Digital transformation means businesses of all sizes can work more efficiently, productively, and flexibly. Many paper-based processes have been eliminated, cutting costs and desk clutter. Employees can now choose to work in a way that fits their lives and schedules best, thanks to streamlined, digital processes and enterprise mobile apps. In all kinds of ways, technology has made the office a very different place than it was five or even two years ago
The electronic form is one such innovation. It hasn’t been greeted with as much fanfare as some technologies, but the eForm has been quietly changing the way the world works and does business. Moving to electronic forms benefits organizations by providing flexibility to keep up with evolving customer demands, employee expectations, and your competitors. And in today’s world, they have a valuable role in dealing with documents like medical forms and attendance registers, which can now be filled out and processed quickly, easily, and contactlessly.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the most important benefits that organizations can get when they adopt this technology. Drumroll, please…
Here are our top five electronic forms benefits:
1. Anytime, anywhere access
Today, your employees and customers expect access to your business anytime, anywhere. Traditional business hours don’t mean much these days. We’re shopping in the middle of the night, booking flights and hotels from our bedrooms, and working more and more on the go. We live in an always-on world and electronic forms help you to keep up with it.
When forms are available remotely it means your employees can access or submit data and complete tasks on the move. Customers can buy, contact, complain, and interact with your business in any other way they want. In 2020, if you can’t provide this kind of availability, you risk losing out to a business that can.
2. Quickly completed, instantly delivered
One of the great benefits of implementing electronic forms is the speed at which many processes can be sped up. When it comes to certain processes, such as a Freedom of Information request or a sales discount, there may be a need for input or sign-off from multiple stakeholders.
With electronic forms, the right information can be diverted to the right people, approvals collected, documents electronically signed, and the entire process is expedited. With faster processes comes faster case resolution, which will be sure to please your customers, employees, or third-party collaborators.
3. Create a digital paper trail
As we mentioned previously, digitizing your paper forms reduces your paper and printing costs, which can be substantial—especially for large organizations. You can also free up a colossal amount of storage space. But there’s another important benefit that businesses don’t always consider: suddenly you have easy access to your (now digital) paper trail. When you use electronic forms, everything is tracked for reporting and audits—that’s a win for your administrators or anyone else dealing with information governance and compliance.
4. Boosting quality control
Data is essential to running a business of any size. We’re becoming more reliant on quality data to do our jobs and improve processes. But we can’t always choose the data we collect. There is a lot of it and it’s not all relevant or accurate.
However, with electronic forms, invalid data can be automatically recognized and rejected as soon as it’s entered. Email addresses can be recognized as being pertinent or irrelevant, and the same goes for other identifiable information. Making sure the data your organization is collecting is up to date and relevant will go a long way to making processes across the business more error-free and efficient.
5. Integrated into workflows and apps
Processes make up how your company operates, and no process should be ‘an island’. Electronic forms can be implemented into your automated workflows and can act as a valuable trigger to kick off the flow or can be implemented into the middle of the process. The possibilities here are wide and varied.
HR can benefit in their hiring process, sales when following leads, operations when onboarding a new customer… and the list goes on. Making electronic forms part of wider, streamlined, automated processes is a practical way to see real results from your organization’s digital transformation.
Achieve these electronic forms benefits with Nintex
We hope this article has helped you get a picture of some major electronic form advantages and how the technology might fit with your own business processes. Maybe we’ve inspired you to start creating your own eForms. In that case, we’d like to help.
Our electronic forms solution Nintex Forms delivers all the benefits we’ve described here and more. What’s more, Nintex Forms also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Adobe Sign, and caters for all of an organization’s internal or customer/partner/client-facing form needs.
Best of all, our no-code tool doesn’t need extensive input and monitoring from your IT department and can be rolled out across your organization and used by those who know your processes best. Nintex Forms is easy to implement and once you start, won’t stop finding new ways it can improve your processes.
As we said earlier, the humble electronic form may be the unsung hero of business technology. But it’s sure to be a big hero for your employees—and your organization.
If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of electronic forms for your business, get in touch today.
