Industry Roundtable: Forms Processing Comes Of Age

By Ken Congdon, ECM Connection magazine

Once upon a time, forms processing technology was considered a template-heavy software solution largely limited to recognizing characters located in designated areas on highly structured documents. Boy, how times have changed! In the span of just a few years, forms processing technology has evolved to become a critical component in the overall BPA (business process automation) efforts of businesses all over the world. The primary reason for this transformation is the strides forms processing vendors have made to accurately identify and extract "unstructured" data (i.e. data that can reside on different places throughout a form) from forms, without the need for extensive template designs. ECM Connection recently had the opportunity to interview several executives from the top forms processing vendors in the industry to gain their insights on the evolution of forms processing technologies and the impact these technologies can have on your business today.