Professionals across diverse industries are replacing antiquated pen-and-paper forms with mobile forms which become very popular thanks to the emergence of smartphones and tablets.
Today, workers often have to collect data outside of the office. Many companies, like construction and utility companies, require a mobility strategy that provide field workers tablets, smartphones and the equipment necessary to gather information. Mobile forms solutions help them to gather and submit data in real-time so they can instantly share it with the main office or with colleagues in other departments or locations.
What are mobile forms?
Mobile forms have now emerged as a productive and efficient in-the-field option because they help streamline the data collection processes and make easy for companies to fill and submit forms such as reports, audits, or inspections on mobile devices.
Benefits of using mobile forms
- Workflow automation and integration
Mobile forms software solutions integrate with other business tools and systems to enhance and make workflows more efficient. They can also streamline business workflows and simplify the data collection strategy. When using digital solution, submitting a form can trigger an automation sequence that make the whole workflow more efficient. The destinations for your form data can be set up when creating your forms. Additionally, this automation steps can help your businesses go paperless.
Manually entering into a computer information collected using traditional paper forms could be a slow and error-prone process. Using mobile forms, this information gets stored in the cloud or in your server and it is immediately available to clients and stakeholders.
Here are five relevant reasons to replace paper forms with mobile forms:
- Rich data
With mobile forms workers are able to collect and send photos, signatures, GPS and time stamp, record audio, scan barcodes and more. All these elements can be entered seamlessly into a mobile form and sent directly to a back office or to a specific place in the format of your choice.
- Fewer errors
Paper forms are filled in manually rising the likelihood of human error. Paper forms take a long time to complete, may include illegible handwriting, wrong calculations and different types of mistakes. Additionally, companies waste a lot of time in manual data entry. Using mobile forms, companies can automatically update spreadsheets with pre-submitted data, and data from the field can be submitted at the click of a button using a mobile device and organization can reduce substantially the amount of errors.
- Accessible data
Unlike paper forms, mobile forms can be sent to the manager or co-workers and entered into a back office system instantly. With mobile forms, you are granted fast access to your data that can be stored digitally keeping the information organized and accessible to the users that will require it. You don’t longer need to fill your paper cabinets or your office with thousands of documents and all the files will be easily accessible.
- Efficiency
Mobile forms allow managers to get reports and analyse data from the field to reveal patterns, correlations and other important issues for the organization. Being able to access and to use your data easily is a huge advantage. When you use a software to manage your forms, the completed ones go automatically to wherever they need to go, such as to other employees or to the headquarters.
- Money saving
Paper forms have hidden costs. Printing, transporting, and storage costs all add up, not to mention time gather, uploading and analysing information. With mobile forms, field workers are able to upload data straight away. Colleagues in other locations will get access to the information immediately therefore results and analysis can get ready faster. This will allow a fast reaction in case that unforeseen circumstances rise.
Modern business might allow their workers to complete their routine tasks without any inconvenience whether they are in the office or in the field and mobile apps make their work easier and can simplify complex process management and analysis.
At present, you can find in the market mobile apps, designed for smartphones and tablets, that allow the creation and submission of forms with multiple types of data. Software such as DataScope facilitates the generation of mobile forms with the Form Builder which is and easy, intuitive, and powerful tool. You can look through our guide to the mobile form creator tool here. Check our free version; it is very simple like Google forms and it allows you to collect signatures, pictures and work offline directly from any device Android or iOS.
DataScope is a platform which allows various industries to streamline, organize and evaluate the work of their field staffs thanks to online forms which provide real time indicators 100% adaptable to any field.
