Almost every organisation requires that paper forms be completed remotely and returned, a process sometimes called data collection. The paper forms involved are usually called questionnaires, surveys, or simply forms.

The organisations will require the data contained in these forms to be available through their computers. Only then can it be quickly and easily manipulated to provide information.

FACT 1: Manual data entry from forms is relatively slow, error-prone, and while having low set-up costs, is expensive in man-hours.

FACT 2: Computerised data entry is rapid, exceptionally accurate, and is cheaper in man-hours than re-keying the same throughput of forms.

Typical applications for forms include:
· customer, consumer and client surveys
· scientific and medical questionnaires
· order forms and picking lists
· health and safety checklists
· product registration forms
· multi-choice exam sheets
· stocktake records · entry/exit polls
· voting slips
· timesheets

For some organisations, particularly those involved in research, these returning paper forms represent a substantial volume of data. Until recently the only way to deal with this data was to have it entered into the computer system by hand. Unfortunately, manual re-keying of data is error-prone, tedious, and very time and labour intensive.

As an alternative, Absolutely Scantastic Ltd's state-of-the-art scanning software can remove the vast majority of the manual effort involved in re-keying forms.

Our forms scanning software allows for the interpretation of forms completed in various ways:

· hand-written marks
· machine printed text
· hand-written text
· barcodes

It is the integration of these four different recognition technologies, along with extensive validation procedures, which makes our forms scanning software so versatile.

Hand-written marks

By far the most commen elements in research forms are mark fields for hand-completion. Hand-written marks include crosses…

ticks…

and dashes...

All of these styles of mark fields, and several others, are commonly used in questionnaires in a wide variety of research and data acquisition applications.

Accuracy rates for computer-interpreted mark fields are close to 100%. Verification is rarely required, except in cases where the completer has actually missed the mark field, or else has committed a logical error (for example, by filling in two mutually exclusive mark fields, for example, indicating that they are both male and female).

Machine-printed text

Machine-printed text is taken from sources such as laser printers and typewriters. These standard business typefaces can be read with almost 100% accuracy.

Hand-written text

Until recently, great difficulty existed in interpreting human handwriting. However, technology has advanced to such an extent that constrained handwriting - handwriting in which each individual character is written separately (usually within a box), and preferably in capitals - can now be interpreted with surprising accuracy.

Hand-written text therefore includes constrained digits…

Accuracy rates for interpreting constrained handprint number fields are between 97% and 99%. After the verification process, accuracy rises to close to 100%.

Machine-printed barcodes

Bar codes are the security and information stripes found on ID cards, shipping labels, CDs, magazines and groceries. Various bar code languages exist, usually known as symbologies. Each symbology has strengths and weaknesses. Different types of bar codes are characterized by their unique pattern of bars and spaces to represent the various characters.

0123456789

The numbers 0 to 9 in a standard typeface.

The numbers 0 to 9 in Code 39.

The numbers 0 to 9 in Interleaved 2 of 5. Bar codes are very useful in security-conscious environments, since people find it very difficult to read them!

Absolutely Scantastic Ltd's forms scanning system

Here at Absolutely Scantastic Ltd, we make use of Eyes & Hands™, one of the most highly respected data capture systems currently available in the world. The benefits of this world-class software include:

· excellent recognition performance;
· interpretation of almost any form;
· interpretation of both machine printed and hand written data;
· extensive data validation possibilities;
· output in a wide variety of data formats;
· on-going software development aimed at improving accuracy and functionality.

We can help you with your data collection exercise, whether as a one-off exercise or as a long-term data entry project. Depending on the forms being interpreted and the size of the project, our system will allow for processing of five to twenty times as many forms as manual re-keying in the same time.

If your project is not yet in progress, we can also help you with your form's design to maximise the opportunities for speedy and accurate data collection, and minimise the chances of incorrect completion.

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