Forms Processing Enables Automation

BPA (business process automation) – the replacement of manual business processes with automated versions – is becoming increasingly essential to boosting efficiencies and cutting costs. At the same time, BPA is becoming easier for many companies to achieve because of advancements in unstructured forms processing technology. Unstructured forms processing is not just being used to capture data anymore; it is increasingly being used to classify document types (e.g. invoices, sales orders, purchase orders, enrollment forms) and route these documents accordingly into company workflows.

Forms processing originated with the handling of standard forms – that is, when a company received a very large volume of the same type of form, such as colleges or loan offices receiving applications. These companies would set up document imaging systems and program the imaging software with the template of the forms to be processed. The software would then know what data to extract from the form, but if a form that didn't fit the template came in to the company, the software wouldn't be able to pull all the necessary data from it. "Traditional forms processing solutions work for companies like Publishers Clearinghouse, where 90% of the documents coming in are contest documents, which are usually the same size and shape," says Sam Schrage, VP of marketing and operations for document imaging vendor AnyDoc Software, Inc. "If you have a business where you receive a large volume of documents that include a variety of different forms, until recently, you were stuck."