Form Filling Automation is a form a robotic process automation that is used for automating the organisation’s business processes related to paper, pdf, documents, and otherwise. it is the process that utilizes software/hardware to capture the data or information on any document written in constrained textboxes, response ‘bubbles’, or free form text to convert it into digital information. It is the electronic conversion of images of typed, handwritten, or printed text into the machine-encoded text from a scanned document, photo, or an image.

The underlying technology of optical character recognition bridged the gap and provided new advents for further development in the industry. Optical character recognition is more accurate reading and converting information into digital memory from a confined text box than free-form text and suffers recognising handwritten characters or words. This is where Intelligent Character Recognition is used. ICR uses even a higher standard of image rendering from the scanned documents to recognise handwritten characters on forms and documents to be digitally stored. The pinnacle of this technology is the use IWR or Intelligent Word Recognition  which takes a step ahead by recognising the entire word or phrase altogether instead of character by character recognition enabling every organisation to automate scanning, sorting and storing of any information digitally irrespective of it being typed or handwritten.

Akiko business solutions believes that every corporate document process involve certain pre-set of activities or steps such as Identifying the type of images or documents, then classifying and sort it into a given set of formats like an invoice, timesheets, etc. Next comes reading and converting the text into digital information for it to be interpreted and derive conclusions based on a predefined logic. Finally assimilating the information to perform actions based on the conclusions from the scanned document like setting up automatic reminders, notification, store data, present information in searchable pdf formats, and so on helping an organisation reach their digital gaols streamlining the office workflow.

At Akiko Business Solutions, we believe Form Filling automation can broadly be classified into three types form filling automation, that is:

–         Predefined Standard Formats /Fixed Forms: these are the types of form which typically have data stored at the same place every time no matter the circumstances. In such forms, each specific data is stored at the same location, every time making it easier for digital process automation of converting scanned copies into digital memory.

–         Semi-Structured Formats /Semi Structures forms: these are the types of forms/documents that contain information in free text format in forms of a paragraph. They do not have the data fields at the same location and require logical assistance to follow and sort the digitally converted data into a structured format for storing and using.

–         Non-structured format/Unstructured Forms: these are the types of forms/documents that contain information only in free text form and are used where the context, format, and text are all unknown hence requiring not only OCR tools but also Natural language processing engine.

Akiko business solution is committed to helping its customer recognise the right business automation process for their business to move forward onto the journey of Digital process automation. Akiko believes that scanned, captured, and imported documents can easily be collected, sorted, and stored via form filling automation processes using the right digital processes comprising of OCR/ICR/IWR/OMR systems to help bridge the gap in business workflow processes.

These solutions help organisations bring down its costs and save valuable employee time. Such automation provides the company employees more freedom to focus on duties that directly affect the job performance. The advent use of such technology in office will help reduce the human attention needed in menial tasks such scanning, sorting, and storing of documents like official letters, minutes of meetings, tax invoices, expense invoices, etc. Use of form filling automation will help office automatically store paper workflow process digitally in a blink of eye and without any manual labour.

Akiko business solution provides its customers with the right tools for shifting to Robotic process automation and Form filling automation, freeing up its workers valuable time from the menial tasks such as data entry, storage, etc putting organisation resources to better use.

Robotic process automation or RPA is the use of technology comprising hardware/software tools to partially or fully automate human activities that are manual, rule-based, repetitive, and susceptible to human errors in nature. RPA allows businesses to configure their business infrastructure into a computer system or “robot” to parallelly imitate and assimilate the human actions, interaction, and processes into digital systems to streamline the business processes making it efficient and redundancy free.

Robotic process automation works with a simple rule of replicating human transactions and interaction that are mundane, monotonous, and manual by feeding the actions into a system with one or more software application. This enables organisation to modernize and perform business tasks such as data entry, scanning documents, standard process transaction,  and even reply to simple customer enquiries and queries freeing the employee time to be better utilized in tasks that require employee innovation and attention.

At Akiko Business Solutions, we consider RPA to not be an alternative to the existing business system, software, or application but rather an addition to the current infrastructure. It is aimed at automating human tasks and reducing human errors thereby resulting in streamlining business workflow for daily innovation and success.

Akiko Business Solutions believes that Robotic process automation is the next step in the Digital Transformation journey building on the inheritance of digitization.  Digitization is the steppingstone to Robotic process automation, as digitizing paper-based enterprise assets involve Workflow automation and Office automation.

Akiko Business Solutions are committed to providing organizations with modern-day Robotic process automation solutions to reduce staffing costs and human errors along with boosting office productivity and efficiency, streamline business processes and help engage as well as empower their customers.

Akiko Business Solutions aims to help ensure that all its customers are in line with their digital journey and with that in mind believe that Robotic process automation is the next step moving into the future. The biggest perk of making this digital switch is that it’s an addition to existing systems and infrastructure without making any alteration helping organizations reap the benefit of reduced efforts in the back office, improving customer service and engagement, and providing a competitive edge for your business.

Remember the times when sharing a 400-page document meant photocopying each page and sharing physical copies with everyone around.  Just imagine doing that today, how long, and tedious would this task be! It would have been a ‘Dog’s Breakfast’ really mate!! It would take forever if it were not for the current age of digital scanners. I am sure I would have wasted days in just copying and then sending the copies around, but these orthodox ways of sharing information are long gone.

It is safe to say it makes all of us relieved and happier considering scanning physical documents has become a usual part of our lives. A big part of my job includes scanning, studying, analyzing, and sharing documents and contract agreements. The Production Business Scanners have really eased my life, no more worrying about the tons of photocopies, paper jams, scanning multiple documents, or even in-fact the need to move away from your desk!

There are so many scanners these days but still, imagine yourself getting 100s of pages of documents every day, having the responsibility of making sure each one of them is correctly sorted and stored at company cloud servers. Also ensuring that these servers are connected to the right network for it to give access to all the interested authorized personnel in a timely fashion!

Still sounds tedious and tiresome, doesn’t it? Well, that’s a pivotal part of my job and let me break it to you, it is not at all tiresome. These days I can do all of this with just one click of a button, you might not believe me just now but here me out. I can now get done with these rambling tasks in minutes! I cannot even begin to assess the return on investment my business has made in terms of time, money, space, and just a simple increase in business efficiency.

These latest scanners by Kodak Alaris can scan the documents in seconds, create a pdf and share it via email, upload to cloud, or even link it to the database instantly and simultaneously, without even breaking a sweat!

Needless to say, this has transformed the paper workflow efficiency. This digital transformation has made the lives of my colleagues and me so much more than just easier for us to focus on further innovations in our day to day life. The merits of easy scanning, easy sharing, and providing easy access to any information anytime anywhere in a paperless environment is true bliss! The icing on the cake is the added advantage of secure data transmission provided by the seamless data protection on the servers.

If technology is a boon, these production scanners is the tool of the opportune! It is here to stay!