Moving files and documents from one format to another is crucial during business deals and transactions. JPEG, PNG, or PDF formats are often quite practical for saving and mailing written content. But the question is, how is it processed, read, and edited through machine programs? As we know, businesses are transforming. They are moving from paperwork to digitizing. Therefore, digitizing handwritten content is significant for saving data. Also, digitalization will make it accessible when required. Traditionally, people do this through transcription, which is costly and time-consuming. Here, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) comes into action. The OCR enables businesses and individuals to convert documents into editable forms. We will tell you all the details about OCR in this article; please keep reading.
What is OCR?
Optical character recognition (OCR) is an amazing technology. It enables businesses and individuals to extract text from scanned documents or images. OCR software assesses an image and transforms its characters into machine-readable text. This text can be searched, edited, and copied like any other digital content. There are multiple applications in which people use OCR technology. For instance, it is used in business process automation and document scanning. Also, OCR technology can be used in data entry. This technology is beneficial for organizations that have a huge volume of documents. In those organizations, this technology will be helpful to digitize the records. Doing so will allow them to accurately and quickly convert these paper documents into digital format.
Benefits of Using Optical Character Recognition
Apart from quick and easy conversion, OCR has some other crucial long-term benefits. We have mentioned a few of them below. Here are some ways in which Optical Character Recognition can increase the efficiency of businesses in this modern era.
Scalability in Dealing with Large Volumes
“Undoubtedly, the OCR-based data entry is extremely scalable. The capacity of document processing can continuously increase as your company grows. Ultimately, it can process thousands of documents. Also, it can authenticate data across hundreds of data points. Moreover, it can prepare them for data entry in no time. Docsumo is one of the most intelligent OCR technologies. Its high percentage straight-through processing (STP) rate of 95% enables firms to process documents. Being fueled by machine learning algorithms, the accuracy and efficiency rate steadily increase. This is because the document volume increases due to their adjustable nature. In the case of a smaller document volume to be processed, the procedure can be downsized.“ – Natalie Mccalla, Co-Owner and Creative Director of Alpine Dog Company Inc
Data Validation and Verification
“Unlike manual entry, the data taken through OCR technology goes through authentication. Authentication processes like data matching with current public records are done to ensure accuracy. Any mismatch or inaccuracy is picked out for a manual check. In authentication cases, the system compares the accessible data in the public database. It does this to verify the identification of a person applying to open a bank account. The same is true for people who apply to open a bank account.” – Brian Bosscher, owner and founder of Condo Control
Massively Improves Customer Service
Various inbound contact centers usually give information that their customers are looking for. Also, some call centers give customers the information they need. This is different with every customer center. Some will have to access certain customer information to proceed with their requests quickly. Hence, in such cases, quick data availability becomes extremely crucial. Optical Character Recognition helps in systematically storing and recovering the documents digitally quickly. With this technology, the waiting time for customers is greatly decreased. Ultimately, it massively improves the customer experience.
Makes Documents Editable
“Most of the time, there is a need to edit the scanned documents. Particularly when some information or data needs to be updated. ORC transforms data into any selected format, such as Word. Therefore, it can be easily edited in these formats. This tool is massively beneficial when digital contents need to be changed or updated constantly. Otherwise, the editing process would have been tiring and time-consuming without the ORC.” – Martin Seeley, CEO of Mattress Next Day
Disaster Recovery
“One of the major and prominent benefits of using ORC is disaster recovery. When information is stored electronically on safe servers, it remains safe. Also, the data will still be secure even if an emergency happens. For instance, digitized information can be retrieved quickly from a sudden fire outbreak or natural disaster. Unlike paper documents, they can easily be lost in such emergencies. Hence, Optical Character Recognition helps ensure the continuation of your business.” – Tia Campbell, Director of Marketing at Practice Reasoning Tests
Higher Productivity
“Higher productivity is one of the main things that is crucial for any business. OCR software helps businesses attain higher productivity. It is achieved by enabling quicker data recovery when needed. Employees needed immense effort and time to extract related information. Though, now there is no need for that. They can spend the same amount of time and effort focusing on core activities. Moreover, the workers can make only a few trips to the central records room to get the necessary documents. This is because they can easily access them with one click and do not need to get up from their desks.” – Mark Valderrama, Aquarium Store Depot
Cost Savings and Resource Optimization
Integrating an ORC system into your business is a budget-friendly and cost-effective solution. The prime reason is that it removes the requirement of hiring extra experts or professionals for data entry and extraction. Data authentication, extraction, and processing are automated in this modern era. Also, all of this can be done perfectly 24/7 without manual intervention. Ultimately, the ORC system decreases the expenses for many operations. These operations include shipping, printing, and copying manual documents. Digitizing the documents enables the reclamation of office areas that bulky paper files would otherwise fill. Another advantage is that OCR technology stores data safely and securely in the cloud. Hence, this saves on costly data recovery processes.
