macintosh platform. EveryWare Development Corporation, the publisher of Butler, has provided Shana with a limited use version for purposes of this demonstration. Although fully functional, this version of Butler will work only with this demonstration. For more information about Butler, please contact EveryWare Development Corporation directly at:
EveryWare Development Corporation
6543 Mississauga Rd.
Mississauga, ON Canada L5N 1A6
Tel. (905) 819-1173
Fax. (905) 819-1172
AppleLink: EVERYWARE
CompuServe: 70750,211
*** DEMONSTRATION OVERVIEW
This demonstration demonstrates the following:
- filling out forms
- form number assignment with Informed Number Server
- choice lists
- error checking
- DAL lookups and form submission
- approval using DigiSign digital signatures (PowerTalk required)
- electronic routing (PowerTalk required)
- form tracking (PowerTalk required)
- scripting (AppleScript required)
*** DEMONSTRATION SCENARIO
This demonstration is based on a purchase requisition form; a form that travels a simple workflow. Once initiated and completed by the requester (revision control ensures user has the current version of the purchase requisition form), the requester signs the form and sends it to his or her manager for approval. The approving manager opens the form and approves or rejects the purchase. The approving manager approves the form by signing it using PowerTalk’s DigiSign support. Using Informed’s AppleScript support, the approving manager chooses a command to generate a purchase order and submit it into the Butler DAL database.
Also demonstrated are Informed’s form tracking capabilities using the prototype version of the Informed form tracking extension. After filling out and submitting a form, the user can request the form tracking information for that form. A list appears showing the dates and times that the form has moved and the desks to which it has travelled.
*** HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
This demonstration is most effective using three computers. However, you can use as few a two Macs. Each Mac must be networked with either LocalTalk or Ethernet and have at least 6 MB of RAM. One of the Macs must have at least 10 MB of RAM. All Macs with the exception of the one with 10 MB of RAM must have System 7.1 with PowerTalk v1.0 and AppleScript v1.0 installed.
PowerShare is optional. The demonstration works the same regardless of whether you rely on PowerTalk alone for mail delivery or you use PowerShare servers. The benefits of PowerShare are significant. They include authentication, privacy, and server-based store & forward delivery.
For three Mac demos, two of the computers will act as user machines, one for the originator of the purchase requisition, and the other for the approving manager. The third machine is used as a server for the Butler database and Informed Number Server. For two Mac demos, a single user machine is used instead of two. You can either use the same person for the originator and the approving manager (i.e. send the form to ‘yourself’ for approval instead of a different person), or if you’re using PowerShare servers, you can use the Visitor’s Mailbox feature to show both the originator’s and approving manager’s mailbox on the single user machine. If you’re using PowerShare servers in the demo, they can be installed on the same computer as the Butler database and Informed Number Server.
*** INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
This demonstration is available on a CD or 1.4MB floppy disks. Installation of the software is done using Apple’s easy-to-use Installer application. Before installing the demonstration software, be sure to install the following system software extensions:
- install System 7 Pro on all user computers
- install AppleScript v1.0 or 1.1 on all user computers
- install PowerShare servers on the server computer (optional)
If Now Software’s StartUp Manager (v3.0.2) is installed on any of the computers, activate all extensions and control panels, then remove the StartUp Manager extension from the Extensions folder. If there are extensions or control panels that you want to disable, put them in a folder other then Extensions and Control Panels (i.e. ‘Extensions (disabled)’).
If you’re installing the demonstration software from a CD, you’ll find two folders, one named ‘Client’ and the other named ‘Server’. Inside each folder is the Installer application and an Installer script. If you’re installing from floppy disks, you’ll find 5 disks, two of which are labelled ‘Informed Demonstration - Client Install Me First’ and ‘Informed Demonstration - Server Install Me First’. Each of these disks contain the Installer application and an Installer script.
