I need to capture information from client employees by having them filling out a
ID: 661527 • Letter: I
Question
I need to capture information from client employees by having them filling out a form. For now the best way to do that is by EXCEL sheet, since the table format best supports the information to capture (like tasks and related duration).
Is there a way to provide a template over the internet (e.g. on a server) like Google Docs that I could host myself and that supports multiple templates for different logins (so that each employee gets a blank form)? In addition, an easy csv export would be nice. Mac compatibility required.
The software is planned to be a replacement for the workflow with the EXCEL sheet. The workflow will look like this:
Upload form to server or edit form on server.
Employee gets login information via email.
Employee accesses form by logging in through a browser. There should be no limitations regarding operating systems for this step.
Employee adds / edits information in the form.
Previous 2 steps will be repeated as often as necessary.
Data will be downloaded from the server, ideally as csv file. For this step OS X compatibility is required, if there are limitations for this step.
After that the data will be processed by other software. The goal with the process above is to replace sending email with spreadsheets to clients and waiting for response with a web based data collection solution. Let me summarize the features I am looking for:
MUST: Accessibility via the web from the browser (no OS limitations).
MUST: Editable spreadsheet-like data collection GUI that allows using templates (Google Docs is a nice example for that, however, my clients would not like to have their data stored on Google servers).
MUST: Ability to create different templates for each user.
MUST: Ability to create different logins (so each employee gets his/her own login).
MUST: Ability to download data. IDEALLY: In one file for a given selection of forms. Limited to OS X.
SHOULD be: Data should be stored on the server until download, ideally grouped by projects.
NICE to have: Editable layout to include logotype etc.
I was also thinking about online survey software. However, the problem with these is that they do not allow the spreadsheet design I am looking for.
Explanation / Answer
It is a little difficult to exactly get your needs, but maybe Google docs provides what you want?
You can make a pretty elaborate form in this. You can then sent employees or clients the link to the form and they will be able to provide answers, which will be collected in a spreadsheet.
This spreadsheet has a separate access rights and you can edit is as you wish
The spreadsheet can be exported into a multiple of formats, including OpenDocument (Libreoffice, Openoffice.org among others), OOXML (Microsoft Office) and CSV.
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