Another "first mile" stumbling block in the path towards effective, human-centric BPM (and/or business knowledge management or BKM) is capture of information in ways that are easily usable by IT systems, yet easily used by humans. In this context, the printed form, filled out "by hand" with a pen or even at a computer, is at or near the top of everyone's list of very-favorite IT challenges.
So, let's say you've at least got online forms, created and stored as, say, Adobe Systems Inc. PDF documents, and you're also using IBM Corp.'s Lotus Notes and/or Domino solutions. Let's say you've also got the great idea that the ability to capture information from and about those forms into Notes/Domino databases would be a nifty enhancement to your BPM/BKM efforts. But how to capture that PDF information into those databases painlessly?
Why, with a tool built atop Microsoft Corp.'s .NET, and delivered via software as a service (SaaS), of course. And no, you don't have to build said tool. The heavy lifting's already been done, in the form, so to speak, of FormRouter.NET from FormRouter, Inc.
It's a hosted service that charges annual subscription fees to its cadre of corporate customers. What they get in exchange is easy, painless transmogrification of PDF forms - or Flash, HTML, or InfoPath documents, or Microsoft .NET Active Server Pages or Word or Excel files, or OpenOffice.org spreadsheets - into Notes/Domino databases. File attachments, form data only, or complete forms, with all digital signatures intact, if users so choose. No programming. No servers to deploy or maintain.
And the FormRouter solution works with other databases, too. Microsoft Access, for example (and perhaps not surprisingly). There's a great success story at the FormRouter Web site about a company that used the company's solution to cut down on spam. The company stopped posting e-mail addresses on its Web site, and replaced them an online inquiry form. The form routes inquiries to the right people, and captures form information in an Access database for follow-on marketing efforts. Spam down, productivity, sales, and satisfaction up.
I met with the CTO of FormRouter, Jim Healy, and took a tour of the company's Notes/Domino integration during IBM's Lotusphere event in Orlando last week. The company is working with partners ranging from IBM to Intel Corp. With FormRouter, for example, field forces can use online forms based on the Mobile Forms Technology (MFT) FormRouter developed in partnership with Intel, then have those forms easily sucked up by Salesforce.com databases. FormRouter was the first service provider granted the right by Adobe to add extensions to the free Adobe Reader software, Jim said.
No matter what collaboration environment you're running, if you're dealing with forms, and looking for a way to deal with them more effectively, you should check out FormRouter. And whether you are or are not dealing with forms, you should still check out FormRouter, for clues about how the combination of forms capture and analysis can help you build and refine business processes more effectively. After all, in a lot of ways, forms, how they're filled out, and what happens after they are represent critical first steps in many business processes. So they might be a good starting point for your own BPM/BKM efforts. Or not. Either way, I'm sure you'll let me know...
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