What Is It?
• FreeForm adds eform capabilities to the SmartSearch document management system. Now a simple web or PDF form can populate transactional PDF documents on the fly, provide validation, dynamic form creation based on variable data, feed other line-of-business systems and import into the SmartSearch document repository via XML.

Are you entering the same data to multiple forms?
Are you constantly processing manual forms?

• No more, with FreeForm by SmartSearch – data entered within a browser based form or PDF can be seamlessly imported into SmartSearch document management as well as generate custom email notifications for ad-hoc workflow.

• Data entered into the form is validated, error checked and automatically rendered to a physical electronic document and then disseminated to decision makers, knowledge workers and/or customers with no manual intervention.

• Reduce the significant cost of post process data entry and capture
• Get rid of ineffective web site contact forms, employment applications, doctor pre-visit forms and replace them with dynamic eForm's workflow

How It Works?
• The FreeForm interface can be deployed and configured in multiple ways – either as an ASP.Net web form or PDF form exposed via the web. Depending on the requirements, the Square9 Professional Services team will recommend the best solution. Included in the FreeForm package are the following components;

• Web Form Development - based on an existing PDF, Word Document, Excel Spreadsheet or custom created form
• FreeForm Engine- component to accept the form data rip it into a PDF and instantiate the following add-on capabilities:
• The ability to automatically or manually save the form generated PDF to a network location accessible to SmartSearch or any other DMS (document management system) for import.
• The ability to send an email alert to multiple recipients notifying them of a document’s arrival.
• The ability to send a copy of the PDF to email recipients as an attachment
• The ability to add a bar code to the output PDF file
• Use our custom web or PDF forms or create your own and dynamically merge form data with electronic based document overlays.

Use Case
The FreeForm solution has many applications and we will draw upon a sample workflow to demonstrate its capabilities. A school district in Ohio had several pre-printed, multi-part forms that would be generated from their human resources department. Since the school district managed the hire, termination, transfer of almost 1,000 teachers and staff each year, the school districts pain was directly related to pre and post paper processing.

The solution was a custom web form that would allow potential applicants to access a web-based employment application. The eform allowed the applicant to provide all personal and employment history as well as a save capability to allow data points to be saved for returning users. Once the form was complete, the web data transactionally populated a PDF template and was imported into the document management system. When the document arrived into the document management system, an email notification alerted an HR admin.

Other Use Cases
• Insurance claim for medical procedure

• AP Invoices with unidirectional data population into line-of-business and document management system

• Medical Consent for X-Rays, Medical Records, Birth Records that may require digital signatures

• eCommerce Forms

• Inventory Control Workflow

Questions to Ask?
• What paper-based forms are in circulation?
• Are they multi-part forms?
• What are your annual printing costs of multi-part forms?
• Do these forms frequently change?
• If multiple forms, is the same metadata required on each?
• Does the form need to be signed?
• Are there any associated paper that is required with the form?
• What type of validation and error checking is done against a form?
• Is there a manual process of quality control?
• What is the current process flow of the form?
• Paper-based form is faxed, mailed, emailed or phoned in
• Does the process require audit ability?
• Is it required to have a physical copy of the document for historical purposes?
• How is data entered?
• Does the form require approval routing?
• What type of notification is required?
• What is the hierarchy of approvals?
• What is the current form registration process?
• Is the form step one in the process?
• Is the form the capture point for the process?
• Is data from the form manually entered into a system that generates some output?
• Is the data keyed multiple times?
• Does the data from the form need to feed to a line-of-business app?
• Are there corporate policies that affect how forms are handled and stored?
• Is a physical copy of the form required to be stored?
• Can the form data itself be stored?
• Is the audit trail required to track form creation, modifications and deletions?
• Is the form part of a retention policy?

Process Flow

FreeForm Workflow
• eForm's can do much more than reduce data entry and capture costs. The main benefit to eForm's is their ability to trigger workflow's.

• To illustrate FreeForm’s workflow capabilities, an example will be draw using a price increase request form, a project that was completed for a division of a global supplier of tools and construction equipment.

• As with any industry, the price of raw materials fluctuates with the price of commodities like oil, steel, grain, etc. Moreover, costs associated with transportation that are reliant upon gas and petroleum also impact the price of a product.

• The company required a way to automate the very manual process of increasing the price of a product.

• The solution came in the structure of an eForm. Now when the price of steel for instance increases in price, knowledge workers can quickly go to a web address, access the price increase request form, provide reason for increase as well as key data points like: plant location, date, supplier name and annual spend with supplier, item SKU, number of items purchased with supplier, etc which is automatically retrieved from the companies inventory management control system by the eForm during pre-process validation. All data and the mathematical calculations are done automatically during the form population or during post-process form submission

• Ultimately once the form is submitted it goes directly into the document management system, where an approval process based on a pre-defined set of authority levels is initiated. Various routing takes place to either approve, reject or dispute, allowing authorizers to dynamically offer comments, corrections which may impact the workflow rules

• Once approved, the document management system workflow will initiate a data output feed to the inventory management system updating the price of all or specific products that use steel like nails, screws, high tension wire, clasps, etc.

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business applications

 

Key Points
• Customer facing, customer initiated data entry and capture
• Extensible outside a firewall thru HTTP/S
• Signature technology to add digital image signatures
• “Send To” button to push PDF and data into Smart Search
• Data integration with other line-of-business (LOB) applications
• Can trigger external or internal workflow's
• Form data can populate multiple forms at once
• Integrated TWAIN remote scan thru the Internet
• Solution comprised of standard Microsoft technology

Key Features
• Apply watermarks and stamp images and text into PDF files.
• Merge multiple PDF documents into a single PDF file, adding bookmarks for easy navigation.
• Dynamic PDF form-filling - populate PDF forms with database data and generate form fields on the fly.
• Add dynamic headers, footers and page numbering to PDF documents
• Ability to send email alert with PDF form as attachment

Types of Forms
• Applications
• Automotive deal jackets
• Membership forms
• Healthcare consent forms
• Invoice, PO forms
• Immigration forms
• Healthcare insurance claims
• HCFA, UB forms
• Contracts
• Event registration forms
• Refund and RMA forms
• Engineering change order
• Purchase requisitions
• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Insurance waivers
• Mortgage documents
• Legal forms
• HR evaluations
• Education IEP's
• Tax forms
• Quality Assurance testing
• Patient registration form
• I-9, I-20, W-4

Requirements
• Microsoft IIS 6.0 or higher
• .Net 2.0-3.0 framework


smart search