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1. |
What is
e-Form? |
2. |
Why
should I use e-Form? |
3. |
Are
there any competitive products apart from
e-Form
? |
4. |
What are
the "killer features" of e-Form
as compared to competitor? |
5. |
What are
the potential business applications? |
6. |
What are
the Financial parameters and business model
need to consider? |
7. |
How much
does it cost? |
8. |
Any
customer legacy system which is most suitable
to use e-Form? |
9. |
Any
customer legacy system which may hinder the
deployment of e-Form? |
10. |
What is
the system requirement for e-Form? |
11. |
Why
e-Form Generator requires a
PDF file to create a new form? |
12. |
What
can I do if the imported PDF file cannot be
displayed properly? |
13. |
Why
e-Form
uses XML file format? |
14. |
How
secure is e-Form? |
15. |
How can
I know that the signatures of the form are
valid or not? |
16. |
How do
I know that I have filled in all the necessary
fields in a form? |
17. |
How can
I control the signing sequence of a document
to suit my business? |
18. |
How can
I modify a form after it has been signed? |
19. |
When
end user submits the form, any restriction
on the attachment? |
20. |
How can
I submit a filled form? |
21. |
Why I
get the error "License Error for Form Generator"
after I submit a form to the server? |
22. |
Can I
retrieve the data from the forms submitted
and forward it to my existing computer system? |
23. |
What
is Certificate Center? |
24. |
What
is the use of PBE and other algorithms in
enveloping e-Form? |
25. |
Why Chinese
characters cannot be displayed in text field
and text area? |
26. |
What
are the basic knowledge/skill sets for customer
to implement this system? |
27. |
What
is e-Form Processor? And what functionality
does e-Form Processor has? |
28. |
What
is e-Form Validator? |
29. |
Where
will the submitted form be stored? |
30. |
How to
manage the e-Form Processor? |
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1. |
What
is e-Form? |
|
e-Form is an end-to-end
solution that provides a convenient and secure
way for form issuers and users to handle application
forms electronically. Forms are downloaded
and filled in using the e-Form Filler. Completed
forms are submitted back to the issuers as
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) document
for effective processing.
The form layout is defined by an underlying
PDF (Portable Document Format) document. On
top of this layout, input elements, such as
text-fields and pull-down lists, are added
onto the e-Form for users to enter information.
In addition, it allows users to digitally
sign and encrypt the completed forms using
their digital certificates. The basic concern
of authenticity, integrity, confidentiality
and non-repudiation of electronic data exchange
are addressed by employing PKI (Public Key
Infrastructure) technology. e-Form consists
of three major components:
e-Form Generator
e-Form Filler
e-Form Processor
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2. |
Why should
I use e-Form? |
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Re-engineer process
and increase productivity
Make use of technology and leverage the Internet
channel to re-engineer outdated/inefficient
processes, to reduce cost, improve customer
satisfaction and increase overall efficiency.
Convenient:
Nowadays, the Internet has become an integral
part of our daily lives. e-Form offers your
clients the ability to provide information
through the Internet to increase customer
satisfaction. Ensuring accessibility for people
anytime, anywhere. Unlike paper-based data
collection, e-Form processing is fast, simple
and easy to use. Beside the normal form filling
application, e-Form also enables you to define
the attachment of your choice in compulsory
or optional mode. It avoids clumsy paper-based
procedures such as collecting the paper-based
printed form in person, manual routing and
processing of information, data entry efforts
required for re-keying information into your
computer systems, and receiving inaccurate
and incomplete data etc. e-Form simplifies
and increases your business flow, adding value
to your organization.
Highly Secure:
e-Form offers a secure means to address the
basic concern of authenticity, integrity,
confidentiality and non-repudiation by employing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) technology.
When creating an e-Form, you can establish
the signing sections to define the signing
sequence. To further enforce security, one
e-Form can contain several signing sections.
Each signing section will require one signature
when the e-Form is filled. As well, in order
to support multiple signatures from different
parties covering the same set of data or other
signatures, signing sections can be defined
within another signing section. Verification
of all the signatures in an e-Form can be
triggered and completed by a single button
click; meanwhile, you can choose to further
investigate signers' details from their public
certificates.
