The University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona

eForms: an eSolution to Handling eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business FormsBusiness Forms

Andrew HollamonAndrew HollamonSuper Coder, Infrastructure Guru, Ubiquitous, Persistent DudeSuper Coder, Infrastructure Guru, Ubiquitous, Persistent Dude

Kymber HornKymber HornForm Developer, Professional Diplomat, Organizer, Why AskerForm Developer, Professional Diplomat, Organizer, Why Asker

Liz TaylorLiz TaylorOriginal Project Manager, Form Developer, Now – the Resource Getter, Original Project Manager, Form Developer, Now – the Resource Getter,

Direction Setter, Barrier Jumper, and IntegratorDirection Setter, Barrier Jumper, and Integrator

The University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona

Liz TaylorLiz Taylor Original Project Manager, Original Form DeveloperOriginal Project Manager, Original Form Developer

Now – Resource Getter, Direction Setter, Political Barrier Jumper, and IntegratorNow – Resource Getter, Direction Setter, Political Barrier Jumper, and Integrator

Director, Computing Systems, Financial Director, Computing Systems, Financial ServicesServices

Email: lizt@arizona.eduEmail: lizt@arizona.edu

The University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona

Down the road about 90 miles andDown the road about 90 miles and10 degrees cooler!10 degrees cooler!

Research I InstitutionResearch I Institution

33,000 Students33,000 Students12,000 Faculty and Staff12,000 Faculty and Staff

The one with THE basketball team!!The one with THE basketball team!!

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 4

Who is Financial Services Computing…Who is Financial Services Computing… Team of 10 Bright Rebels and Innovators

– 1 Director– 1 Technical “Mad Scientist”– 2 analysts/developers (Kymber and Andrew)– 1 Systems Person– 1 Staff Development Expert– 2 Desktop Support gurus– 2 Students

Report to Assistant Vice President for Financial Services Core Services

– Desktop support and staff development for 180 people – eBusiness development – Focus on the administrative/financial side of the University of Arizona.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 5

• Informal (Working Session)– Ask Questions, Interrupt us

• Talk about our quick-win, weekly deliverables plan

• It’s really simple and relatively cheap – not rocket science

• Share what we have – really – call us, e-mail us – we want to share our experience and/or our code!

Presentation GoalsPresentation Goals

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 6

Anyone in the room who DOES NOT have Anyone in the room who DOES NOT have at least one of these problems…at least one of these problems…

– Duplicate data entry– Physical routing of forms– Physical signatures– Legacy Systems with batch interfaces– Too many forms – Reengineering that’s taking too long – Typewriters!!!

LEAVE NOW – YOU SHOULD BE GOLFING!!

The University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona

Kymber HornKymber HornForm Developer, Professional Diplomat, Organizer, Why AskerForm Developer, Professional Diplomat, Organizer, Why Asker

Applications Systems Analyst, Sr.Applications Systems Analyst, Sr.

Email: kymber@u.arizona.eduEmail: kymber@u.arizona.edu

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 8

Presentation OutlinePresentation Outline

What is eForms?Why did we do it?How did we do it - approach?How did we do it – technically?What’s Next?Issues and Challenges we faced

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 9

What is eForms?What is eForms?

For the Customer: – Seamless web-enabled front-end – Provides one-stop shopping

Departmental business managers 140 business forms

Technically: – On-line forms system – Infrastructure that leverages

Standard desktop tools eMail Workflow and mainframe integration

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 10

Why did we do it?Why did we do it? We have a vision of eBusiness by 2005

– Web Forms– Self-Service– Workflow capabilities– Business rules written to the system processing software– Electronic Reporting

Over 140 forms Three mainframe legacy systems - MAY never be

replaced (it’s far enough out we need to do something now)

In March, 2000 Business Operations Committee (BOC) identified a priority to transition from paper forms to electronic equivalents of those forms.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 11

Short phases, quick results Short phases, quick results

Our Objective: Provide near-term relief to departmental financial managers pending long-term solutions.

Identified five-phases.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 12

Short phases, quick results Short phases, quick results Phase I –

– Inventory and consolidate forms– Allow for printing only– Routing using current business practices

Phase II – – “fillable” forms

Phase III – – XML-based forms – ‘data-enter-only-once-ever’ – manually routed via email.

Phase IV – – Simple 2-stage workflow

Phase V – – Integrate or replace w/ full re-engineering projects.

The University of ArizonaThe University of Arizona

Andrew HollamonAndrew HollamonSuper Coder, Infrastructure Guru, Ubiquitous, Persistent DudeSuper Coder, Infrastructure Guru, Ubiquitous, Persistent Dude

Applications Systems Analyst, Sr.Applications Systems Analyst, Sr.

