Hard copy documents are turning soft
OCR is fast becoming an invaluable business application. Turning hard copy documents into soft copy documents that a computer can easily read and manipulate, OCR improves the efficiency and productivity of resources.
However, it has taken a while to become widely utilised. Tauschek, the original inventor of OCR, obtained a patent on OCR in Germany back in 1929!
Optical Character Recognition
OCR or Optical Character Recognition is a field of computer science that focuses on using computers to convert images of text into a format that the computer can easily manipulate. This is done by taking a digital image of the text (scan, photograph, fax, etc) and then comparing the light and dark areas to known text characters, gradually building up the textual content for the image being processed. Popular OCR software runs on standard PCs; for larger tasks, there is more costly specialised hardware and software that can significantly speed up the process.
In 1965, the Postal Services were one of the first organisations to take full advantage of this technology using it to distinguish postal codes to automate the distribution of post. But it is only in the last few years that advances in technology, which have improved computing power and conversion algorithms, has made it cost efficient for mainstream use.
OCR is now widely used in a large number of professions, particularly ones that require access to large amounts of data found in printed documentation, for example legal professions and libraries. But it is not limited there; any organisation that needs to scan in documents will find this technology invaluable.
Today’s advances means that the accuracy of conversion is now typically over 99% and with the constant improvements in image analysis algorithms this can only get better.
Contract Management & OCR
Every modern organisation strives to automate its business processes, to save resources for more interesting and productive work; and to provide the organisation with a more timely and accurate picture of its operations.
If you/your organisation reference a large number of hard copy documents, sifting through this information manually can be a mammoth task and will always be subject to human error. OCR will allow you to scan in these documents, which in turn will enable rapid computer-based searches through these printed documents.
When it comes to contracts, immediate access to accurate information
is of paramount importance.
With an automated contract and supplier management solution like Framework, you can scan in contracts and load them into a central repository. Authorised users can then use the quick search facility to find any contract by supplier, product or contract description.
Framework also allows you to store any additional data pertinent to your contract and business requirements, ensuring you have access to all of the relevant information to effectively and efficiently manage your contracts.
For further information please visit www.framework-software.com or call 01522 881300