Authored by: Ian Wayton, Account Executive, Healthcare
Regardless of industry, Time, Money and Employees are always important. When the unexpected hits, it’s hard to know how to protect them, much less prepare for what’s next. The only thing we can know for certain is that changes will keep on coming – and equipping prepared to do more with less places you one step ahead of an uncertain future.
One tool to help you do just that is intelligent document processing (IDP). I’m offering this quick primer on what it is, why it’s important, and how it can help you stay agile in a fast-changing market.
Scanning, reading, extracting and more
Chances are good you have many types of data, including structured (think Excel spreadsheets) and unstructured (like PDFs, images, etc.). Because unstructured data requires time to identify from documents, many companies rely on employees to manually extract it.
Consider your existing business processes. Do you have employees dedicated to scanning, reading, and categorizing data? If so, how do those employees feel about performing those kinds of tasks?
I bring this up for two reasons. First, because engagement is a huge problem in the workplace. According to Gallup, only 36% say they’re actively engaged at work.
Secondly, IDP may be used to scan, identify, and organize data — even the stuff locked up in unstructured formats. IDP relieves the burden from employees by handling both structured and unstructured data. Offloading boring and unfulfilling tasks to technology is how we have progressed to the utopia we currently live in! Kidding, it just makes obvious sense.
After all, employees are happier and more fulfilled when they can do interesting and meaningful work, right? Why not give them more opportunities to do so?
The payoffs of intelligent document processing
Aside from refocusing your employees’ attention from manual tasks to higher-value work, the technology offers a number of other benefits. For example, IDP:
Speeds workflows. IDP takes seconds to extract, convert, sort, and index data. And this includes pieces of data locked in PDFs with 100 or more pages. You won’t fall behind, even with fluctuations in available staff.
- Saves money: IDP reduces processing times, saving money in many different areas, such as accounts payable. By entering invoices on day one, IDP helps avoid costly delays and late fees. Plus, since invoices get processed faster, you can take advantage of early payment discounts.
- Reduces errors: There’s always the risk of errors when you have an employee manually keying in data. Offloading these tasks to IDP improves accuracy, which is critical in many areas, including compliance.
- Scales easily: With ongoing staffing challenges, technology such as IDP helps fill the gaps created by talent shortages.
What to do next
The only way to know if intelligent document processing is right for your company is to evaluate your existing processes:
- Are we manually scanning and indexing documents?
- Do we have employees dedicated to organizing and routing documents?
- Are employees “shuffling paper” daily?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it’s worth asking about IDP to learn how it can help your organization weather whatever the future holds. Regardless of what the hiring scene or job market is like in the future, saving money and time and improving employee retention won’t be any less important than they already are today.