Can MS Outlook forms update a report?

January 9, 2008 10:16 AM

How can I create an microsoft outlook form where the submissions automatically populate some kind of report?

A client has asked me to help them create an MS outlook form for their workflow process. They get a ton of requests for new internal projects, and right now they informally get them through hallway conversations, or phone calls, or random emails. They want to formalize the process and add a form to outlook that requesters have to fill out.

All that I can do. But what they also want to do is get some kind of report published based on the amount of forms they get. So each time a form is submitted, the report is updated that says "amount of requests" and maybe some other information based on specific fields in the forms (type of form, date of submission, date of requested completion, etc).

Is this possible? Preferably doing it through outlook would be the first choice, but if not in outlook, is something like this possible using a third party solution, maybe web-based?

posted by visual mechanic to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Access 2007 will do this. (Scroll down to Data collection by using InfoPath forms and Outlook.) I'm not claiming it's the best way, but if you already have Office 2007, it's there.
posted by desjardins at 10:38 AM on January 9

It's in 2003, too.

Here's a pretty simple tutorial on Outlook forms to get you started.
posted by bcwinters at 11:26 AM on January 9

Oh, sorry, you said you can already do the forms, you just want to make *reports*. You can easily do that part by building a connection to a simple Access database. The connection can be as simple as a linked table set up via the GUI or as complex as a bunch of hand-optimized SQL statements.

Access's wizards will then let you build simple reports very easily. And Access is part of the Office suite so they probably already have it.
posted by bcwinters at 11:33 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

This sounds like a job for a proper web ticketing system. That's what they're for!
posted by loiseau at 3:10 PM on January 9

loiseau – can you recommend any web ticketing systems in particular?
posted by visual mechanic at 8:41 PM on January 9