The Data capture challenge

Automated Data Capture addresses one the major sources of business pain and inefficiency- The management of unstructured data. Almost all business data, 90%, is unstructured and therefore is not easily processed in it raw form by business operations, processes and systems.

Often businesses resort to inefficient processes such as manual data entry or accept weaknesses in operational control and intelligence – all of which results on slower operations and weaker decision making.

With the growth in mobile & cloud-computing as well as widespread weaknesses in information management  – the amount of data in existence doubling every 2 years and become a major barrier to operational efficiencies and effectiveness.

90% of all business data is unstructured  – Not easily searchable nor accessible as part of a digital or automated process

McKinsey 2020

59 zettabytes

59 zettabytes is the total amount of data created, captured, copied and consumed in 2020. Statistica 2020.

55% - 65%

Unstructured data is growing at 55-65 percent each year. Datamation

30%

Knowledge workers spend 30% of their time looking for information & only find it 56% of the time. IDC

70%

Up to 70% of documentation is recreated because the original couldn’t be found or individuals didn’t know it existed! IDC

Types of Unstructured and semi-structured business data

Many businesses and their operations struggle to efficiently manage and process a wide range of unstructured and semi-structured data from varies sources and systems,

Below are some examples of common unstructured and semi-structured business data types:

 

Documents
Text & Word processing documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations e.g. contracts, case information, reports, research and even pricelists in some cases etc.

Email & Social Media
Whilst some meta data elements are structured, the body of most emails and Social media is unstructured.

Websites
News and other sites such as supplier and partner sites are largely unstructured.

Mobile Data
Text messages, elements of App data, locations.

Communications
Chat, calls, webinars, voicemail, interviews and other recordings.

Media
MP3, digital photos, audio recordings and video files.

Image and Video Data
ie for Operational performance monitoring, Health and Safety or security purposes.

Other IoT Sensor Data
This may be a mix of both semi structure and unstructured depending on the nature of the sensor.

Recent, improvements in the methods of data capture and technologies such as machine learning means that is it easier to capture and structure types of unstructured data to a level that allows digital and process automation.

What is Automated Data Capture?

Data Capture is the process of collecting, interpreting and structuring data so it can be managed and processed more efficiently through operations and systems.

A capture process will typically involve some front-end process to ingest the data from a certain source followed by a process to analyse, classify and mark-up date elements ready for further processing and automation purposes – i.e. Request details, ID, date, author, reference, cost, item number etc

As part of automated processes, various Methods of Data Capture are used to extract the required data from different data sources and containers such as invoices, contracts, case files, identification etc through to images, videos, emails, websites, digital forms, legacy databases – almost any data source

Methods of Automated Data Capture and Digitisation

There are many ways to capture, extract and structure data from different data types and sources as part of an automated process.

Discover and explore 20 Key Methods of Automated Data Capture.

Benefits of Automated Data Capture

Achieve new operational performances, efficiencies and fewer exceptions

Lower cost per incident or task

end to end control

Reduce risk and improve compliance, governance & end to end control

More informed, Data-lead decisions faster supports Business Agility & customer satisfaction

Remove complexity, simplify and focus on business priorities

Innovation and new customer experience enabler

Find out how capture solutions deliver these benefits here.

Explore Data Capture Solutions & Services

There are many solutions and services on the market for Data Capture.  ProcessFlows are an independent UK leader in automated data capture solutions, services and techniques.

Explore our broad range of Automated Data Capture Solutions and services or Speak to one of our Data Capture Experts who will help you discover the right approach for Data Capture and Automation project.

Data Capture examples & Use cases

Automated Data capture has many applications and is used in some form throughout all areas of business, to capture and structure/semi-structure data as part of optimising, digitising and automating.

View our Automated Data Capture examples & Use Cases.

Our Data Capture & Process Automation customers

From global enterprises to local small businesses, here are a some of our customers that partner with us to tame their information chaos and transform their operations and workspaces.

To read all of our success stories, visit our Case Studies page.

Why ProcessFlows for Data Capture?

We have a 35 year track record of success & expertise in data capture, digital processes and automation.

Expert and accredited capabilities from Business Process Analysts, Solutions Architects and Project Managers, through to Implementation Engineers, Software developers, Service delivery and support operations. 

We are independent. We partner with the leading data capture technology providers on the market– such as Hyland, Kofax, Opentext, Ancora, Abbyy and Microsoft

We are Microsoft Gold Partners, with in-house developers and our own Intelligent data capture automation and services platform

For these reasons and more, ProcessFlows should be your trusted partner to support your process and business transformation. Find out more by clicking here.

Request a Consultation with a Data Capture Expert

What’s your data challenge?

We offer Free of Charge data and process consultations to help you digitise and automate your operations and build your business case for change.

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