2020

EMBRACING THE NEW NORMAL

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Papers Out, Digital Workflows In!

While most of us happily clinked our glasses during the New Year’s celebration, no one   expected how this year would have shifted drastically. With businesses nearly  paralysed, travels all over the world limited or cancelled, gatherings suspended, and human interactions transitioned virtually, we’re all unsure on when this pandemic will end. As the saying goes, “If we persist, if we continue to try, if we continue to charge forward, we will succeed!”

As we all continue to charge forward, some of us are still trying their best to cope with the changes in the world. What previously was a task one can perform with eyes closed, may now be difficult to execute given the circumstances. Schools, offices, and businesses have transitioned online. No one was prepared for all of this and no one knows how long we’ll be contained in the confides of our home! As we’re suspended in this guessing game of life, what we can do is be tactical and adapt.  

Luckily, with technology ever evolving, there are digital solutions made available for almost everything you can think of! With a ton of apps available online, you probably have explored a part of the pile already. As the new normal calls for employees to work remotely, paperworks and approvals have been quite a popular process that requires digital migration. A new technological trend is definitely powering up the new normal especially since human face-to-face interaction is now limited.

Form Workflow Plus is Google Sheet add-on and web  application that does it’s part in providing a quick, easy, and affordable solution for your paper trail approvals! With a clientele ranging from schools, manufacturing companies, accounting firms, HRs, accountants, even start-up companies, Form Workflow Plus helps process information from your spreadsheets and direct requests to reviewers in an instant. You have control over the number of approval steps required, conditions of the approvals, as well as the reviewers. No need to pass paper along one person to another anymore! With a click of a button, requests can be submitted and reviewers can approve/decline instantly. Form Workflow Plus will be your partner to make sure productivity is increased. Let’s cut down the time spent dealing with paper-trails and redundant processes by making the switch!

It is also important to understand that digital solutions have different functions and come in different forms of applications, too. Up-skilling employees to adapt to the new normal will involve transactions done on a cloud-based system like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Applications like Form Workflow Plus have sealed a partnership with Google to provide you, our customers, with the workflow solutions you need. With these changes, business owners need to make sure the transition runs smoothly for both the company and its consumer. Wizy believes that with the virtual transition of processes, employees need a reliable support system to help them switch over. With continuous developments with our products, we made sure to have a well curated Help Center for how-to articles and video tutorials readily available for you users like you. You can access this resource here:

Also, reach out to our friendly Customer Success Managers via support@wizy.io or book a demo:

We’re cooking up something new so stay tuned for more updates about Form Workflow Plus. Together, we can work on the challenges and develop better solutions for a seamless digital work experience for you and your company!

Hannah Al-SinawiEMBRACING THE NEW NORMAL
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5 Reasons to Organize Professional Development Approvals with a Google Form Workflow

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The hallmark of a healthy work environment is when a company invests in the professional development of its employees. This is an important aspect of the HR Manager’s role as they need to have a pool of talents that is responsive to the ever changing challenges companies face.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, organizing trainings and seminars has been particularly challenging due to physical distancing measures and reduced mobility of the public. Fortunately, training sessions are no longer confined in physical halls. The move towards online solutions also made it possible to hold conferences via cloud-based communication tools like Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams.

The past six months saw events normally held in big stadiums move towards virtual gatherings. Jen, an HR Manager, saw enough opportunities for her remote employees to attend symposia and conferences to further develop their skills. Suddenly, IT companies offered certification programs that can be completed at home.

Jen needed a way to organize and track the professional development programs employees were enrolled in. This is why she was ecstatic when she stumbled upon Form Workflow Plus in the G Suite Marketplace. It’s an add-on and web app for automating approval workflows. Here are 5 ways Jen managed her HR tasks using a Google Form workflow:

A Google Form workflow linked to a Google Sheet are powerful organizational tools

Besides tracking the online courses and certification programs, Jen also needed an approval process so line managers also have visibility on the progress of their employees. She designed a Google Form to capture these details then channeled each entry into a Google Sheet. This provided better organization as the important information was gathered in a single place.

All Jen needed to do was share the Google Sheet to line managers for easy collaboration. As the team scaled up, though, Jen realized she needed a better solution to automate the workflow.

Use a third party workflow app to automate approval processes

Form Workflow Plus is designed to run with G Suite apps to bring the workflow automation process to a whole new level. It sports a modern UI and with 3 steps, a basic workflow can be up and running.

The beauty of using this add-on is that it can be run on a sheet collecting Google Form responses. Each form entry triggers the workflow automation. Talk about seamless integration!

