If you were to ask any businessperson today if their forms are still paper-based, you may be surprised at the response. Paper forms are still here, making up some of the 12.1 trillion sheets of paper US offices use each year. US companies spend more than $120 billion a year on printed forms, with most becoming outdated within three months’ time. Paper forms and paper-based processes cost the US federal government $39B. Clearly, we still have a paper problem.
Advanced OCR technology known as Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) or Intelligent Forms Processing can help solve this problem through the scanning/digitization of the form, followed by automated classification algorithms that determine the document type and automated extraction algorithms that pull data from the form based on its location or field name/value pairs. Any errors can be corrected by a human being in a data validation step before being sent on to downstream systems. While Advanced OCR can reduce the burden of paper processing, the process still starts with paper.
Ideally, the paper would never get created in the first place. Enter Digital forms. Digital forms are forms that are born digital and never live on paper to begin with, with form submitters using electronic devices to complete the form, thereby eliminating the inefficiencies of paper form completion and return. A digital form is the central component of any form automation.
Learn more about the Nintex Forms product.