Whether you are applying for a gas connection, club membership or insurance policy, you can't avoid filling them in. The actual follow-up process is worse. Long delays leave you wondering if your submission is lying somewhere at the bottom of a pile, or if the government clerk has used it as a platter for his daily pav bhaji.

While agents and brokers act as middlemen, providing relief to working people, the Internet has further simplified the process. Sites like formsonnet, formsindia and agentf all offer downloadable forms.

But just how successful are they?

Online forms have many advantages, according to Pavan Chandra of FormsonNet. For instance, FormsOnNet offers services like last date alerts, saving of incomplete forms, customer assistance and interactive forms. The site currently offers over 3500 forms in 16 categories, the most popular being taxation, travel, business, industry and state government.

AgentF aims at "changing the form of forms". This Tata Infotech enterprise offers thousands of forms in categories like income tax, foreign visa, bank, loans, sales and wealth tax. It offers paper forms, downloadable forms (PDF format) and 'smart forms'. The last option allows you to download a document with pre-filled information. It supports digital signatures and gives you the option of filling in the form even when you are not online and submitting it later.

Are people taking advantage of these online services? Zainub Vasi says an estimated 1600 forms are downloaded from agentf while, according to Chandra, more than 300 forms are downloaded from formsonnet daily.

One thing these sites don't do is find out when your application will be processed. Chandra says that while his site does not offer any such facility directly, it does provide a detailed list of consultants who can undertake such a task. The primary purpose of a form site like AgentF, says Vasi is to "provide and facilitate electronic form processing and the offline form filling option". However, it is still in its nascent stages, and value added services are being considered for the future.

AgentF offers the user instructions on filling the form, tells him which documents are to be submitted and also recommends places for submission. Vasi explains that a user does not need to contact anyone directly: "We believe that once the form is submitted, it is then assigned to its direct sales associates, brokers or internal employees." This system is a boon for broker who can download pre-filled forms for their clients.

Despite the obvious advantages of online forms, there are many who have not explored this option yet. "I would rather get my broker to handle the whole process. It saves me both the time and the hassle to figure out where to go and what to do," says Satish M., a software engineer.

There is no arguing however, that in many cases, online forms have proved to be a time saver. Take the case of Naveen Mishra, an engineering student preparing to go abroad, who downloaded many application forms saving a lot of time and energy. Or Amita Kulkarni, who downloaded Canadian, Australian and US immigration forms in one day. Earlier, this process would have taken her at least a month.

It might take online forms a while to replace the paper variety. But, for those who use them, digital forms are a great time-saver.

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