FileMaker, Inc. runs a program called ‘Idea to iPad’ in conjunction with Apple Business teams all over the United States and iSolutions is a charter member of the initiative. After having participated in all of the pilot Idea to iPad programs in 2014 and 2015, FileMaker hand picked iSolutions to work with an Apple Business Team client out of the Reno, NV called Kaiafit.
KaiaFit is a women’s exercise franchise with 58 locations across Nevada and the Western US. Each time someone joins, several forms are needed, such as waiver of liability, medical release and, of course, basic contact information.
They were using preprinted paper forms that were filled out and mailed to corporate. As you can imagine–with 58 franchises, the amount of forms received became unbearable, as well as difficult to track and to locate a specific form. In order to not only add value to the franchisees, but to allow for better ownership of the customer data by the franchisor, a system was created to allow for electronic capture of data, signatures and headshots.
Enter the iPad.
In a quest to become paperless and streamline operations, KaiaFit Corporate looked to the iPad and specifically FileMaker for better control over this entry process. The iPad has the ability to capture signatures and take photos and a custom app in FileMaker Go can leverage those features.
iSolutions met with KaiaFit to discuss the data gathering process. Then the iSolutions UX team created a work flow that efficiently gathered the required data without slowing down the process. Finally, a wireframe application was developed that combined three paper forms into a series of two layouts in the FileMaker custom app. The custom app now captures electronic signatures, electronic initials and a headshot of each new customer signing up for the program.
Using a custom app in FileMaker allows for the ability to have one centralized database to store all the customer information while franchises across the country all use iPads to collect the data and transmit it to Corporate. The custom app not only speeds up the information gathering process, but allows for sharing of real time data in a manner that was non-existent in the process in paper form.
