With tighter budgets, everyone is looking for ways to optimize costs. But sometimes a free tool isn’t the answer—especially when it comes to electronic forms. While the lack of a price tag might make Google Forms look like a good option for your business, ask yourself: are you getting everything you need from a forms solution?
Before you make your decision, check out these three reasons why a Google Forms alternative, like Webdocs Forms Management, the web-based forms capture software from Fortra, might be a smarter option for your business.
1. Greater Functionality for More Use Cases
Google Forms are a quick and easy tool for creating basic forms and surveys to collect information. But the functionality is limited for not only the types of forms you can create, but also the way you use and share the data. For very simple, straightforward data collecting, this might be good enough. But with a proper forms management solution, you can automate and simplify forms-heavy processes for every department from human resources to accounts payable.
Webdocs Forms Management has an advanced yet simple web-based designer, with greater functionalities than Google Forms. Simply drag and drop elements on forms without any coding or programming to create electronic forms for purchase orders, work orders, HR onboarding documents and more. And while Google Forms allows for limited collaboration, Webdocs Forms Management gives you more with business rule driven workflows for approval routing.
For example, in HR, forms can be used to easily capture and save information for timecards, benefit elections, and even reviews. And then automatically routes them to key stakeholders for review, as well as input into key business systems without the need for manual data entry—like Active Directory, ADP, and more.
2. Integrate with Applications Beyond the Google Suite
There are many applications and systems that make a business run beyond the Google Suite—from IBM i, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP), and line-of-business (LOB) just to name a few. Manually processing data from a Google Sheet or Google Doc can be time-intensive, repetitive, and prone to errors. With Webdocs Forms Management, your data and documents don’t have to be tethered to Google Suite or any one application. With an API for third party systems, you can export and sync directly with your existing business systems and databases across your enterprise to pre-populate forms, validate data, and to simply upload the data collected in your form.
Many companies are also required to fill out regulatory forms from government agencies, insurance companies, financial firms, and more. Webdocs Forms Management can integrate with these critical forms by mapping your data to a pixel-perfect fillable outside form.
3. Greater Control for Distributing Forms
We’ve focused a lot on the back-end experience of using Webdocs Forms Management vs. Google Forms, but how a form is presented and distributed is just as important. Webdocs provides many different deployment options. Whether you want to post a link to your form or send it via email, or embed a form directly to a web page, it’s easy to distribute a professional looking form. Users can also leverage a portal—Forms Spaces—where they can see all the forms available to them.
Forms have the flexibility to be filled out anonymously or require user authentication before completion. And to provide end-users with a greater experience, Webdocs Forms Management uses conditional logic design options to only present the necessary fields - so if a user answers a question a certain way, fields that aren’t required can be automatically skipped.
Looking for a Google Forms Alternative?
If you’re ready to take your electronic forms to the next level, contact us for a personalized demo of how our electronic forms management solution can transform your company.
