If you’re a fan of online forms or have found yourself in the need to create one, chances are you have heard of JetForm. Let’s review its history. Back in the 1980s, four consultants living in Canada created a software company dedicated to electronic forms. They did very well. They had offices halfway around the world and were listed on several stock indexes.
You may not know that, at first, the company was called Indigo Software and did computer consulting work. They had big clients like the Canadian federal government and the colossal IBM.
The company did not rebrand itself as JetForm until Microsoft released Windows 3.11 and Indigo Software incorporated major enhancements to the forms. The product was so successful that the team expanded its consulting activities and began to focus on JetForm software. The great popularity of the product led them to make a wise marketing decision and adopt the name of their flagship product. But they were not alone in the market. They had to compete with other comparable products like PerForm and FormFlow, created by a company called Delrina.
Starting in 1996, a dance of acquisitions and name changes began. The famous Symantec, which had bought Delrina the previous year, sold its electronic forms division to JetForm, which continued to develop the FormFlow series of products under its own name. Also, around that time JetForm named the Ottawa baseball stadium, which was renamed JetForm Park.
In 2001 JetForm changed its name again and became Accelio, forcing a renaming of the stadium, of course. Accelio was taken over by Adobe Systems in 2002, which two years later retired the products bearing the old name and renamed them Adobe Central Output Server.
Adobe continued to commit to this product and in 2007 launched Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite within the Adobe LiveCycle suite. If you haven’t already got lost with all the name changes, just wait. In 2009 the product was rebranded as Adobe Central until 2016.
The ubiquitous Adobe aside, JetForm rose phoenix-like from its ashes in 2007under the leadership of two of its founders, who created a new system for designing, merging, presenting, and delivering business documents. The software was called DocOrigin.
It was first released in 2009 and version 3.0 was rolled out in 2013. JetForm Designallowed routing and tracking documents in workflow systems, creating on-screen forms, and accessing SQL and ODBC databases. And JetForm Filler was used for filling out on-screen forms.
During this second life of JetForm, the team developed the XML Form Format (XFA), which Adobe later incorporated into its PDF software.
Another of the innovations achieved was the possibility of installing forms on Laserjet cartridges, which meant that the program only had to send the form data to the printer because it was already encoded on the cartridge. This had a major impact because, considering the slowness of the printing interfaces at thatmoment, printing times were significantly reduced.
Well, JetForm and Adobe Central Server were sunset many years ago, but…
There are alternatives to JetForm/Adobe Central Server
It is always interesting and stimulating to learn about success stories of this kind, but it is equally important to keep pace with the times and technological advances. That is why leading document software companies have been developing for years advanced document software solutions, like the Ontario Suite, which allows JetForm/Adobe Central users to update their environment quickly and securely with a cutting-edge document management system that integrates new visual document design interfaces and advanced functionalities.
The latest version runs entirely in the cloud and is deployed in containers (Dockers, Kubernetes), which improves flexibility and security. There is also a wide range of satellite products with complementary functionalitiesavailable, namely document management with content filtering, OCR(OCR Services) and integration of electronic signature. This makes it possible to market a 100% modular and scalable solution.
But let’s go into a little more detail and see the features of a solution that should allow migrating toas well as further improving the substitution ofJetForm/Adobe Central Server.
- Fully compatible with JetForm/Adobe Central Server data streams.
- Integration mechanisms that helpmaintainbusiness applications.
- Migration automation to avoid having to redesign electronic templates.
- An increased selection of output formats (HTML5, AFPDS, Matrix) and distribution channels.
- A multiplatform document solution that can be easily integrated with different document management solutions.
- Possibility of including dynamic graphics, 2D and 3D barcodes, and advanced graphic elements.
So, if you want to streamline and simplify the logic of your JetForm documents, just have a look at one of the best document solutions, like theOntario Suite, or at some of the success stories. Stories of JetForm customers like BBVA and Fifth Third Bank:
For more than 10 years, BBVA had been using document generation software that limited the evolution of the bank’s applications. When they studied the market in search of a solution that would involve minimal changes, but offer advanced functionalities, they did not hesitate totest the Ontario Suite solution, which allowed them to automatically convert forms and replace the software without modifying the bank’s applications. In this way, they could enjoy numerous new functionalities such as data-driven graphics, 2D barcodes, new output formats such as AFO, much easier ways to define dynamic documents such as contracts, as well as the possibility of running all this in a 100% cloud-based environment.
Fifth Third Bank, one of the 20 largest banks in the U.S., was having trouble printing documents in its branch network, as it was very large, and its size prevented them from delivering the right version of a document to each branch quickly and efficiently. And this was no small matter, because if a branch printed the wrong document, it could lead to serious legal problems. TheOntario Suitecame to the rescue and solved the problem without affecting the application that the bank had at the time. In fact, the application “still thinks” it is printing in the same location. Thanks to its integration capabilities and document repository, the bank has centralized document production and can pull the latest version from the repository when it needs it.