Continue'd from last part
5. Volume
What is the anticipated volume of electronic submissions expected? Simultaneous submissions? If large and simultaneous submissions are expected, then you want to leverage a JMS queue to handle the submission part. The downside to this is that results can not be returned to the user synchronously.
The other approach is to leverage clustering of your web / application server. This will result in better performance as well as a more reliable solution. Unfortunately there is a cost associated with clustering (software licenses and hardware).
6. Paper based submissions?
Are there times in which the signed paper forms are required for legality reasons? This is found in particular in heavily regulated industries (financial institutions and government organizations). If you require to keep a copy of the signed paper forms, then at design time, you want to consider leveraging 2D Barcode. The way the 2D Barcode works is that as you enter data using Reader / Acrobat, the data is being encoded into the Barcode. The data by default is encrypted. To decrypt the 2d barcode, you would need 1) reader extensions rights 2) barcode decoder from Adobe 3) Acrobat to print the barcoded forms.
Let me know if you have other questions in the comments area, I will do my best to include them in my post.
David