Save time and money:
To improve the quality and value of the information
collected, e-Form reduces data processing
time and ensures data consistency since no
re-keying is necessary. A reduction in the
high costs of paper-based information gathering
procedures, including manual processing, pile
ups of forms, filing processes as well as
printing and storing paper-based forms, is
achievable. This means that valuable resources
can be reallocated to other areas of need
to better meet your organizational goals.
NET Result: improvement in business bottom
line and customer satisfaction.
User Friendly:
With its intuitive Graphical User Interface
(GUI), e-Form is simple to use and user friendly.
The application itself is Windows-based and
software functions can easily be called up
from its menus, toolbar or shortcut function
keys. Help facilities are also provided to
guide you through the e-Form application.
Moreover, the form you see on screen is identical
to the paper-form. The comprehensive collection
of input elements is easy to use and the increased
visualization effect actually makes it easier
when generating or filling inthe form. Depending
on the host platform, e-Form supports display,
input and printing in Chinese, English or
other languages. These additional features
helping contribute to its user-friendliness.
Reduce paper usage:
Organizations and individuals can take the
lead in making a difference to environmental
protection by reducing paper wastage. By using
electronic form e-Form to collect and validate
information, you can actually visualize the
form on screen and since it looks exactly
like the paper form, it may not be necessary
to print out every page for the purpose of
record keeping. e-Form can be managed and
kept on your hard disk or server for storage.
In this way, less paper wastage results and
your organization actively contributes to
saving our trees.
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3. |
Are there
any competitive products apart from e-Form
? |
|
Yes, BUT hardly the
same class and features.
- |
e-Form does not
require any PDF engine on both side
of form generation and processing dataflow
chain. e-Form uses W3C standard for
data processing. |
- |
Only available
from e-Form, different sections can
have different attachment files signed
by different people with their private
keys. |
- |
Competitors mostly
have online forms using HTML format
and cannot do offline and save form
filling like e-Form |
- |
Unlimited e-Form
usage per license and high availability/performance. |
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4. |
What
are the "killer features" of e-Form as compared
to competitor? |
|
1. |
Pure Java implementation
= Platform independence
|
2. |
XML implementation
= Flexible data structure and back end
processing |
3. |
Leverage on popular
Acrobat PDF file format |
4. |
PDF viewer embedded
in e-Form for form filling and form
generation. |
5. |
Section-based/logical
e-Form digital signature, and signing
sequence = emulation of real life work
flow and data flow |
6. |
Validation of
data input and digital signature verification |
7. |
Forms that have
failed the business rule validation
and verification are filtered by processing
module - avoiding interruption to enterprise
host and un-productivity host usage. |
8. |
Turnkey solution
- portable to most legacy system and
minimum host application impact. |
9. |
User friendly
and offline form filling capability/convenience |
10. |
Enabling form
submission through web or email. |
11. |
Seamless backend
integration with Domino Workflow as
well as other Web Services by employing
the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
standard. |
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5. |
What
are the potential business applications? |
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- |
Government G2B
(e.g. file company returns), G2G, G2C |
- |
Banking B2B, B2C
(registration, application, redemption,
... etc) |
- |
Education (examination,
registration, application, book purchases
administration, library) |
- |
Legal/Accounting
- legal and professional documents transfer
between banks, firm and clients. |
- |
Secure Form printing
business |
- |
Documents transfer
between financial institution and brokers/enterprises
(trade reporting). |
- |
Electronic cataloging |
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6. |
What
are the Financial parameters and business
model need to consider? |
|
Business driver and
key performance factors for financial model
include:
- |
Time for current
manual/semi-manual process and new e-Form
process |
- |
All transaction
cost of current process vs. new electronic
process |
- |
All cost of supporting
current vs. new operation |
- |
Conversion cost
of each manual form into e-Form. |
- |
Customer satisfaction
and retention benefits |
- |
Potential to attract
new customer base and the resulting
revenue/business |
- |
Ability to expand
new e-Form application to other services
which may create revenue stream or reduce
further cost |
- |
Ability to align
with business partner to offer aggregation
of services with mutual benefits (e.g.
