Version 3.0

Enterprise Forms Server is a powerful system enabling an organisation to host, control, process, and archive of any number of blank and completed forms, both online and offline, across the enterprise and externally to partners and customers.

 The Enterprise Forms Server system comprises of various elements:

 

 

 

 

Blank form library

Blank forms are presented to users in a user friendly, categorised way with mouse-over descriptions and thumbnail images. If they wish, the blank forms available may also be presented to users in a more concise text list.

 

User access to different categories of form forms may be controlled, individually by the administrator. Staff from different departments and partners from different organisations and even staff within the same department may see different blank forms in their personalised library, depending on their role.

 

A separate library of blank forms may be presented to public, unregistered users. This library can contain all forms that are available across an enterprise's website.

 

Note: Public users do not have to become registered users to fill in forms - prior registration is a significant deterrent to using many online services. With Enterprise Forms Server, public users can go straight to forms, and may fill, save and submit forms without hindrance.

 

For more direct access, the system also facilitates links direct to individual forms from anywhere within an organisation's website.

 

Preliminary forms

 

Enterprise Forms Server makes provision for a special class of forms - Preliminary Forms.

 

Preliminary forms have proven most useful when a customer advisor either on the telephone or in person is required to fill a long, complicated form with the customer, which requires access to a wide range of information.

 

Often, at the first time of contact, the customer is not ready to go through a full form. A preliminary form gathers the pertinent details of customer's case, which are are then stored on the system.

 

When the customer is prepared and able to work through the full form, the preliminary form can be re-opened. The details already entered can be used to populate the full form. This form can then be completed as normal.

 

Form Forwarding

 

Enterprise Forms Server handles form forwarding. Here partially complete forms, may stored on the server and given a temporary reference number. The form can then be opened from PC,after entering the unique reference number. This has two uses:

 

• Although users can save form data files on their desktop, there will be occasions where they might wish to start a form on one computer and then complete it on another. Form forwarding facilitates this.

 

• An advisor can partially complete a form for a customer. The customer can then be given the reference ID to enable them to open and complete the form themselves.

 

Mobile form creation

 

For those given authority the Enterprise Forms Server generates fully offline blank versions of forms. These are downloaded to a users desktop to be used when away from an internet connection.

 

The server also generates partially completed forms. Users may then save these files to their desktop, complete them offline, and then update the forms stored on the system when an internet connection is available.

 

Form Configuration

 

Large numbers of features are available to customise the behaviour of each form. Administrators access configuration screens to set these parameters, without any coding being required.

 

 Features include:

 

Publishing. Decide whether forms are published or unpublished, and in which format. Select the category they are to appear in within the blank form library, and add a description to appear alongside each form.

 

Customer Query. Customise a "contact us" form for each form to route enquiries to the right email address. Customise the wording on this screen to give the customer additional information.

 

Custom Front Page. Add a custom front page to each form, including guidance information, images, and links. This facility is particularly useful when an organisation uses a set of standard forms - they can add their own branding and information specific to their use of the generic form.

 

Custom Help Window. A department can supply their own help information to accompany each page of a form. This help page then appears in a separate frame, below the form as it is being filled in. This facility has proven to be useful for mission critical forms where extensive information and training material can be made available to less experienced users.

 

Email notification and receipts. On submission each form can be configured to send out a notification to a department and confirmation of receipt back to the user. The wording of the subject line and body text of receipt emails can be configured individually for each form.

Emails may also be routed dynamically - depending on the contents of the form itself. For example, a form submitted by someone who says they are home-bound can be routed to a different work team than other forms.

 

Form Viewer/Filler Features: Enable/Disable features on a form by form basis:

 

•   PDF conversion. Enable users to view, save, and print PDF version of forms. This option is useful for users who want to keep a permanent record of a filled form without wasting paper. Note - The PDF form is a exact copy of the on-screen form.

 

• Disable submission. Users can access some forms for on screen filling and printing only. Resubmission can also be disabled so that once a form has been submitted it cannot be altered and resubmitted.

 

• E - Signing -   Turn on this feature for signature capture and submission.

 

Custom submission message. On submission, users are given a message confirming successful submission. This message can be customised for each form. For example, details of further instructions can be provided.

 

Configuring Export. In conjunction with the document and/or back-office export modules, each form can be configured to export to one or more system.

 

Mobile Forms Configuration. An administrator can decide whether users may create fully offline versions of forms for saving to their desktops for mobile working. The adminstrator can also specify an expiry date for offline forms, to ensure that users of offline forms only use up-to-date versions.

 

Upload of  Forms Packages. Enterprise Forms Server provides the facility for an authorised user to upload blank forms to the system. These can be created using the forms design software, or downloaded from the Victoria Forms online forms library.

 

Forms Manager

 

Saved forms, forwarded forms, newly submitted forms, and archived forms are stored in the system database. Forms may be listed, sorted, searched and categorised in a user friendly manner. From here individual forms may be opened, viewed, edited and resubmitted.

 

An administrator sets the level of access each user has to stored forms. Access may be limited to viewing their own saved forms only, they may view all forms from their departmental colleagues, or they may be restricted to view all submitted forms only of a certain category.

 

Administrators may also move forms between categories enabling a basic workflow. Forms may also be deleted (and restored).

Authorised users control the export to document and back-office systems.

 

User Manager

 

 The user management screen allows an authorised user to view, create, edit and delete user profiles.

Features include:

 

• Limiting access to certain categories of blank forms.
• Limiting access to filled forms, by form category and user group
• Enabling the E Signature option for a user.
• Giving the user the option of creating offline forms.
• Entering the user's contact details to pre-populate system generated letters and documents.
• Giving user permissions for configuring forms, configuring the system, managing users, and managing forms.

 

Audit Trail. Registered users must log into use the system. The system then tracks their use of forms. All changes to forms they make, and any viewing of submitted forms is recorded. The case history of every form can be checked to see who has viewed it, and who has made a change. Each change is recorded to provide a snapshot of a form before and after a user has accessed it. Though the audits of individual forms may only very rarely be used, in scenarios where there is a risk of fraud, having a full audit trail, may be of great value.

 

Library Branding

 

Where Victoria Forms supplies a set of standard forms, these can be quickly customised to suit the organisation hosting them.

 

Details of the organisation name, web-address, telephone numbers, address, office opening hours, etc, are entered on a single set-up form. This information will then appear on the standard forms throughout the form library.

 

If any of these details change in the future, all forms in the library can be updated with one change of the library branding form.

 

 Form and Data Export

 

With extra modules, the form server handles export of completed forms to other systems:

Conversion of form pages to PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG. Forms are sent to document image and workflow systems. The form server tracks each case and keeps form records up to date. More product information

 

Form data is converted into XML format, using any published schema. Using error checking at the time of form filling, the system ensures that the form data set is complete to produce fully validated XML files. More product information

 

 

For Form Administrators

The Enterprise Forms Server is our core system for forms Administration. It handles hosting of forms, user access to blank and filled forms, and it processes completed forms. It is suited for handling single mission critical forms, or a library of hundreds of forms.

For Application Developers

Many applications that use our technology will handle user access to forms and the processing of data themselves. Your application would use individual products directly (internet forms, PDF forms server, offline forms, etc). Enterprise Forms Server would not be needed.

An exception is where your application is to work in parallel with the Enterprise Server. A CRM system, might be used to direct its users to forms hosted on the Enterprise Forms Server. Users would fill in forms, which when submitted, would be processed by the Forms server. Data could also be passed back to the CRM system for additional processing.