The majority of organizations, no matter how successful, all have to deal with a rather large amount of not-so-glamorous document processing tasks. These include typing data for hours on end, scrolling endlessly through emails, or even worse, manually filing thousands of paper documents from old, dusty archives. Not only is manual document processing error-prone, time-consuming, and expensive, but also quite redundant.
To get rid of this burdening, outdated process once and for all, businesses have started to look into automating document processing. The automated variant of document processing involves employing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and new-age technologies, such as Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and other AI technologies to improve the existing process.
If you’re curious about how your business can also automate document processing, keep reading! In this blog, you will get valuable insights into what automating document processing entails, how it can be implemented and what benefits it brings. Let’s start!
Document processing is the conversion of physical documents and their related forms into digital formats, by means of data extraction. This process ensures the information is transcribed into machine-readable data, allowing for further processing.
Processing documents is a core activity of everyday business, therefore the aim of organizations is to make this task as efficient as possible. With an automated document processing solution, there are only a few steps required to transform this process from an administrative nightmare to a smooth and effective task.
How does Document Processing Work?
Automated business document processing involves AI technologies like OCR, NLP and Computer Vision to transform unstructured data into structured data. Examples of unstructured data include images, PDFs, scanned documents, emails or other documents, whereas structured data include CSV, XLSX, XML, JSON, UBL and other machine-readable formats. The benefit of structured data is that computers and software solutions are better at processing them.
Some document processing options are based on a specific set of rules. Therefore, it is mandatory to first create a set of rules, as they pave the way for an accurate data extraction process. Document processing software embedded with AI often has the capability to classify a document type. It reads through the document and its content, analyzing the structure type and identifying the occurring patterns in the file layout.
Moreover, when dealing with unstructured data formats such as images, scanned documents or PDF files, a document processing solution is also responsible for cropping them, reducing noise or deskewing the files. This step is essential in improving the quality of the document, and preparing it for the data extraction process.
Information Extraction from Documents
Information extraction from documents happens when OCR technologies are employed. Optical character recognition is responsible for turning images to text, extracting its information and converting it into machine-readable formats such as JSON, CSV, and XML.
The same can be said about ICR, or intelligent character recognition. This technology is used especially in detecting and extracting handwriting, which cannot always be extracted just by making use of an OCR solution.
Error Detection and Correction
OCR technologies are rather sensitive to errors, especially if your document is structurally complex. This means it contains both text and images, and is presented in an unstructured or semi-structured format.
To avoid any kind of post-extraction surprise, businesses have the option to implement human-in-the-loop or use software with human-in-the-loop functionality, a process where an employee reviews the data extraction output and, if needed, makes some necessary changes.
However, considering today’s status of rapid technology development, most OCR software found on the market has an accuracy rate of more than 90%. Therefore, with the right amount of training and employment of AI technologies to support OCR software, the output of the data extraction is rarely inaccurate.
File Conversion and Data Storage
In order to further process the extracted data, you first need to convert it into a machine-readable format. As soon as the information has been extracted, it is converted by default into a JSON format.
However, there is a variety of available formats you can convert documents into, such as TXT, CSV, XML, XLSX, PDF. By doing so, you can make sure the information that has been captured is compatible with any existing application or platform your business might use.
What is Intelligent Document Processing?
Intelligent document processing, or shortly, IDP is a type of document processing automation solution that employs data science to assist computers in understanding unstructured documents, regardless of their complexity.
IDP makes use of OCR and several intelligent technologies, such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and even deep learning. They are used to read and understand the document, locate the information, classify it and extract it. Lastly, they convert it into a business-ready data format and send it to an existing system for downstream processing.
Machine learning is an AI technology used to train algorithms on pre-given data, improving the ability and accuracy of executing tasks. NLP, or natural language processing, is a branch of ML, mainly used to analyze and understand meaning and semantics in a textual context.
On the other hand, computer vision, another branch of artificial intelligence, is usually employed to extract data from images and scanned files. To further improve this process, deep learning, a machine-learning technique, is required. It is responsible for dealing with imperfectly scanned paper documents. DL handles the pre-processing of an image, as well as text detection and recognition, by drawing bounding boxes around the targeted area.
An IDP solution that involves all of these technologies is slowly but surely becoming the standard. Simple data extraction is not a current practice anymore, as businesses are constantly looking to elevate their business document processing systems.
The advanced AI technologies in IDP have the ability to evaluate and validate the extracted information, ensuring the document is not fraudulent. However, there are multiple advantages that come with implementing an intelligent document processing solution.
