{"id":10277,"date":"2020-12-09T15:05:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T20:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.govevents.com\/blog\/?p=10277"},"modified":"2021-03-12T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T13:30:00","slug":"digitizing-forms-is-more-than-putting-them-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.govevents.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/09\/digitizing-forms-is-more-than-putting-them-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Digitizing Forms is More Than Putting Them Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With remote work (and frankly, remote living) becoming a reality the need for digital forms has never been more acutely felt. No longer is it an option to walk a form down the hall or drop it off at an office to conduct routine business. Organizations have had to quickly shift to digitally enabling methods for processing forms, including the capture and acceptance of electronic signatures.<\/p>\n

The discussion of digitizing forms did not start with the pandemic. It's long been a focus of modernization teams that realize there are over 10,000 forms<\/a> available for download on government websites. This online availability of forms goes back to the 1995 Paperwork Reduction Act. It was a great first step, but as with anything that started in 1995 it is in serious need of advancement and updating.<\/p>\n

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Simply making a form downloadable does not make it digital. If it still requires a pen to fill out and sign then it's not a digitized process. Digitizing forms is more than making them available online, it is about making them actionable online and feeding a digital document management strategy.\u00a0 This means applying business rules behind the data entry so that forms become dynamic, guiding people to enter the exact information needed to complete the transaction as it applies to their situation. Data collected should be shared across agencies to enable a continuity of service to citizens that builds on their interaction with each agency.<\/p>\n

There are a number of events and resources available that include a discussion of what it means to digitize forms in government.<\/p>\n