5 Proven Use Cases of Intelligent Document Processing for Enterprises

Would you like easy access to data from your filing system?

Many professionals face challenges when accessing data from their endless filing of office documents. 

While technology has enabled the digitization of many processes, some companies still opt to use paper-based processing systems to manage their businesses.

A Gartner research found that organizations worldwide record a 25% growth in paper usage every year.

Yet managing paper is expensive. For instance, the average cost of processing an invoice is $12.50, with a median cost of $7.90.

Furthermore, searching for data is time-consuming. It can take hours of going through paper records and documents before you find something tangible.

Intelligent document processing, which uses artificial intelligence to extract data from hard copy documents and make it searchable in a centralized digital platform, can solve this challenge.

To illustrate this, let us go through 5 proven use cases of intelligent document processing for enterprises.

The banking and finance industry is characterized by the regular processing of large amounts of paperwork and documentation. Even when they’re utilizing online forms, institutions still use paper for account registrations and loan applications.

These paper documents will then go through manual processing, which is accustomed to human errors in verification, lack of standardization, and long waiting hours.

Human errors alone account for a huge percentage of operational costs. Between 2014 and 2019, 83 financial institutions lost €482 Billion, courtesy of human errors. 

When institutions use fragmented and obsolete systems, they often encounter process breakage and difficulties in document tracking.

Surely, systems ought to change!

One of the prominent applications of intelligent document processing is in banking. It helps in the processing, storing, and maintaining of documents in a centralized manner that provides an efficient workflow system.

Documents such as account opening forms, credit card forms, and loan applications can go through Optical Character Recognition OCR software for text extraction.

In addition, documents are checked against certain criteria for separation and document classification into categories such as checks or statements. The documents can then be validated and indexed.

Hence customers are served fast, and the institutions benefit from streamlined data reconciliation.

Indusind Bank, a large Indian bank, wanted to streamline its export bill regularization process. By partnering with AntWorks, an IDP solution was created, which reduced the average handling time by 33% and broadened process automation while ensuring compliance with all business rules.

The solution also improved process scalability, handling larger transaction volumes smoothly while operating 24/7.

Manual processes and paper medical records pose a significant challenge for healthcare organizations. Without elaborate filing systems, maintaining hospital records, patient records, and financial records is labor-intensive and frustrating.

Paper-based filing systems require an investment of time and resources to provide seamless data access. 

Yet, they can also be affected by unauthorized data access, tampering, and disasters such as fires and floods.

These challenges necessitate an effective digital transformation strategy that will see the implementation of electronic document management systems.

IDP tools enable the digitization of paperwork and automate the process of filing patient and medical records. 

Documents are first scanned and then taken through document conversion to create multiple digital contents like text files, PDFs, and Office documents.

Consider this, approximately 62% of the time per patient is devoted to reviewing clinical data. IDP can help with fast clinical record research and eliminate such time wastage.

In digital format, medical records are more secure from data loss or misplacement as occasioned in paper-based systems. 

With proper security measures in place, digital documents can be secured from unauthorized data access and tampering.

Healthcare applications of intelligent document processing have the potential to save lives.

Auxis Intelligent Automation experts implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and IDP in the invoice processing of a leading healthcare network in the United States. 

As a result, the institution achieved 66% automated invoice processing equivalent to 2300 human working hours.

In addition, the invoice backlog was reduced from 4 days to 4 hours, which increased the visibility of the total outstanding liabilities.

The mortgage industry handles a lot of data daily. Processes such as mortgage underwriting, loan processing, and auditing involve endless documentation.

For instance, in the conditions clearing process of a mortgage application, a company can be overwhelmed by the number of brokers and clients uploading documents which must be reviewed one by one before underwriting.

Not surprisingly, according to ICE Mortgage technology, it takes 50 days to close a mortgage loan application. 

Title checks and verifications can also be time-consuming, especially with unclear titles, since lenders need to quickly process loans within the compliance framework.

