IT Innovation Contest

A team-based contest for creative IT solutions

UCSF Document Library for Administrative Forms

Proposal Status: 

How many times does an action get delayed because you couldn’t locate the right form in order to initiate the process?  How many multiple websites must you sometimes go to (and search for those before that) in order to locate the form that you need?  Rather than searching through google.com or looking through your emails, hoping to remember the person who might have sent it to you, or worse yet, getting rejected for a request because of using an outdated form, look no further!  A solution is just weeks away!

 

The goal of this project is to develop a centralized document repository for all forms and fillable documents involving administrative transactions at UCSF.  The forms targeted by this project are from various control points such as Human Resources, Finance/Accounting, Research Administration and IT/Access services.  These control points depend on client completion of these forms in order to drive actions from those service areas.  Collaborative relationships will be formed as part of the project in order to test the website and its usability and interface.  This project will also open up opportunities for adaptability and enhancements in the future to integrate with other campus IT resources and platforms. Additionally, this project will also explore means of electronic signature capability on forms, to help further complete forms.

 

Deliverables

  1. A web-based UCSF campus repository accessible to campus and medical center employees.
  2. User-friendly interface that allows users to easily locate and search for existing forms or actions or policies that are linked to an existing form.
  3. Capability for control points to upload and update forms directly onto website as needed.

Impact on UCSF's mission and/or community

This project aims to: 1) improve the management of forms that are used frequently by University faculty and staff; 2) reduce occurrence of multiple instances and outdated versions of forms stored on the existing forms of UCSF storage; 3) improve the rate of transactions dependent on forms and fillable documents and initiate actions sooner; and, 4) reduce time spent finding and downloading of documents to sign/scan/upload and submit to service areas.

 

Future enhancements for this project

  • Manage user and administrator profiles through MyAccess login.
  • Integrate an electronic signature application to insert verified signatures on forms.
  • Capability to store history of completed forms.

List of team members and their role

Core Member: Jennifer Lo –Project Manager, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Core Member:  Pranathi Sundaram –Technology Lead, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging

Core Member: Patrick Phelan – Technical Consultant, Department of IT Security and Policy

Core Member: John Kealy - Drupal and web consultant, ITS

Core Member: Catherine Dunne - Programmer support and database development consultant, Department of Psychiatry

 

Estimated time devoted by each team member

The team will require additional help to program, test and evaluate the website, as well as to create collaborative partnerships.  In general, the core members will devote approximate 0.10-0.15 FTE towards this project.

This project team is seeking members to join. Please feel free to contact jlo@ohns.ucsf.edu if you have an interest.

We are looking for programmers who can develop websites on Drupal and other technical staff who have an affinity for document management solutions.

Comments

Interesting concept. I can think of two use cases for forms, and this project as described would address the first one: (1) I know there is a form for this, but where is it? (2) I want to accomplish X and don't know that there is a form for this The second is the more challenging to address, but would greatly enhance the utility of this tool. Then again, as users get used to the notion of a central repository for forms and easy discoverability, for the second use case they may just check first to see if there is a form for what they want to accomplish. Robust searching will be key for this. Electronic signature is also a challenge as currently there is no standard solution in use at UCSF, and may be beyond the scope of this project.

Thank you for taking the time to offer us feedback. Great points.

Yeah!!! I like that once they are housed in one place we can standardize them so they can all be filled in electronically, (instead of print & scan). Next step- electronic signatures, and electronic retrieval of the fields. Maybe silicon valley is not SO far away.....

Please join our team!

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