Fort Eisenhower MWR Automated Request Form System (ARFS)

The Fort Eisenhower MWR Automated Request Form System (ARFS) is a project that, I believe, represents many of my skills as a web designer, full-stack developer, and marketing professional. It’s a tool that was built to automate many of the processes that our marketing department was handling manually. New features are always being added to make things easier for our marketing team and clients so that we will have more time to focus on what really matters, the satisfaction of our clients and the end result of their marketing requests.

Unfortunately, due to it being a mostly internal tool with no public access, I can’t share the application here, but since it is such an important part of my accomplishments, I wanted to at least provide a summary of the system as well as the user manual for more information.

History

The Automated Request Form System (or AFRS) was created by Nathan Hoeller, the Visual Information Specialist at the Fort Eisenhower Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation (Fort Eisenhower MWR) Marketing Department, to streamline the marketing request process. It was initially launched in September 2015. Prior to this system, Fort Eisenhower MWR received PDF forms from MWR Program/Activity Managers via email or fax, and then manually added each task to a third-party Project Management System (PMS). This took a lot of time and, with multiple entry points, it was easy to miss a request. With ARFS, those problems are solved! Here are some of the advantages:

  • Paperless
  • Easy to view the status of a request
  • Nothing falls through the cracks since the database is live and updates in real-time.
  • All tasks are automated including assigning people and due dates.

 

How it Works (Short Summary)

An MWR Program/Activity Manager creates a project, fills out a marketing request and submits it to the marketing department. Next, the marketing department reviews the request and, if there are no changes, approves the request. Upon approval, the request data is automatically assigned to the appropriate staff, scheduled according to the selected due dates, and subtasks are added to tasks that require multiple steps. Once the project is completed, an invoice is created in ARFS, notifying the manager that their materials are ready for pickup.

 

For an in-depth overview of the system with screenshots and more, please refer to the following manual: