US-based e-form and information capturing company, Cardiff Software, hosted an eBusiness Automation Tour in Chicago, Illinois last week.
Alan Tam, the company`s product manager, kicked off the event by touching on some trends. He said that the Meta Group research company predicts that $10 billion will be spent on information processes this year. He added that 70% of organisations are currently investing money and time in developing e-forms.
Tam outlined the two key types of e-forms being used today. "First HTML, which is excellent for the Internet. It is easy to use and every one has access to it.
"Then there is PDF [Portable Document Format], which is really the de facto standard, especially for government. The main reason for this is that the form retains its exact look and feel online as on paper. This is key in areas where certain forms have to look exactly the same. An example is the IRS`s tax forms on the Internet."
Adobe spokesman Anna Marie Lukes provided some pointers as to how to manage the migration from paper to e-forms. She said the migration process has four stages and companies can implement these according to their comfort level.
The first, distribute and print, is the most basic phase. This is where forms are distributed electronically for users to print and fill out on paper.
Then there is filling in the form online. "Forms are filled out on screen and printed for submission, which could be via fax or normal mail."
Stage three adds distribution to the list. "Now you can fill out the form and submit it online."
The fourth stage is fully electronic with more sophisticated forms that dynamically change the information requested based on the data entered by the user.
Lukes concluded: "We find that many organisations follow an implementation path that is more evolutionary than revolutionary. It is a process that allows them to move from paper to screen at their own pace and often involves a combination of media."
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