IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

If you need an incentive other than the Government Paperwork Elimination Act to reduce your dependency on paper forms, consider a few facts.

Electronic forms or e-forms are the electronic versions of paper forms but with added benefits. E-forms have the potential to improve the efficiency of a system significantly as compared to conventional paper forms. Paper forms are not only more time consuming and error prone, but also cost more than e-forms due to the additional handling and storage costs. E-forms are more convenient as they can be accessed from anywhere, from practically any device that supports the Internet, and require no manual handling or storage costs. E-forms enable users to interact with enterprise applications and the back-end systems linked to them. Another major advantage of e-forms over conventional paper forms are, they are eco-friendly, as they do not produce any paper waste. For these reasons e-forms are preferred over paper forms. According to a study published by IBM, more than 80% of the processes in private and public businesses depend on e-forms. New e-form applications include XML content identification, multiple data callouts, field-level validation, and embedded process logic contained within a secure format that is often portable.

Das Linzer Softwarehaus Silbergrau Consulting & Software GmbH gibt Bausteine für die Realisierung von Online-Formularen frei. Diese Bausteine, kurz egForms, realisieren einen eGovernment-konformen Formularserver und können auch in der Privatwirtschaft eingesetzt werden.

egForms ergänzt die MOA-Module des Bundes um den Bereich der Formulare und bildet mit diesen eine ideale Ausgangsbasis für Online-Anwendungen. egForms ist wie die MOA-Module des Bundes Open Source und steht unter der GNU Lesser General Public License.

Medway Council uses an Adobe product to make the e-form system work and so successful has it been in doing this that dozens of other businesses and organisations have been talking to Medway about its work.

Ever since the E-Government Act of 2002, electronic forms have become all the rage at agencies. And what's not to like? When properly implemented, e-forms promise to cut time and costs from agency business processes.

When agency back-office staffers key in data from paper forms, the amount of time required and the potential for error are great. By contrast, e-forms allow the general public, agency staffers, contractors and agencies to accurately complete forms with text fields that can automatically be filled in from available data to achieve increased efficiency.