Electronic Forms: 5 Process Automation Examples for Every Business

How electronic forms help transform business processes

Across numerous industries, standard business processes require the collection and processing of data, and the following of a sequence of logical steps (i.e., a workflow) that aligns with recognised business rules.

Historically, much of this work has been done manually — with subsequent hitches and delays due to human error, and the inherent inefficiency of many manual processes.

With workflow automation, business organisations can eliminate the need for manual processes, and significantly reduce or even eliminate the human error factor. Automated workflows also help streamline business processes, leading to greater efficiency, higher productivity and more time for employees to concentrate their efforts on activities that add value to the business.

Electronic forms or e-forms often have a big role to play in business workflow automation.

With an electronic form, you can facilitate the process of data entry, use software integration to route the data collected through back-end systems and any other systems relevant to your business processes, and analyse the form data entered to inform further actions.

This applies across a range of applications and business operations.

For instance, you can create electronic forms or eforms for things like purchase orders, handling various types of requests, or preparing expense reports — all without the hassle normally associated with paper forms.

Here are five examples of electronic forms that can play a role in any business, and across every industry:

1. Employee onboarding

Virtually every business has employees – and eforms can help human resources departments to attract, screen, accept and orient new hires.

With electronic forms software, a business can create an eform that captures essential information from new employees, such as department, manager, orientation date and initial vacation requests.

You can configure eforms that deliver automatic notifications and relevant data to HR team members or create electronic forms with form fields that enable direct dialogue with prospective and new employees.

2. Invoice requests

Finance teams often face a complex task when preparing expense reports — especially concerning the repetitive task of invoicing.

Automating this workflow and using a document management system with electronic forms enables finance employees to easily schedule and track invoices, with no need for human input. Using eforms, you can also build an approval workflow for expense claims.

3. E-forms for product or service feedback

Any business that provides a product or service needs to know how these offerings are being received by the customers or users.

You can create electronic forms to elicit feedback on a product or service. Data collected in this way enables designers and developers to improve products and services for existing customers, and to attract new ones.

4. Electronic forms for customer support

Customer support or customer service is a critical component of the customer experience — which in today’s economy can be the differentiator between brands, and a deciding factor in business success.

In an environment in which more than 89% of business organisations see customer experience as a principal factor driving customer loyalty and retention — and three-quarters of online customers expect help within five minutes — you can’t afford to get this wrong.

Using electronic forms software and e forms, you can build a self-service customer support help desk, where customers can quickly and easily raise tickets, keep track of progress, and get their support queries resolved.

5. E-forms for event management

With hybrid and remote working now very much on everyone’s business agenda, eforms can help business administrators organise and stage virtual and in-person events.

By integrating electronic forms software with a document management system, event planners can keep track of budgets, locations, invitations and attendees.

With event e-forms that capture form data for requisitions, employees can put in requests for resources such as AV equipment, hospitality, or event spaces.

Choosing an electronic forms software platform

As you can see from the electronic forms examples above, it’s possible to create electronic forms to replace paper forms and provide information and guidance for data-dependent business processes throughout an organisation – regardless of the industry.

However, many business organisations don’t have employees with specialist skills in electronic forms design, the management of form data, or the seamless integration of electronic forms software with back-end systems and other systems crucial to the effective running of the organisation.

That’s where aligning your business with a specialist workflow automation and electronic forms design and management provider can tip the balance in your favour.

With Claromentis, you can create electronic forms and powerful workflow automations that do the busywork for you.

Our easy-to-use form builder empowers your employees to go completely paperless by transforming paperwork into online electronic forms, while our workflow automation tools ensure that your business processes move forward to the next stage each and every time, without any human input. This helps to eliminate errors, and repetitive tasks that slow down your business.

Simply drag and drop form fields into place to build bespoke forms that match your business needs in just a few clicks.

Our workflow management and electronic forms software liberates your staff from repetitive and manual paper forms and processes, so they can focus on the meaningful work that will drive your business forward.

To learn more about how Claromentis can help you create electronic forms and automated workflows to streamline business processes and energise your business, book a demo with our experts.