InfoPath makes developing XML forms much easier than ever before. But how do you quickly make those forms available to people external to your organisation who may not be running InfoPath on their desktop yet? Enter InfoView.

A partner of ours in Sydney, Unique World Software, has recently released an exciting new tool called “InfoView”. InfoView uses the files created by Microsoft InfoPath to convert the InfoPath form to an ASP.NET web form able to be delivered through the browser. The XML data generated by InfoView is identical to the XML created by InfoPath, so  BizTalk can easily be used for routing and workflow.

The CEO of Unique World and I were talking last night about potential applications of InfoView for our customers. I particularly can see lots of opportunities for enterprises who have customers they want to complete browser-based forms (let's say a telco who wants an online customer self-service system) and then route the data in those forms to back-end transactional data systems such as their ERP and CRM using BizTalk 2004.