Today’s financial institutions operate through digital platforms and incorporate online payment systems. This provides an easy way for customers to make transactions and payments, but at the same time also accounts for risks of crime. Similarly, documentation has converted from piles of folders to being stored in computer databases.
To help in this digitization, the OCR app has provided a solution to scan and extract information from documents. According to statistics, the market value of OCR is expected to reach 26.31 billion dollars by 2028. This is because the OCR app has become quite popular among digital business platforms.
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The Need For OCR Technology
The improvements in digital operations make them much more efficient and the shift to remote work hasn’t had any adverse effects on the daily tasks. However, it has increased the competition between companies, as well as increasing the risks of financial crime and identity theft.
The Digital Mailroom efficiently digitizes incoming correspondence, streamlining organizational communication processes.
Earlier, extraction of information from documents and data entry were processes that required a lot of time, and humans had the job to do them manually. However, the use of OCR software allows companies to automate these processes and subsequently save time. OCR services make use of AI and machine learning algorithms to reduce human error as large amounts of data are being analyzed simultaneously.
Nevertheless, OCR solutions replace the bulky scanners and other related hardware devices that were used before and provide the facility in daily devices like mobile phones.
Functionality of OCR
OCR solutions differ from each other depending on where and how they are being incorporated, but the principle is common. For instance, mobile technology is the same for everyone but every company manufactures cell phones differently. Every OCR provider makes use of character recognition technology to create their own version of verification documents.
Character recognition apps use the cameras of mobile phones to capture images of documents, and then extract the required information from them.
OCR app uses its predefined algorithms to detect and break the white spaces and the characters into separate entities and then reads characters one by one. The collectively recognized characters are then read as words.
Distinctive letters and numbers are assigned their respective metadata and compared with pre-defined templates and fonts. To add more accuracy to the process, an improvement to OCR technology has been introduced, namely ICR (intelligent character recognition). The use of this technology for document scanning can allow the extraction of cursive handwriting.
Using this intelligent OCR app, capturing the details such as the difference between the number “2” and the uppercase letter “Z” is possible. The OCR app also checks the characters surrounding each letter or word to determine what makes more sense in that particular sentence.
OCR Document Scanning
OCR app provides businesses the technology to read and capture data from any type of hard copy.
1. Unstructured documents
The documents that do not have a predefined template or the cases where the standardization level is very poor come under unstructured documents. Sometimes the dates and other important information are mentioned with the wrong pattern and the structure of the whole document is difficult to understand. Nevertheless, the OCR app is now capable of detecting characters even from these types of documents.
2. Structured documents
On the other hand, the documents that are created using set templates and proper structure are called structured documents. Examples of structured documents include identity documents issued by the authorities, as well as credit cards and utility bills.
3. Semi-structured documents
Those documents that are not created according to a specific template, but are clear and easy to read are semi-structured documents. These documents often include purchase orders and invoices from shops.
OCR Technology In Banking
Banks are regular users of the OCR app because banks receive quite a lot of paperwork and it needs to be processed quickly. Using the OCR app, banks can easily extract information from documents and automatically enter data into their digital systems. One of the most commonly used applications is the ATM, which also makes use of OCR technology to detect information on payment cards and operate accordingly.
Additionally, cheques can be scanned and processed with much more ease compared to manually reading and entering the data into the computer. The use of artificial intelligence has made OCR apps more efficient, as the algorithms constantly learn from the data that they process. This has allowed automated processing of forms and other types of regular paperwork in banks.
Final Thoughts
To summarize, since paper documents are not considered as a means to communicate and conduct operations, the OCR app is a much-needed advancement in technology to cope with the speed of digital processes. With AI and constant enhancements, OCR technology has greatly helped in automating the process of document validation.
