ICS Bolsters FormSprint Document Management Tool with New Features

March 20, 2012 Alex Woodie

Integrated Custom Software is now shipping FormSprint Version 201201, a new release of its electronic document management software for the IBM i server. With this release, the company has added several new features that should be useful to customers, such as better duplex controls and support for encrypting generated PDF files.

FormSprint is a document management software solution that’s used by more than 1,000 IBM i shops across a variety of industries. At its most basic level, FormSprint enables companies to go from using expensive and inflexible preprinted forms and line printers to using software-based form overlays, blank paper stock, and any PCL-enabled laser printer. Users can develop their own form overlays for use with FormSprint, and there are separate modules for printing MICR checks, email, fax, and signature capture.

ICS concentrated its development efforts in four areas with its 201201 release. One of the new features–support for generation of QR barcodes–we already covered last month. So we’ll focus on the three remaining new features–duplex control, IMB support, and encryption of PDF files.

Let’s start with the new dynamic duplex controls. Prior to this release, duplexing was either on or off for a given form or print job, ICS says. The entire run had to be either one-sided, or two-sided, which didn’t provide much flexibility and ended up being more costly for some customers.

With this release, duplexing can now be turned on or off based on the content of the spool files. This can provide a big advantage in printing time and utilization of printer resources, especially for users who lease their printers and are charged by the page count.

Support for the U.S. Postal Service’s new Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) is another new feature that will save some customers substantial amounts of money. Last May, the USPS started requiring bulk mailers to use the new barcode–which can hold a lot more data than predecessor formats like POSTNET–in order to qualify for discounts.

Now ICS customers can generate the required IMB barcode on the Zebra label printers. Any ZPL II printer can now print the IMB barcode on items such as envelopes or labels.

Last but not least, ICS gives users the capability to encrypt PDF files generated with the FormSprint software. ICS says a PDF file will be automatically encrypted if there is a password assigned to the file. The new feature will make it easier to protect important documents when they’re created, not after the fact.

The FormSprint 201201 release is available now. Customers with current maintenance agreements get the update free of charge. For more information on the product, see www.formsprint.com.