HP and Nokia Bridge Paper and Digital Worlds with New Mobile Forms Initiative

February 2nd, 2005

HP and Nokia, a world leader in mobile communications, today announced an agreement to deliver a jointly developed, integrated solution for the processing of forms using mobile technology. Offering a new way to acquire and communicate data in the field or on the road, the Mobile Forms Initiative allows users to create forms, collect the forms' data via a mobile device, and then transmit it in real time to an enterprise's IT infrastructure, where the data can be saved, shared and printed.

Using the technology, businesses and public sector organizations can accelerate access to critical data as well as reduce business costs related to data management, both of which are key components of HP's Adaptive Enterprise strategy to help customers synchronize business and IT to capitalize on change.

This solution addresses a critical need for enterprise and public sector customers who require paper-to-mobile workflow capabilities to communicate information traditionally captured on paper forms. According to Infotrends/CAP Ventures, more than 150 billion paper forms are used globally by enterprises on an annual basis.

By combining HP's print-on-demand technology and Forms Automation Solution with the mobility of the Nokia Digital Pen and Nokia's breadth of mobile devices, the collaboration provides a comprehensive solution that addresses current inefficiencies and high costs associated with manual forms processing.

"HP's vision is to make paper processes smarter by bridging the gap that exists between today's paper and digital worlds," said Eric Chaniot, vice president and general manager, Digital Pen and Paper Organization, HP. "By combining Nokia's strength in the mobility market and HP's expertise with digital pen and paper technology, we are providing customers with the ability to efficiently transform paper-based workflows to truly digital, mobile and virtual processes."

The joint initiative features a functional and secure IT infrastructure solution ideal for industries needing real-time data transfers, including health care, insurance, public safety and field services. For instance, public safety providers such as emergency services can use the Mobile Forms Initiative to record patient information at an accident scene and instantly transfer it to call centers and hospitals. Or, an insurance adjustor can communicate claims processing information directly from the field.

"The Nokia Digital Pen and HP Forms Automation Solution are a perfect fit," said Jukka Hieta, manager of Mobile Enhancements Sales Development, Nokia. "Digital pen solutions are becoming increasingly mobile, and this collaboration brings great new opportunities to enterprise customers. Companies can obtain an easy way to modify and print digital forms, and immediately send them wirelessly to the company's back-end systems."

The Mobile Forms Initiative features:

HP Digital Layout Designer: Transforms a customer's existing paper forms into "smart" paper forms through digital technology.

HP Digital Paper Printer Driver: Handles the printing of digitized forms on qualified standard HP LaserJet printers, printed on demand.

Nokia Digital Pen: Used with HP printed "smart" paper forms, the Nokia Digital Pen handles like a normal ballpoint pen. The Digital Pen communicates with a Nokia mobile device via Bluetooth™ wireless technology when the user completes a form. The Nokia Digital Pen is compatible with all of Nokia's Bluetooth-enabled devices (except Nokia 8910 and Nokia 8910i).

HP Service Controller: Connects via GPRS with the Nokia Digital Pen and is the customer's webserver for managing users, digital pens, forms and end-to-end security.

HP Digital Paper SDK: Allows the customer to create customized web services for processing the forms data in the digital pen and sending to the client backend in a standardized format.
The companies' Mobile Forms Initiative will be sold by selected system integrators and is expected to be available in North America and Western Europe. A full list of systems integrators is available at http://www.hp.com/go/fasspp .