Email: Hollamon@arizona.eduEmail: Hollamon@arizona.edu

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 14

How: Outline of Technical AspectsHow: Outline of Technical Aspects

Project Assumptions – Current SituationOur current environment, platform, and in-house

skill setsRequirements Analysis – what do we need?What we chose – First Generation ToolsetHard Lessons Learned – the limitations of our

original toolsetSecond Generation Toolset: ActivePDF

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 15

Project AssumptionsProject Assumptions Need to automate business processes Need to move to eBusiness services Assume the legacy Enterprise Apps are here to stay Need to provide relief in some key areas:

Redundant Data EntryMath errors (up to 75% of forms have math errors)!Physical routing & archival of formsNo information about status of documentsNo formalized authority & approval structuresHuge amount of man-hours to process paper forms

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 16

Our Development EnvironmentOur Development Environment

• Our production environment is the result of a recent migration to new platforms:• Windows 2000 w/ COM+• IIS5 Web Servers w/ Active Server Pages• SQL Server 2000

• Our in-house skill sets:• VB6/COM, Active Server Pages/IIS• SQL/T-SQL/DTS• Perl, JavaScript, HTML

• This could be developed on Unix or Windows, using J2EE, PHP, ColdFusion, ASP, etc.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 17

RequirementsRequirements• MUST be web-based.

• Delegated Administration: Administration of Forms must be done by the Forms Owners, NOT the IT group.

• Low Maintenance: Must not require client deployment.

• Platform Agnostic: Must support all reasonable platforms & environments.

• Usable Output: Any data produced must be portable, interoperable, and agnostic.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 18

RequirementsRequirements

• Agile: Underlying Infrastructure must be dynamic and agile enough to evolve over time to a full eBusiness environment.

• Developable: Must fit in easily with existing platforms, environment, and in-house skill-sets.

• Consistent: Must match existing policy & practices (numbered forms).

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 19

What we choseWhat we chose Adobe Acrobat Reader, FDF Toolkit delivered in a web app. Adobe Acrobat Reader for client viewer.

– It is ubiquitous, and available for most platforms.– Form Owners can create their forms in almost any format.– Almost any document can be easily converted to PDF format.– Retains exact original formatting & layout for printing.

Adobe FDF Toolkit allows server-side form field population. Custom Components for pre-fills & numbered forms. Database holds form Meta-Data, NOT the forms themselves.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 20

What we chose … continuedWhat we chose … continued

These options translate into the following application specs:– Active Server Pages on IIS to do the presentation.– COM & COM+ components do the dirty work in the

mid-tier.– SQL Server stores linking & meta-data information about

the forms.– Forms are built & prepped in Adobe Acrobat Exchange,

and stored as template files on the web server.

The result is … a plain-vanilla multi-tier web app, which brokers business forms.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 21

eForms UserOpens eForms

Website

Specific BusinessProcess Form

Chosen

User Fills OutForm AsNeeded

Form Is Printed

Form is Signed

ApprovedBy Dept?

Sent ToDept

Approver

NO

ApprovedBy Processor?

Sent ToProcessApprover

NO

Form IsProcessed

As Appropriate

YES

END

22eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms

eForms Collection

Active ServerPages

Prepared Form

Database Server Web & Component Server

ReturnsPrepared

Forms

ActivePDFRetrieves

FormTemplate

eForms BusinessObject

eForms Public

eForms Admin

Returns Form

AuthenticatedeForms Admin

Users

RequestsA Form

eFormsMeta-Data

Store

RequestsForm Information

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 23

Hard Lessons LearnedHard Lessons LearnedWe quickly discovered the limitations of our

original toolset:– Installation Issues– High support costs on client setup & configuration– FDF/Forms interaction was clumsy and inelegant– Web Link did not always work predictably– The ‘Saving Problem’– The ‘Caching Problem’

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 24

FDF Issues In Excruciating DetailFDF Issues In Excruciating Detail FDF Toolkit Flow, very clumsy

– FDF Toolkit produces FDF data stream Important to understand, it does NOT pre-fill the form server-side, and then dish

the filled form to the client. It produces an FDF data stream, which includes the link to the form itself, and

all the form fields data.– Browser sees ‘application/vnd.fdf’ MIME type, and hands it to the

Acrobat Reader to view.– Acrobat Reader invokes Forms plug-in, which interprets the FDF data.– Forms plug-in then calls back to the server for the PDF file.

