Item: Formstack Forms
Rating: 9
Author: Patrick Stephens

Overall Satisfaction with Formstack

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The whole organization. We use it to track applications, conferences, and nearly everything internal when it comes to online paperwork.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Allows for unique situations. As a school, we don't have the luxury of being cookie cutter. Neither do our forms.
Support. If we don't know how to do it, their support team has been very helpful and actually attempts to understand the issue on hand.
User friendliness. In our field we have a phrase: "what if you get hit by a bus?" With Formstack, you can "get hit by the bus" and someone else can jump in and still keep things running (this is used as a phrase for illness, not termination).

Cons

The overall look. I couldn't get it on brand until I used the embed section and had the website take it over.
There are times that the integrations haven't worked, and the only way we'd know is when we log in. There is now a field to notify you if this happens, but that does't help us if the third-party is down.
I would like to see the unique field and the required field work together better. We want to force someone to select a spot, but have many spots at varying times. If you fill out one section and make the unique spaces required, that shuts down the form - and any remaining, supposed to be unaffected, areas.

Return on Investment

It has increased efficiency tenfold. Our employees can work on the heart of the business, and not need concern themselves with what the kidneys or spleen is doing because they are working just fine.
Increasing efficiency has increased the amount of time we spend on other projects. But, it has also created a reliance on technology. This can come back to bite you if someone doesn't know what they are doing, or is computer illiterate.
Ultimately, it created an environment where we could move forward. The ROI is uncalculable because it has returned more time to us in such a valuable way that we can't even fathom going back. If Formstack closed tomorrow, we would be sad; however, it has taught us to understand where the most important part of our business lies.

Alternatives Considered

Google Forms, Typeform, SurveyMonkey and Wufoo

Formstack just had more versatility. We had to start in a rush and they gave us what we needed to hit the ground running. They didn't delay or bog us down with complicated sales pitches, and didn't leave us in the dark on what to do. We didn't need to google how to use the program!

Other Software Used

DocuSign, WebMerge, iContact, MailChimp, Google Ad Manager, Google Analytics, Squarespace

Likelihood to Recommend

I would use it for Admissions, HR, and Administrative purposes. It automates and streamlines processes like no other. However, I would not recommend it for someone unaware of the third party integrations. You can pull a CSV, but that can become burdensome. If you know Google Sheets, you can create a filter to make the data manageable. For someone who knows how to do this, Formstack is wonderful; if you don't, be prepared to feel lost on data until you get the hang of it.

Formstack Forms Feature Ratings

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Formstack Gave Us Back the Heart to Our Business

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