Creatio is a powerful no-code, business process automation platform that boasts the ability to add CRM on top of it. The platform's extensibility is among the best and most intuitive in the no-code space.
Formstack is a no-code solution that allows its user base to create online forms, generate documents, and solicit end-users for digital signatures (view more about digital signatures here).
Each solution offers a free 14-day trial, and we've created and published free connectors - making the task of connecting the two platforms incredibly simple.
With the commercial out of the way - let's dive into how Creatio users can take full advantage of Formstack and vice versa.
Creatio + Formstack Forms
The "Forms" product from Formstack's suite of products allows for creating and curating responsive web forms. that adjust to show or hide other fields or sections based on the values from other form fields. To simplify that statement, "Forms can be used in two primary ways":
- As a means of collecting new data: better seen on websites as "Contact Us" pages. This product feature is far more versatile than that. Sure, the "contact us" form is the most common example, but consider the idea of new student inquiries for higher education, new member applications for financial institutions (banks, credit unions, investment firms, etc.), or new utility customer applications for utility companies.
- As a means of updating existing data: when connected to another software platform like Creatio, you can use that system's data to create a link that pre-fills a Formstack Form. More specific to Creatio, you can embed a Creatio record's unique ID (or "GUID") into a hidden field on the form that allows the submission to be treated entirely differently once the submission gets sent to Creatio.
Rather than create a duplicate, it will use the data as a means of validating and updating the existing record. This allows customers, prospects, students, or any demographic to have an alternative means to update their information within Creatio. Additionally, the Formstack Form will be pre-filled with most of the data, requiring only the person who clicks the link to validate that the information is correct rather than typing everything out manually.
That covers the standard "uses," but did you know that there's more than one way to bring the Formstack Form's data into Creatio? Our Formstack Forms Connector for Creatio emphasizes the use of Creatio's "Landing Page" capability, but you can also use Creatio's Webhook feature. Depending on what the form captures will influence which method you should use.
- Landing Pages: our connector turns this into a simplified "copy/paste" exercise. This method is best when attachments are not involved in the form submission process.
- Webhooks: this is the more "advanced" way of bringing data into Creatio. We refer to it as "advanced" as this method requires coding expertise (specifically C# and JSON) to influence how and where data gets stored in Creatio.
Summary: Creatio + Formstack Forms
Regardless of which method you use to bring the data into Creatio, you now have the extensive automation capabilities of the Creatio platform. Leverage Creatio to automate and streamline processes that would normally be "mostly manual" tasks. Here are some additional resources to help arm you with the "how to"s and "why"s of Creatio + Formstack Forms:
- Introduction Video: learn more about the Formstack Forms Connector for Creatio (duration: 1 min, 33 secs)
- Video Walkthrough: if you want something to follow along in setting up your first Formstack Form and a Creatio Landing Page, follow along in this video.
- Setup and Configuration Guide: a written version of the Video Walkthrough with plenty of screenshots and callouts to help you implement our connector.
Creatio + Formstack Documents
The "Documents" product from Formstack's suite of products allows you to build in-depth document templates. When we say "in-depth," we really mean it. Imagine you were a company that did business in multiple states, and each state's regulations require you to phrase the "Terms and Conditions" section of your document by a word, paragraph, or the entire document. Using the conditional logic within a Formstack Documents template, you control how the final document looks.
That's precisely where Formstack Documents shines. In the above example, one document template is required to ensure each proposal contains the exact verbiage needed without someone deciding which template should be used in that specific scenario.
Couple that capability with Creatio, and you now have a powerhouse data source (Creatio) and a robust system to curate document templates to consume and present that data. Our Formstack Documents Connector for Creatio provides two examples of how users can push Creatio data to Formstack Documents to generate templates:
- Generate an NDA from a Lead record (no Formstack Sign integration): generate a sample NDA from a lead record by running a process within Creatio.
- Generate an NDA from an Account record (using Freedom UI Buttons): generate a sample NDA from an account record from a Freedom UI button element. This method differs slightly from the above as it does not require multiple clicks to generate documents in Formstack from Creatio data - just one click.
- Generate a document, and push it to Formstack Sign for signature capture: generate a document, and seamlessly deliver it to a Creatio contact to sign. This method inspires "ooh"s and "aah"s from those that see it as it maximizes the power of Creatio and Formstack's Documents and Sign products.
