IBM Lotus® Forms®

The Quick, Secured Way to Process Improvement and Paper Use Reduction

© 2007, Strategic Focus Market Research, LLC. All rights reserved.Information is based on best available resources.

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 2

Value of Electronic Forms

- Design• Overcome the need for specialized designers and a wide variety of design

tools with a built-in forms design environment supporting IDE and SOA development concepts

- Standards and Security• Automate maintenance of a “paper trail”, recording and controlling data

transmission from step to step within a process, as well as adding digital signature capabilities

- Maintenance Costs• Reduce inventory costs by providing most recent versions of forms online,

including partial forms completion and real-time validation and user help

- Partnering in the Process• Use form content, both generated and user entered, as a means to guide a

business process flow

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 3

Evolution of e-Forms

Business Process Automation

Val

ue

Document

Focused

Business Process Focused

Business Process Automation (ECM, Workflow, BCS)

Fill, (Sign) & SubmitOn-line

Store Preserve

Print & Read

Print & Fill

Fill & Print

Fill, (Sign) & Submit Off-line

View Compliance (Pixel Perfect, Sec 508)

Store Preserve Simple Process

Regulatory Compliance (HIPPA, etc)

IBM W

orkplace F

orms

eForms Spectrum

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 4

Development Tools: SOA and Portals

- Portals• A framework applied across organizational boundaries to bring people,

information and processes together at one access point.

- SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)• A software design and development structure used to loosely associate

existing web services, or web services built upon extensions of existing applications, to support business requirements.

E-Forms support both SOA and Portals

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 5

e-Forms Software Supports SOA

- Supports Web Services• Used to provide data to pre-populate forms, collect data into forms, and

process data collected by forms

- Enables creation of dynamic, rich Web 2.0 e-Forms• Without expensive and time-consuming programming

- Presents customers with a dynamic, interactive interface• Real-time field validation and formatting• Real-time value calculation (updating totals, counts, conditional logic,

context-sensitive help text, etc.) • Real-time personalization, with colors and graphics pertinent to the particular

user

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 6

E-Forms Combined with Portal

WorkflowWorkflow

IBM WebSphere Portal Supports End -to-End Forms Processes Using IBM Lotus Forms

Lotus Forms Designer

Portal Document Manager

Lotus Forms Server

WebSphere Portal Extend

CustomersCustomers

EmployeesEmployees

Fill- out, sign, and submit forms

Forms Viewer (XML) plug- in for full fidelity or HTML view option

Developers

Pixel-perfect forms

Developers

Pixel-perfect forms

Form approval workflow tasks

Store and retrieve form templates, as well as completed forms

Form template

Form template

Completedform

Completedform

Approvedform

Approvedform

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 7

Two Important e-Form Open Standards

- XFDL: Extensible Forms Description Language• High-level W3C specified computer language that defines a form as a single,

stand-alone object using XML elements and attributes. Offers precise control over form layout down to the pixel level, to permit precise replacement of existing business and government forms. Supports inclusion of custom items, options, and external code functions, as well as syntax supporting in-line mathematical and conditional expressions. Multiple digital signatures can be applied to specific sections of a form. IBM's Lotus Forms uses XFDL.

- XForms: XML formatting standard• Specifies a data processing and transmission model for XML data, along with

the user interfaces for the data. Generic enough to be used standalone or with presentation languages to describe a user interface and a set of common data manipulation tasks. IBM is a key driver on the committee working to make this a completed standard, and uses XForms as part of Lotus Forms.

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 8

Differentiators: IBM Lotus Forms and Adobe LiveCycle

- Processing Time• IBM – Transmits using native XML schemas embedded in each form. No

translation required to send or receive. Form sections, subsections, fields all immediately available to build other documents or control process.

• Adobe – Converts XML to its proprietary transmission format, XML Data Package (XDP), paying the price of conversion time at both ends, and creating a dependency upon Adobe servers and APIs.

- Forms Personalization• IBM – Uses a wizard, based upon business rules and XML schemas,

accessible to non-developers.• Adobe – Dependent upon Adobe’s Reader Extensions, Form Guides, and

XDP, or the ability to write code in JavaScript and implement it in HTML.

- Adherence to Standards• IBM – Supports numerous open standards, particularly XFDL, to easily

integrate with portals and back-end systems.• Adobe – Dependent upon proprietary XDP transmission format.

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 9

IBM Lotus Forms Suite

- IBM Lotus Forms Designer• This single development platform, built on the Eclipse open framework and

the XForms open standard, allows easy integration with the customer's existing systems and other Eclipse-based tools.

- IBM Lotus Forms Viewer• This tool enables users to quickly and interactively complete forms,

personalizing the entry experience, enforcing accurate data entry, and providing entry help on demand.

- IBM Lotus Forms Server• The Server provides electronic forms to external users from within almost

any browser, without requiring the customer to download and install additional plug-ins.

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IBM Lotus Forms Advantages

- Design Interface• A user-friendly design interface with comprehensive drag-and-drop

functionality, form component libraries, composite and subform creation support, business rules support, dynamic layout support, and XML schema support via XFDL.

