This document provides guidance for small enterprises on creating electronic forms without large investments in high-end automation systems. It evaluates affordable electronic forms solutions, including entry-level products under $10,000, and highlights key selection criteria such as functionality, workflow transport, and form design capabilities. The document recommends various vendors and suggests that small enterprises can improve internal processes through electronic forms despite not being dependent on forms automation as a core business function.

1. Point of View: What should
SME do to create e-forms
with limited budget?
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2. Background
High-end forms automation systems can be large investments for companies. Small enterprises
usually do not consider high-end forms automation systems as strategic. However, small enterprises
have an opportunity to improve execution of many internal processes through the use of electronic
forms. This research note provides an overview of the small enterprise electronic forms vendor
landscape, and addresses the following key areas:
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Vendor and product strengths and scalability.
Core product functionality.
Entry-level product affordability and value.
Learn which small enterprise electronic forms solutions to choose when Microsoft Excel and
Word forms are not sufficient.
Selection Point
High-end forms automation systems can be a six or seven figure investment for companies.
These systems can be justified by companies whose core business is directly dependent on
forms automation, such as financial services companies, insurance companies, and many
public sector entities. However, small enterprises that do not require high-end forms
automation as a core business function nonetheless have an opportunity to improve
execution of many internal processes through the use of electronic forms. Benefits from
automating forms-based processes include: reduced process cycle time, error reduction,
increased use of self-service, and improved retrieval/discovery through increased use of
electronic documents.
The electronic forms solutions evaluated in this research note all satisfy minimum selection
criteria, such as:
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Have entry-level prices below $10,000.
Can depict forms as business documents, not just web forms or database entry screens.
Can use corporate e-mail as a workflow transport mechanism.
This research note does not evaluate large enterprise-class forms automation systems, such
as those available from IBM, Adobe (Livecycle), eMC, and Microsoft (Forms Server).
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3. Small Enterprise Electronic Forms Key Selection Criteria
Criterion
Description
Price
Entry-level products available for less than $10,000, excluding server
hardware.
Definition of Form
Can depict forms as business documents, not just web forms or database
entry screens.
Workflow Transport
Can use corporate e-mail as a workflow transport mechanism and track
form status.
Form Creation
Ability to import existing forms, such as Word documents, excel
spreadsheets and raster images of forms (e. g. TIFF, BMP).
Form Design
Forms can be constructed by business users, without dependency on IT
staff and developers.
Form Fill
Vendor pricing model enables form completion by a wide user audience.
Sample Forms
Vendor provides sample forms that are useful to the average small
enterprise for support of common internal processes.
The leading small enterprise electronic forms vendors and vendors and positions each as
a market leader, competitor, or follower based on the key selection criteria outlined
above.
Vendor/Product
Adobe (Acrobat v8, Professional edition)
Formdocs LLC (FormDocs for Windows)
Working Solutions International (Returnable
Forms)
Microsoft (InfoPath 2007)
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Follower
Competitor
Leader

4. LEADERS
Adobe Acrobat v8, Professional edition
Adobe offers a high-end (and costly) enterprise-class forms automation
solution in its Livecycle product line, which enables form-based
workflows for electronic and paper forms. However, to enable basic
electronic forms workflows, small enterprise form/process owners only
need Acrobat v8 Professional and users only need the free Adobe Reader
to complete (fill) forms.
Vendor
Overview
The professional version of Acrobat contains a little known feature that
allows a form or process owner to enable the Adobe Reader to fill out
forms and return the completed form to the originator. Acrobat
Professional simply adds certain tokens to the target PDF file, which in
turn enable latent form-fill and collaboration features included in the
Adobe Reader.
This "calling party pays" pricing model and the ubiquity of the Adobe
Reader makes Adobe Acrobat Professional an Info-Tech top pick for small
enterprise electronic forms.
Entry-level price $449 for a perpetual license of the Acrobat
Professional client. Each form designer/owner will need their own copy of
the software.
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With Version 8, Adobe included the Adobe Designer with Acrobat
Professional. Designer is a high-end form design tool targeted at both
creative designers and application developers. Forms can be created
completely within Acrobat however, without using Designer, if desired.
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Form-fill requires the users have the free Adobe Reader installed on
their PC. The Reader form features are supported in the Windows and
MacOS versions. A Version 8 Reader has not yet been released for
Linux/Unix.
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Product
Overview
Existing Microsoft Office documents and document images can be
imported as a starting point for a new form.
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A form-field recognizer is included, which attempts to intelligently
identify components on a document that may be form fields and field
labels, saving design time.
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Variety of common enterprise form templates are included.
