eOmniForm.com Forms Hosting Service

eOmniForm.com Forms Hosting Service

If you are trying to achieve the paperless office, one product you should consider is eOmniForm.com, an online form-hosting service sponsored by ScanSoft Inc.

Using eOmniForm.com is pretty simple: You take your paper form and convert it into an electronic filable format. You post the form at the eOmniForm.com Web site. You get your customers, clients, employees or anybody else to go to the Web site, bring up the form and fill in the requested information. Next, you go to the Web site, bring up the form and then download the inputted information into a database on your local computer.

The beauty is you don’t need to build your own Web site or know HTML or CGI (Common Gateway Interface) programming.

Because eOmniForm.com can be accessed from any browser, you can enter or collect data from any computer with Internet capability. To use the service, you must first purchase the software product OmniForm 4.0 ($149 suggested retail price) and load it on to your computer.

You use OmniForm 4.0 to convert your paper form into an electronic format and also to manage data retrieved from the eOmniForm.com Web site. When someone posts data to your form at the site, you receive an e-mail saying the data can be retrieved.

You can get a password to protect your forms and data at eOmniForm.com from unwanted access. Data collected at the Web site can be downloaded into any ODBC-compliant (Open Database Connectivity) database.

The eOmniForm.com service is a great concept and would be useful if you have to collect similar data from a variety of sources.

In the law firm setting, I have been scratching my head to find a use. You could use it for time and billing if you use proprietary forms or to collect client information instead of having clients fill out paper questionnaires. If you can find a use for it, eOmniForm.com is an excellent product.

ScanSoft Inc.
(888) 345-6203
www.eomniform.com

Basic Service — $49.95/year (5 forms hosted, 10,000 records each, 10 MB maximum storage; first year free with purchase of OmniForm 4.01 at $149.00 standalone version)

Windows 95/98/2000/NT (with Omni Form 4.01 and Internet Explorer 5.0, which is included on the OmniForm 4.01 CD).

Reviewed by Arlin P. Neser, attorney at Gibson, Haglund & Paulsen in Irvine, Calif.

Feb/Mar '01 Issue

PROS
Ability to publish forms online and collect data without having to set up a dedicated Web site.

CONS
Hard to find a use in the law firm beyond time and billing.

VERDICT
Excellent product. I recommend it for the attorney who needs to gather similar information online from a variety of sources.