- Distribution and Access• Forms access options available through either the Lotus Forms Viewer or

HTML, integration with the IBM DB2 Content Manager for forms management, basic workflow, and integration to other IBM products.

- Processing• Comprehensive online submission support, and validation of schemas, rules,

and code.

- Architecture and Platform• Supports common IT platforms, provides solid XML and Java support, has

comprehensive security options, and can scale to support large enterprise deployments.

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 11

IBM Lotus Forms Value

- Case studies indicate that IBM Customers particularly value these features:

• Multi-Approval Workflows with Signature Support – Support for existing business logic and workflows, digital signatures to any level of detail, yet with small file sizes

• Forms Customization – Easy creation of forms with drag and drop components, pre-filled and self-validating

• Streamlined Business Processes – Adherence to XForms provides support for a standard data processing model

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 12

United States Army

- Profile• 1.4 million personnel, 100,000 different types of forms

- Problem• Needed to control the life-cycle process of organizational information being managed

and supported by manual processes and paper-based forms, shifting the focus from the paper to the content being captured and processed

- Solution• IBM Websphere Portal and Application Server using IBM Lotus Forms, IBM DB2 Content

Manager and Database

- Benefits• Electronic form transmission and signature capability save as much as 60 person hours

of paper-handling per form per year, amounting to millions of person-hours saved, with added security, fewer user errors and reduced maintenance costs.

• Process efficiency increased 75%, saving $1.3 Billion per year in administrative costs• Reduced development and system maintenance costs• 50% of paper generated forms eliminated• Regulatory compliance established (Government Paperwork Elimination Act)

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 13

Government Contracting Organization

- Profile• Provides military forces with quality supplies and services• 24,000 personnel

- Problem• Wanted to create an electronic procurement/workflow system to create, consolidate and

provide information about all its procurement related documents, externally and internally

- Solution• IBM Websphere Portal using IBM Lotus Forms, IBM DB2 Records Manager and

Database

- Benefits• Procurement lifecycle significantly shortened, a 300% increase in process efficiency• Reduction of legacy applications from 55 to 5, a massive reduction in support costs• Standardization of forms resulting in 2/3 reduction in form versions and paper

inventory, and streamlined new forms creation process• Support of Enterprise SOA infrastructure, enabling rapid development of new forms and

processes• 900% return on investment

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 14

Oxfordshire County Council, UK

- Profile• Provides a range of civic services to the 615,000 citizens of Oxfordshire• 74 elected county councilors and 19,000 employees• Manages £500M of public money annually

- Problem• Needed to create and deploy an electronic social care record solution to combine data

sources ranging from paper form entries to information captured by other business applications

- Solution• Lotus Forms software

- Benefits• Improved sharing of information, at the same time adding improved recording of who

has seen the information, per county regulations• Built-in validation, ensuring accurate data entry and reduction of staff time otherwise

needed to make corrections• Improved staff productivity and reduced management costs

• Savings of £300,000 per year, a 33% return on investment in just the first year

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 15

Woodmen of the World

- Profile• Insurance company, 800,000 members and almost one million life insurance and

annuity certificates• $650M in annual premiums

- Problem• Needed to support a new business process to modernize its field operations,

automating form content to respond to the many variations in insurance factors, as well as to the specific formats and content required by the states

- Solution• IBM Lotus Forms with IBM Lotus Notes Database• Laptops enabled with both offline and online capabilities

- Benefits• Addition of online capability reduces time for completion of policy application from

weeks to days• Forms produced compliant with State format, pre-filled with information provided from

existing data• Entry validation/pre-filling reduces errors, freeing agents’ time to develop new business• Increased productivity, reduced costs and better conformance to regulatory

requirements

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In Closing

- IBM Lotus Forms software is a leader in the e-Forms market.

- The technology contained in the Lotus Forms software has been designed from the outset to support Enterprise Portals and Service Oriented Architecture, resulting in:

• Faster application development and delivery• Improved developer productivity.• Guaranteed data consistency and availability

- IBM has been a consistent leader in the design and implementation of open standards such as XFDL and XForms, which are built into Lotus Forms software.

- All of these contribute to making IBM Lotus Forms the most respected e-Forms software in the industry.

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 17

Thank You!

- White paper• A copy of the white paper can be downloaded from www.strategicfocus.com

or the IBM web site www.ibm.com

- Additional Information on IBM Lotus Forms• http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotus/

- This project was funded by IBM Corporation

04/10/23 IBM Workplace Forms - A Presentation by Strategic Focus Slide 18

About Strategic Focus

- Business Strategy Consulting- 20+ years experience in Hands-on Enterprise Software Evaluation by

Professional Software Engineers in our own Laboratory- Market Research

• Phone surveys, customer interviews, etc.

- Marketing Collaterals • White Papers, TCO/ROI studies, etc.

- Domain Expertise: • Portals, CRM, ERP, Open Source, Development Tools, BI Tools, SOA, Application

Servers, RSS Feed Servers, SOA, J2EE and Database Application Performance Management Tools, Enterprise Application Integration, Web Services, Mobile Solutions and other emerging market segments.

- Contact• Jay Prakash 408-568-3993, jay@strategicfocus.com

- Website• www.strategicfocus.com