Document Capture and Digitisation

Information has always been a key corporate asset that underpins the success or failure of a business. In today’s frantic business environment however, the method of obtaining and storing this information dictates how well its value is realised.

It is amazing how many businesses still try to conduct their operations using paper when in fact, a large majority of their operations are actually digital. For example, many business clients request information, make reservations, purchase products, and order services using online digitised forms.

Paper documents are no longer part of many business processes and a move towards automated document capture and document digitisation is currently the most effective and efficient method to realise the value of corporate information.

People are notoriously bad at mundane, repetitive tasks and data entry is no exception. Even though it is arguably one of the simplest tasks completed by office staff, it is one where errors can be catastrophically expensive. Fortunately, it is no longer necessary for this type of work to fall under the purview of people.

Technology exists that allows us to shift the responsibility of monotonous, data-entry tasks away from error-prone humans to computers. OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, allows a piece of software to analyse images to extract characters and convert them into digital information. Once extracted, the data can be put to work.

7 Benefits of document digitisation

  • Faster access and retrieval of information leads to improved business processes.
  • Accessing the right information quickly results in better decision making, based on evidence rather than conjecture.
  • Faster access to information results in better service delivery to your clients.
  • Information is more rapidly shared between departments, leading to more efficient collaboration.
  • Operational, process, and outcome risks are reduced leading to improved business continuity.
  • Information silos are eliminated, resulting in more efficient use of employee time.
  • Costs are reduced, because time is not wasted on creating, storing, retrieving, and handling of paper forms.

Corporate operations that benefit from document digitisation

There are certain key operational areas that benefit from automated document capture, automated document scanning, and document digitisation.

Business Process Optimisation

With document digitisation, your employees will be more productive, leading to an increased operational capacity. Leads will always be followed up, accounts and invoices will be paid on time, and service requests will be fulfilled as needed.

Documents and files will be automatically sent between staff members or departments with ease, workflow will be optimised, and business systems optimised and integrated. All of this is achieved by the digitisation of accounts payable, contract management, HR automation, and mail room automation:

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Accounts Payable

When your accounts department is optimised with digitisation, the time and costs involved in processing invoices are dramatically reduced. Discounts are automated and payments sent and received on time.
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Contract Management

Digitisation gives you a streamlined, transparent, and consistent contract process, ensuring that best practices are optimised. Tracking of contracts is facilitated, the review and approval processes are streamlined, auditing is maximised and, risk is minimised.
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HR Automation

With digitisation, recruitment and employee services are more efficient and holistic. Personnel and recruitment records are easily accessible, always up to date, and adaptable to your changing needs.
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Mail Room Automation

Digital mail rooms maximise multiple information channels and handle high volumes of all document formats. Service quality is heightened, time and costs reduced, and productivity and business processes optimised.

How Does This Apply To Me?

In most organisations, documents are received via email. Imagine if it was then automatically picked up by an OCR engine, the required data gets extracted, and it all gets sent to where it needs to go. Adding in a Document Management System in between these steps means you can access your documents quickly and easily as well and use automated workflows to make sure the appropriate actions are done with the document by the appropriate person – a simple solution that does remarkably well at removing human error from the data entry equation.

Not only can you create significant savings by making quality management a component of your process instead of a bolt-on afterthought, it means that the time saved for the staff member who would have otherwise been doing data entry can now be put towards value-generating activities. Imagine how much extra revenue your business could create if you applied these technologies across the organisation.

Want to talk further about Document Digitisation?

RBC Business Solutions provides organisations with the hardware and software that allows for automated document scanning, as well as automated document capture and the storage of operational material. We also assist with information storage on the cloud, on your premises or on a hybrid server.

For more information on the benefits of document digitisation to your organisation, call us on 1300 857 164, email us at info@rbcgroup.com.au or complete the following form.