How Form Updates Are Handled Today

Today, most companies have two ways of distributing and communicating form updates with their users.

• Paper Forms – Many companies still rely on paper forms to be pre-printed, shipped and handled by their users. When a form is updated, the company must notify their user and send out new forms.
• Online Forms – Many companies also seek to distribute forms online by offering form downloads via the company website and/or via email. When a form is updated, the user must still be notified and the company must rely on the user to seek out the form updates on their website.

The challenge with both of these methods is that the company updating the forms is not only responsible for notifying their advisors, but they must rely on their users to comply with the notification and obtain the new form updates. Relying on users to request form updates results in a slow adoption rate of the form update and little to no feedback to the company as to which users have updated their forms and which have not.
In short, today's companies lack the ability to track if their form updates are being used until it's too late and the old form is submitted for processing.

Paper Form Challenges

Distributing updates to paper forms creates a couple of unique challenges:

1. Communication
2. Distribution
3. Timing

Communication

A company who updates paper forms must notify their users about the updated form. Because users respond differently to different communication methods, a company must attempt multiple methods. These methods include mail, inter-office memos, email, website updates, faxes, phone calls and meetings. Even with a well-executed communication plan, it is impossible to make sure that all users receive the message and then take action to update their paper form stores.

Distribution

In order to update a user's inventory of paper forms, the new forms must be distributed to the user. This requires packaging, postage, handling and shipping, which introduces many opportunities for delays and waste. Users are then required to replace their existing forms storage, introducing another opportunity for further delay and errors.

Timing

Making sure users have the right forms at the right time is difficult to regulate with paper forms. Whether there is a break-down in communication or in distribution, updating paper forms will often result in a large number of users continuing to use the old forms.

Online Form Challenges

Updating forms online offers an opportunity to solve many of the paper-based problems. However, online forms has another set of challenges and some users will continue using paper-based forms, resulting in an increased number of challenges to resolve. Online form distribution has the following challenges:

1. Communication
2. Distribution
3. Timing

Communication

When a company updates an online form, the assumption is that the user will request the new form update. Unfortunately, it is unreasonable to expect all users to check a website for updates every day (or even every week) to see if a new form has been published. In fact, users who find forms online are actually more prone to continue using the last form they downloaded because a user is never actually forced to order a new supply of forms - electronic forms never run out! Companies continue to face the same communication challenges, even if their forms are now more readily accessible on the web.

Distribution

Although online forms solve many of the distribution problems that paper forms face, there are still electronic distribution problems. The main problem is that there is no way to ensure that the new forms replace the user's current electronic copy of the old form – a company must rely on the user to download and organize their form.

Timing

Making sure users have the right forms at the right time is difficult to regulate with self-service downloadable forms. Whether there is a break-down in communication or in distribution, updating online forms still results in a large number of users continuing to use the old forms.