Why are big chain restaurants and supermarket cafes still working with pen and paper for contact tracing? First thoughts on being asked to fill in a paper form are:

1. How many people have touched this shared pen you’ve just handed me?
2. Isn’t this a waste of paper and unnecessary manual effort?
3. Where is my personal information getting stored?

In one case when looking where to hand in my form, I could see stacks of paper forms laying around for any member of public to read completely unattended.  I’m pretty sure the staff haven’t had GDPR training!

 

The Simple Microsoft Form Solution

Given the strain some smaller businesses are under, we are happy to offer guidance free of charge! Just drop us a message for more information beyond this blog.

There are many simple solutions, but perhaps the simplest if your organisation already uses Office 365, is to use a Microsoft Form.

• Relatively easy to set up
• ‘Free’ in most Microsoft Office 365 plans
• GDPR compliance much easier
• Saves paper waste and storage
• Easy to retrieve information electronically based on restaurant locations, dates etc
• Low cost – licensing included in most Microsoft Office 365 plans
• Customers don’t need to touch shared objects or worry about their data

 

1 – Create a new Microsoft Form with the desired fields.  These can be any fields of your choosing, for example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 – Create a simple workflow using Power Automate or Logic Apps such as the example below which:

• Detects when a new form response has been submitted
• Extracts the field values from the form
• Adds all of the fields as text fields stored within SharePoint

*Ask us about the difference if unsure about licensing or costs between the workflow options.

 

3 – Configure how long information should be retained for storing personal information, for example 3 weeks:

 

4 – Now that the form, capture of form data, and data retention rules are set up, print off the barcode for the Microsoft Form and stick it on a wall or board at the entrance for people to scan with their mobile device:

 

5 – All entries are stored in an easy to access authenticated SharePoint list web URL which can be easily grouped and filtered for field information:

Any questions please let us know! This is just one of the many uses of Microsoft technology we can help with, but in this case we’re just hoping to have a better restaurant experience next time we’re out.