A: Unstructured data from External Systems is analyzed and converted similarly to structured data. If these documents/unstructured data are determined to be within the scope and are acceptable document types (such as RFA PDF/Word documents associated with an in-scope functionality in CARES), they can be processed and converted using the pre-defined external system conversion process. This is contingent upon counties providing the necessary mandatory metadata (e.g., IDs to link the document to the associated entity in CARES) for the conversion. Additional steps, such as moving documents to a predefined location, may be required, but the process is analogous to structured data conversion.

Forms/documents like Word, PDF, and Excel files are generally considered unstructured data. The term "applications" likely refers to forms or documents in progress but could also include partially structured data.