5 Digital Form Features for Energy Field Teams
From solar to petroleum, working in energy often means collaborating across a variety of teams and locations to get the job done.
Using paper forms, binders, cameras, and filing cabinets can make this process complicated, frustrating, and often, near impossible. What’s truly incredible is that so many field teams still rely on paper forms and manual data capture tools, despite the plethora of obstacles they produce. In our recent survey of field service and construction IT decision makers, 81% of companies surveyed still rely on paper forms, a third of whom use paper for more than 75% of their documentation.
Mobile forms are a simple yet effective solution to many of the obstacles presented by manual data capture tools. Digital forms can be filled out directly from phones and tablets in the field (even offline!), eliminating opportunities for form damage, illegible handwriting, and lost forms. Forms can be equipped with logic to guide and enforce data capture, while increasing data accuracy via features like instant calculations, Required fields and more. For field teams, these powerful features can make all the difference when assessing field insights and making decisions about their business. Because data collected using mobile forms is accessible in real-time, field teams can quickly sidestep obstacles to productivity, and act on opportunities – increasing business agility.
So what mobile form features can take your energy operation further? Check out these five mobile form fields and features your energy team can leverage today:
Maps & GPS
Rapidly enter work site location information with GPS and Map fields. With simply a tap users can add precise GPS coordinates or a map of their location – increasing job site transparency and accountability.
Image fields
Capture job site Images to add context to collected data. For example, if pipeline materials arrived onsite damaged, an image of the damaged materials could be added to a technician’s mobile form with merely a few taps.
Transfer form drafts to teammates
Sharing is caring. Streamline collaboration by instantaneously sharing form drafts with collaborators. When you transfer a form to another user, the form will instantly disappear from your drafts and appear in the other user’s drafts.
Barcode Scanning
Including Barcodes in your forms enables users to quickly scan barcodes using their device’s camera and instantly populate relevant fields with data. For example, if a user were to scan the barcode of specific job site equipment, corresponding fields could instantly be filled with the equipment’s model number, safety instructions, and more.
Database & Auto-Fill Fields
Database fields pull information from data already stored within your GoFormz account or within connected databases and platforms (e.g. Google Sheets, Procore, Salesforce). This data can then be used to instantly populate corresponding fields with highly accurate information. For example, if a customer name was selected from a Drop Down, the selection could then instantly populate customer contact fields.
Looking for more ways to improve your energy operation? Check out this video and our energy customer case studies.
