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(Source: formrouter.com)
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a very relaxing and fun-filled holiday. The time off was certainly welcome as it gave me time to think about many of the everyday items that we use; items, for some, that haven’t changed for many years. The thing that came to the forefront for me was the use of traditional paper-based forms.
Paper-based forms, originally designed by hand and now commonly designed in many popular software applications like Excel, allow you to generate a paper document that is printed and then distributed to your target audience. The forms are then filled out by hand and submitted back to an administrative office, whose staff read the forms and type the information back into a computer. Lots of time and effort, huh? And is, in most cases, unnecessary.
With the general acceptance of online registration and social networks, people expect that they can fill in their information once and have it re-used in as many places as needed. In our products, ContinuED® and PD Place™, both allow for the easy re-use of existing information to assist with online class registration – i.e. no more paper forms. The existing information is then automatically transferred and class lists, etc. can be generated with the click of a button.
From an administrative point of view, legibility problems are no longer a problem for those who process the forms. Time can be spent more productively and efficiently.
Perhaps it’s time we re-consider the use of paper forms. We’ve all used them, and I’m sure we all don’t enjoy filling them out – especially the ones that arrive this time of year from Revenue Canada.
