Imagine the ability to extract and organise data from both paper and electronic sources including emails, images and forms, all without the need for human input. That is what an intelligent data capture solution can do. Buoyed by advanced technologies such as AI, machine learning and optical character recognition , it helps businesses process data in just minutes. Given today’s data-driven world, this ability to derive key insights quickly is pivotal for success.
Furthermore, a data capture solution will automatically index the information for effortless document archiving and retrieval. Users can now easily find documents by searching based on content, keywords and metadata.
Is your business thinking about procuring an intelligent data capture solution? Here’s a step-by-step guide on choosing one most suitable for your business.
Step 1: Identify Your Data Capture Needs
From legal firms to financial institutions, many businesses handle vast amounts of paperwork. The volume of data your business manages, such as the number of document pages, will determine the type of data capture solution you need. Other factors such as the processing speed, and whether multiple documents can be processed simultaneously, are essential considerations too.
Documents can be classified into structured, semi-structured and unstructured. Structured documents are surveys, questionnaires and claim forms, where the templates are standardised. The field forms are in fixed locations, allowing the intelligent data capture solutions to easily interpret the data.
Semi-structured and unstructured documents, on the other hand, are more qualitative in nature. Examples of semi-structured documents include invoices, purchase orders, utility bills or reports. As they are issued by different companies, the documents may contain similar field forms for names, addresses and line items, but follow different formats. Unstructured documents are free-form in nature, and span from contracts to letters, articles to memos. With data capture solutions that have optical character recognition or Natural Language Processing capabilities, users can extract information in these text-heavy documents by identifying a predefined keyword or regular expression.
Canon’s solutions, for example, are ideal for invoice recognition. It can process invoices with different layouts. The solution allows you to create an input category — used for uploading documents to the workflow — and output category, which sets file information such as invoice type, number, issue date, amount due and more. You can also create and automate a workflow, which includes sending the captured data for the next step of processing or to a higher-up for verification.
Step 2: Set Clear Objectives
Before embarking on a data capture project, it is important to define the purpose and goals of adopting a data capture solution. What are your objectives? Businesses that embrace data capture solutions do so because they want to save man hours, eliminate repetitive tasks, and allow their teams to focus on higher-value tasks such as collaboration and innovation.
Inaccurate data, often caused by human errors, is another woe that many businesses deal with. This can derive from misinterpreting handwritten scribblings or entering the wrong numbers during data entry. It causes the wrong decisions to be made, in turn resulting in costly mistakes and a damaged reputation. As such, businesses are looking for data output with a high accuracy and consistency.
Step 3: Choosing Your Technology
The current market’s data capturing technologies are capable of three main types of recognition: optical character recognition (OCR), optical mark recognition (OMR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR). OCR has the capability of analysing shapes of characters in scanned documents, then matching them to a pre-defined set of character templates. It can process complex documents, even those with handwritten notes, with a high degree of accuracy. With an ability to detect checkboxes and bubble fields, OMR can be used to analyse documents such as surveys, questionnaires, and multiple-choice forms. As such, it is commonly used by educators and administrators.
Promising more convenience than traditional OCR, Canon’s AI-powered solutions reduce the need for manual setup. There is no need for templates and rule-setting as the solutions can adapt to new document layouts without any need for preprocessing. Also, they can handle more complex handwriting recognition, such as scribblings or forms that vary in different styles. It is ideal for users who need to process documents with different handwriting styles, such as cheques or medical forms.
Evidently, each technology serves a specific need depending on the type of data you need to process. As such, it is important to determine the nature of your documents and then select one that best caters to the demands of the data capturing process.
Step 4: Set Measurable KPIs
Any technology rollout requires key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure its effectiveness. In addition to aligning with the defined objectives, here are some KPIs you can use to evaluate the success:
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Accuracy Rate: Measure the percentage of correctly captured data with the total data processed. A high accuracy rate will bolster user confidence and spur adoption.
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Processing Speed: Track the amount of time it takes for a document to be captured and processed.
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Data Throughput: Measure the volume of data successfully processed within a given period. This assesses the system's capacity to handle large volumes of data.
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User Adoption Rate: Measure how quickly and widely the solution is being adopted by employees. A high adoption rate signals ease of use and seamless integration.
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Compliance and data security: Track how well the process adheres to regulatory requirements and protects sensitive information.
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Return on Investment: Evaluate the financial benefits, such as savings in manpower hiring as well as time, relative to the costs of the implementation.
Transform your data management with Canon’s intelligent data capture solutions. Streamline workflows, minimise human errors, and improve productivity. Learn more about the available solutions by clicking on this link!