For each of the computers being used in the demonstration, install the software by running the appropriate installer script. For the user computers, install the client software. Client installation will install the following software:
- Informed Designer
- Informed Manager
- Informed Extensions
- Purchase Requisition and Purchase Order forms
- ButlerHosts and preferences
Informed Designer, Informed Manager, ButlerHosts, and the Informed forms will be installed in a folder named ‘Purchasing Forms’ on the selected hard disk. It is important that you NOT move this folder from its installed location or change its name.
For the single server machine, install the server software. Server installation will install the following software:
- Informed Number Server
- Butler DBMS and preferences
- ButlerTools
- Butler database
Informed Number Server and Butler will be installed in a folder named ‘Informed Demo’ on the selected hard disk.
*** SETUP INSTRUCTIONS
Certain configuration must be done on each Macintosh before doing the demonstration. This configuration is done once only, NOT every time you do the demo. Before continuing, be sure that all Macintoshes are turned on and properly networked.
POWERSHARE. If you’re using PowerShare, be sure to install it on the server Mac, do the initial configuration, and add at least two users, one to act as the requester, and the other to act as the approving manager.
POWERTALK. After installing PowerTalk on the client Macs, initialize the system by opening the mailbox. If you’re using two client Macs, configure one to be the requester and the other to be the approving manager. If you’re using only one client Mac WITHOUT PowerShare, the single Mac/user will act as both the originator and approving manager.
DATE & TIME. Use the Date & Time control panel to synchronize the date and time on all Macs.
MAP. Use the Map control panel to synchronize the map on all Macs.
NAMES. Use the Sharing Setup control panel to name each Mac. For the one or two client Macs, enter real people names in both the Owner and Macintosh Name fields. For the server Mac, enter a name like ‘World_Corp Server’ in the Owner and Macintosh Name fields.
PROGRAM LINKING AND FILE SHARING. Use the Users & Groups control panel to enable program linking and file sharing on the server Mac for both the primary user and guest users. Use the Sharing Setup control panel to turn on File Sharing and Program Linking on the server Mac. For the client Macs, it is not necessary that file sharing or program linking be turned on.
HARD DISK NAME. Change the name of the computer’s hard disk to ‘Macintosh HD’. This is necessary so that Informed Manager can automatically find, open, and create a purchase order form. You may have to turn file sharing off on the client Mac in order to change the hard disk name.
Since the demonstration involves interaction between several different applications running on different computers, it is necessary to configure certain links before the demo will work. This is a normal step in configuring a system and is necessary here because we cannot anticipate the names of your Macintosh computers and networks.
BUTLER CLIENT CONFIGURATION. On each client Mac, you need to configure the Butler client so that the Butler server can be found. Before doing the steps below, run Butler on the server Mac (double-click the Butler icon in the folder named ‘Informed Demo’. Repeat the steps below on each Macintosh client:
- run ButlerHosts
- on the window named ‘ButlerHosts’ double-click ‘World_Corp Host’
- on the window named ‘World_Corp Host’, click Configure
- on the dialog that appears, select the server Macintosh and the ‘World_Corp Port’ program
- click OK
- click the close box on the window named ‘‘World_Corp Host’
- quit ButlerHosts (choose Quit from the File menu)
- restart the Mac client
INFORMED NUMBER SERVER CONFIGURATION. The purchase request number and purchase order number cells on the two forms are linked to Informed Number Server so that form numbers are assigned uniquely to purchase requisitions and purchase orders as they are filled out. These cells must be re-linked to the Informed Number Server installed on your server Mac. Before doing the steps below, be sure to run Informed Number Server on the server Mac (double-click the Informed™ Number Server icon in the folder named ‘Informed Demo’). Repeat the steps below on each Macintosh client:
- run Informed Designer and open the Purchase Requisitions form
- choose Test Purchase Requisitions from the Form menu
- if linking is required, a dialog with Disable, Skip, and Look options will appear
- if the above dialog does not appear, skip the remaining steps in this section
- click the Look button
- on the dialog that appears, select the server Macintosh and Informed™ Number Server program
- click OK
- close the form, saving changes
- open the Purchase Orders form
- choose Test Purchase Orders from the Form menu
- if linking is required, a dialog with Disable, Skip, and Look options will appear
- if the above dialog does not appear, skip the remaining steps in this section
- click the Look button
- on the dialog that appears, select the server Macintosh and Informed™ Number Server program
- click OK
- close the form, saving changes
- quit Informed Designer
*** PRE-DEMO SETUP
After completing the installation and setup instructions, you can proceed with the demonstration. If you are doing a formal demonstration, the instructions in this section should be done in advance of the demo itself. This will avoid delays in starting applications and doing other initialization.
