Collecting, processing, and converting data from traditional forms – whether paper or digital – is often a costly and inefficient bottleneck in many businesses’ operations. As a result, many businesses are turning to form processing software. It’s more than just a tool; it’s a bridge between raw information and valuable data, shaping the future of form automation. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and cloud technology, these solutions are revolutionizing the way organizations manage information, optimizing operations, reducing errors, and speeding up decision-making.
How Form Processing Software Works
Form processing software is software designed to automate the entire lifecycle of form processing. The process takes place from the moment a form is received until the data is integrated into business systems. This is a combination of advanced technologies to turn unstructured or semi-structured data on forms into organized information, ready for use and analysis.
Form capture (scanning, email, upload).
The first step in the automated form processing process is capture. Form processing software is capable of recognizing and capturing forms from a variety of sources:
- Scanning: Paper forms (such as applications, contracts, surveys) are scanned and converted into digital images.
- Email: The system can automatically monitor specific inboxes, downloading attachments (PDFs, images) containing forms.
- Upload: Electronic forms (e.g., PDFs, Word documents) can be uploaded directly to the system via the portal or user interface.
Image preprocessing (cleaning, alignment).
After the form is collected, especially from physical papers, the image quality may not be good for processing. Therefore, to maximize the accuracy of data extraction, form processing software often performs the following image pre-processing steps:
- Cleaning: Remove unwanted noise, stains, and ink spots.
- Alignment: Automatically rotate and straighten skewed or misaligned forms.
- Deskewing/Despeckling: Adjust images to make text clearer and easier for computers to read.
These steps are crucial to ensure that the data on the form is presented in an optimal way for data extraction technologies to easily process.
Data extraction using OCR + AI.
After the image is pre-processed, the software uses a combination of OCR and AI technology to identify and extract information.
- OCR: The process of converting text from images into editable and searchable data.
- AI and Machine Learning: For unstructured or semi-structured forms (like contracts, letters, unformatted invoices), AI, especially through advanced form data extraction tools, is able to understand the context of the document. The technology will learn to recognize data fields like names, addresses, amounts, dates, even when they appear in different places on different forms. The more AI models are trained, the smarter and more accurate they become at extracting complex data. This represents the future of form automation.
Data validation and error checking.
Once the data is extracted, form processing software performs validation and error checking to ensure data integrity:
- Rule-based validation: For example, checking that a phone number field is in the correct format, a date field is valid, or that the total amount matches the line items.
- Cross-referencing: Checking the extracted data against existing databases (e.g., customer lists, product codes) to detect inconsistencies.
- Human-in-the-loop validation: If the system detects a potential error or low confidence in the extraction, it flags and passes the form to a human for manual review and correction.
Export data to ERP, CRM, or databases.
After the data is processed, it must be integrated into the core business systems of the enterprise. Form processing software helps export data in many different formats and methods:
- Direct integration: Data can be pushed directly into Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) systems such as SAP, Oracle, or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce.
- Databases: Store in SQL, NoSQL databases.
- File formats: Export to CSV, XML, JSON files for easy import into other applications.
Why Businesses Need Form Processing Automation?
As we can see, form processing software creates intuitive benefits that can have a profound impact on a business’s operational efficiency and profitability.
High labor costs
Manual form processing requires a large amount of time and manpower. From opening mail, sorting documents, entering data into the system, to checking for errors and reconciliation – all of these tasks are repetitive, costly and labor-intensive. The cumulative labor costs from these tasks can run into millions of dollars per year for large organizations due to the large amounts of data that need to be processed.
By implementing form processing software, businesses can significantly reduce their reliance on manual labor for basic data entry tasks. For example, employees are freed from monotonous administrative tasks and can focus on higher- value-added activities that require analytical skills and strategic thinking. This not only reduces direct costs but also increases employee satisfaction and productivity.
Speed up processing
In many industries, form processing speed is key. Especially in banking, processing loan applications quickly can impact the customer experience, while in healthcare, timely processing of medical records is important. Manual processes often take hours, even days or weeks to complete a large volume of forms.
Form processing software speeds up processing, with AI-powered form data extraction tools, hundreds or thousands of forms can be processed automatically in a short period of time. This helps businesses respond faster to the market, improve customer service, and make decisions based on real-time updated data.
Operational cost savings
In addition to labor costs, manual form processing also incurs many other operating costs:
- Printing and stationery costs: Paper, ink, envelopes.
- Physical storage costs: Storage space, filing cabinets, warehouse management costs.
- Search and retrieval costs: The time employees spend searching for specific forms in paper archives.
- Error costs: Manual errors can lead to costly repairs, disputes, or even fines.
With form processing software, most of these processes are digitized. Forms are stored electronically, making them easier to search and retrieve, reducing the need for physical storage space and associated costs. Reducing errors also saves on costs incurred due to errors.
How to Choose the Right Form Processing Tool for Your Business
Choosing form processing software requires a careful evaluation of technological, operational, and financial factors. The right choice will ensure your business gets the most out of the future of form automation, here are some factors to consider:
Evaluate accuracy on your data
As you can see, the accuracy of data extraction is the most important factor. A software with poor accuracy will still require significant manual intervention, reducing the benefits of automation.
Ask vendors to demonstrate their solutions on your own actual forms. This will help you evaluate the ability of OCR and AI technology to handle the unique formatting, fonts, and image quality of documents. Standardize on form data extraction tools that have the ability to learn and improve over time.
Check integration capability with current systems.
A modern form processing software solution should be able to integrate seamlessly with your existing business systems, including ERP, CRM, document management system (DMS), or custom databases.
Good API models and cloud document integration options are important. Pay particular attention to good integration capabilities to ensure that extracted data can be automatically transferred into other systems without manual re-entry, eliminating data silos and maintaining consistency across the entire organization.
Verify security & compliance (GDPR/HIPAA) and SLA terms.
When processing sensitive data from forms, security and compliance are always important. Check that the vendor complies with international security standards (e.g., ISO 27001) and data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR for Europe, HIPAA for the healthcare industry in the US).
Additionally, consider the vendor’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) terms. The SLA should detail commitments regarding uptime, technical support, and remediation in the event of an incident. This ensures that your system will always operate reliably and securely.
Assess total cost
Assess the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the solution, not just the initial purchase cost. TCO includes:
- Software licensing costs: Per user, number of forms, or data capacity.
- Implementation costs: Configuration, integration, training.
- Maintenance and support costs: Annual fees for updates and support.
- Infrastructure costs (if not cloud): Servers, hardware.
Cloud-based solutions typically have lower upfront costs and convert capital expenditures (CapEx) into operating expenditures (OpEx), making it easier for businesses to manage their budgets. Compare this cost to the savings from automation to determine the true ROI.
Conclusion
Form processing software is increasingly supported by breakthrough technologies such as AI data extraction tools and cloud document integration capabilities, which not only solve the current problems of high labor costs and slow processing speeds but also open up new opportunities for operational efficiency and growth.
Investing in the right form processing software can transform data from forms into valuable assets, improve accuracy, speed up processes and optimize resources. If you are ready, contact DIGI-TEXX today to discover how our advanced form processing solutions can help your business operate smarter, faster and more efficiently.
>>> Read more: What is Automated Document Processing and How Does It Work?
