Digital Pens Can Go Full Circle

Jan. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Palm Harbor, FL and St. Albert, AB -- Digital pens offer a paper form solution ideal for mobile workforce operations, but have been lacking the database integration needed for widespread adoption. The cost for IT personnel running an Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) process on the digitized form information has made the solution less appealing than fully electronic solutions such as web forms. With the release of ChasmTech's SmartForms Enterprise Edition 3.0, paper forms are finally fully integrated into the IT infrastructure.

"Digital pens offer a field data collection solution that fits right into existing workflows using paper forms" said Lance Maidlow, ChasmTech's President. "Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is much more effective on the pen stroke data than on scanned documents, and pen end users can correct the OCR software's mistakes when they dock the digital pen. But having your database field definitions drive the OCR rules and giving those end users the ability to push their data all the way into the database makes all the difference for ease of use and cost effective deployment.”

FullCircle SmartForms Enterprise Edition connects to the database that will eventually hold the form's data, and can extract the data type, format and lookup restrictions. SmartForms handle single table forms, grid form as well as forms that populate multiple database tables. When used with form design software such as Rover INK Form Designer or Mi-Co’s Mi-Forms Designer, form designers drag database fields onto their forms to match up with the size and location of existing input fields. Completing a printed form with a digital pen and docking the pen will start the OCR process, during which handwriting is turned into digital data matching your Enterprise Data Model.

"When data is missing, such as a digit in a part number, our database driven rules will have the software prompt you with the allowed field values" said Kevin Faus, Partner. "That interaction between a parts inventory list and the field user eliminates the need for an ETL process. When looking at integrating field data, customers have been struggling to defend paper forms when it meant having a much larger operational expenditure for IT than going with digital forms. But many would really prefer a drop-in solution using digital pens such as the Anoto DP 201, and have been waiting for technology to catch up with their needs. SmartForms does just that."

"Full Circle means the solution starts and ends with your database" added Maidlow. "SmartForms embed the data format and model, turning digital pen solutions into viable alternatives to smartphone and tablets for field operations."

About ChasmTech
ChasmTech is a technology company with offices in the U.S. and Canada. It is dedicated to helping innovative organizations cross the gap between their vision and technology. Founded in 2009 by industry veterans from the geographic information systems (GIS), computer aided-design (CAD) and database software markets, it focuses on smart technologies to offer practical field solutions. Built on RADE, ChasmTech’s Enterprise Information Integration platform, mobile data interfaces for smartphones, tablets and portable computers are now complemented with digital pens and SmartForms.

Contact
Arne Joris
ChasmTech Canada
Tel. 780-270-3544
Email: AJoris@chasmtech.com

# # #

ChasmTech offers Information Integration for practical field solutions. Mobile data interfaces including smart phones and digital pens are fully integrated into corporate IT.