PDFs that can be filled in and returned

Question

Firstly I apologise if I have not searched enough to find the answer to this question but I have tried and I need to purchase the correct Adobe Product for what I require.
I work in the Health Industry and my job entails sending Forms currently in WORD to many different Universities.  The Universities have to fill in those forms and email them back to us.  It is not uncommon for us to send 30-40 forms to be completed per day! 
The information on the forms are then emailed back to use and ultimately copied into about 20 OTHER different forms which travel throughout the Hospitals to various different departments. 
As you can see, data integrity is of the utmost, but it is NOT when using WORD.
What I want to be able to do is Design a PDF form where the recipient can open it, fill it in, and then return the form to us.  We then can extract that information and utilise it in other PDF forms which travel to elsewhere again. 
Am I right in assuming that this can be done, but the data cannot be accessed unless you utilise a website to do this?  Unfortunately the hospital is not happy about this due to privacy issues.
Can the forms I create be filled in and returned to US and the data then used without having to access a website?
If it can, which product should I purchase.  My boss is happy to pay whatever it costs.
Also, if this helps .... the data obtained on the forms will also be entered into a database down the track (access 2007) to make the entire process automated.  So is there anyone who uses the Adobe product with Access for data captures?
If you do, what is your process? If you don't mind sharing.
Thank you in advance
Kind regards
Tanya

Answer 1

You mention several different aspects about forms. With Acrobat 9 you can create forms within Acrobat itself (the form tools are under the tools menu) or with the LiveCycle Designer that is linked from Acrobat under the FORMS menu. There are pros and cons to both and you should probably test both. For your application, you do not need the form itself as I read it, but only the data. Submitting the data in XML, FDF, or other data formats does not require Reader Rights that is only needed to save the form AND data locally (in order to submit the full form or just have the data saved - nice, but not required when the price is considered beyond the 500 limit). You can search for the Reader Rights restrictions in the Acrobat EULA that is available at Adobe.COM (need to do a search). Section 15 indicates the issues. If the form is not submitted electronically, there is no limit as I read the EULA. Thus printing and sending in by mail should be fine. If it is submitted electronically, then the saving feature is an issue and subject to the limit. These are my opinions from reading the EULA and you really need to read it yourself, carefully.
The data can be ported to several different database formats as I understand it.
Data integrity and privacy can be an issue. The best way to handle this is by mail as you suggested (printing the form and submitting). However, it should be reasonable to submit to a web script that handles the processing of the data. I am just not sure how private that is and would have to defer to other IT folks. An e-mail submission would definitely not meet the need. However, your need and volume suggests that a web script is the way to go for your application. You may be able to find some comments here on the security of the web submission (I faintly remember some comments related to that), but definitely e-mail submission should be forgotten for the same reason it is a problem with WORD.
In the meantime, you might consider downloading the trial of Acrobat 9 Pro (a comparison of the versions, Std, Pro, and Pro Extended, is under the Adobe Store. You have to enter the purchase part of the site, but don't have to purchase to see the comparison). I suggest you try forms in both Designer and directly in Acrobat to determine your own viewpoint of the pros and cons. Once you go to Designer, the form can no longer be edited in Acrobat. Also check the different data submission types that are available. Even an HTML data format is available if that is more convenient for you to parse and use in other applications. The data base options that were suggest might meet your needs well.
You have your work cut out for you. I think you will find that PDFs will meet your need, at least a lot better than WORD. Good luck.