POWER UP. Start up all Macintosh computers involved in the demonstration. Confirm all network connections.
AUTHENTICATE WITH POWERTALK. On each of the client Macs, double-click the mailbox to authenticate with PowerTalk. Enter the master key password. Close the mailbox after authentication. If you’re using PowerShare, before doing this step, be sure that the PowerShare servers have finished starting up.
VISITOR’S MAILBOX IF USING POWERSHARE. If you’re using one Mac client with PowerShare and the two demo people (requester and approving manager), open a visitor’s mailbox for the approving manager on the single Mac client. That way you’ll be able to see the purchase requisition form arrive in the approving manager’s mailbox.
START THE SERVERS. On the server Mac, run Informed Number Server and Butler. These applications are found in the folder named ‘Informed Demo’.
OPEN THE PURCHASE REQUISITION FORM. On the requester’s client Mac, run Informed Manager and open the Purchase Requisitions form (in the folder ‘Purchasing Forms’.
RUN INFORMED MANAGER. If you’re using two Mac clients (one for the requester and one for the approving manager), run Informed Manager on the approving manager’s Mac (don’t open any form).
*** THE DEMO
The demonstration starts at the requester’s desk where a new purchase requisition form is filled out. Follow the steps below to initiate, fill out, sign, and send the form.
NEW FORM. Choose the Add New command from the Form menu. This creates a new blank form in the Purchase Requisitions form document. Informed Manager fills in various defaults (i.e. the date) and interacts with Informed Number Server to obtain the next available purchase requisition number. If you’re doing the demo for the first time since you launched Informed Manager on the client Mac, you’ll be asked to link to Informed Number Server on the server Mac. On the linking dialog, choose the Guest option and click OK. The new purchase requisition number will appear in the Purchase Req.# cell on the form.
ENTER EMPLOYEE NUMBER. Enter the requester’s employee number and press Tab. Valid employee numbers are E100, E101, E102, E103, and E104. This step demonstrates Informed’s data access capabilities by looking up employee information in the Butler DAL database. The employee’s name, mail stop, department, office name, and office number are retrieved from the Butler database and entered on the form.
Although this demonstration uses Butler as the ‘Corporate’ database, Informed Database Extensions support a wide variety of databases including Oracle, Sybase, any DAL supported database, and any SequeLink supported database (such as DB2, Ingres, Informix, OS/2 Data Manager, AS/400, etc.). That way, Informed is able to ‘fit into’ an organization by linking with services (i.e. databases) already in place.
ERROR CHECKING. Informed supports sophisticated error checking to help reduce (and potentially eliminate) errors on forms. The cost of errors on forms can be substantial. For forms that are routed through long approval paths, an error can mean that the entire process must be repeated if the error occurs early in the process and is detected late. This introduces repeated costs and long delays. Catching errors at the time they’re made using Informed’s error checking capabilities can eliminate these redundant costs.
To demonstrate error checking, press Tab three times to move to the ‘Department to Charge’ cell. For this form, the department to charge cell must be filled. If you clear the value, a message will appear when you press Tab. If you clear the value to demonstrate this feature, be sure to enter ‘Sales’ in the cell before continuing.
CHOICE LISTS. Choice lists aid the user in entering information on the form. They can also help to reduce errors because the user types less. Press Tab to move to the Office Name cell. A choice list will pop up automatically. You can select a choice directly from the list using the mouse, or you can type a character or two of the value to select the choice then press Return to enter the value.
