InfoPath Dev

I'm an intern in the USDA and I'm working on a project to help them to better track spending, using InfoPath as the selling point.  However, I'm not totally adept at the use of InfoPath in that capacity.  I know that, from Microsoft demos, InfoPath helps companies leverage their forms solution and allows them to effective collect and track their information and can merge a collection of InfoPath forms into 1 aggregated form.

What are InfoPath's selling points in that regard? What training would be required for persons who aren't adept with the use of InfoPath? Can it integrate?  And much paper can it cut in office form?

Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

It's interesting that they'd task an intern instead of putting out an RFP to hire a dead-set expert from a leading provider or independent contractor.  Is that the case?

Some sellings points would be:

- Direct integration with the Office suite (2007 is best)

- Direct integration with SharePoint (do they have or use SharePoint)?

- It's XML-based, so the data can be used in many ways for many other applications

- It can retrieve and submit data to/from other databases, such as SQL and SharePoint, or through web services

- It can be leveraged directly through email (Outlook)

- It can be driven via workflow (separate MS products work with it to do this)

There are more that others here can surely provide.

Training would consist of tons of blog reading and book reading, such as Pro InfoPath 2007.  Once being experienced and somewhat adept, the Qdabra Master InfoPath class should help a lot, but it wouldn't likely be a good starting point.

Can it integrate to/with what?

It can cut as much paper as people are willing to let go.  If they are ok with digital signatures in place of written signatures, then you can eliminate tons of paper.

Not quite.  The issue is that IT spends a lot of money on security.  However, at USDA, they haven't been good at effectively tracking it.  It would be a case of agencies saying they spent x amount of dollars on security.  However, it would never be accurately stated what the money was spent on.  The need to track the spending is to assure accurate estimations for budget preparation and requests.  Most of the staff, from what I could observe, has InfoPath2003; they apparently don't, or don't know how to use it.  I'm in the process of developing a drilled down form by way of Excel, for the CIO's office to distribute to the various agencies in USDA to submit their spending.  However, I saw that paper forms were the order of the day at USDA. Then again, I've noticed that to be largely the case in the federal government.

The lightbulb for selling InfoPath came when I saw on the MS website, a primer for InfoPath 2007.  I'd seen 2003, but never really touched on it until really 2006, back when I had a job.  When looking at the primer, I saw that paper forms were being digitized for distribution through email, PDAs and browsers.  So I thought "HMM!  This would be a great idea to have forms that allows information/data to be collected/stored as the forms are returned, without having to wait for people to get back by hard copy or attachment."  So after looking at the other smaller primers, I saw that this is an excellent opportunity.  Now I was saying sell it to upper management, as many people are used to the paper forms but have InfoPath just sitting there, along with LOTS of papers.  It started with me developing a form and then getting the thought to real-time collection/storage to enable the tracking to be effective.  And the fact the the CIOs office uses Outlook was incentive enough.

As far as integration is concerned, I was thinking with other MS products.  I learned that the office of the CIO uses SharePoint, so I'm was wondering what other platforms do they use.

So it's just your own idea to go down this path and hope that it works.  If so, that's excellent.

InfoPath is simply part of the Office suite, so integration is intrinsic.  It's also very well built to work with SharePoint, and that is where I specialize, so it's where I can help the most.  Is all of USDA only on Office 2003?  Are they also on SharePoint 2003?  Those are going to be 2 versions behind in about a month (Office first; SharePoint later).  InfoPath 2003 can do some things, but InfoPath 2007 is the real ticket.  With MOSS 2007 Enterprise, it wouldn't matter what version of Office your users had, because you could browser-enable forms.  Without MOSS Enterprise, you'd need to do rich client forms, which would require EVERY user to have InfoPath.  So, if they all only have Office 2003 and thus InfoPath 2003, then you would be very limited.

Yes it's my idea to go down this path.  The CIO staff, in this regard, should be able to fully leverage the tools that they have.

 Thanks for making me aware of the the status of InfoPath 2003 and Sharepoint.  Now as far as the version of SharePoint they have, I'm really not sure.  So I do have something to state in getting them up to date. 

Would the update to SharePoint Server 2007 (or to the new one) cause any loss of data that was on the previous version?

If you're referring to an upgrade/migration from SharePoint 2003 to 2007, then no data should be lost, but it's a cumbersome task that would require an architect for sure. 

Would a company like TIBCO qualify?

Qualify for what?  TIBCO builds middleware from my memory of working with their EAI product years ago, but I don't know in what context you're referencing them here.

I meant would they qualify as an architect?  Since migrating data would be a cumbersome task, a professional with well-known rep would suffice.  And given it's USDA, it would be too much like right for the best.

I wouldn't go to Tibco for SharePoint ARchitect purposes - they are a middleware product company, I thought.  I would go to a known MS Gold Certified Partner that does nothing but advanced MS architecture for a living, preferably a Federal Partner of the Year like my own company (shameless plug) .  If you are just talking about overall data architecture far beyond SharePoint and/or MS, then there are many big time consulting firms out there.

If you click on my links below, you'll my company's credentials.  4 years in a row as a Microsoft Federal partner of the Year should qualify as "well-known rep."  Our biggest client is the Department of Energy, but I'm not sure if we've worked with USDA yet, but we'd love to if you're interested.