Status: Purchasing

What: Engage a common, collaborative online service that will be used independently by multiple departments to digitize all paper forms in use at URI and facilitate online routing between individuals and departments.

Why: While many functions were digitized and automated through eCampus, there remains many other approval processes that are paper based, not all of which URI can control. To fully realize a digitized workplace, URI requires a system that will allow the movement of these forms between individuals (students, parents, faculty, staff) and departments through a fully online method not requiring in-person routing, wet signatures, or in-person approval.

Latest Update

Aug 31, 2020 - Michael Motta
ITS is organizing a collaboration with key university organizations currently developing and using paper forms in both academic and administrative arenas as well as using different online tools to develop, route and record approvals of these online forms. Goals -
  • Identify and agree to a common cloud service that will provide a platform for university colleges and departments, both administrative and academic, to migrate existing paper forms to the online service as well as establish new forms and use the online service to route and record digital approvals of the form.
  • Establish common digitized new Forms standards and approvals consistent with existing Faculty Senate and University procedures.
  • Establishing onboarding policies and procedures for any division, college or department that may want to purchase their own license for the system and use it in conjunction with other departments.
Background - To begin the process, ITS met with representatives from Enrollment Services, Human Resources, Budget and Financial Planning, Graduate Admissions, Controller's Office, and Payroll to establish common understanding of needs, requirements, goals and objectives of this service. Graduate Admissions recently engaged an online service tool performing similar functionality and each of the departments listed, as well as others at URI that this group interacts with, were in the stage of considering various products. July 2020 
  • Team established.
  • Initial meeting to establish scope, goals, objectives and requirements as well as discussion of options, timelines and resource allocation.
  • Graduate Admissions provided a demonstration of the product they have in use with discussion of usability, functionality and use within URI.
  • Next steps established.
August 2020 
  • Additional services reviewed online by the team with considerations of feasibility, pricing and URI Purchasing procedures as well as reaching out to other higher education institutions to determine if they have solutions in use, what those are and how they feel the service is working.
  • Additional online demonstrations.
  • Group decisions of plan, challenges, implementation, onboarding procedures and guidelines.
  • Development underway of onboarding procedures and guidelines.