Data is the cornerstone of most businesses. This has led to more data being generated in the last two years than during the entire human history. Today, 80% of a business’ data is embedded in unstructured formats. One of the biggest challenges many businesses are facing is utilizing this unstructured data in a smart way. This includes documents such as emails, PFDs, scanned images, online forms, receipts, and more. That's where Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) comes in. 

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As the name suggests, IDP is about processing documents (data) in an intelligent way that helps businesses to capture, extract and process data from these unstructured and semi-structured documents and turn this into usable data. This usable data is then used in a workflow that integrates the data with the systems (ERP, CRM, Portals,...). An IDP tool is preferably used with an automation/integration platform that is able to manage the exceptions and different business rules. The different sub-technologies used for IDP are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Computer Vision and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR).

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The benefits of IDP:

• Efficiency – IDP and other automated processes eliminate the need for manual work and intervention. This means with just a click of a button, data can be captured, sorted, and routed to the relevant location. This improves the overall efficiency of document and data processing.
• Speed – As well as boosting efficiency, IDP reduces the time it takes to get larger volumes of data processed. So a task that takes a human a few minutes to complete can be achieved by an IDP system in a matter of microseconds.
• Cost-effective – Companies who add IDP solutions to their workflow see quicker processing times and a decrease in labour costs. Getting more work done in a shorter space of time also saves on operational costs.
• Quality and accuracy – Every business wants to deliver the best results for themselves and for their clients and customers. IDP improves the quality of the data being extracted and reduces the risk of human error. It also automatically sorts the data into relevant, safe systems and makes this data quicker to access.
• Compliance – Intelligent Data Processing is a secure technology that makes it better for maintaining data privacy and security. This helps businesses to stay compliant with data protection laws such as General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
• Reliability – As well as improving accuracy, it’s also proven that machines are more reliable than humans when doing repetitive tasks.‍
• Scalability – IDP is not specific to any one process and is therefore scalable. This means it can be applied to multiple systems and applications to make document processing much easier and more efficient across the business.

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