The method(s) that companies use to make requests of other internal employees or departments can have a significant impact on the amount of time that it takes to fulfill those requests. Many organizations rely on email, phone calls, or texts to generate these requests instead of having a more structured process in place. Many times, this will result in one (or more) of several different undesirable outcomes:

• The information provided is overlooked or missed by the recipient
• The recipient is not the person to whom the request should have gone
• The information in the request is incorrect or incomplete (missing part numbers, missing a shipping destination address)
• The information is formatted carelessly, making it difficult for the recipient(s) to decipher exactly what the request is

There are numerous other headaches that can come along with not having a defined process in place for making formal requests. One potential solution to this problem is the use of online forms. Online forms can be easily developed which will streamline this flow of information. The results can be stored in a database and time-stamped to ensure accountability of each request. Alerts can be sent to individuals or entire departments that a request has been submitted, ensuring that the request is not overlooked in a cluttered inbox. Furthermore, the fields within the form can be set to both required and confirmed with validation to ensure that the data provided in the request is complete, accurate, and properly formatted.

For instance, a 9-digit part number that always begins with “9999” could be placed in a validated form field that would not allow the user to submit the form unless they had populated this field with the proper part number format. Furthermore, fields can be conditionally required based on the answers to other fields. For instance, you might ask “Does your location utilize printed Register Toppers?” If the answer is “Yes,” then another field could appear and require the user to enter the number utilized.

Developing online forms is a fairly easy and efficient method to both generate and process requests. The amount of re-work that is prevented or eliminated is worth far more than the effort of developing the forms, especially when the form is for a request that is fairly common within an organization.