So the issue is motivation of the clients.  It boils down to carrot or  
stick.
It appears from what you said that the data is easy enough to send.
You also seem to be shying away from the stick as you say you don't want
to make them angry.  If you were to go with the stick, I would pop up
annoying messages on their screen until they comply.
 From a carrot perspective, give a carrot to the most diligent  
submitter.
Also publish a list of the good submitters and the bad submitters.
Gus

> On Jun 7, 2009, at 5:32 PM, Dr Skip wrote:
>
> For some reason, I can't seem to get anywhere with this project, so  
> I'm asking
> the list. I have a requirement to get feedback data on a daily basis  
> from a
> number of users (clients). The data isn't complex, and started out  
> as a dozen
> questions that I suggested they send answers on to me at end of day  
> or so.
> Compliance has been very poor.
>
> I then suggested a text template with specific questions. Again, it  
> started out
> OK, but quickly went to minimal compliance again. The reasons given  
> are 'just
> forgot', 'too busy', and so on.
>
> The initial methodology was to receive them by email, since I must  
> review them
> anyway, and filing such would work quite nicely in an email client  
> like
> Thunderbird. Privacy is a concern, encryption was being used over  
> the email. It
> really isn't worth a long development cycle to create an app or  
> anything like
> that, and I can't fool around with a server side app at this point  
> for them to
> do it online - sometimes they are remote enough that they can't get  
> online.
> Ideally, they should record comments several times throughout the  
> day, as
> things arise. This commenting isn't part of their regular work, so  
> there isn't
> any management leverage to be used BTW.
>
> If you were the user, what would you suggest as a way to get  
> comments back to
> me? It has to be doable while offline, private (built in encryption  
> or take it
> from their drives when they come in or batch some way), in your face  
> enough to
> not 'forget', but not be so much of a pain that they get angry? I  
> should note
> that these are not necessarily engineers (think more salesman type),  
> so while
> they use apps, it's ones that they are used to. Engineering a simple  
> solution
> is key.
>
> I have Open Office at my disposal BTW. There are lots of ways to do  
> this, I'm
> just having trouble getting to 'best' yet simple. ;) Is there  
> anything that is
> serverless that has form filling features out there perhaps?
>
> TIA,
> Skip
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