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Using IT Form Developer
- What does this web site do - [here].
- How does it work - [here].
- How much does it cost - [here].
- How do you pay - [here].
- What are the benefits of online forms over paper or document forms - [here].
- What questions can be asked - [here].
- The information I want to collect is more complicated than the standard set of question - [here].
- Can you process the information before you send it to us or relay it back to the User - [here].
- Who does the form get sent to - [here].
- Who can see the information - [here].
What does this web site do?
We have software which allows us to rapidly develop online forms.
Because setting up a web form is a time consuming task for a web developer it is normally quite expensive. However because we are set up specifically to make web forms we can quickly create feature rich forms which you only pay for as you use.
How does it work?
1. You contact us by phone or email and then forward your specification or existing form to us. We currently build your forms for you but we are working towards putting our form building software online so that you are able to build and modify your own forms if you wish to.
2. The form can be accessed using the blue form selection bar (fsb) at the top of the page. A form can be found either by a form ID or by searching a list of forms which your company has on this site. A link from an existing web site can be used to refer a User directly to a form.
3. The completed forms are emailed to you as a html page and as part of an indexing spreadsheet. Other formats are available.
How much does it cost?
The web site is pay as you go. We charge :
- Initially, for creating a template - @ £40 + £15 per form page.
- Subsequently, for using the form - a) @ 0.39p per form page sent or b) 0.975p per page visit.
Creating A Form Template
An initial charge is made for the time taken to create a form template on our system. Because there can be a number of form specific requirements we provide a quote for each form. The price quoted depends on:
- The number of standard html form elements (SFE) eg. text entry boxes or drop down menus etc.
- Complex html form elements (CFE) eg. a file upload page or conditional processing which are charged as a multiplication of (SFE's)
- Customised html form elements which require coding are charged for individually.
A form page is generally equal to ten standard form elements (SFE).
To cost the form we apply the formula £40 + £15 per form page.
| No. Of Standard Form Elements (SFE) | Form Pages | Cost To Create Form |
| 10 | 1 | £55 |
| 50 | 5 | £115 |
| 100 | 10 | £190 |
Please note that our prices are always quoted and that the prices in the table above are only guidelines.
Using A Form
There are two tariffs :
Form Page. If you use the web site to complete forms and subsequently take the forms offline - you will be charged 39p for each 'form page' which is completed.
or
Page Visit. If you use the web site to complete forms and subsequently keep your forms online and use our tools manage it - you will be charged 0.975p for each page which you visit.
Having a both Form Page and a Page Visit rate means that you are charged in the way which is most appropriate to your use of the site. The system will record your level of use and automatically determine the tariff type. Your account administrator can monitor the level of credit which their company has.
Form Page tariff
When the form is quoted/created the number of form pages which the form has, and hence the cost of the completed form (39p * number of form pages) will be indicated to you.
The charge of 39p per form page is made when the form is completed.
| # Form Pages | Completion Charge | 100 Forms | 5000 Forms |
| 1 | £0.39 | £39.00 | £1950.00 |
| 5.5 | £2.14 | £214.00 | £10700.00 |
| 10.0 | £3.90 | £390.00 | £19500.00 |
Most customers use the Form Page tariff and are charged as their forms are completed. The Form Page tariff includes a generous allowance which also allows the online tools to be used to manage the forms. This may include organising, searching or comparing the form contents. However the Form Page tariff anticipates that the forms will be processed and archived once they are complete.
Page Visit tariff
If you find that it is useful to leave your completed forms on the site and continue to use the online tools to manage them then the system will recognise that this is your usage pattern and start to charging you at a flat page visit tariff of 0.975p
At the Page Visit rate :
- A 100,000 visits to the site will cost £975.
- A busy million hits is £9750.
How do you pay?
Because its pay-as-you-go you only pay when your forms have been completed. When you're not busy you're not being charged. Plus there are no big up front payments to be made. Basically you only need to stay in credit to benefit from using the site.
Payments can be made by directly bank transfer or PayPal. Once logged on, an account administrator can go to the Company Credit page and see the amount of credit remaining and which tariff is being used.
The credit cannot be redeemed but the credit can be used on any form or form development and there is no time limit on when that credit is used.
The 'pay as you go' option is designed for customers who primarily want to have forms completed. However if your company has a number of forms and work processes that it wishes to manage/track and recognises the benefits of working digitally then it may be more appropriate to develop a stand alone web application (app).
Detailed information about the process which IT Business Developer uses to create web apps can be found - [here].
What are the benefits of online forms over paper or document forms?
For a discussion of the problem with working with emails and forms in word documents - [here].
What questions can be asked?
All the standard html form elements (SFE's) can be included :
- Text box.
- Text area.
- Numbers.
- Radio buttons.
- Check boxes.
- Drop down menu.
- Date fields.
Actions on SFE's include :
- Non-editable fields.
- Required fields.
- Error checking.
Some complex html form elements include :
- Repeating fieldsets.
- Cascading data.
- Conditional processing.
- File Uploads.
- Customised appearance.
Customised html form elements are individual requirements developed for a specific customer. Although customised elements have to be individually coded they are developed on top of, and slot directly into the existing framework.
The information I want to collect is more complicated than the standard set of question?
Thats fine - we dont re-invent the wheel. We create the customised elements that you need for your form but these will then slot directly into the existing framework. IT Form Developer already has a lot of specific functionality, so please don't hesitate to ask us about your requirements.
Can you process the information before you send it to us or relay it back to the User?
The benefit of the IT Form Developer system is that a large number of operations and transformations can be made on the data programmatically after it has been submitted by the User. These operations require dedicated programming to meet the specific requirement but all your customisations slot into the existing framework and that means that you won't necessarily have to build a new application.
Who does the form get sent to?
The completed form gets emailed to a list of people; which you designate when your form template is created, your company administrators and a copy to the person who completed the form .
Who can see the information?
We have a number of levels of security depending upon your requirements and the sensitivity of your data. It is important that you are confident when transferring information over the Internet and we will address the security issues with you when your form is being created.
Open Access
If the information is of no interest to anyone but your company, and you want to encourage casual Users or members of the public to use the forms, then we recommend that you leave the access open (no password). In our view it is extremely unlikely that anyone will be bothered to submit nuisance applications.
Password Protected
Information can be protected by using passwords. However it is worth noting that Users really don't like having to sign up to new accounts and that they will conspire to repeatedly forget their passwords.
Sometimes the nature of the information that you are gathering means that there has to be password protection. The benefit of this is that, once you have passwords, and can assign different roles to your Users, you can control exactly who gets to see what.
Simple Encryption
Unfortunately access control using password and roles does not protect your information as it is actually being transmitted over the Internet. While there are some risks associated with passing unencrypted data over the Internet in our view it would require a dedicated individual to exploit them. Presently IT Form Developer has the ability to encrypt single field values before sending them. This offers a much higher degree of security than a normal submission but again this could not be considered totally secure.
Secure Server
If you have highly sensitive data then you will need to access your information using the https:// protocol on a secure server. IT Form Developer does not yet operate on an secure server but this could be arranged depending upon the requirement.
IT Form Developer: Rapid form creation, data capture, information tracking & work process development.
