Today's Prodcast features Gray Knowlton, a Senior Product Manager in the Office division. He is responsible for the InfoPath product as well as Microsoft Word. For those of you who aren't familiar with Infopath, it's our electronic forms offering, but that's merely scratching the surface. Using InfoPath, customers can create dynamic forms for data collection, but it uses XML to store the data in SQL, SharePoint, files, etc. It can even be intergrated into a business workflow, passing the data off to a .NET web service.
Gray covered the basics of InfoPath, how easy it is to create forms (you don't have to be a developer), the benefits of using XML as a data format and how customers can automate processes using forms and workflow. When I asked him about any customer case studies he could talk about, Gray revealed how the State of North Carolina Highway Patrol is using InfoPath for entering data electronically. Instead of filling out paper-based forms, they fill out forms in the field electronically and then synch up the data when they get back in the office, saving them thousands of hours in data processing time. So I guess I should be happy the next time I get a speeding ticket...at least they are using Microsoft technologies. ;-)
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For more information on InfoPath, visit the Microsoft website.