What does your digital transformation strategy entail? Does it have intelligent document processing, also known as IDP, at the heart of it?
IDP entails a combination of AI-powered software that uses computer vision, machine learning, and RPA bots, to extract and sort physical and electronic data into a structure. There’s never been a better time to invest in IDP and Digital Transformation than today.
Statistics show just as much, given an IDC report estimates that businesses will have invested $6.8 trillion on digital transformation by 2023.
While the figures paint a picture of technological acceptance, unstructured data continues to be a thorn in the shoe of many companies around the globe. Intelligent document processing can sort out this challenge, availing structured data, which can catalyze so many possibilities for digitalization.
In this article, we’ll discuss further why Intelligent Document Processing is essential for digital transformation, and what it can do for your company’s technological efforts.
Let’s get started.
1. It increases accuracy and efficiency
Do you still have manual document processing strategies in action at your company?
Yes? Then, here is an important statistic that will interest you.
Take the standard invoice, for example, which has a mean rate of error that stands at about one-tenth the content of the entire document. In other words, that means that for every 100 words of the conventionally processed invoice, there are bound to be at least 10 errors, according to a DocAcquire study. Inaccuracies aside, the cost as well of manual document processing can skyrocket, especially in document-laden organizations like financial institutions, whose workflows run on paper documentation.
But intelligent document processing can change all that, by offering more accurate and efficient means of Data Extraction for your invoice and general document processing.
In particular, a report by the Intelligent Automation network substantiates that businesses can reduce invoice errors by up to 53% with the adoption of IDP tools.
And intelligent document processing offers similar benefits as well in bringing down the production cost of a single document by up to 35%, as evidence by the same IAN report. Effectiveness in document management is a critical factor for any digital transformation project to be considered a success.
By lowering the margin of error during document processing, IDP contributes greatly towards businesses inching closer to their digitalization goals.
2. It ensures digital device versatility
How does your company handle the processing of multi-varied files?
For example, perhaps you have separate tools for processing printed files and another software entirely set aside to handle pdfs or images.
If that’s the case, then that goes against the spirit of digital transformation.
For the modern business that aspires to digital maturity, your company should be able to accept documents from clients in a variety of formats, as generated by different digital devices.
Additionally, this should be a capability that can be handled by a single intelligent document processing platform or software.
It shouldn’t matter if clients choose to submit details via email, fax, or pictures, good document processing software should be able to meet all these needs.
Hence, the need for IDP to enable a holistic digital transformation solution as far as document processing is concerned.
Intelligent document processing enables the handling of various types of document formats, in an increasingly digital world, without having to resort to multiple software. From emails and faxes to scanned images and handwritten paperwork, an IDP platform enables diverse file processing under one roof.
This is made possible by OCR Software and computer vision which help identify a range of information formats, and via machine learning to improve the processing of foreign file formats.
3. It’s key to full-scale automation
Robotic Process Automation is another huge driving force of digital transformation, and RPA is largely enabled by IDP software.
Recurring, non-core business tasks cost companies about 19 working days annually for every employee.
That means, for a workforce of about 50 employees, 950 working days go to waste each year. For any company, that represents a massive loss of productivity. Many businesses are consequently turning to RPA tools, whose extent and success of implementation depends on IDP for end-to-end automation.
Traditional RPAs, however, are plagued by data gaps from less-effective document processing techniques which provide a limited scope of data for the software to work with.
As a result, that prevents the full-scale implementation of automation, thus breaking the digitalization cycle by requiring supplementation by human effort. To prevent human-complemented automation, you can pair your IDP platform with a myriad of workflow management tools to achieve automation goals.
The resulting structured and clean data ensures RPA bots have a wide depth of information to learn from to attain hyper-automation. Consequently, instead of RPA bots automating simple tasks like only converting handwritten documents into an electronic format, it can go a step further and upload and categorize the data.
4. It’s a driver for data security & compliance.
One of the objectives of proper digital transformation strategies has to be securing the privacy and safety of clients’ PII. IDP makes this possible through comprehensive Data Classification and extraction.
Channeling the power of natural language processing to analyze data much in the same way a human mind would, IDP software can group data into different categories of use, according to various pre-programmed criteria.
An OCR scanner enables an IDP platform to read the text in the content, while an NLP algorithm enables the software to understand the data, thus enabling document classification.
For instance, if an NLP, IDP platform learns to understand and decipher phrases in a document containing sensitive information, e.g. ID numbers, it becomes easier for the system to regulate information access and visibility.
Alternatively, document classification can also be achieved by computer vision algorithms, when you’re talking about documents, pictures, or other image-based content.
In a nutshell, by enabling the classification of digital files, IDP makes a huge statement as an essential driver for digital security and transformation.
5. It’s the core of customer experience digitalization
What does the digital transformation journey look like for your business? Is customer experience at the center of it? If so, you won’t achieve your goals without intelligent document processing, which is at the core of digitalizing customer service.
IDP powers the existence of Content Intelligence Platforms, which in turn allows businesses to digitalize customer service in contextual and personalized ways.
Take chatbots, for example. To enable chatbots to initiate organic conversations, there’s a need to create a structured database. IDP makes it possible to clean up unstructured data systems, enabling conversational bots to handle a variety of client queries.
Without intelligent document processing, on the other hand, you’d have chatbots and other AI-powered conversational interfaces failing to respond to clients or responding out of context.
Additionally, an IDP system enables chatbots to be aware of the experience across various touchpoints, acting on that data to create self-service responses that are personal and meaningful.
The result is the faster resolution of customer issues thanks to contextual data.
Conclusion
Can companies make digital transformation progress without IDP being part of the project?
From what we’ve learned today, IDP is an important wheel in the digital transformation vehicle. It enables digitalization and is usually the first step in most digitalization projects.
Chatbots, for example, need a structured database that enables conversational artificial intelligence algorithms to interact with clients. Additionally, RPA bots that perform automated chores, from web analytics to help desk software, are functional thanks hugely to content intelligence platforms providing the fueling data. The applications of IDP are far and wide enabling digital transformation across various sectors, including banking, finance, and many more.
So, the answer is No.
Digital transformation projects would not be able to reach the same heights of success without IDP providing the launchpad.