Founded in 1870, Syracuse University is internationally recognized as one of the United States’ leading institutes of higher education.
Historically, paper forms and surveys were used campus-wide to collect student information and feedback. However, the reliance on paper forms proved problematic for the university's Office of Food Services and Office of First Year and Transfer Programs (FYTP).
The Office of Food Services distributed monthly comment cards to collect feedback on their nutrition programs. But low engagement rates were a persistent issue as students were less likely to participate when asked to write and submit feedback manually.
Similarly, the FYTP Office required new students to complete an array of paper forms for enrollment in services like healthcare, housing, disability services, and tutoring.
Putting the burden on students to download, print, manually complete, and submit these forms in person added to their existing stresses of adjusting to a new environment and often led to inaccurate or missing data. This ultimately cost staff members significant time and effort in error reconciliation.
To address these challenges, both offices sought to digitize their forms. However, the university's Information and Technology Services (ITS) department immediately recognized the effort and cost that would be associated with dedicating development resources to not only creating these forms but also to gathering and distributing results in an user-friendly format.
Instead, they sought a platform that would empower staff members to create their own custom solutions.
By implementing DocuPhase's no-code form builder to streamline the creation of forms in multiple departments, Syracuse University dramatically improved survey participation and data accuracy with minimal upfront involvement from technical staff members.
The result was an immediate savings of effort and resource dependency, driving an immediate ROI for the university.
"First year students already have a lot to deal with. With online forms, they have one less thing to remember to do. And we can put up these forms in no time with [DocuPhase’s] live form builder."
James Bort Technical Lead, Online Platforms Services & Support
Seeking a platform that would allow teams to create their own forms with minimal ITS oversight, Syracuse University chose to implement DocuPhase's live form builder.
Using the intuitive drag-and-drop designer, both the Food Services and FYTP Offices can now create custom forms and surveys independently, without any coding knowledge or extra involvement from ITS.
By implementing DocuPhase's no-code form builder, Syracuse University has:
DocuPhase's web-based forms offer more than added convenience for students and staff: They have also significantly increased survey participation and accelerated workflow processes with only minutes of involvement from the ITS team.
“We created an account for [each department] on the live forms server and showed them the tutorials,” said James Bort, Technical Lead of Online Platform Services & Support at Syracuse University. “Now, they are creating their own forms and exporting submissions to Excel. It took less than five minutes of an ITS developer’s time.”
The shift to digital forms has allowed both the Food Services and the FYTP Offices to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of their data collection, and the ability to do so independently yielded an immediate return on investment for the university.