between banks, lawyers and end user) |
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7. |
How much
does it cost? |
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For e-Form Filler, it's
free. For e-Form Generator and e-Form Processor,
please contact our sales agent, for the best
price that we can offer in a flexible way
to meet your business needs. |
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8. |
Any customer
legacy system which is most suitable to use
e-Form? |
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No particular requirement
- there is no limitation since form data is
submitted as XML file and can be translated
directly to talk to most legacy systems/platforms. |
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9. |
Any customer
legacy system which may hinder the deployment
of e-Form? |
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Not applicable. Works
well with legacy system which interface using
Lotus Domino Workflow and Web Services using
SOAP. |
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10. |
What
is the system requirement for e-Form? |
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The minimum hardware
requirements for the e-Form Generator/Filler
are:
1) Intel Celeron Processor
2) 256 MB Main Memory
For better performance, the recommended
configurations for e-Form Generator/Filler
are
1) Intel Pentium 4 Processor or higher
2) 512 MB Main Memory or more
The e-Form Generator/Filler have been tested
on the following operating systems
1) Microsoft Windows running
2003/XP/Vista/7
2) Fedora Linux Core 7 or above
3) Apple Mac OS X 10.5 or above
Additionally, e-Form Generator/Filler
requires the following software
component:
1) Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 and above
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11. |
Why e-Form
Generator requires a PDF file to create a
new form? |
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PDF is the most popular
file format used for universal file exchange,
capturing all the elements of a printed document
as an electronic image that you can view,
navigate, print, or forward to someone else.
PDF faithfully captures and preserves the
original document's font, color and layout.
Normally, a form layout file should be imported
into the e-Form Generator before any editing
is undertaken. |
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12. |
What
can I do if the imported PDF file cannot be
displayed properly? |
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Use Acrobat Distiller
5.0 to re-distillate a PDF file if it cannot
be displayed properly. Before processing the
distillation, please click "Settings" from
the menu bar and select "Job Options...".
Then go to the "Fonts" tab and check the "Embed
All Fonts" check box. Afterward, click the
"OK" button to accept the setting. Select
the source and destination file that you want
to distil from the "File" menu and the distillation
will start.
Also, you can use Adobe Acrobat, select "Print"
and choose "Acrobat Distiller" as the printer.
Then click the "Properties" button and go
to the "Adobe PDF Settings" tab. Click the
"Edit Conversion Settings" button, go to the
"Fonts" tab and check the "Embed All Fonts"
check box. Finally, click the "OK" button
to accept the setting and print the document
to a new PDF file. |
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13. |
Why e-Form
uses XML file format? |
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XML is the universal
format for structured documents and data.
XML is license-free, platform-independent
and well-supported. Documents in such formats
are human-legible, easily created and processed.
Also, it supports the use of the Unicode (as
defined in ISO/IEC 10646) standard for internationalized
character sets. With the platform independent
nature of XML and PDF documents, the generated
e-Forms will be portable to all platforms.
XML file data is easily separated from the
PDF template and extracted for processing. |
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14. |
How secure
is e-Form? |
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The security backbone
of e-Form, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
system, makes it possible for you or your
client to use the evolving PKI as a tool for
securing communications and transactions.
The PKI module embedded within e-Form provides
cryptographic functionality of commonly used
algorithms, such as signature generation and
verification, data encryption and decryption.
Also, it contains a collection of digital
certificate manipulation functions that support
the PKI established by all Certification Authorities
(CA). The module is compatible with industry
standards X.509 version 2 and version 3, and
RSA's PKCS#1, PKCS#5 and PKCS#12.
In summary, your business is protected by
identification, authentication, authorization
and non-repudiation for each e-Form transaction
over the internet and it is usually legally
enforceable by local e-commerce law. |
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15. |
How can
I know that the signatures of the form are
valid or not? |
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Use the verify function
and it can show you all the information of
the signatures of the form. |
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16. |
How do
I know that I have filled in all the necessary
fields in a form? |
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In the e-Form filler
mode, use the validate function and it will
show you if there are any missing fields. |
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17. |
How can
I control the signing sequence of a document
to suit my business? |
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e-Form supports multiple
sections signing, signing sequencing and file
attachment so as to emulate normal business
workflow process.
