DURHAM, NC – Mi-Co, the Mobile Information Corporation, today announced that the highly successful mobile forms project implemented for the NC Department of Agriculture (NCDA) Pesticides Division, using Mi-Forms e-Forms software and Tablets, has now been replicated for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) Office of Pesticide Services and will soon spread to 5 other states. NCDA’s Mi-Forms Mobile-Forms solution converted a multi-week turnaround time into days, along with considerable cost savings related to eliminating paper.
Originally, the Pesticides team followed a paper-based process when conducting field inspections. It took an average of three to four weeks for the data to get from the actual inspection to their backend systems. In the old process, inspection reports were physically mailed twice, (first for the Managers’ review, and second for the Process Analyst’s transcription), a long queue of forms (bottleneck) stacked up at transcription, and correspondence via phone or email was required to verify the inspectors’ written information. NCDA’s Pesticides Division worked with Mi-Co to automate this data capture process.
Using electronic forms by Mi-Co’s Mi-Forms on Tablets, inspection data from the field can now sync to NCDA’s database in as fast as a day. Managers now have the ability to review field inspection data in realtime, and transcription no longer applies. Circling back to the inspector for data clarification is now at a bare minimum due to handwriting-to-text conversion that addresses legibility concerns. Data prefill and live validation rules addressed data accuracy and completeness concerns.
By eliminating the use of paper, the Division not only saved time, but significant costs related to paper as well, such as printing, mailing, faxing, and storage. In addition, Mi-Co created a reporting application which made it much easier for reviewers and managers to find and analyze data as they made queries.
“Using Mi-Forms Mobile-Forms software on Tablets, we now operate with a much more streamlined process, and are able to generate better revenue streams as a result of readily available registration and license information.” - Dwight Seal, Regional Manager, NCDA Pesticides Division.