High Accuracy
“One of the most common and major data entry obstacles is error and inaccuracy. Often, this problem arises in any manual document, be it data entry or any other document. Therefore, using automated tools like OCR leads to less error and inaccuracy. Thus, the application of OCR results in efficient data entry. Furthermore, issues like data loss are huge and most problematic. With ORC, this problem can easily be tackled. As no workforce is involved in the task, issues like accidentally putting in the wrong data can be eliminated.” – Usama Khan, manager at Justreply
Why Successful Enterprises Outsource OCR Services
After reading all of OCR’s benefits, you will be convinced. Also, consider using OCR services as a smart move. However, it does not necessarily imply that you must invest in costly software and hardware with trained operators to use them. Go for the option that thousands of others have gone for. Let us tell you what that option is: outsourcing the OCR services. You can outsource the best OCR services to a business process outsourcing firm. You get the best outcomes when you let an experienced team of professionals handle this task. Below, we have discussed why it is better to outsource OCR services.
Experienced Professionals
“Professional ORC service providers are the best at delivering quick and accurate results. Also, they can effortlessly interface with your company’s standard operating methods. Being experts, they take great pride in their task and are only content after making you satisfied with their service. You need to give them the details related to the work; the rest is their responsibility.” – Kartik Ahuja, Marketing Manager at PortaPotty
Scalable Services
All the best OCR services are scalable. Therefore, the professionals always have the resources that will fit your requirements. If there are slow seasons for you, they can find the match according to the activity level. They can lessen that burden if your busy seasons are crushing you now. One of the basic principles of any professional OCR service provider is that you only pay for what you use. – Saba Mobebpour, CEO at Dropshipping Products
Cost-Effective Services
“Most of the ORC service providers are relatively inexpensive. They can do the best work at the most feasible price. They can scale your professional team to ensure you get exactly what you need, not less. It frees up your core staff to do the process’s more productive and creative part. On the other hand, when you try to do it yourself instead of hiring a team, things will likely mess up. Ultimately, the mistake will cost you a significant amount of money. Therefore, it would be a wise decision to hire a professional team for the task.” – Eran Mizrahi, CEO of Ingredient Brothers
Well-organized Data Entry
Another drawback of doing OCR yourself is the clearer presentation of the data. If you can organize the input gigabytes of data, it can result in a clearer presentation if properly organized. Hence, an expert and experienced OCR service provider can tackle this effortlessly. These teams have inspectors who double and triple-check their team’s tasks. In this way, you can assure yourself that your task can be done perfectly by hiring the OCR team.
Conclusion
In short, OCR offers a wide range of advantages. These advantages can considerably enhance the efficiency and productivity of your business. By digitizing documents and automating data entry and text recognition, the OCR can help your business. Also, when the OCR improves the security and accuracy of text recognition, it helps streamline your business processes. Also, it considerably lessens the costs. Furthermore, it identifies the issues quickly and addresses them more effectively. Because of OCR, a paperless office is no longer impossible, thanks to the increasingly available OCR technology.