Why Forms Processing :-

Lead Qualification and Site Survey

Data Entry Staff
1) How many full time individuals perform the data entry task?
2) Is all of the data entry staff located in one location or are they spread out into several locations?

Documents
1) What types of documents do they enter?
2) How many documents are entered each day into their system?
3) How many different types of forms are these documents composed of? If many form types, are there a few forms that compose most of the volume of documents?
4) Of the documents that are entered:
o How many separate fields are in each document on average?
o How many characters will be keyed and verified in each document on average?
o Are the documents typed or handwritten?
o If the documents are handwritten, is it possible to redesign the form? (Sometimes improving a form’s design allows for much better recognition from the computer.)
o Are any of these documents not originals (faxes, photocopies, carbon copies)? If so, what percent of the total would you estimate?
o Are the documents microfilm copies? If so, what percent of the total?
5) What is the business application that they wish to automate with forms processing?

Questions to help perform feasibility analysis
1) How many documents does each data entry operator enter per hour on average?
2) What is their operators current keystroke rate per hour for these documents?
3) What is the ‘loaded’ cost per hour of each data entry operator? (Loaded cost includes salary, benefits, and any assigned overhead costs.)

Other questions
1) Has the customer evaluated or seen any other forms processing systems? If so, which ones?
2) What is the customer’s prior experience with OCR/ICR and what objections must you overcome?
3) Is there a project budget?
4) What is the end user’s ultimate goal in obtaining a forms processing system? Is there a real problem with the current operation that needs to be corrected?
5) Who is the main contact at the customer site? (i.e. position title and authority level).

Other Activities
Obtain at least 10 originals of each form type the customer wishes to automate with a description of which fields they wish to extract from the documents.

Overall Sanity Check

There are two major reasons why a customer is going to implement forms processing technology:
• Do the same amount of work with LESS PEOPLE.
• Do the same amount of work in LESS TIME with the SAME PEOPLE.
1) Does the customer fit and understand these concepts?
2) Are there any roadblocks to reducing headcount in the organization?