In order to support multiple signatures covering
the same set of data, signing sections (together
with other logical sections) can be defined
within another signing section. When filling
the e-Form, signature generation on outer
signing sections will not be permitted unless
all the inner sections are signed. Thus, the
signing sequence definition can be controlled
through this nested approach. |
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18. |
How can
I modify a form after it has been signed? |
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Use the undo signed
e-Form to remove the signature. This function
gives you with the ability to undo the signing
operation made to an e-Form template. You
need to acquire permission to carry out this
function by presenting the private key (i.e.
the PKCS#12 file and password) that was applied
in signature generation. |
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19. |
When
end user submits the form, any restriction
on the attachment? |
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NO. The attachment can
be a a jpeg image, word document, zip file,
... etc. |
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20. |
How can
I submit a filled form? |
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A filled form can be
submitted through e-mail or through a web
browser. |
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21. |
Why I
get the error "License Error for Form Generator"
after I submit a form to the server? |
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If the form processor
receives a form that is not created by a form
generator of the same organization, it will
display such error. Please make sure that
when registering the form generator and form
processor, their organization name must be
the same. |
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22. |
Can I
retrieve the data from the forms submitted
and forward it to my existing computer system? |
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Yes. The e-Form processor
can be configured to forward the received
forms to Lotus Domino Server or through a
SOAP interface to any other applications. |
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23. |
What
is Certificate Center? |
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e-Form certificate center
is a password protected area that allows you
to administer and manage your certificate
key store. Certificate key store is a system
area where personal certificates, trusted
CA certificates, and certificate revocation
lists are stored. By using the e-Form certificate
center, you can import or export a trusted
root / CA certificate into or from the certificate
key store. As well, you can manage CRLs stored
in certificate key store. Detailed information
of the selected certificate or CRL can be
viewed using the certificate center viewing
function. |
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24. |
What
is the use of PBE and other algorithms in
enveloping e-Form? |
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The purposes of the
PBE algorithms (PBEwithMD5andDESCBC and PBEwithMD2andDESCBC)
are for temporary saving and encryption of
the form. The e-Form Processor does not expect
to accept forms using such methods for encryption.
In order to submit an encrypted form to the
e-Form Processor, the form must be encrypted
using DES/CBC/PKCS5-Padding or DES3/CBC/PKCS5-Padding
algorithm that requires the public key of
the recipient (the organization that the form
is going to be submitted to) for encryption. |
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25. |
Why Chinese
characters cannot be displayed in text field
and text area? |
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Only the font type "dialog",
"dialoginput", "serif", "sanserif" and "monospaced"
can be used in order to display Chinese characters
properly. Because these font types are mapped
properly to Chinese font glyphs by the underlying
operating system, other common types, such
as "Time News Roman" and "Arial", are not.
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26. |
What
are the basic knowledge/skill sets for customer
to implement this system? |
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For system integrator/customer,
the technical requirements include J2EE programming
(servlet and JSP), XML, and web services.
Understanding and control of customer's host
environment would be a plus. |
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27. |
What
is e-Form Processor? And what the functionality
do e-Form Processor has? |
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The e-Form Processor
is a gateway for handling e-Form submission.
The Processor is configurable to facilitate
document routing to various backend systems
such as i-Secure Data Archive, Domino Workflow
server, and SOAP messaging server. Upon receiving
an e-Form, the processor will decrypt the
submitted data (if it is encrypted), validate
the form's data and verify the signatures
and corresponding certificates in the form.
e-Form processor supports multi-channel submission,
which includes secure e-Mail using S/MIME
and secure web services using SSL. For all
the received e-Form, the processor will forward
the validated e-Form to the corresponding
backend system for further processing. After
that, a digitally signed acknowledgement will
be sent back to the submitting party. |
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28. |
What
is e-Form Validator? |
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The e-Form Validator
is a program to check data integrity of the
submitted forms, such as cross-field validation,
mandatory field validation, ¡K etc. e-Form
Processor provides a set of API for system
integrators to develop validator programs
for implementing any customer-specific business
rule validations. |
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29. |
Where
will the submitted form be stored? |
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If an e-Form passes
all the checking, it will be forwarded to
the defined backup system. Note that the processor
will not store the submitted form, it only
routes the form to the backend system. A set
of e-Form API is available for
developers to integrate their own back-end
systems. With the power of JAVA, you can extend
the backend systems to work with different
applications, such as IBM DB2 and Oracle database. |
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30. |
How to
manage the e-Form Processor? |
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In order to manage the
e-Form Processor, you should have a good understanding
on JAVA programming and web application concept.
The log files found in [formProcessor Home]\logs
and that of your application server are very
helpful to assist you in determining any configuration
problems. |
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