IBM spruces up its electronic forms software at what may turn out to be the expense of competitors Microsoft and Adobe. IBM unveiled on Oct. 2 a new version of its electronic forms software that allows users to create, fill out, sign and submit forms data via a Web browser without downloading additional software. Lotus Forms 3.0, announced at the IBM Lotus Collaboration Summit, in Washington, employs an AJAX- (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)-based wizard for its interface, which communicates with back-end systems.
This enables customers to prepopulate forms with existing system information, thereby reducing errors associated with manual data entry, said Antony Satyadas, senior strategist for IBM Lotus, based in Armonk, N.Y. Thanks to digital signature technology from Silanis Technology, Forms 3.0 allows users to use an electronic signature pad or swipe cards and fingerprint scanners to digitally sign the form.