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Question

Question

Is LF Forms our best option?

asked on August 28, 2014

We have 300+ forms that are mostly PDF forms, and I really don't want to have to recreate them as LF Forms just for collecting data that is going to be put back into the PDF Form to standardize their look.

 

We currently use built-in PDF form functionality to email the form to specific email address as an attachment.  The email server has has some 3rd party software watching that inbox, that saves the attachment to a network folder which Import Agent then picks up, moves into the repository and the related workflow kicks off.

 

We're going to be losing our internal email server to move to MS Office/Exchange 365, so we'll also lose the software that monitors the server and saves the attachments for Import Agent.

 

We were looking at LF Forms as an option, but I'm not looking forward to recreating all of our forms.

 

Is LF Forms our best option or is there something else that would do what we need?

 

Thanks!

 

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Replies

replied on August 28, 2014

I believe the trick here is determining how to get it into the repository. For one of our processes we simply use LF Forms to allow the PDF's to be uploaded and then Forms saves them to a processing folder inside of the repository. Once in the repository, Workflow then does it's part. This allowed us to keep the form as a PDF form, but provide an easy way for the files to be brought into the repository.

 

I'm not sure who is filling out the forms (customers, employees, etc.), but if there is a way to have them put into a network folder, you could still use Import Agent to pick them up.

 

We have found that the option of using Forms to allow public and employees the ability to upload the forms has been the best option for us.

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replied on August 28, 2014

We have students, job applicants and faculty/staff filling out the various forms.

So yes, the big challenge is how to get them into the repository.

 

For students and the public, network access wouldn't work - so we opted for emailing the forms to a specific email address (which is pretty much automated by the PDF form submit button).

 

For staff & faculty saving the completed forms to a shared network folder might work.... except that we've had people save random/personal/non-LF related documents to it thinking it was their personal storage space.  We still use this option for specific groups/departments for batch scanning.

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replied on August 28, 2014

I would say with all that Forms can do and what you could use it for down the road, it would be your best option so that they can upload the PDF's into the repository.

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replied on August 28, 2014

Laserfiche Forms is a great option here, as Blake pointed out, but I also wanted to show you the Integration Marketplace tools available for Email archival.  You can have one of these integration tools monitoring an inbox and sending the emails and/or attachments to the repository.

 

If the problem is simply that you're not able to use the third party tool, one of these integrations may be able to replace them!  I would recommend speaking with the contact(s) listed for the integration to make sure that they can work with your new Email server.

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replied on September 2, 2014

Hi David, 

 

If your question has been answered, please let us know by clicking the "This answered my question" button on the appropriate response.

 

If you still need assistance with this matter, just update this thread. Thanks!

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