Construction workshop: digitize an incident management process in under 1 hour

Niamh Lordan00:10

Hello everyone, and welcome to our virtual workshop. I'm Niamh Lordan, Head of Marketing at FlowForma. Today is a practical session, and our objective is to help you understand how seamlessly you can digitize a construction process in under an hour.

Niamh Lordan00:40

I'm delighted to introduce our panelists: Olivia Bushe, our CEO, and Dave Shanley, one of our construction product specialists. We'll kick off with a quick poll on where you're joining from. Most people are joining from Europe and North America today, so good morning and good afternoon.

Niamh Lordan01:39

When you registered, we asked which process you wanted to see Dave build today, and incident management is the winner, with 38% choosing it. I wasn't surprised: we surveyed about 200 construction executives and managers last summer, and 97% said improving health and safety was their number one priority.

Olivia Bushe02:12

Incident management is one we see a lot, but we'd also see onboarding a lot in construction: new joiners, and onboarding new suppliers and subcontractors.

Niamh Lordan02:43

Don't run away if you didn't pick incident management. Dave will run through features and functionality that apply to all of these processes.

Niamh Lordan02:58

Last poll from me: what's the biggest challenge facing your organization? Some of you told us when you registered. Milford is challenged with moving processes from paper to electronic, and Tara with customizing processes across different sites. The results: 67% are challenged with adopting new technology and 56% with manual processes.

Olivia Bushe03:52

You're definitely in the right place today if you're challenged with adoption and particularly manual processes. That's our specialty: we help you replace your paper and manual processes and digitize and automate them.

Olivia Bushe04:18

I'm excited to see David work the FlowForma magic and show you how quickly you can build processes without any coding. You don't need to be a skilled developer or part of the IT team. If you can use logic and you own the process, you can build it in FlowForma.

Olivia Bushe04:58

From the start, FlowForma has been about helping people digitize and automate manual and paper processes without code, so process owners like me, who aren't technical, can build them. We're an award-winning provider recognized by analysts such as Forrester, with clients around the world and offices in Dublin, London and New York City.

Olivia Bushe05:56

You can build unlimited workflows with unlimited document generation. The idea is to empower business users to become self-sufficient: to build, automate and maintain their own processes, without paying for expensive IT services, and to put the power in the hands of the people who know the process best.

Olivia Bushe06:46

We specialize in construction, so a lot of the features we add are specific to our construction customers' use cases. Typical processes include site visit requests, job safety forms, incident management, which we're looking at today, and materials requisition.

Olivia Bushe07:45

One example: Karl Henderson, digital engineering lead at Downer in New Zealand. Before buying, Downer tested FlowForma against Power Apps. It took four weeks to build in Power Apps what took one week in FlowForma, and these were developers, who still chose FlowForma because they could go much faster. Karl says the only limitation with FlowForma is your imagination.

Olivia Bushe08:48

FlowForma handles everything from simple to complex processes. We work with well-known construction companies across Ireland, the UK and North America, including Coinford, Downer, Sullivan Engineering in New York and the A14, the largest road construction project in the UK, as well as smaller tier 2 contractors.

Olivia Bushe09:50

Before David's build, we also have pre-built templates, our process accelerators, for things like check sheets and materials requisition. You can take those and use them straight away for a rapid time to value. Get in touch and we can give you the templates in a trial environment.

Olivia Bushe10:21

Our last poll: what outcome is most important to your organization when digitizing? Increasing operational efficiencies is the clear winner at 62%, followed by saving worker time.

Olivia Bushe11:04

Given the economic uncertainty in the world at the moment, operational efficiencies have come back to be the top priority for lots of customers. Our workflow and automation tool can help by making your process more transparent, keeping your data accurate and stopping you re-entering data several times.

David Shanley11:58

Thanks, Olivia. Even though incident management won, the functionality in today's build covers the other processes too, such as hot works permits and permits to dig. First, how end users interact with FlowForma. One way is through your browser, like this SharePoint team site dashboard, where you can have a tile for each process and a list of the forms that need your attention.

David Shanley13:16

You can take data captured from a process, such as this health and safety one, into a Power BI dashboard embedded in your SharePoint site. You can also use FlowForma through the Teams app, and there's a mobile app for iOS and Android with offline capabilities. I'll play back a check sheet recorded on my phone at the end.