This is an extra round-trip to the server!!– Forms plug-in takes over the whole browser window, and ignores any

framesets– Forms plug-in opens in the last active window, rather than the

‘current’ window.– Forms plug-in fills in the Form Fields on the client, and displays the

filled form.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 25

Second Generation ToolsetSecond Generation Toolset Core Issues Not Solved by 1st Generation

– Sensitive Client Installation– Inelegant interaction with the browser– Could not save completed forms– Could not easily refresh forms

Solution: 3rd Party Acrobat Component, ActivePDF– Only required 3.0 or higher client versions of Acrobat– Did all its work server-side, in memory– Dished a plain-vanilla PDF doc that did not require special

processing on the client– Allowed us to bypass Acrobat Reader’s Save Problem– Allowed us to bypass Acrobat Reader’s Caching Problem– Component paid for itself very quickly by drastically reducing

support costs

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 26

Third Generation (projected)Third Generation (projected)

Used ‘Web Submit’ functionality in Acrobat Reader. Data submitted from Acrobat Reader comes across in

HTTP PUT format. Server side components digest & persist the data into

well-formed XML for durable storage. Metadata of documents are stored in a SQL database. Data can be passed to any system (legacy systems,

external providers). This process creates a very modular, extensible, and

agile system.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 27

New eFormIs Opened

From Website

Blank eFormProduced

eForm IsFilled Out

DeptApprover

eFormsStorage

NotificationSent To

Approver

eFormStored On

Server

Dept ApproverOpens eFormFrom Server

DocumentIs Reviewd

And ReturnedApproved?NO

FormCreator

CreatorNotified OfDecision

ProcessApprover

YES

ProcessApproverNotif ied

Process ApproverReviews eForm

From ServerApproved?

NO

eForm XML DocIs Converted ToDestination Doc

External BusinessesAnd Service Providers

Data Is SentTo TargetSystem In

Native Format

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 28

XMLDocumentXML Doc

Storage

PreparesXML Doc

FromForms Data

SavesDocumentIn Storage

RetrievesXML Doc

FromStorage Active

ServerPages

eFormsMetaData

Store AndRetrieveeForms

Meta Data

Several Virtual Methods are exposed in the relationship betweenour Acrobat Forms and our FormsHandler.asp web page.

What 'action' the ASP page takes depends on a hidden field called'action' that is passed in with each Form.

How the Acrobat Reader interprets the state of the form is by ahidden field called 'state' passed in by the ASP page.

Acrobat

Available Actions :PersistStoreGetNew

Available States :PersistedSavedUpdatedNew

FormHandler.asp

action

state

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 29

What’s Next: Snap, Crackle, Pop!What’s Next: Snap, Crackle, Pop!

Interactive, wizard-style interface to eForms. Permanent server-side storage of forms. Email link to a filled-out form to another person. Component to convert XML Doc to mainframe batch

feed document. Authentication & authorization system to manage

storage and access to saved eForms. Simple 2-stage rigid workflow system.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 30

Issues & ChallengesIssues & Challenges

Technical/Infrastructure Issues

The Economics of eForms

Business Issues

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 31

Infrastructure IssuesInfrastructure Issues Authentication:

– Main eForms site is publicly available. – Only designated people can modify eForms listings & meta-data.

Authorization:– Different forms are owned by different groups and may need

protected administrative access.– One group will need full access, as they act as the final ‘owner’

of the site and its contents, style, etc. Solution:

– We leveraged a homegrown web based infrastructure that handles authentication & authorization, using a role-based mechanism.

– We were able to ‘plug’ eForms into this infrastructure to provide these services.

– This will allow us to easily move to later phases which require routing & approval.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 32

Infrastructure Issues, more…Infrastructure Issues, more…

Messaging– Need automated communication abilities for Support,

Administration, and Announcements.– As we enter later phases with electronic routing & approval,

users will need to be able to easily send their documents to the correct person based on their role, without knowing precisely who that person is at any given time.

Messaging Solutions– Used listservs to meet the communications needs.– Leverage the user info in the Authorization infrastructure to

send the forms data to the correct person.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 33

The Economics of eFormsThe Economics of eForms

Using 1st generation, low up-front costs, but high support.

Using 2nd generation toolset, support costs drop to almost nothing.

Maintenance is delegated to forms owners. The marginal cost of expanding to more documents and

a wider audience is limited strictly to hardware expenses.

Deployment of new forms and changes to forms is fast & cheap.– Always have the most recent version.

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 34

The Business IssuesThe Business Issues

Multi-copy FormsNumbered FormsEducation/CommunicationCulture Changes

eForms: an eSolution to Handling Business Forms 35

Q & AQ & A

Andrew Hollamon - Andrew Hollamon - Hollamon@arizona.edu

Kymber Horn – Email: Kymber Horn – Email: kymber@u.arizona.edu

Liz Taylor – Email: Liz Taylor – Email: lizt@arizona.edu