DCA News Blog

Automated document sorting cuts costs and improves accuracy

Posted on 10/19/2010

Let's face it; every customer is expecting you to cut costs without sacrificing quality or services. That is NOT EASY!  If this sounds familiar, you might want to consider automating your document sorting and classification.

Kofax Transformation Modules (KTM) is an add-on application that integrates seamlessly with Kofax Capture software to transform documents into useful electronic data. KTM eliminates the need for the expensive and error-prone task of document sorting. It can take handwritten notes, invoices, checks and forms and convert them into data that can be used in a variety of ways throughout your organization.

Automating this process can actually improve the accuracy of your document classification. KTM uses high-powered OCR technology that recognizes more than 140 languages with incredible accuracy. On average, users achieve 95 percent accuracy when manually classifying or extracting documents. KTM technology reduces the error rate to less than 5 percent and it does it automatically, saving your staff time to work on more mission-critical tasks.

Companies can reap the benefits of KTM in a variety of a ways. Some examples include:

• Invoice processing – Reduce data entry costs by automatically extracting and validating line item data from invoices.

• Digital mailroom – Eliminate manual document sorting by classifying all incoming mail and automatically routing it to the right department.

• Sales order processing – Shrink the order-to-cash cycle by extracting orders from scanned and faxed POs and validating them against catalog databases.

• Document separation – Cut back on document preparation and let KTM identify and sort document types within large packets or folders.

Kofax Transformation Modules handles all documents, regardless of type, on one easy-to-use platform. And, no software is necessary. KTM gives employees the ability to edit and correct documents online.

If you think Kofax Transformation Modules can help your organization reduce costs and improve the quality of your document management, please contact us online or at (908) 735-0393.  

Tags:
kofax automation document management

Automating accounts payable can lift cost saving efforts

Posted on 9/28/2010

With this extended economic recession, you've probably already tackled the regular cast of cost-saving characters -- labor, inventory, travel, selling expenses, etc.

 As you start to dig deeper for ways to conserve cash, don't overlook the process automation opportunities in accounts payable.

 Invoicing, accounts payable and receivable transactions are highly resource-intensive activities in almost any business. This becomes even more difficult under the circumstances of reduced staffing levels. When these scarce resources are tied up in mundane work, there is less time available for those activities that contribute to improving the performance and growth of the business.

If you are still using manual methods of extracting and validating accounts payable data, you're probably exposing your business to unnecessary cost, cash flow delays and human error.

 DCA can help you find ways to eliminate these costly manual processes through document automation technologies.  For example, many of our customers have turned to some form of accounts payable automation as a way to reduce costs.  And still more benefits can be gained by extending and leveraging the level of automation.

 Full automation of accounts payable creates a solid foundation for centralized finance organizations, shared service centers and global enterprises.  Similarly, uniting both paper and electronic information sources with an invoice automation solution can help companies better integrate information as it enters the organization, as well as provide knowledge workers with useful tools that work seamlessly with existing corporate applications.

Tags:
automation cost savings document conversion dca services

Creating business value by automating paper based processes

Posted on 8/31/2010

We recently read an excellent white paper by Sean Baird of EMC and thought we would present to you some of the highlights of this exceptional report.

Although document capture is being used in many organizations to improve business processes, the ability to maximize this value is impeded by two significant challenges:

Too many document types. While many document capture applications focus exclusively on capturing just a few document types, the challenges faced by most organizations require that they capture dozens — if not hundreds — of document types.

Distributed organizations. Documents received at distributed locations are frequently delivered to central mailrooms before they are processed, adding shipping costs and slowing down business processes.

Paper still consumes unnecessary handling time, drives up operational costs, and creates issues for compliance and regulatory obligations.

 An example of how document capture can significantly improve a business process is invoice approval and payment.  Many accounts payable departments rely upon clerks to enter invoice data into the accounting system. However, organizations are increasingly using advanced capture systems to eliminate nearly all manual data entry, improve data accuracy, free valuable accounting resources, and dramatically speed up invoice processing. AP departments often find that they can reduce the time to process invoices from several weeks down to a few days or less.

 Intelligent Enterprise capture extends the value even further:

• By providing the ability to capture from remote offices using desktop scanners or MFPs, organizations can immediately capture invoices wherever they are received, eliminating shipping time and costs.
• Through its ability to automatically identify invoices from different vendors and to intelligently extract invoice data — even invoices from new vendors — AP clerks are able to focus on higher value tasks.
• By providing a consistent method for capturing invoices, organizations make more predictable decisions, understand why decisions were made, and are able to quickly respond to audits.
• Leveraging intelligent document recognition to efficiently extract data not only from high‐volume structured forms but also from a wide range of less‐structured or completely unstructured documents.

 A recent AIIM study shows that organizations are increasingly capturing documents in‐house, at least in part because automated data extraction outperforms outsourced data entry.

 Organizations that can effectively automate data extraction are able to offer faster, more competitive services, while lowering the costs that limit profits and business agility.

Tags:
automation emc document capture