“GoFormz allowed us to have multiple people access the same form without having to transfer or handoff paper documents”
GOFORMZ CASE STUDY
AT-A-GLANCE
Needed a digital forms solution to accelerate the flow of information between remote employees and the main office. The lack of durability of paper forms was an issue – they were difficult to complete in harsh weather conditions, often encountered by the Radiance Solar team.
Implemented the GoFormz mobile forms solution, which allowed teammates at remote job sites to easily and digitally complete forms on their mobile devices and instantly route them to the office or other distant locations. Mobile forms were much easier to fill out than paper forms, regardless of weather conditions.
THE FULL STORY
Since 2007, Radiance Solar LLC has been providing professional solar power installations for commercial, institutional and utility customers. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, their mission has been to bring reliable and affordable solar energy to all electricity users. Although many believe solar energy is costly, Radiance Solar sees a future where these costs will be equal to current traditional resources. They believe that with their innovative system design, technology and construction, they can help make solar energy affordable and an option for everyone.
The construction and installation of solar panels requires a lot paper work to be completed throughout and after the installation process. Because these panels must have a clear view of the sun, they are often placed outside in places such as the top of buildings or remote fields. These locations are not only difficult to get to, but they also experience poor network connections and varying types of weather, such as rain or high winds. It is easy to see how these conditions make it difficult for someone to fill out paper forms and submit them for processing. This is the exact problem that Solar Radiance faced before implementing GoFormz.
“We were trying to efficiently communicate and document things as they were taking place for remote employees. We also wanted them to have access to specific forms while at job sites” –Lina Joyner, Human Resources Manager
These challenges continued until Keith Craig, lead electrician, recommended that the company use GoFormz to digitize their paper forms to use on mobile devices. After building their first few mobile forms and testing them with their remote teammates, it did not take long for Radiance Solar to begin quickly moving more of their forms collection to the GoFormz platform.
“GoFormz allowed us to fill out forms in a multitude of weather conditions.”
Once GoFormz was up and running at Radiance Solar, they immediately noticed the resulting jobsite benefits. Electricians were completing forms faster than ever and did not have to worry about winds blowing pages away or rain ruining their documents. Also, more than one person could now have access to the same form, regardless of their location –– increasing team collaboration and efficiency. The GoFormz offline features also aided the team when in poor service areas.
“GoFormz allowed us to have multiple people access the same form without having to transfer them manually or physically handoff paper documents”
The Radiance Solar team converted many of their most important forms into GoFormz, including safety forms, various checklists tied to specific solar panels and parts, and industry specific documents. Digitally transforming these forms allowed Ian and his team to augment their forms by including new data types that were not possible to include in their traditional paper forms. If there were numbers to be calculated, Ian included auto-calculating Number fields to prevent any mathematical errors. If a photo was necessary, Ian added Image fields to the forms. Simply said, GoFormz made life easier for the Radiance Solar teammates that were out in the field.
“The GoFormz picture function is extremely helpful, we use that on every form”-Ian Agnew
While GoFormz eased the life of remote electricians at Solar Radiance, it also made life simpler for those in the office. Processing and storing paper forms is not a small task, and detailed record keeping is crucial for a company like Radiance Solar. GoFormz was also able to aid in this administrative process. Implementing conditional logic to instantly email all forms to the office upon completion, made Lina Joyner’s (Human Resources manager) life easier. Once she received the email with the form attachment, she simply saved it to their local system in its appropriate folder. No physical storage was necessary.
“Once the email gets to me, I can simply open the form and determine what type of form it is and save it accordingly”- Lina Joyner
After many years of using GoFormz as their mobile forms provider, Radiance Solar is extremely happy. Ian and the electrician team are happy because they can now have instant access to crucial field data that they can quickly act on by either running more tests or by passing the information to the appropriate person. Lina, on the other hand, is enjoying the office benefits of having all forms routed to her instantly and in the proper sequence, instilling proper accountability with all the Radiance Solar teammates.