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Going paperless means not making paper! eForms can help

By Daniel O'Leary posted 05-05-2010 10:37

  

With tax day come and gone, you probably used a program like Turbo Tax to complete the dreaded process of documenting your income for the government. Programs like Turbo Tax are just another way of doing dynamic document creation, where you are guided through the process of filling out a complex form like the 1040EZ by being asked simple, logical questions that guide you through filling out your taxes.

 
When the team at LincWare approaches ERM, we look at how we can bring this same thought process to completing electronic forms. When I say forms, I mean things like dog licenses, insurance enrollments, vacation requests, college applications, patient histories, and building permits. They all vary in style and complexity, but the same process of a dynamic, user guided experience works particularly well.
 
Instead of attaching pages of instructions that have to be printed out and read through, a solution should conditionally display only the proper questions for someone to answer based on what they want to accomplish. For example, when you request personal time off, you are asked different questions that if you wanted to attend a conference.
 
To make the process comply with your organizations existing records management plan, an eForms solution must utilize things like drop-downs, check boxes and date fields to enforce a controlled vocabulary on the person filling it out. It also makes the form easier to complete, since users simply select the answer they want, versus typing it in. There also need to be constraints on things like zip codes, states, phone numbers, account numbers, and e-mail addresses to make sure they contain all the right information before a form can be submitted.
 
 
So how can you make this process simple? To that end, I prefer to utilize customer's existing paper forms and electronic documents to make this happen. Nothing to redesign, rebuild, or to rework. That means that the forms you generate with your eForms solution should look identical to the ones you already have. Just like Turbo Tax, we fill out very complex forms placing all the data in the right location, and make them easy to read. Other vendors do it differently, so be sure to ask if you will have to redesign your forms.
 
To drive maximum value for customers that have already deployed an ECM platform, a solution should be able to connect the forms bi-directionally with existing applications. In English, that means eForms can pull data from an application, and send the data from the form back once it is complete. Let me give you an example- let’s say you have a HR database with all of your employee’s information. When you fill out a leave of absence request using a LincDoc eForm, you simply type in your employee number, hit ‘search’, and all of your information will be pre-filled. When you submit it, e-mail notifications are sent to your boss for approval, and routed using your BPM suite. 

I'd be happy to answer any additional questions about the products and processes that underly this technology. The best way to reach me is on Twitter or at my website.


#ERM #dynamic #e-forms #validation #ElectronicRecordsManagement
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