Learn how this Canadian company makes better use of its IT resources by empowering non-technical staff to maintain their own systems using Cognito Forms.
Every company who hires developers faces the same challenge: There’s just more work than any team can possibly accomplish.
Prioritizing projects then becomes a considerable and constant struggle. Some projects, even important ones, will inevitably have to wait in line.
Even after prioritizing the major work, developers still often find themselves sidetracked by small maintenance tasks – such as updating sales forms – that can seem like a less valuable use of their time.
Garth Stonier, COO/CIO for Respect Group, Inc., found a way to remove those small maintenance tasks from his IT department’s workload and empower others to do that work instead. This both liberated his developers to focus on larger projects and accelerated the completion of his sales system maintenance tasks.
Empowering non-IT staff to create and manage software
With expert content and a professional online training and certification model, Respect Group Inc. delivers fully outsourced risk management behavior-change solutions for sport, schools and the workplace.
Clients report that the training helps create a more respectful workplace include improved team communication, enhanced organizational health, reduced absenteeism, and increased morale and productivity.
Since the Respect Group personalizes their program for every client, each one requires a considerable amount of customer input prior to its launch. The sales team must collect and distribute this information (such as client data, payment types and collateral material requests) at the outset of each new project.
Until recently, they did this in software they developed and maintained themselves.
While their system performed well, regular software maintenance – such as updating dropdown menu options – would often collide with other IT department responsibilities. Since all such changes had to be made to the code itself, small tasks could end up waiting in a queue until IT resources became available. This resulted in unnecessary administrative delays.
So, Garth went searching for a low-code solution that non-IT personnel could use to manage the vital client onboarding process. He found it in Cognito Forms.
Garth Stonier, COO/CIO, Respect Group, Inc.I’m not a developer. But I’ve been able to quickly navigate Cognito Forms and enable the automations we need to manage our system ourselves.
Finding a no-code solution in Cognito Forms
Garth used the Cognito Forms platform to quickly rebuild his onboarding form without needing the assistance of his dev team.
With his new form, his team gathers client data just as they always would. The system also automatically routs the information to the appropriate team members just as it did before.
However, when changes need to be made to the new form (to accommodate new program details or additional personnel), he can simply log in and update the form himself. These tasks no longer have to wait in the development queue – speeding their completion, and saving both time and expense.
He’s even designed the system to scale as new applications are developed.
For example, Garth maintains a form containing the contact information for each sales team member. Whenever a new salesperson is brought on, he simply enters their information into this form.
Lookup fields in his other forms reference this, and automatically add the new team member’s information where appropriate. This eliminates any need to develop and maintain repetitive dropdowns across multiple forms.
Creating additional no-code applications
Since the original purpose of this effort was to help make better use of development resources, Garth also created a bug-tracker form for his IT department. The IT team uses it to easily collect and prioritize feature requests, device information, browser information, bug reports and system requests.
He’s also exploring how to use Zapier to connect their sales forms to their Smartsheet system. This will further automate the administrative end of their sales and onboarding process.
By reducing the development workload, he’s enabled his developers to focus more on their most valuable tasks: delivering programs to prevent bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination.
Want to learn more about Respect Group, or launch a program for your organization? Visit Respect Group online.
Ace E.
Ace is the Marketing Communications Manager for Cognito Forms. When not at the office, you can find him volunteering with the American Advertising Federation (and soon on stage with his band: the Cottontown Soul Society).