Built in conditional approvals for routing requests

Form Workflow Plus is feature packed to make sure it can accommodate a variety of use cases. A professional development approval workflow, for example, would need requests routed to line managers or to a group of reviewers based on registration fees. This can be easily set up on the add-on with a few clicks!

A powerful web app for admins and workflow creators

Jen loved the web app included in Form Workflow Plus. This gave her a one-stop shop for managing workflows, users, as well as the billing aspect of their subscription! It uses Google’s authentication process so she’s confident that company information is securely protected.

Best of all, the web app gave her an easy way to track request status. It has a dashboard showing how many requests were approved or awaiting reviewer action.

Form Workflow Plus requires no coding skills with a robust support system

Form Workflow Plus is actively developed with updates pushed automatically and readily available. Designed for ease of setup, it requires no coding skills.

It has a well curated Help Center and for urgent questions, a team of responsive Customer Success Managers can be reached at support@wizy.io. Form Workflow Plus is available for a 14-day free trial here.

Marko Arcega5 Reasons to Organize Professional Development Approvals with a Google Form Workflow
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5 Ways You Can Automate Workflows with Google Apps

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Managing remote teams has become a global trend. With this, the office setup has seen creative ways to address approval processes, namely, the shift to cloud-based and digital solutions. However, dealing with a piling number of leave requests, purchase orders, or budget approvals remains an organizational challenge.

What many don’t realize is that there are online tools that can help ease this burden. A Gmail (or Google) account for example, is a powerful key to accessing apps for workflow management. Here are 5 ways you can free up time by efficiently managing workflows using Google apps.

Capture request details with Google Forms and organize them with Google Sheets

Workflows start with capturing the essential information of a request. Instead of filling up paper forms, the digital way uses clickable links and online resources. As admins or managers, Google Forms is an effective tool for designing forms for leave requests, purchase orders, invoicing, etc. You can easily share these via email, shareable link, or even embed them in your website.

You can track responses from the Google Forms interface or link it to a Google Sheet. The ability to use spreadsheet tools such as filtering data or applying array formulas makes for a powerful duo for organizing requests.

Setup your workflow with Google Forms, Google Sheets, and Gmail

So you have a Google Form collecting responses on a Google Sheet. What’s next? Google apps such as Sheets and Forms are built for online collaboration. You can find the ever present Share button at the top right corner of these apps pages.

The sheet where responses are collected can be shared with the relevant people. They can manually run through the collected responses and indicate approval using built in features such as comments or notes. The admin can then use Gmail to notify requesters about the approval status.

The above scenario introduces a degree of organization when managing digital requests. There are still potential problems though when teams scale up or the approval workflow requires multiple steps of reviewers. This is where an approval workflow comes in handy.

Use a workflow app to automate your approval processes

A workflow app automates the repetitive tasks of organizing requests, informing reviewers, and notifying requesters. An effective workflow app must be built around ease of setup, native integration with existing apps (i.e., G Suite or Gmail), and feature-packed to accommodate complex multi-step approval workflows.

Form Workflow Plus is one tool that meets the above criteria and even goes the extra mile by empowering users with a versatile web application. Designed by Wizy to work with G Suite and Gmail accounts, the add-on can be installed from the G Suite marketplace and run on Google Sheets. Its notable features include:

  • 3-step setup
  • Multi-step approval with the ability to assign multiple reviewers per step
  • Automated routing capability using conditions
  • Assign reviewer based on form entries
  • Customizable approval email
  • Creating a calendar event from request details
  • Requests tracking via web app or on the add-on sidebar

Our add-on has been installed by users across 30 countries spanning fields in finance, education, manufacturing, social works, etc. Form Workflow Plus has helped automate:

  • Leave requests
  • Budget approvals
  • Purchase orders
  • Contractor invoicing
  • Facilities rentals
  • Academic appeals
  • Patient care

Take advantage of Google’s Security and Privacy features

You can find third party apps to extend the functionality of apps such as Sheets, Forms, or Gmail on the G Suite marketplace. These are properly vetted by Google to meet its strict security and privacy requirements.

At Wizy, we’ve taken the necessary steps to make sure Form Workflow Plus meets Google’s standards. We’re trusted by reputable universities in the US, K-12 schools, logistics companies, and counselling centers to handle their validation processes.

Tap into a robust Support system to make sure your workflows work

Save precious time searching for solutions by reaching out to Google communities. Apps published on the G Suite marketplace usually include a support link if you need further assistance.

Form Workflow Plus has a well curated Help Center for how-to articles and video tutorials. You can access this resource here:

Also, reach out to our friendly Customer Success Managers via support@wizy.io or book a demo:

Marko Arcega5 Ways You Can Automate Workflows with Google Apps
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