Digitization is the process of converting physical documents into digitized files that can be stored electronically. Digitizing these documents solves many problems associated with paper, but digitizing does have its own set of challenges. This article will discuss digitization and some drivers for digitization in more detail.
Speed and efficiency
Manually extracting data from paper is time consuming. Cognitive data capture is able to learn from the process and continually improve. Through extracting the key information and automatically passing it to easily accessible enterprise-wide systems, digitization means that workflows and employees can quickly access the data they need. For example, digitized files make it easier for field service technicians to access customer records on their mobile devices while they’re out fixing problems at client sites. They can quickly access service history and even complete new work orders, speeding up the time it takes to deliver on customer expectations.
A digitized document can be accessed from multiple locations, will never get lost or damaged and is always up to date.
Competitiveness
Digitization enables companies to be faster, smarter and better-connected than their competitors by allowing them “to change how they do things”. Organizations are digitizing to remain competitive and meet the demands of their customers. Today’s marketplace is more dynamic than ever, with customer preferences shifting quickly in some sectors, such as retail banking or insurance. Digitization can help businesses respond to these changes faster and provide a better service for customers by removing the many manual steps from business processes that slow things down.
Security and Compliance
One of the major problems with manual paper processing is document management. Digitization can make it easier to track, locate and access documents and data. Data can easily be redacted based on user privileges. Readily available data makes it easier to complete audit trails.
A key advantage of cognitive data capture is that it allows data verification to be automated. The State of Hawaii has stated that the direct access for process auditors to all case files and the elimination of locally stored information achieved through use of IBM Datacap is helping them reduce fraudulent claims.
What’s more, digitized records carry less risk than paper ones because they’re backed up much more effectively: if something should happen to one copy of an electronic record, another identical is readily available.
Accuracy
Accuracy is critical in digitization. The digitized data must be accurate for it to have value. Cognitive capture systems use advanced pattern recognition technology along with human review and an understanding of the industry being served. This permits cognitive engines to make decisions about what information should be captured, who needs access to certain fields (and when), etc. The result is an accelerated digitization process while ensuring accuracy even if different people enter or extract data from within the same system over time.
Costs
Digitization allows companies to cut down on printing costs by saving digital versions that can be accessed electronically when needed instead of having multiple copies printed off each time as well as the associated cost this would entail – especially if you are talking about large volumes of print.
In addition, digitizing information helps avoid duplication by reducing paperwork involved with moving data between different systems within the business itself – this leads to cost savings and increases productivity across the board too.
Labor costs are also a factor – with digitization some processes can be automated using business rules leaving only low confidence cases to be checked by a human pair of eyes.
However, digitization is not without its problems. Traditional document capture systems rely on information being in known, predictable document types, such as forms and databases. Because we recognize that in many situations standardized documents simply aren’t an option, DataSkill’s approach is to use artificial intelligence to understand documents and place the data into a standard format. This is where IBM Datacap comes in.
For the digitization process to be successful, a digitized version of the paper document is required. IBM Datacap can do this automatically by feeding digitized data back into your existing systems; saving you time and money.
By harnessing DataSkill’s experience and expertise, we can help you fine-tune the solution to meet the individual needs of your business system. To find out more visit ww.DataSkill.com/DataCapture.