Why Data Extraction Using Traditional OCR Technology May Be Slowing Down Your Business
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If your internal business operations are nonetheless stuck at traditional Adobe to Excel conversion, your business seriously needs a boost. You do have an OCR software installed at your premises for data extraction and processing, but manual verification, interpretation and rectification of the extracted data are still parts of your document processing task.
Traditional OCR software indeed scrape PDF to Excel without human intervention, but they are far away from end-to-end automation.
Let us break down the challenges associated with traditional OCR technology
- Traditional OCR technology works on pre-fed template-based algorithms to extract data from documents. These algorithms create templates, separate one for each document type, language, format, and layout. When the OCR recognizes a document with variations (different layout than the pre-fed template), it either makes mistakes in extracting data or skips the entire document.
- Mere OCR Reader to Excel conversion is not enough. Document processing is incomplete until the document scans against all the anomalies, meets the required standards, and routed for approval from the authorized departments. The inability of traditional OCR technology to deal with diverse document formats/structures/ layouts affects the system’s accuracy and requires high amount of manual intervention to ensure the integrity of the extracted data.
- Traditional OCR technology cannot interpret data, and hence, do not understand the context or meaning a field conveys. It only looks for the position of the field as defined in the template and extracts data accordingly. A slight change in the position of document fields confuses the OCR and it might result in a costly error.
- Since it is impossible to code templates for thousands of document variations, abundant manual work comes into picture to rectify errors as a result of variances. The staff has to manually check and update the extracted data for validation and approval. It consumes excessive time, money, and resources until the whole process gets executed. Also, it cannot work with unstructured or semi-structured documents.
If you backtrack the process, you can calculate how long and how much you are spending on mere data extraction (creating templates, validating extracted data, making changes, and sending for approval!). It clearly highlights the unproductivity and inefficiency of your internal business operations, later visible on the entire business.
How can you “extract spreadsheet from PDF” while employing end-to-end automation and accuracy?
Let’s follow a simple approach to export data from PDF to Excel.
- Don’t structure your data – if your documents are unstructured, keep them in the same state.
- Do not create any templates to feed in the OCR software. Let the documents be scanned as they enter into the system.
- Don’t check your spreadsheets for invalid data. Keep the data unaltered as it gets imported in the sheet from OCR.
- Send the documents for approval and take desired action.
“Isn’t the process risky and probably full of anomalies?”, you might ask.
Oh! Did we mention, replace OCR technology with AI-enabled OCRs, before you start?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a revolution in the automation industry. It adds a whole new layer of intelligence to machines so they can emulate human behavior and take decisions on their own.
AI doesn’t need pre-fed rules to operate. Instead, it interprets the underlying relationship between data sets and uses it to proceed with its tasks. Hence, if you smartly integrate AI with OCR technology, you don’t need templates for OCR Reader to Excel conversion, check extracted data for accuracy, and validate documents for approval. AI-enabled OCRs do it all for you as they can interpret the field data and understand the context before extracting it into the spreadsheets. Hence, no room for errors.
Guess what’s more!
What if you have a cloud-based, AI-enabled data extraction software, that doesn’t need any on-premise infrastructure set up and saves you thousands of dollars?
KlearStack fits perfectly into the big picture!
The cloud-based, AI-enabled data extraction software we were referring to is KlearStack – a template less, end-to-end automated, with document decision support technology.
KlearStack is the exact definition of a fully automated data extraction OCR technology that drastically reduces human intervention while improving the accuracy and productivity of the internal business operations.
The software combines AI, Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and API interfaces to create the concept of intelligent and scalable document processing. This concept makes KlearStack capable of intelligently scanning unstructured/semi-structured document PDFs, interpreting the document data, understanding the context of document fields, and extracting meaningful data into the spreadsheets.
The in-build document decision support system not only allows KlearStack to scrape PDF to Excel, but also ensure the quality and integrity of the extracted data. Hence, don’t just extract data, gain actionable insights into your business operations.
What does a typical KlearStack implementation life-cycle look like?
KlearStack delivers 90-95% accuracy and 65-70% reduction in manual efforts within 90 days of implementation. Added to the benefits is a 200% increase in productivity, 20x reduction in set-up costs, and ZERO capex.
- The first week of implementation is reserved for the not-so-basic consultation and proposal.
We sit with you to understand your business use case, demonstrate our solution, and of course ask a lot of questions to better relate to your use case.
You need to agree on some image quality pre-requisites before you feed documents for data extraction, and finally, we send you a high-level proposal that enlists all over discussion in a nutshell.
- The second week starts as a Pilot project wherein we offer you a 1 to 7-day free trial to test KlearStack for your needs.
- The third week is when you adopt KlearStack, and we create a KlearStack tenant for you.
We kick-start your KlearStack training and go-live.
- The next seven weeks are referred to as Steady State of the software wherein we provide continuous software support and ML updates.
This is the stage where you achieve ~95% accuracy, ~60% STP (Straight Through Processing), and 70% effort saving.
- After the tenth week, watch out yourself the direction your business gets with KlearStack. We continue to provide you with ongoing support and software updates, as KlearStack learns from user feedback and continuously increases accuracy.
Use KlearStack everywhere – Accounts Payable and Receivable Departments, Consumer Durable and Trade Finances, Spend Analytics, Expense Report Reconciliation, or Supply Chain Automation. Beat the traditional OCR technology with AI-enabled disruption. Book a consultation call with our experts to discuss your business use-case today!
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