ENTER THE ITEMS ORDERED. Press Tab until the cursor appears in the first row of the description column in the line items table. This cell is configured to lookup the part number and price of an item entered. It is not necessary to enter the full and exact description of the item you want to order. If you enter a partial match, a dialog with a scrolling list will appear showing all items that match from which you can select the particular item to order. Enter the word ‘Informed’ and press Tab. The dialog will appear showing a list of all Informed products. Using the mouse, select an item in the list and click OK. The full description along with the item’s part number and price are entered in the appropriate columns of the table. Enter the quantity ordered as well (and additional items to order if you like).
SIGNING THE FORM. There are two reasons why a person signs a form: 1) to attach his or her identity to the information on the form, or 2) to approve the form. In this demonstration, the requester signs the form so that later the integrity of the information can be verified. That is, you can later verify that the information on the form at that time is in fact the exact information (down to the last character) that the requester entered.
Before signing the form, first select the requester’s signature cell by either clicking the cell with the mouse (first scroll to the bottom of the form to reveal the signature cell), or by pressing Cmd-Tab (the requester’s signature cell is a quick-tab cell; pressing Cmd-Tab will move you directly to that cell). An advantage of Informed over applications that rely on the Finder’s ability to sign documents is that a single form can have multiple signatures and each signature cell can sign different information, or cells, on the form, therefore supporting multiple fillers and multiple levels of approval. In this demonstration, the requester’s signature signs all cells except the reject check box, the reject reason, and the approval signature. The approval signature signs all cells on the form.
To see exactly which cells a particular signature signs, with the signature cell selected, choose the Show Signed Cells command from the Signatures submenu under Edit. All cells that are signed by the signature are framed in red. Select the same command (which now reads ‘Hide Signed Cells’) to turn this feature off.
To sign the form, choose the Sign command from the Signatures submenu under Edit. If you’ve never signed a form or document since the installation of PowerTalk on the computer you’re using, you’ll be asked to select a signer. If you don’t have your own signer file, choose the demonstration signer that comes with PowerTalk. This signer can be found in the PowerTalk folder. Enter the password for the selected signer file (‘password’ if you’re using the demonstration signer), then click OK. The digital signature is created and attached to the form and the signed cells are locked to prevent others from changing them. The name of the signer and the current date appear next to the signature icon in the signature cell. The signature icon has three different variations. A check mark on the icon indicates that the signature has just been created or verified. A question mark indicates that the signature has not been verified and its validity should not be assumed. An ‘X’ indicates that the last time the signature was verified, it failed to verify successfully. This means that either the signed data or the digital signature itself has changed (or been tampered with) since the form was signed.
SENDING THE FORM. Once the requester has filled out and signed the form, the form must be sent to the approving manager for approval. Since the requester sends purchase requisitions to the same approving manager most of the time, we can make use of Informed’s pre-address feature to automate the addressing and mailing of the form. Each form can be pre-addressed so that sending a form does not require manual addressing. To pre-address the purchase requisition form, choose the Mail Options command from the Mail submenu under File. On the Mail Options dialog, choose the ‘Pre-address using:’ option. Since PowerTalk is the only Informed mail extension installed, PowerTalk will be the only item in the pop-up menu. Click the Address button. You’ll see the PowerTalk addressing dialog which allows you to navigate through catalogs to find the desired user. If you’re using PowerShare and have created two users for the demonstration, select the user that corresponds to the approving manager. If you’re using PowerTalk alone with two client Macs, select the AppleTalk address of the other client Mac. If you’re using PowerTalk alone with only one Mac client, choose the AppleTalk address of that Mac (which means you’ll be sending the form back to the same Mac).
Other controls on the addressing dialog let you choose which forms to send (current form or collected forms) and the data format. Since we want to send one form, leave the ‘Send:’ pop-up menu set to ‘Current form’. Informed Manager allows you to send forms with or without the layout of the form. In this demonstration we’ll send the form with its accompanying layout. Select the ‘Layout & data’ option from the ‘Send as:’ pop-up menu. After choosing these settings, click OK on the addressing dialog.
When pre-addressing a form, you can also specify whether Informed Manager should prompt you to confirm the addressing each time you send a form. Choose the ‘Send form immediately without confirmation’ option. Click OK on the Mail Options dialog.
