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. |
