Using fancy names, would be a BPM (Business Process Management) application, or more commonly known as WorkFlow application.
With it you can visually create an "electronic document" (form) and "draw" all steps of a process. The electronic form will flow through all the steps, and the system will manage: time, people involved, apply rules to deliver the document to the next responsible person in line, connect each step with any application in the company to apply rules or move data as steps are validated, notify, escalate, etc.

With it you can automate almost any kind of traditional administration processes : vacations, payments, purchasing, credit line authorization, expenses reports, processes to deliver new products to the market, warranties claims, complains, or any that is totally unique to a company.

Any sequence of events where people has to interact with authorizations and participate at a defined point in time can be put into the application.

The must important feature, is that you can change the process as many times as needed as the company rules change, needs grow or shrink. Buy moving parameters.

End users will use the workflow to create new tasks, and those will pass from person to person, through all the steps necessary, controlled by the application.

Perhaps the best way to see it is watching a video in my site and reading some of the work already done with some companies.

http://eflow.mx/en/video.htm
http://eflow.mx/en/clients.htm