Optical Technology Special Interest Group (Australian Public Service applications) (OTSIG) - 'Electronic Forms' meeting notes

OTSIG meeting of 5 June 1996

Andrew Freeman opened the meeting with some discussion of
the future of OTSIG.  Despite much interest being expressed,
attendances are falling.  Regular meetings will continue until the
end of this year, but 1997 meetings will be convened on an 
ad-hoc basis as issues arise.

The topic for this meeting was Electronic Forms.

Frank Wood.
The first speaker was Frank Wood from the Department of
Defence.  The Department launched its electronic forms system
three weeks ago.  In any large and widely dispersed organisation
there is a problem associated with getting copies of forms onto
desks as required, and ensuring that only the correct versions of
forms are being used at any time.  The Department found that
procedural changes were being hindered by lack of availability of
correct forms, and hoarding of old versions by some areas.

In developing the system a major difficulty was the diversity of
hardware through the Department.  The forms offered have to be
accessible through various hardware platforms and printable on a
variety of printers.  At present 170 of the Department's known
3,700 forms are in the system, the next release will have 400 of
the forms.

Individual forms have to be easy for the user to find, so the
system allows searches by form number, title or stock number, as
well as additional subject access words supplementing the title.
The forms look very much like the traditional printed forms,
aiding in user acceptance.  Help screens have been attached to
every field, and behind-the -scenes processing allows users to
enter data in a variety of ways and automatically converts entries
to accepted formats (eg automatic conversion of variable data
formats to the standard version, automatic conversion to correct
case).  There are lookup lists behind some fields (such as
postcodes) to save time for users.  Data in some fields is
validated at point of entry.

For forms which require monetary calculation, totalling of row
and column amounts is automatic, and totals cannot be altered
without a change in line-by-line figures.  Carryover of totals from
page to page is automatic.  Electronic signatures can be attached,
and others are then unable to change data entered by the
signatory.  The completed forms can be emailed, printed or
faxed, and data transferred if needed into a variety of database
formats (including FoxPro, Access, Paradox, dBase).  Blank
forms can also be printed, and the system is supplied online or on
CD-ROM or diskette.

The savings introduced by this system are estimated at present
(ie, for 170 forms) at 300,000 manhours/yr through the
Department in terms of fill-in time.  It is anticipated that it will
take about three years to get all Departmental forms online.
There are investigations underway at present to enable
integration with other remote-site systems such as spreadsheets.

Rob Barnett.
The second speaker was Rob Barnett, of Robert Barnett and
Associates.  Rob reported on the May 1996 Symposium on
Forms and Information Systems in Seattle.  A copy of the paper
Rob prepared for that Symposium was made available at the
meeting.

Only in the last couple of years has it become viable to have
electronic forms which may never exist in a paper format.  In the
future developments such a portable pen computing, and forms
in electronic libraries (such as that described by Frank Wood)
will become more commonplace.

Rob spoke about forms for the Internet.  HTML has limited
capabilities for forms production, and special forms software
allows for improved forms management and built in intelligence.

The problems associated with electronic forms are many.
Hardware and software compatibility, version control,
compatibility over time (will a 1995 e-form still be readable in a
2000 forms system?) are just a few of the problems.  Forms
design and systems planning are very time consuming.

At the present time the appropriate skills are not widespread.