"E-Commerce" technology has traditionally relied on HTML forms to initiate client transactions and email to speed communications. HTML forms are everywhere on the web and have many practical applications including: Enrollment, Authentication, Order Entry, Initiate Payment, Update Profile, etc.  As a result, many companies have turned to HTML forms to solve their data collection challenges. While HTML forms are well suited for certain applications, the structure imposes definite liabilities and limitations.

For example, consider the simple HTML form below, used to purchase office supplies:

While this HTML form helps the company selling office supplies, it actually increases the costs of the company ordering these supplies:

Does the employee have authority to spend this amount?
Businesses must monitor their expenditures using internal controls which specify how much an employee can spend.  Normally, an internal control on expenditures is a business process which specifies that purchases must be approved by a supervisor.

How can the employee keep a copy of the order? 
HTML forms cannot be saved with any fidelity and in some cases cannot be saved at all.  Consequently, the employee must print the order from the web browser if he/she wants a copy.

Can this purchase request be routed electronically to a supervisor for approval? 
HTML forms do not allow routing, thus eliminating the internal (cost) controls of supervisory approval.  In addition, HTML forms cannot be routed to an Accounting or Procurement department for tracking expenditures.

Can the HTML form be used as a printed form? 
Yes and no.  While the HTML form can be printed, where would the employee sign it?  More importantly, where does the supervisor sign indicating approval?  When the Procurement department receives the paper HTML form, how does it know whether this is a valid requisition request or merely another printed webpage?  Traditional paper forms include signing blocks and have structured data (data is in the same place to reduce confusion as a form is moved from desk to desk).

Can HTML forms be signed by multiple people? 
No.  HTML forms cannot be signed because they cannot be saved or routed.  In addition, because HTML can be edited, HTML forms are not legally binding.

How does the Accounting or Procurement department keep track of on-going expenditures? 
Because HTML forms cannot be saved or routed, the order must be printed.  Many business processes require the order to be transferred to an internal requisition form as an internal control, requiring the employee to manually transfer the information from HTML to a paper form.

How does a business assign a purchase order number? 
Purchase order numbers are assigned by the company purchasing goods and services, at the time the purchase is made.  This information is then entered into a database.  Standard business practice is to match the invoice against the original purchase order to guard against fraud.   With HTML forms, how does a company know that a purchase was authorized and should be paid?

How does the office supply company know that an employee has authorization to make purchases? 
It doesn't know and doesn't care as long as the purchase is made by credit card.  If the employee uses a personal credit card, he/she is responsible for payment; if using a corporate credit card, the corporation is responsible for payment.  Unfortunately, credit cards allow an employee to circumvent a company's internal controls and purchase without prior approval.

How does the employee get reimbursed? 
For most businesses and agencies, the employee is responsible for completing an expense report form for management approval; however, this form is completed after the fact, that is, after the purchase has been made.  Normal internal controls specify that purchases must be approved beforehand.  In addition, the employee must manually transfer information from the credit card statement to the expense report form.

Can data from the HTML form automatically be saved to a company's AP system? 
No.  Data must be rekeyed, usually after the HTML form has been printed.

How is payment accomplished?
Purchases must be made by credit card.  Purchase Orders or Net 30 billing is problematic.  Companies are not liable for purchases made by employees unless those employees are specifically authorized to make purchases on a corporate credit card.  Consequently, the office supply store and other vendors on the web will not accept POs or Net 30 billing.

Just one example shows how burdensome and expensive it is for companies using HTML forms.  For its part, the Office Supply company may be cutting costs using the Internet; however, it is not solving the business requirements of its customers.  HTML forms cannot be routed, signed by multiple people, saved, imported into a company's database, etc. In short, HTML forms don't work the way business does; they circumvent both internal controls and normal business processes.

Limitations of HTML Forms

HTML is ideal for displaying data; however, neither HTML forms, nor their HTML results can be securely sent, saved, routed, edited, forwarded, decisioned, encrypted, or signed by the user. This limits their value to simple, one-time transactions and prevents their use in a workflow or chain of custody.

While many businesses use email to attempt to fill some of these voids, email provides zero security or zero flexibility. Users cannot encrypt email without certificates, and there is no avenue to automate the import or export of data to or from email into useful tools or applications.

When a user hits 'submit' on an HTML form, the form and data are immediately separated. The data is sent into an http query string and the actual form disappears. This separation prevents the transaction from being legally binding and raises many liability issues for regulated industries. It leaves no way to validate or track the submission from the client, and no way to update tools or applications on the client side.

Though web applications can be built to export simple formats like CSV, these are defined by the originator and can't be configured by the client - as many B2B applications should require. This is best exemplified by the drastic decline of web-based trading exchanges in the last year. HTML forms in ASP or JSP pages are far more expensive to create and maintain and can't be filled out in multiple sessions.

Lastly, HTML has zero print fidelity. The print functions in browsers can only print a single page or web view at a time, and the appearance can vary greatly depending on the browser or the application's design. Large businesses and agencies have gone through lengthy, expensive processes to get their paper forms approved by regulating bodies and it is impossible to accurately replicate these forms using HTML.

Formatta Differentiation

Formatta solutions address all traditional barriers to e-form adoption while providing for the next wave of requirements from corporate and government entities. These new requirements have different themes and assumptions and further reveal the expense and limitations of attempting to automate data collection through other e-form solutions or HTML.

Formatta Flexibility

In creating Formatta Filler, we introduced the world to the only freely distributable, fully functional electronic form filler. Since then, over 2 million copies have been downloaded from the Internet. With Formatta, one form satisfies all distribution needs. The same form can be downloaded from a website, emailed, printed, or faxed. There is no need to keep multiple versions. Formatta Filler has built-in clients for HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP and MIME. With Formatta, users can save data locally, export into tools or applications, attach other files, edit fields, encrypt, decrypt, lock sections, post, email, route and digitally sign forms.

Formatta Security

Formatta allows users to confidently submit private information electronically or on paper with a secure Dual Dimension barcode. If a third party intercepts a form on the client, in transit, or on the server, Formatta's native 128-bit encryption prevents the form or barcode from being opened or altered. Formatta utilizes algorithms for hashing, key exchange, and Triple DES. Formatta Server connects data sources or LDAP's to incorporate common authentication and secure pre-fill capabilities. Formatta Filler accepts X.509 certificates, and can allow multiple digital signatures for a single form. Formatta allows groups of fields to be locked while other groups are unlocked. This use of encryption allows the locked data to be visible but unalterable due to the encryption applied by the user. This is particularly useful when there is a chain of custody or when multiple users exchange the same form. Formatta Filler permits other files to be attached to e-forms, thus creating a secure container for other types of documents via email or the web.

Formatta's architecture keeps the form and data together during submission allowing regulated industries to keep legally binding, non-repudiable copies of the form and data as they were originally presented and submitted.

Formatta Automation

Formatta Server 7.0 automates business processes by connecting existing data sources for pre-fill, security and extraction via a powerful set of Internet protocols and XML. Deploying e-forms with Formatta's Dual Dimension™ barcode technology enables a form originator to process paper forms for the same cost as electronic forms. This replaces expensive and error-prone OCR processes and is especially valuable when inked signatures are still required.