Barcode Education

If forms for surveys, sales orders, product registration, credit applications, market research, etc. are sent out with the intention of receiving the form back, consider automating the current fax procedures. Although, fax automation has really nothing to do with bar coding, it is a means to automate procedures efficiently to reduce overhead expenses such as data entry.

Most fax automation products are Windows based and require that the existing form be redesigned using a supplied manufacturer's design tool. The design tool places a unique key code on the form in one or more of the four corners on the form. The key code is generally a unique mark on the form to distinguish one form from another. When a fax is received, the key code is interpreted by the fax software to identify which form is being sent. After the fax has been received, the software automatically reads and processes hand printed and/or bubble-filled entries entered by the user sending the fax. This information can be transferred into a central database to be processed immediately by the host for applications such as order entry or batch processed for off-line applications such as statistical or survey report computations. For the most part, any forms in which the majority of marks are bubble-filled entries, fax automated products do very well. Currently, handwritten entries on average are about 65-90% accurate for Optical Character Recognition. If 100% accuracy is required, reconsider redesigning the form to fit an Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) or bubble-filled form.