Mortgage processing is one of the most prominent use cases of intelligent document processing today.

Artificial intelligence is used to read documents and extract data faster than humans. Documents are captured, converted, classified, and sent to the appropriate destination in an ongoing process.

Technology never sleeps. When combined with automated workflows, IDP systems significantly increase productivity and the speed at which mortgages are processed.

In addition, the chances of errors are reduced since any discrepancy spotted on a document can be escalated to the relevant expert for further review.

Last but not least, once processed, documents are stored in an organized format allowing customers to access information and thus have a good user experience.

A leading mortgage wholesaler approached Zia Consulting to offer a solution that could expedite their loan processing. By automating mortgage document processing, the company increased productivity by 7 times and reduced closing document processing time by 67%.

Additionally, the new implementation streamlined the conditions clearing process and achieved data accuracy of 90% or greater.

The insurance industry has experienced considerable growth over the past decade. Technological advancements made many insurance processes faster and more efficient. 

However, with growth in business operation, the process of document management has become complex.

Many insurance companies still use manual paper document processing to serve their multidimensional clientele. Yet, paper-based processing poses a myriad of challenges, especially if you rely on automated data analytics techniques for decision making.

Furthermore, these documents are not safe from tampering and loss. 

Lastly, paper-based processing is prone to human errors, which compromise the accuracy of document management.

Intelligent document processing is a smart document management strategy that can equip insurance companies to address these challenges.

Juniper Research estimates that by 2024, 65% of insurance companies will be using Robotic Process Automation to digitize insurance documents with enhancement from IDP software. IDP tools improve ease of access to data through data extraction and organization of unstructured data.

Insurance applications of intelligent document processing can make processes efficient to help people with emergencies acquire timely funding.

The Workers Compensation Trust implemented IDP to digitize medical bills and improve claims processing. The process automation improved daily bill processing by 3X and reduced worker compensation processing from 60-90 days to less than 48 hours.

In addition, it ensured record accessibility without requiring access to paper files.

The oil and gas industry primarily operates through paper-based processes. As a result, a large number of research documents and business transaction records are produced.

Often, these documents are stored in filing systems to facilitate easy access. But the challenges of physical storage such as data loss, tampering, and hardship in data search go along with such systems.

For instance, an established Oil and Gas company had accumulated over 250 million documents making it impossible for workers to find up-to-date information.

Access to chemical research data can also be frustrating if you have to read through documents to find information. Hence, a lot of time and resources are lost when operating physical document management systems.

However, artificial intelligence is capable of enhancing your workflows with intelligent document processing. You can extract data from scanned documents and store it in an easily accessible format.

In conjunction with a content intelligence platform, an automated intelligent document processing software will classify, standardize and leverage clean, structured data from complex unstructured documents.

A simple search query can reveal all related data from your historical research documents if you’re researching a project. Moreover, easy access to compliance documents allows you to have a holistic approach to business challenges.

One global energy corporation had close to a million valuable documents that were unsearchable and inaccessible.

With the help of Adib Software, all documents were migrated to a central AI-powered document processing system which enabled precise classification of documents, 35% reduction in the collection, and optimized speeds of data access.

In addition, the company was ready to venture into data extraction from unstructured data going forward.

We have discussed five proven use cases of intelligent document processing for enterprises in various industries. This technology has the potential to solve many document processing challenges professionals face in their work.

From helping doctors make timely decisions that save lives to empowering energy companies to study historical research documents and make data-driven decisions, intelligent document management tools are a precious boon for the modern enterprise.

Artificial intelligence greatly enhances our work, taking machines’ effectiveness to a new level. Arguably, professionals who leverage AI solutions such as intelligent document processing have a competitive advantage over those that don’t.

You should therefore consider improving your processes by embracing this technology and integrating its applications into your business or organization.

Have you implemented intelligent document processing systems before?

What was your experience? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.