David Shanley14:28

Here's the incident management form from an end user's point of view. The step bar shows the current step in white and the steps that follow: regulatory reporting, investigation and closure. Steps move in sequence here, but you can also run steps in parallel when several people need to work on the process at the same time.

David Shanley15:15

If I select medical treatment as the incident type, the form asks for injury information. That's a question change rule: it fires on the trigger question when the answer changes, and it's used a lot to hide and show content dynamically. There are lots of question types, too: radio buttons, choices, geolocation, date and time, and repeating tables for the incident timeline.

David Shanley16:03

If witness statements are required, I'm asked to add them. If I report hazards, on a mobile device I'm prompted to take a picture, which is embedded in the form, and I can annotate it and add comments. There's also a wet signature, which is very useful on site, for example on a hot works permit or a permit to dig.

David Shanley17:03

Step-level rules fire when I click submit. They might assign the next step to the investigator, email that person, push information into a database or list, or generate a document. Step saving rules fire when someone saves a long-running step without submitting it. Here, a hide/show step rule removes the regulatory reporting step if the incident wasn't reported to the regulatory body.

David Shanley18:35

On the investigation step, I record who investigated, the actions, who completed them and when, and sign. On the final review step, I can see the data from earlier steps. If I say the incident isn't closed, step completed rules send it back to the investigation step with my comments shown at the bottom for the investigator. That's what we're going to build.

David Shanley19:57

I'll create a new process and give it the prefix IM, which appears before the ID of every form created from it. This opens the flow designer, a three-in-one toolkit that combines forms, workflow and document generation in a single build interface, and every business and workflow rule is applied with 100% no code.

David Shanley20:45

I'll turn on form preview, which people use a lot while they're learning, and add my steps, pasting the titles from Notepad: incident details, regulatory reporting, incident investigation and incident closure. I'm assigning each step to myself for now.

David Shanley21:47

Now the questions on the first step. Incident reported by is a person or group question set to the current user. There are lots of question types, from native SharePoint types like date and time to our own custom types, including lookups to SharePoint lists, CRM integration and SQL Server. Incident type is a choice, shown as a drop-down.

David Shanley23:19

I know that if the incident type is medical treatment I'll need injury information, so I add every question I might need and use business rules to decide what's displayed and when: injury information, whether emergency services were called, the site, a geolocation using Google Maps, and the date and time.

David Shanley25:28

The incident timeline is a repeating table: a parent question with sub-questions, one for each column, here date and time and activity. Witness statements required is a yes/no question, with a witness statements table for each name and an uploaded statement. Most of the heavy lifting is done on this first step.

David Shanley27:01

You can build a form quickly in a lot of tools. The challenge for many platforms is how long it takes to apply the business and workflow logic. With FlowForma it's intuitive, because you're working in a single build interface with no code, so you can see where each rule sits and why.

David Shanley28:02

The hazards table has a file upload that shows the image in preview and lets you annotate it, so on a mobile device you're prompted to take a picture. Last, report incident to regulatory body is a yes/no question, and there's a wet signature for the reporter.

David Shanley29:33

Before moving on, I create a test form to see where I want my rules to fire. Incident reported by should be read only. Injury information should only show for medical treatment, the witness and hazard tables only when the answer is yes, and the regulatory reporting step should be hidden if the answer is no.

David Shanley30:35

I hide the two medical questions by default and add a hide/show question rule on the incident type. There are lots of rule categories: workflow control rules, which you'll use 60 to 70% of the time, plus data integration, communications and SharePoint actions. If the incident type contains medical treatment, show injury information and emergency services called.

David Shanley31:37

It's an agile tool, so you can test as you build and make changes very quickly, which helps a lot with end user adoption. I add the same kind of rule for witness statements and hazards, and you get into the rhythm of building very quickly. Then a hide/show step rule hides the regulatory reporting step if the answer is no.

David Shanley34:14

On the regulatory reporting step, I add a few questions, such as regulatory body notified. On the investigation step, I add who's investigating, read only and set to the current user, and a repeating table of actions, with who completed each one and the date. A signature appears only when the investigation is marked complete.

