A Forms Management program was started in 1984 in state government amid speculation that it was another level of bureaucracy and would benefit no one. Now eighteen years later over 13,000 forms have been eliminated and another 30,000 have been created or revised using forms design standards that are universally accepted in the business forms industry. But this organization was not satisfied to sit back and feel that enough has been done. John Downs who is the Forms Manager that started the program 18 years ago forecasted that, "the technology is changing fast and we have to stay up with it or we'll be unable to serve Missouri citizens adequately".
When electronic forms were first being used in Missouri government there was frustration because in order for customers inside and outside of government to use the forms they each had to buy a filler software package. This would have been a prohibitive cost in state government. After looking at many software packages available, a great solution was found when John was introduced to the Amgraf OneForm Designer software. "When we saw the product and its capabilities, along with the fact we wouldn't need to have site license for everyone to use our forms, we knew we were on the right track." Now the Forms Management office has made available over 1,300 web-based forms for customers to use. Their website is averaging over 5,000 downloads of these forms per month with calls coming in everyday to add more to the site. Some downloads have come from as far away as Europe and Australia. These are fillable electronic forms, not print-only PDF's, that customers can use at no cost.
Downs goes on to say, "We are just scratching the surface. Now we are using the I-form capabilities of OneForm to create forms that enable customers of agencies to fill in forms on-line and send the data back to a waiting database within the specific agency. The agency will be able to eliminate the tedious manual data input process and access the database as they have a need. Again at no cost to the customers. Recently we purchased the PDF Forms Generator Module of OneForm which opens up a whole new approach to electronic forms."
Many businesses and governments use PDF's and make them available on websites for their customers, but the vast majority of these are only print and fill the hard copy. Downs is presently working on a survey of the other 49 state governments in the United States regarding their Forms Management programs and what software is used. The results thus far show that the majority of states can only offer PDF (print and fill) because of budget restrictions and software limitations. Downs says, "With the PDF Module we will now be able to take all of those existing PDF's that have been created by the agencies and now make them fillable for everyone to use and all the customer needs is the free Adobe Reader! Our sole purpose is to serve our state customers whether internal or external in the most efficient and cost effective way. With the outstanding resources available from Amgraf such as its professional staffing and OneForm software, we have the tools necessary to accomplish this goal."
