A Low-Cost Alternative for E-Forms

by Doug Henschen

Even before the Web started to flourish, e-forms seemed like the obvious answer to many problems. Companies would be able to replace cumbersome paper-based processes with simple electronic forms. No more printing, no more postage, no more file cabinets and no more retyping information from paper forms. Unfortunately, too many companies have yet to take advantage of this technology.

One of the oldest e-forms products is OmniForm from ScanSoft, Peabody, MA. The latest version, OmniForm Premium 5.0, is a bargain at $699, but it's best suited to small offices and departmental needs. If you can accept certain limitations, the product can find a place in larger corporate and government settings.

OmniForm Premium 5.0's strength lies in its ability to convert existing paper-based forms to e-forms. Helpful wizards walk you through the entire scanning, proofreading and publishing process, and you can add basic field format rules, validations, drop-down lists, math calculations and security features.

To test the product, I scanned and converted a simple "Commuter Benefit Enrollment/Change Form" within half an hour. Aside from a few minor corrections, the built-in recognition technology faithfully read the text and accurately rendered fillable fields. The forms designer tools let me format the social security field as a nine-digit, numeral-only entry and I stipulated the mm/dd/yyyy format for one of the date entries. I could also add math calculations and drop-down menus if desired.

Once a form is scanned and converted, OmniForm gives you a choice of HTML, RTF (rich text format), PDF or OmniForm's own OFM format. If you choose OFM, you gain a built-in database with record/field searching, data import and ODBC-export capabilities. The database is created automatically and requires no administration, but it's limited to 10,000 records.

Among the other benefits of OFM are emailable forms that can be imported to a single form once they are completed and returned. Security options in OFM include OmniForm's built-in user/password system or separately purchased Microsoft PKI or Entrust technologies. All three options can be used to lock in data upon form completion and provide legally binding digital signatures.

Another feature tied to OFM is a new user/client profile tool that allows users with OmniForm client software to maintain a record of their personal and business information. Any time the user encounters an OFM form, the available fields are automatically filled. If the user designates certain data as private, OmniForm offers the choice to fill or skip the sensitive field.

For those who want to publish e-forms on the Internet, ScanSoft offers a Web hosting service at www.eomniform.com. This bundled offering lets you publish and collect data from up to five forms for a year. You can extend the service period and license additional forms at an extra charge. The main drawback of this service is that the site is heavily branded as eomniform.com; you can't integrate it as a forms repository that appears to be just another page on your site.

If you prefer to publish e-forms on your own site, OmniForm provides a CGI scripting wizard that helps you set up HTML forms for data submission and extraction. These HTML forms can include the same validations, field formatting rules and calculations used in OmniForm. A browser preview mode, new in OmniForm Premium 5.0, is aimed at easing conversion to DHTML presentation, but I still struggled with more complex forms. A daycare reimbursement form converted to HTML suffered overlapping fill fields and display text, and in the time it took to redesign the form I could have created it from scratch. When I was done, the form still didn't display properly in anything but Microsoft Explorer 5.0+ (which ScanSoft explicitly recommends). HTML forms are also limited to a single page, although you can make the form scrollable to include several pages' worth of fields.

OmniForm converts paper forms to fillable e-forms. This daycare form was converted in less than an hour.

Forms converted to PDFs in OmniForm also benefit from formatting, calculation and validation features, but here again I had trouble separating certain display text and fill fields. Given that Acrobat Reader is widely distributed, you can email these files or share them online, but you'll have to purchase Adobe's Acrobat Approval software ($39) for each user if you need password security or e-signatures.

Forms converted to RTF can be filled and saved in Microsoft Word, but OmniForm's field formatting, validation and calculation features aren't transferable to this format.

While many features of OmniForm are helpful for companies with limited IT budgets and staff, this tool shouldn't be compared to the enterprisewide systems offered by Accelio (formerly Jetform), Cardiff, PureEdge and Shana, for example. Aside from the database maximum of 10,000 records, the OFM format demands that OmniForm is installed on every desktop. While you can create emailable forms, these present the standard, full program interface rather than a simplified, fill-only client that users will instinctively know how to use. OmniForm also lacks integration options with workflow systems. Finally, if you have to create forms from scratch, you'll find the forms designer limited compared to the extensive tools, templates and canned form elements available in more expensive packages.

OmniForm saves e-forms in HTML, PDF, RTF or OFM format. Some test files suffered display problems in PDF and HTML, and had to be redesigned.

If you're considering OmniForm for more than departmental use, you should also consider Microsoft Office or Lotus Notes, since these are likely to be deployed enterprisewide. You'll have to create e-forms from scratch, but both of these suites have forms design and data collection capabilities that are grossly underutilized. With administrative help you can create e-forms, publish them on networks and online, route them via email and link the forms to databases to collect the results. The combination of Adobe Acrobat ($249) and Acrobat Approval is also worth considering.

OmniForm delivers the most value when it can successfully convert existing paper forms. If you plan to use the proprietary OFM format, you may have to buy more seats. OmniForm Premium 5.0 includes 20 filler/data manager clients and 100 uses of emailable forms. Additional clients cost $35 to $40 per seat, depending on volume. Unlimited instances and uses of emailable forms costs $1,999 per year. If you have dozens of seats or forms that have to be designed from scratch, you'll want to consider a true enterprisewide choice. Synopsis