David Shanley37:02

Because it's a single interface, when I look back over a build, mine or someone else's, it's easy to see where each rule sits and why. On the closure step, incident closed is a yes/no question, and a comments box shows only if the answer is no.

David Shanley38:57

With a lot of systems, the build is too complex for process owners, so it ends up with IT. When IT make the changes three or six months later, the process has moved on. Here, the process owners can refine the build themselves, which matters for adoption.

David Shanley39:27

On the investigation step, I add a hidden, read-only closure comments question. At step level on the closure step, a pass-back rule sends the form back to the investigation step if the incident isn't closed. A hide/show rule with the same condition shows the comments there, and a set question value rule copies the reviewer's comments across.

David Shanley41:28

Separators are a graphical way to mark sections and give the user information. You can embed links and images too, so you can build an aesthetically pleasing form, which also helps adoption.

David Shanley43:01

You get unlimited document generation. With the FlowForma plug-in for Word, you place tokens in a template where you want answers from the form. Rules can include or remove sections, so the document expands or contracts to fit. That's very useful for hot works permits and permits to dig, where you might need a PDF record on site or in a document library for regulatory requirements.

David Shanley44:34

FlowForma Engage brings third parties into a process with anonymous or secure access. Anonymous access is usually the route people take, because there's no FlowForma user overhead. The external person completes a single step, and the information feeds into the internal process. It's useful for on-site partners, new suppliers and onboarding employees.

David Shanley45:36

Now let's play it through. The first step does most of the heavy lifting, and all the rules fire: geolocation, date and time and the rest. This process was built in 40-odd minutes. I submit, complete the investigation, and on closure say it isn't closed, add comments and submit. It goes back to the investigation step with the comments embedded. That's how quickly you can build with FlowForma.

David Shanley47:08

It's also easy to manage the process once it's live. Process performance shows how forms are doing against service level agreements set at step level, and an administrator can reassign forms to the next available person. You can also build work items into the design, to reassign automatically and send alerts until the step owner completes it, so bottlenecks aren't an issue.

David Shanley48:08

Here's a recording from my iPhone of a generic check sheet. Selecting Other shows another question, there's geolocation, and a fixed table where each row has to be completed. I'm prompted to take a picture, which is embedded in the table, and I can annotate it. I sign and submit, and it goes to a supervisor for review.

David Shanley50:11

The supervisor gets an email, or sees the form on their dashboard, opens it, reviews what was submitted, and either approves it or passes it back to request an amendment. That's it built, folks. I hope it gives you a sense of how quickly and flexibly you can build with FlowForma.

Niamh Lordan51:07

Thanks, David. We're coming up to the hour, so we'll answer some questions after the webinar. First, from Alan: he has a lot of processes on paper and doesn't know where to start or how to prioritize. Olivia?

Olivia Bushe51:48

Start where the pain is biggest, Alan. Think about which process would have the biggest impact. It's really good if the first process has high adoption, because that gets buy-in. Don't spend lots of time making it perfect: roll it out to a few people, get feedback, tweak it and roll it out again. Pick something with a large impact that isn't overly complex.

Niamh Lordan52:52

Carlin's processes are constantly changing and adapting. Dave, can FlowForma accommodate regular changes like that?

David Shanley53:04

100%. It's an agile tool. It's all about making changes immediately, instead of the traditional route where changes are farmed out to IT and come back three months later.

Niamh Lordan53:45

Marissa asks how quickly customers usually see a return on investment.

Olivia Bushe54:02

It's something quite unique to FlowForma: a rapid time to value. Within about four weeks, customers get their processes up and running and live. Our onboarding program includes two days of training, and we hand-hold you through getting the first process live.

Niamh Lordan54:44

One more for Dave: Masha has a lot of people working on remote sites. Could they access processes in FlowForma?

David Shanley54:55

100%. The recording I showed was from my iPhone. FlowForma is mobile-enabled for iOS and Android, with offline capabilities, so data you enter without a connection is cached on your device and uploaded once connectivity is restored.

Niamh Lordan55:20

We'll get back to the questions we didn't reach. Thanks to Olivia and David, especially David after that long live demo. If you'd like to discuss your challenges, visit flowforma.com, where you can book a one-to-one call or a workshop. Thanks everyone, and enjoy the rest of your day.