Benefits of Using Automated Document Processing
Using an automated document processing solution is preferred over the classic, manual task. It gives a number of significant advantages, which make your business much more efficient, without affecting your core business processes:
Cost efficiency: Financial loss associated with post-processing documents or repairing human errors are completely eliminated. An automated document processing solution saves important amounts of money for your business.
Minimize human intervention: In data extraction processes, business document processing offers a significantly more accurate output from the get-go. There is no need to have back office employees go over the files themselves, reducing the amount of human errors as well.
Automate document archiving: A document processor analyzes the document type and recognizes the targeted data fields, based on the predefined rules or AI algorithms. Therefore, it is able to process multiple document types, such as invoices, receipts, identity documents and many more.
Scalability: Your business is able to gather all important business information using an automated document processing solution. Therefore, document processing is possible, regardless of the document type you need to process, or the format it comes in, be it images, PDF files, text, or emails.
Shortened turnaround time: An IDP solution processes documents within seconds, shortening the extraction workflow and freeing up the schedules of your employees from daily repetitive tasks.
All of these benefits can be applied to businesses across multiple industries. As business document processing is a core task for the majority of companies, the use cases for automating it stretch far and wide.
Use Cases for Automated Document Processing
Automated document processing solutions, as mentioned before, can be applied in multiple situations. Some of these include, but are not limited to:
Payroll automation: Document processing solutions employing automation allow for an automated payroll system, as it reads through all existing and incoming pay stubs. It extracts the essential information and automates the manual task of going through all of the employee’s personal and financial information.
Business expenses reimbursement: This daily process can take up a large amount of time and might be one of the most error-prone tasks in an organization. An automated document processing solution helps prevent any type of fraud that might occur and makes the data extraction process smooth, while seamlessly integrating the captured data into your existing systems and applications.
Procurement automation: Invoice and purchase order processing are some of the most important, but also time-consuming activities in a business. Automating business document processing for these document types means fewer errors and faster processing times. In addition, business relationships are improved, as the mutual trust between vendors and organizations is enhanced.
Document fraud detection: Smart document processing solutions automatically detect any signs of document tampering and fraudulent activity. Employing these technologies ensures that your business not only stays compliant with legal requirements, but also keeps external fraud at bay, such as invoice fraud or identity theft.
Identity proofing: Automated document processing solutions don’t only limit themselves to data capture. In identity verification, an IDP solution helps organizations verify the identities of users, employees and business partners, abiding by AML and KYC regulations. It also helps streamline the process for digital onboarding, enhancing user experience and creating a safe and secure environment.
How to Choose the Right Document Processing Solution for Your Business?
Before delving right into the first intelligent document processing solution there is, take a step back and first consider what are some of the characteristics that you should look into before selecting and committing to a document processing solution.
Document coverage: Your business, like many others, doesn’t limit itself to processing only one or two document types. Therefore, you should opt for a document processing solution that is able to read and process a large variety of documents, such as invoices, receipts, or identity documents.
Language support: Needless to say, having the possibility to process documents in multiple languages can only aid your business in gaining a valuable competitive advantage. A global coverage in language support is ideal, especially for organizations conducting business across the borders.
OCR accuracy:Anincreased level of accuracy means an increased level of quality in all of your business ventures. The ideal IDP solution makes use of AI and ML technologies, which enhance the accuracy of your data extraction processes up to 99%.
Securityand compliance: The safety of your organization’s information, as well as your employees’, should be a top priority. By default, when searching for an IDP solution, you should choose the one that ensures the processed data is not sent to third parties or kept in private servers. Abiding by GDPR, HIPAA, ISO-standards or other data privacy regulations is a must in all circumstances.
Integration variety: Most of today’s businesses look for a smooth internal workflow when it comes to their data management. Having the ability to seamlessly integrate an IDP solution within existing applications, be it ERP systems, accounting platforms or even email providers, can differentiate a good IDP solution from a great one.
Speed of data extraction: When deciding to automate document processing, one of the main key outcomes is cutting down on processing times. Therefore, it is advised to choose an IDP solution that is able to offer qualitative output in just a few seconds, giving you your desired output in an instant.
A great intelligent document processing solution doesn’t compromise, which is why your business shouldn’t either. Klippa DocHorizon, for instance, makes sure your business has access to all the necessary technology and features that truly innovate document processing.
How to Get Started with Automated Document Processing
With Klippa DocHorizon, you can create your own workflow, tailoring it to your business needs. Have full control over the automation process, meaning what documents you process, what data is extracted and what modules you would like to employ:
