What are e-forms?

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, companies around the world will have produced nearly 100 tons of paper. What’s more, the demand for it is set to double before the year 2030. Incredible, especially when you consider how inefficient paper is.

Indeed, paper forms create a number of challenges for businesses:

• Security and compliance: Many forms include sensitive information such as personal details and financial credentials. But when you’re storing paper, the best security you can hope for is a good lock on your filing cabinet.
• Space: Some forms need multiple approvals and, as such, require multiple copies. And if you’re processing financials, you’ll likely need to attach invoices and receipts too. As a result, paper forms can take up a lot of room.
• Cost: That extra square footage needed to store your forms doesn’t come cheap. Then there’s how much you’re paying your employees to manually process information when they could be focusing on more value-driven tasks.

There is a way you can improve the security of your information and become more efficient. You can also reduce spending while doing your bit for the environment too.

Let’s take a look at eForms.

What are eForms?

EForms are electronic documents used to gather and process data. They provide a series of fields to input information that you can then automatically submit to the appropriate personnel with the help of digital workflows.

Now we’ve covered the definition, we’ll examine why your business needs them.

The benefits of eForms

Beyond saving on paper (and valuable office space!), eForms provide a plethora of benefits:

The right information for the right people

Have you ever received a form with some crucial information missing? Well, with eForms, you can choose which fields are mandatory, preventing the submission of the form before they’re all filled.

Then there’s the fact that they won’t gather dust sitting on the wrong desk. Instead, with the help of digital workflows, you can ensure instant delivery to the right personnel.

And should your staff need to view an e-form at a later date, they don’t need to undertake a painstaking search to find it. They can simply enter in a keyword related to the content and trust the platform’s advanced filters will do their job.

Some of the data will be sensitive, however. So consider implementing the principle of least privilege and apply access controls. This will ensure only authorised individuals gain access, and that your company remains compliant too.

A better use of time

Instead of ferrying paper from one office to another, you can send and sign eForms with a touch of a button. This is especially efficient when you need approval from multiple departments.

That said, sometimes, colleagues might not be able to review the information in time, let alone give you feedback. This might be because they’re sick, on holiday, or elbow-deep in a time-sensitive project

With paper, this is a problem. But with eForms, digital workflows redirect to available and authorised staff, helping get rid of key dependencies within your organisation and ensuring you process information quickly.

Smarter and more reliable

You might need to analyse the data on a form before you store it. With paper, this isn’t so straightforward. For one thing, you’ll need to input the information into a data analysis application first. For another, many data analysis apps can be too generic to provide the intelligence you need.

With eForms, you’ll benefit from multiple methods of data analysis and reporting in one platform. This will enable immediate and intelligent insights into the information, without having to transfer it into another tool first.

And, depending on what kind of form you’re processing, you might need to perform a follow-up assessment. Perhaps one of your employees has filled out a form for sick leave or is on probation—there are a number of workplace scenarios that require check-ins down the line.

Since you can integrate eForms with your other applications, you can trigger a digital workflow to send the necessary reminders, messages, and forms when they’re needed. So even if you’re out of the office on the specified date, you’ll still be on the ball.

Information at your fingertips

Paper forms take up valuable space and time. So if you want to make room for progress, consider eForms.

EForms make capturing, validating, and processing data easy. Moreover, the built-in analysis tools and advanced search filters of an Document Management system enables you to access data instantly, so the information you need is always at your fingertips.

If you want to know more about how eForms can improve efficiencies, read about our satisfied customers. And if you’d like to hear how we can help your organisation, reach out for a chat.