The above two are mere examples of how you can make it easy to generate documents from Creatio. However, the applications and flexibility of the two products are quite extensive. Additionally, Formstack Documents allows the generated document to be in different formats:
- Microsoft Word: the "OG" of the document world. This format allows you to generate .docx files that can be modified before committing it to any other format (i.e., PDFs).
- PDF: generate documents directly into a .PDF format without any additional subscriptions.
- Microsoft Excel: handy if you need to export the data and immediately apply calculations to specific data elements.
- HTML: merge data directly into a .html file to expedite web curation or display of data into a WYSIWG (what you see is what you get) field.
- JPEG/image: create an image from the document template and any data merged into it.
Using the business process example from our Formstack Documents Connector for Creatio, you can set the "download" flag in the process to be "0" (zero) or "1" (one). A "zero" value tells Formstack that you don't want a link to retrieve the generated document programmatically, and a "one" value tells Formstack that you do. Storing the document in Creatio requires the use of C# to retrieve and store the document against the Creatio record(s).
Regardless of your need, Formstack Documents allows for the creation of an end result that saves time, ensures accuracy, and looks exactly the way you want and need it to look.
Summary: Creatio + Formstack Documents
Using Creatio as a data source, you can generate documents from a Formstack Document template from any section or combination of sections of Creatio. You also have the option to store the generated document in Creatio programmatically; however, that is not a part of our connector due to the technical acumen required to accomplish.
Here are some additional resources to help arm you with the "how to"s and "why"s of Creatio + Formstack Documents:
- Introduction Video: learn more about the Formstack Documents Connector for Creatio (duration: 4 min, 8 secs)
- Video Walkthrough: if you want something to follow along in setting up an example Formstack Documents template with Creatio, follow along in this video.
- Setup and Configuration Guide: a written version of the Video Walkthrough with plenty of screenshots and callouts to help you implement our connector.
Creatio + Formstack Sign
Formstack's "Sign" product allows you to use files (i.e., .docx or .pdf), and place signature fields on that file. When it comes to Creatio, you should consider our Formstack Sign Connector for Creatio as an extension of our Formstack Documents Connector for Creatio.
That statement isn't intended to diminish the Sign product's capability. Formstack Sign is very powerful; however, when it comes to integrating with Creatio, there's not a great method to push an Attachment from a record to Sign. The natural flow is to generate a document template from Creatio (using the Formstack Documents Connector), and set up a delivery method that automatically designates the recipients and signatories of the document.
While that sounds like a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, the simpler answer is, "it's just easier to push Creatio data into a Formstack Documents template, that then delivers that document for signature." It streamlines the Creatio user's experience to a simple click of a button.
Following that "button click" method, Formstack Documents allows you to delay the delivery of the document until all parties have signed the document. From there, Formstack publishes the final, signed document (with audit trail), and sends it to Creatio via a webhook. Creatio will then recognize the new webhook submission, process and save the file against the proper Creatio record(s).
Once the final, signed document gets saved, you have an endless potential of what happens next. Do you want to simply update the status of the Creatio record where the document was initially generated to validate that the signed document has been received and saved? Or do you want to execute a series of tasks, next steps, and/or customer communications?
In either scenario, you have the freedom and flexibility to meet and exceed your unique requirements with document generation and digital signature capture.
Summary: Creatio + Formstack Sign
With Formstack Sign, we get into the "can you" vs. the "should you" argument. Can you integrate directly to Sign and push Creatio attachments to Formstack Sign? Yes. Should you? Not unless you're highly technical and don't mind a few manual steps.
The better path is to leverage the natural integration to Formstack Sign from within Formstack Documents. Additional resources are still being developed to help arm you with the "how to"s and "why"s of Creatio + Formstack Document + Formstack Sign.
Summary: Creatio + Formstack Integration
Simply put: "Creatio and Formstack are a powerful duo." Our connectors are meant to enable and provide guidance - not be the final word on how they can be used.
More than anything, we hope that these connectors serve as examples of how to leverage the power of Creatio and Formstack. The examples contained within each connector - Forms, Documents, and Sign - show you the foundational "how." From there, the possibilities become endless on how an organization can leverage the two systems together.
If you have any questions about this article or need support for any of the connectors, please do not hesitate to reach our team via email at formstack@ss-adv.com.