Optical character recognition (OCR) technology "reads" machine-printed text from documents and is used in automated document classification and data capture solutions. The technology takes these documents and extracts key data within business processes, reducing the need for manual document sorting and data entry.
Enterprise OCR solutions are used for processing:
Forms and invoices
Remittances and checks
Mortgage loans
Explanation of benefits
Transcripts
Claims
Employing optical character recognition technology within a data capture solution allows organizations to handle multiple document formats and can be used with both electronic and paper documents. This reduces manual data identification and streamlines content management and entry into other systems.
Organizations can then use these digitized files, such as receipts, contracts, invoices, financial statements and more, to simplify the finding, referencing, updating and repurposing of crucial information and data.
When integrated with an information management system, these tools transform business processes and quickly provide substantial return on investment. They are especially crucial for organizations where staff are devoted to invoice scanning and manual document and data processing. Some benefits include:
Improved process speed through reduced manual effort
Workforce optimization by reallocating staff to higher-value tasks
Reduced labor costs associated with manual data entry and document-related processes
Improved process agility through easily configurable templates
Some data capture systems even have the ability automate the entire front-end data capture process to kick off downstream processes organization-wide. As incoming information and delivery formats increase for most organizations, the time and resource savings provided by these tools is invaluable.
A common application is the automated conversion of an image-based PDF, TIFF or JPG into a text based machine-readable file. Once processed, digital files, such as receipts, contracts, invoices, financial statements and more, can be:
Searched from a large repository to find the correct document
Viewed with search capability within each document
Edited when corrections need to be made
Repurposed with extracted text sent to other systems
With intelligent capture solutions, OCR technology can be built around an organization’s specific documents and processing requirements, and is easily adaptable as business needs change and grow.