Vendor Landscape The Right e Forms Solution If

Vendor Landscape: The Right e. Forms Solution If process is a buster, e. Forms will automate. Info-Tech Research Group 1

Introduction The e. Forms Vendor Landscape is a mix of new and established vendors addressing a field of different scenarios. Use cases will determine best fit. This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You: ü Enterprises seeking to select a solution for Forms ü Understand what’s new in the e. Forms market. Automation. ü Their web conferencing use case may include: • Ad Hoc Form Automation • Departmental Process Support • Enterprise Mission Process Critical • Business Process Workflow Automation Info-Tech Research Group ü Evaluate e. Forms vendors and products for your enterprise needs. ü Determine which products are most appropriate for particular use cases and scenarios. 2

Executive Summary • The e. Forms market is evolving away from the paper form entirely, replacing it with a rich UI and integration with both new digital media and more advanced mobile functionality. • Adobe Live. Cycle and Acrobat, IBM Forms, and Autonomy Liquid. Office e. Forms are all champions within the market space. • Once value for money is taken into consideration, Adobe Acrobat and Perfect. Forms become the most compelling options, though both lack the functionality for the most complex and advanced large enterprise use cases. • Each product evaluated has a different set of features designed to cater to different needs based on process criticality and use cases. Choose your solution based on the criticality of your process, your use case, your industry, and your mobile needs. Info-Tech Research Group 3

Market Overview How it got here Where it’s going • Stemmed from early electronic facsimiles of standard business forms. • Built-in Rich UI to optimize data input/output, improve user experience and decrease abandonment. • Initially forms could be downloaded, then routed to different steps. • The emergence of digital media, e. g. new cameras and input methods, in personal devices is creating an increasingly digitized world, allowing more rich content to be built into forms. • Next, they could be completed entirely online but were still tied to the look and feel of the paper business form. • As electronic use and access increased, forms-driven business processes have evolved to become electronic only and never hit paper. • With more external stakeholders gaining electronic access, forms could exist entirely online and no longer be tied to a physical counterpart, i. e. the physical form metaphor is no longer a constraint. As a result, e-forms are employing more rich user interfaces. • Cloud-only vendors are appearing and allowing form data to be stored entirely in the cloud, without offering an on-premise solution at all. • Mobile form use, previously only enabling simple workflow participation (e. g. approvals) is expanding to more complex forms and tasks, and onto tablets for field operations, e. g. real estate, insurance, field sales. As the market evolves, so do the features you need to evaluate. Pay close attention to rich UI, cloud vendors, and mobile functionality, as all three improve overall usability and decrease grief. Info-Tech Research Group 4

e. Forms Criteria & Weighting Factors Product Evaluation Features The solution provides basic and advanced feature/functionality. Affordability The five year TCO of the solution is economical. Usability Architecture 20% The solution’s dashboard and reporting tools are intuitive and easy to use. 35% 50% Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term. Strategy Reach Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support. Info-Tech Research Group Affordability The delivery method of the solution aligns with what is expected within the space. Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap. Channel Usability Product Vendor Evaluation Viability 20% 25% Vendor Viability Reach 10% 20% 10% Channel Strategy 60% Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong. 5

The Info-Tech e. Forms Landscape Champions receive high scores for most evaluation criteria and offer excellent value. They have a strong market presence and are usually the trend setters for the industry. Emerging Players are newer vendors who are starting to gain a foothold in the marketplace. They balance product and vendor attributes, though score lower relative to market Champions. Innovators have demonstrated innovative product strengths that act as their competitive advantage in appealing to niche segments of the market. Market Pillars are established players with very strong vendor credentials, but with more average product scores. For a complete description of Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape methodology, see the Appendix. Info-Tech Research Group 6

Every vendor has its strengths & weaknesses; Pick the one that works best for you Product Features Usability Affordability Vendor Architecture Viability Strategy Reach Channel Adobe Live. Cycle Adobe Acrobat Autonomy Cardiff IBM Lotus Forms MS Info. Path Form Services MS Info. Path Client Perfect. Forms Formatta Linc. Doc Harvey Ball scores are indicative of absolute performance ratings but are not an exact correlation. Exceptional performance receives a full ball, poor performance an empty one, with a range in between. Info-Tech Research Group 7

Adobe Acrobat and Perfect. Forms provide the best bang-foryour-buck, but may not have all the features you need What is a Value Score? The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and business strength relative to their price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking. On a relative basis, Adobe Acrobat maintained the highest Info-Tech Value Score of the vendor group. Vendors were indexed against Acrobat’s performance to provide a complete, relative view of their product offerings. Vendors that score high offer more bang-for-thebuck (e. g. features, usability, stability, etc. ) than the average vendor, while the inverse is true for those that score lower. Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the Value Score more consideration than those who are more focused on specific vendor/product attributes. Sources: 1. To calculate the Value Score for each vendor, the affordability raw score was backed out, the product scoring reweighted, and the affordability score multiplied by the product of the Vendor and Product scores. Info-Tech Research Group 8

Every vendor in the game has the basic table stakes, but who goes above and beyond in the areas that matter to you? The Table Stakes Digital Signatures Form Design Data Integration & Pre-Population Form Fill What Does This Mean? Product supports its own signature system, a pubic certificate standard, or both. Product allows users to create and design their own e. Forms can be pre-populated and integrate with data sources. Product provides a client for e. Forms users to fill out forms. The products assessed in this Vendor Landscape. TM meet, at the very least, the requirements outlined as Table Stakes. Many of the vendors go above and beyond the outlined Table Stakes, some even do so in multiple categories. This section aims to highlight the products capabilities in excess of the criteria listed here. If Table Stakes are all you need from your e. Forms solution, the only true differentiator for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs. Info-Tech Research Group 9

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