The right technology can speed up your transition to a fully digital company

In virtually every industry, analog processes are being retired in favor of digitization. To stay competitive, companies must move their physical files to the virtual world. This can be a time-consuming, tedious process without the benefit of optical character recognition (OCR) technology. OCR speeds up digitization by creating digital documents with searchable text, rather than images. That’s why this technology should be a priority for business leaders during their digital transformation.

Not all OCR works the same way. Depending on your business needs, you might need full-page OCR, form OCR, or a combination of both. Learning the difference will help you better understand what you need and help you lead your company to a productive digital transformation.

For a deeper dive into optical character recognition technology, read OCR Made Simple: A Guide to Understanding Optical Character Recognition.

Understanding the basics of OCR

When you scan documents, they’re converted into images by default. If you want to be able to find the information in them later, you’ll need someone to manually type everything out or spend hours tagging and indexing the image files.

OCR cuts the manual part out of the digitization process. It uses pattern analysis and algorithmic matching to identify letters, numbers, and symbols. The result is machine-readable digital text in far less time than it would take to do it by hand. That’s why quality scanners and OCR software are so integral to the digital transformation process.

Did You Know?:The RICOH fi-8170 scanner comes with PaperStream software, which boasts sophisticated OCR features. With scanning speeds of up to 70 double-sided pages per minute, your business could digitize thousands of documents per workday. Click here to learn more.

What is full-page OCR?

As its name suggests, full-page OCR scans an entire page of text and converts it into a digital document. It’s the more commonly used form of optical character recognition in the business world, so when leaders refer to “OCR,” they typically mean full-page OCR.

When using full-page OCR, everything on the scanned page is converted into actionable data. This makes it ideal for digitizing files with vast amounts of text like books, manuscripts, and newspapers. Full-page OCR uses machine learning technology to analyze these documents’ layouts and recognize elements like illustrations, charts, and graphs, in addition to the text itself.

As a result, users can then find exactly what they need within the text just by searching for a word or phrase. For example, if you wanted to find your company’s historical records regarding economic fluctuations, your search would not only bring up the relevant files but show you exactly where the information you’re looking for is within them. Even if these files are nestled within several subfolders, you can instantly pull up the correct data rather than scrolling through dozens of JPEG files.

What is form OCR?

As critical as full-page OCR is to business operations, there may be times when you don’t need to scan an entire page of text. That’s where form OCR comes in. This technology uses form field recognition to scan common fields like names, dates, signatures, and checkboxes. That information can then be placed into pre-determined templates.

As its name suggests, form OCR is essential in form-heavy industries like healthcare and finance. It’s also routinely used in the legal field. This allows hospitals, tax preparation companies, and law offices to quickly process intake forms and better serve clients and patients.

To understand how this works in practice, think about your last trip to the doctor’s office and the forms you had to fill out to be seen. Now imagine it’s a hospital visit during a family emergency. With form OCR, the front desk team can scan that paperwork and make the information available to the medical team almost immediately. The alternative is having someone manually enter that information into the system while your family member waits to be seen.

The role of hardware in OCR

While optical character recognition is a software function, it requires accurate scanning hardware. You’ll need a high-resolution scanner with features that enhance its accuracy. For example, the https://www.pfu-us.ricoh.com/scanners/fi/fi-8170 uses a proprietary color-matching processor to ensure optimal scan quality.

This is particularly important if you’re primarily using full-page OCR during the digitization process. With so much data to parse, you don’t have time to waste on rescans because a page got skewed or distorted. By investing in quality scanning hardware, you can better put OCR technology to good use.

Did You Know?:PCMag gave the RICOH fi-8170 four out of five stars and a coveted Editors’ Choice award. The publication praised the scanner’s “accurate OCR,” as well as its fast scanning speeds and robust software suite. Read the full review here.

Elevate your business with Ricoh hardware and software

For modern businesses, the question isn’t if it should undergo digital transformation — it’s when it should. Don’t fall behind your competitors by putting it off because you’re worried about the time and effort digitization takes. When you invest in the right hardware and pair it with OCR-capable software, you can streamline the process and make your organization more efficient.

The speedy RICOH fi Series of scanners comes bundled with PaperStream software, which uses advanced image processing to increase OCR accuracy. If you’re not sure which Ricoh solution best meets your business needs, just ask! Set up a free assessment to determine which scanner most ideally suits your workload and get a personalized demo.

Note: Information and external links are provided for your convenience and for educational purposes only, and shall not be construed, or relied upon, as legal or financial advice. PFU America, Inc. makes no representations about the contents, features, or specifications on such third-party sites, software, and/or offerings (collectively “Third-Party Offerings”) and shall not be responsible for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of such Third-Party Offerings. Please consult with a licensed professional regarding your specific situation as regulations may be subject to change.