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to take the entire application off-line, rewrite it and test it to ensure noth- ing breaks. Because this is clunky and not agile, hardcoded form integration causes delays when the government is trying to quickly accommodate emer- gencies, which was partly responsi- ble for the backlog of unemployment claims and small-business loans asso- ciated with COVID-19. It’s like being forced to rebuild a house when all that’s needed is a realignment of the front door.
Collecting and validating
data in real time
There is a better way. In the past decade, it has become possible to deploy forms as a dynamic platform for data management. With readily available modern software, elec- tronic forms can be decoupled from back-end systems so that the form itself can carry processing instruc- tions. With instructions behind each field, data can be validated in real time, business rules can be set to trig- ger workflows, and multiple applica- tions can be fed.
The form essentially becomes the entry point for data collection, dis- semination and management rather than a dead-end artifact. When you give processing logic to the form, it can actually do work.
Additionally, because the form can stand alone and do the work of directing data according to virtually any logic, it lends itself to a shared- services approach suitable for large enterprises or agencies. Forms can be built once and easily replicated with varying instructions for varying users. For example, although any agency may use OF1164 for reimbursement claims, it is unlikely that the collected data feeds the same financial manage- ment system at each agency. With a shared service, a form could be cre- ated once and replicated with differ- ent directions for each agency. Setting
up multiple agencies to collect data from an existing form could take only minutes. Managing forms as a shared service represents enormous econo- mies of scale.
So what is needed to make this a reality? Policy.
The government needs to move beyond the simple goal of migrating paper forms into digital documents. Instead, it should encourage the use of forms as a data collection plat- form for maximizing data manage- ment. There is not a word of poli- cy that directs the use of forms to enhance data management. Instead, current policy is all about the paper and not about the data. By turn- ing forms management into a data management discipline, agencies can build dedicated departments around the deployment of forms and reduce the overall burden on the organizations. When this is done properly, agencies have a much
better chance of turning data into an asset. Similarly, they can pivot in real time when data collection needs change.
An Office of Management and Budget memo issued in April 2019 states that one of the goals of the President’s Man- agement Agenda is to promote the use shared services to enable “high-quality outcomes to the American people.” Fur- thermore, based on individual agencies’ experiences and those of the private sector, the government could “poten- tially realize financial benefits by as much as 5-30 percent.”
With modern forms technology, there is no better candidate for centralized consolidation and cost savings than the official government form. n
Michael Garland is the founder of Garland LLC, a consulting firm that advises clients on issues related to fed- eral procurement law and the busi- ness of IT.
With readily available modern software, electronic forms can be decoupled from back-end systems so that
the form itself can carry processing instructions.
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