With the form pre-addressed, you can now send the form by simply choosing the Send command from the Mail submenu under File. A small dialog will appear indicating that the form is being sent. After the form has been sent you’ll see another dialog indicating that the form is being tracked. This is where a transaction is automatically entered in the Butler DAL database noting the date and time along with the names of the sender and recipient of the form. We well later demonstrate how to query the database to find out where a particular form has travelled.
APPROVE THE FORM. After a short while, the purchase requisition will appear in the approving manager’s mailbox. Double-click the form in the mailbox. Informed Manager will open the form. Before approving the form, the approving manager will verify the requester’s signature to be sure that no one has tampered with the order details. To verify the signature, first select the signature cell by clicking it with the mouse (first, if necessary, scroll to the bottom of the form to reveal the signature). Then choose the Verify command from the Signatures submenu under Edit. The verification process will occur and a dialog will appear indicating that the signature is valid. This dialog also shows information about the signer’s identity and the date and time that the signature was created. Click OK to dismiss the dialog.
After reviewing the form, the approving manager approves the form by following the same procedure described earlier (see SIGNING THE FORM).
CREATING AND SUBMITTING A PURCHASE ORDER. Once the form has been approved, the approving manager is responsible for creating and submitting a purchase order. To do this, we will use Informed Manager’s AppleScript capabilities to automate what would normally be a manual, labour intensive task. When the purchase requisition form was designed, the form designer created a script and attached it to the form so that its name appears under Informed Manager’s Scripts menu. The script is called ‘Create PO’. Choose this command to create and submit the purchase order. After prompting you to confirm that you’d like to create the purchase order, the script first tells Informed Manager to open the purchase order form document, create a new form, and copy the common information from the purchase requisition to the purchase order. In doing so, the next available purchase order number is obtained from Informed Number Server and vendor information is entered on the form by looking up the vendor number in the Butler DAL database. You may be asked to link to Informed Number Server. If this happens, choose the Guest option and click OK on the linking dialog.
After the purchase order has been created and filled out, the script asks if you’d like to submit the form. Clicking Yes submits the purchase order into the Butler database, eliminating the need to rekey the data manually. After submitting the purchase order, close the form.
FORM TRACKING. Each time a form is sent from one person to the next, the Informed Form Tracker extension enters a transaction in the Butler database noting the date and time along with the names of the sender and recipient(s) of the form. That way you can later query the database to find out where a particular form has travelled. Informed Manager (with the Form Tracker prototype extension installed) has the built in capability to query the database and display the form tracking details for any form.
If you’ve followed the step-by-step instructions so far, you should now see the purchase requisition form that was just filled out on the requester’s Mac. Choosing the Form Tracking Query command from Informed Manager’s View menu will display the tracking information showing that the form has moved only one step from the requester’s desk to the approving manager’s desk. The purchase requisition form document also contains a requisition that was filled out in December of 1993. You can reveal this form by choosing the ‘First’ command from the Form menu. After doing so, choose the Form Tracking Query command again to display the details of this form. You’ll see that the form has sat on three desks and the last person to receive the form was Glenn Smith.
Form tracking provides very tangible cost savings and benefits. With paper forms, finding out where a particular form is (which is done normally to find out where in the process the form is or why processing is taking so long) involves physically following the path of the form until you find the form itself. This means you either walk from desk to desk or phone each person along the path until you find the person holding the form. The time an effort required to do this, especially in large worldwide organizations, is substantial. So substantial that many users make due without knowing. With electronic forms, form tracking relies on services such as networking, e-mail, and a database, and provides instantaneous access to the needed information. These are services that are often already available in an organization.
Although the above benefit of form tracking more than justifies the investment in automation, many feel the most significant benefit of tracking the processing of forms is that the tracking information can be analyzed to monitor and improve on the efficiency of the process itself. The information that accumulates as forms are processed could be used, for example, to measure approval cycles or identify approval bottlenecks or unnecessary approvals. The costs savings, therefore, result not only from automation, but also from improved process efficiency.
