Whether it is talking on the phone, in-app notification, or an email alert, many business workflows involve giving and receiving information. However, one medium takes up the most time, space, and management. And that’s paper.
If you want your team to be more efficient and improve client experiences, going paperless is the simple answer though it may seem like a daunting task.
One solution is employing a scanning service that uses OCR software.
What’s OCR, you ask? Here is everything you need to know about OCR!
What is OCR?
Optical Character Recognition or Optical Character Reader (OCR) converts an image into machine-readable text by locating and recognizing characters like letters, numbers, and symbols. These images can be typed, handwritten or printed and is a widely used form of data entry.
What are the benefits of using OCR?
Searchable Text
What’s the point of going paperless if you don’t have a system to find the necessary documents? Well, OCR allows businesses to search for new and existing records. Your team will now be able to look up numbers, addresses, names, and other pertinent information that differentiates one document from another.
Increased Storage
Since you’re storing electronic documents via servers, the need for organizing and maintaining large paper files will become a thing of the past. Essentially, OCR is one of the best ways to go paperless.
Higher Efficiency
Data retrieval will become faster with OCR, making your team more productive. In addition, with less time spent digging through paper files, your employees can spend more time on core tasks.
Reduce Costs
Using OCR to convert documents into an electronic form is cheaper than hiring someone to enter large amounts of data manually. Also, if you think back to storage, you will save on office space since you will no longer need square footage to store all these records.
Data Security
We are in a digital age, so data security is critical to any business, its employees, and its consumers. While papers can be lost, misplaced, stolen, or destroyed, data that has been scanned and stored in electronic formats are less likely to experience the same.
So, should you go paperless with OCR?
Yes. Though digitizing all of those documents looks like a daunting task, the benefits are worth it. But, of course, that doesn’t mean you have to figure this all out on your own. Vendors like First Stop Services are document management and storage experts who are there to lend a helping hand.