Completed forms can be converted to PDF/A using Acrobat
professional. PDF/A is an ISO standard for records archival in PDF.
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Upgrade path exists to Adobe Livecycle server products.
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5. FormDocs for Windows
Vendor
Overview
FormDocs for Windows is a simple and affordable solution for small
enterprise electronic forms. However, the form itself is a proprietary format
that is not ubiquitous as are Adobe PDF forms. As such, it is more suited for
internal processes, however an optional web form server is available, to
enable form completion through a browser.
Entry-level price for typical small enterprise deployment is $2999.95
for 100 users. A site license is available for $9998.95, enabling all
employees at a single company site, which still meets our $10,000 price
requirement.
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A form designer is included.
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Form-fill requires the users have the FormDocs client installed.
Existing Microsoft Word, PDF and WordPerfect files can be imported
as a starting point for a new form. A scan-to-form feature is included for
converting paper forms as a starting point.
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Product
Overview
Variety of common enterprise form templates are available from an
online library maintained by the vendor.
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A PDF "writer" is included, for converting completed forms to PDF for
long term archival. This alleviates the need for the vendors software to be
maintained indefinitely in order to retrieve records in the future.
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Windows only software, however a web form product is available for
an additional charge, for completing forms in a browser.
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Upgrade path exists to an enterprise version, for multi-site
companies.
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6. Competitors
Working Solutions International, Returnable Forms
Vendor
Overview
Originally built for online resumes, Returnable Forms employs a more
traditional e-forms architecture usually found in high-end forms
automation systems. The architecture includes a Designer, a free Reader
for form-fill (Windows only), a Workflow engine for scripting process
workflows and a Form Processor for collating form data. The Windowsonly requirement for form-fill may be too constraining for some
companies.
Entry-level price $1199 for the complete system and one form
Designer. Additional Designers cost $599.
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Product
Overview
Form Reader is free (Windows only)
Form Processor requires MS Access 2000 or higher (not included with
price).
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Scan-to-form supported for using paper forms as a starting point for
new forms.
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E-mail is managed through the Workflow engine, not through peerto-peer e-mailing of forms.
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7. Followers
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Vendor
Overview
Microsoft InfoPath 2007 is both an electronic form design and completion
application. Designers will appreciate the familiar Microsoft look and feel
and developers will appreciate the advanced form controls and XML based
file format. For small enterprises however, the costs of licensing the
InfoPath client for form-fill quickly becomes prohibitive. A companion
Forms Server is available for advanced workflow and form library services,
however we did not evaluate this server since including it in a typical small
enterprise architecture exceeds our evaluation price limit of $10,000.
Entry-level price $199 for a perpetual license of the InfoPath 2007.
each form designer and workflow participant (form-fill) will need their own
copy of InfoPath. There is no free reader for form-fill.
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Comes standard with Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, Ultimate or
enteprise editions, but not with Small Business edition.
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Product
Overview
Advanced design features and XML schema support.
Existing Microsoft Word and excel documents can be imported as a
starting point for a new form.
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Some example form templates are included. More are available at
Microsoft Office Online.
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Completed forms can be converted to flat PDF files for archival, with
an additional free download from Microsoft.
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Windows only.
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Upgrade path exists to Sharepoint Forms Server.
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8. Recommendations
1.
Don't discount excel and Word for small enterprise electronic forms. Many small
enterprises that are already Microsoft Office users may find using excel and Word for eforms, routed by e-mail, to be sufficient for their needs. If you already own these
applications and most users are familiar with them, selecting a dedicated e-forms
solution may be unnecessary. However, using excel and Word for e-forms is not suited for
processes that require routing of forms outside the enterprise and to non-Windows/Office
users.
2.
Choose Adobe Acrobat Professional when excel and Word won't work. The ability
for form designers to enable the free and ubiquitous Adobe Reader to fill out PDF forms,
anywhere in the world and across different desktop platforms, makes Adobe Acrobat
Professional the price and performance leader for small enterprise electronic forms. The
inclusion of the Adobe Designer for free with Acrobat Professional adds even more value
to Acrobat Professional.
3.
Look up-market for mission-critical electronic form requirements. If your
company is a small enterprise whose core business functions rely on forms automation (e.
g. financial services), then don't limit your choices to inexpensive solutions targeted at
internal small enterprise operations. Consider forms automation as a strategic project
and evaluate large enterprise-class solutions such as are available from IBM, Adobe
(Livecycle), eMC, Microsoft (Forms Server) and others.
Bottom Line
Small enterprises that cannot justify investment in high-end electronic forms automation
systems often believe their only alternative is to employ word processing or spreadsheet
forms. However, many affordable electronic forms solutions are available to automate
standard internal form-based processes.
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