The digital mailroom: a closer look at document classification and data capture to increase overall process efficiency

Too often manually processing your incoming mail can create a bottleneck in productivity. And, to get the critical data from your incoming mail into your ECM, accounting, ERP, CRM, SCM, document management or other back-end system for processing, manual data entry must be performed. Enter the digital mailroom – a cost-effective technology that automates the identification, sorting and routing of your mail and the data capture of its contents.

Industry sceptics originally labelled the concept of the digital mailroom as a passing trend or a buzzword that would quickly lose its buzz. But the digital mailroom has proven itself to be a technology that is a solid step forward towards reducing the piles of mail we have to shuffle and sort through each day. An efficient, cost-effective solution, the digital mailroom is helping organizations just like yours overcome the costs and delays associated with manually processing their share of the millions of piece of mail delivered each day.

When considering the conversion to a more efficient digital mailroom solution, it makes sense to start by visualizing the ideal processing and staffing configurations as well as doing research on the best mix of technology available. It is also important to conduct a survey of what types of mail your organization is receiving – and how much, just how often – before you begin comparing equipment and technology. Capital and compatibility considerations include mail openers and extractors, scanners, classification and capture software, and a document management system.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on overcoming two of the greatest pitfalls of manually processing your incoming mail – performing time-consuming manual document identification and routing, and manual data entry – where backlogs, human error and high labour costs are especially prevalent.

Prior to the appearance of the digital mailroom concept, companies had little or no option but to spend tedious amounts of time and costly resources just trying to keep up with the ever-increasing mailroom volume. Plus, even with countless numbers of staff performing the manual tasks of identifying, sorting and routing of the mail, incoming documents were still getting misidentified, misrouted or misplaced – never to be found again. And when the documents that were accurately processed reached the correct department, the data was still on that piece of paper or in a format not usable in your ECM, ERP or other back-end system where you could use it. Even more employee resources were needed to manually key the critical information into your back-end system – yet another place for human error to occur.

It may have been an acceptable business practice to work within the constraints of manual processing when there was no other alternative. But now with the proven technology of automatic identification and data capture available, there’s a better way to manage your incoming mail. The digital mailroom provides a viable solution to keep up with the flow of information coming into your organization that you need to feed your business processes and remain competitive in the marketplace.

Let’s take a closer look at the term “digital mailroom”. Emerging technology has extended the words digital mailroom to now encompass document classification, data capture and processing. This new breed of technology in the document and data management marketplace gives companies the opportunity to create custom document image and data workflows to virtually eliminate the need for manual sorting, routing and data entry and decrease manual decision-making. As a result, stacks of documents scanned or imported from your e-mail server can be automatically identified and sorted, document sets can be created, and data can be captured and validated. Documents that violate existing business practices can be routed to a supervisor for review and complete document sets can be sent for approval. A number of file types (both document images and data) can be exported to any number of desired locations such as an accounting, ERP, Workflow, back-end or document management system. With capture workflow integrated into the traditional routing and approval workflow and with applications such as document management, ERP or back-office, it now allows a digital mailroom process to be an integral part of the information process.

How it works: a top-level solution will use a multi-level classification approach to automatically identify and classify documents – even on a page level. Documents are automatically classified based upon intelligent document analysis technologies in combination with your customizable content and/or document tags.

With a digital mailroom solution, not a single piece of paper ever needs to be shuffled out of your mailroom, into someone’s inbox and then stored in a filing cabinet, taking up valuable space and time. Once your incoming documents have been imported into your document classification system, such as AnyDoc®CLASSIFY™, they can be automatically indexed for quick and accurate retrieval from your document management system. At the same time, each image is automatically identified. Once identified, the images are separated into individual document sets and then routed to a defined network containing your document management system, workflow system and/or into a data capture solution.

To eliminate manual data entry, document images can be automatically routed into a data capture solution such as OCR for AnyDoc® where recognition engines capture the critical information (as defined by the user) from the documents. A good solution will capture data including machine print, handprint, one- and two-dimensional bar codes or check boxes with up to 99.9% accuracy. Then user-defined business rules are applied to the captured data to increase accuracy and minimizing the need for human verification and to automatically initiate the related business-workflow for further processing.

This entire process of document and data capture and classification can be managed within a capture workflow development environment like Infiniworx®, making it possible to create and manage nearly any processing workflow – without complex programming. After selecting the drag-and-drop GUI tools desired, parameters can be easily defined using quick-select menus. The tools can be simply linked together according to existing business practices and one click starts the job.

Documents that violate existing business practices can be routed to a supervisor for review and complete document sets can be sent for approval. A number of file types (both document images and data) can be exported to any number of desired locations such as an accounting, ERP, back-end or document management system. With capture workflow integrated into the traditional routing and approval workflow and with applications such as document management, ERP or back-office, it now allows a complete workflow process to be an integral part of the information process, beginning in the mailroom.

Even with the billions of pieces of mail sent annually by the European Postal Organization, your mailroom is no longer relegated to being a potential source of information backlog at your company. With the proven benefits of digital mailroom technology available, time-consuming manual processes such as sorting, routing and data entry can now easily be replaced with a more efficient automated solution putting you in control of your business processes.

AnyDoc Software offers automated classification and data capture solutions such as AnyDoc®CLASSIFY™ and OCR for AnyDoc® as well as Infiniworx® – a capture workflow development environment.

Contact AnyDoc Software at +44 175 355 22 05 (UK), +44 41 729 63 33 (mainland Europe) or visit www.anydocsoftware.com.