As we move further into the digital age, more people move their essential processes and information online for increased security, better risk management, and quick accessibility. Two of the leading types of software streamlining the transition to a virtual environment are document recognition and management systems. Systems like these eliminate the need for tedious physical filing and organization of documents and add a plethora of capabilities to help the user work more efficiently. While system applications can range from industry-specific to general, almost all document recognition and management systems require a few main components for proper functionality.
Document Management Challenges Faced by Utilities
One of the most challenging document-related challenges in the utility industry is accessing and manipulating property record information that was traditionally stored inefficiently. With the correct software, however, utility firms can easily access the records and documents they need.
Energy and utility facilities are complex systems whose safe and efficient operations depend on the synergy between diverse internal and external groups. These facilities also generate large volumes of mission-critical content in real-time. Document management for the energy and utility sector is critical in that sense. It can also help such companies manage their plants, processes, and assets to minimize operational and financial risk while offering substantial upside from efficient decision-making.
Document Management Solution
One of the essential elements for document management is an organized and cloud-based document viewing system. For a document management system to be useful, the base requirement is an intuitive file explorer. This replaces things like filing cabinets where documents can get lost or are incredibly unorganized. Instead, everything can be seen on a dashboard in a manner that makes sense and can be sifted through with ease. It is also essential for a document management system to extract multiple file types such as PDFs, images, audio files, and video files.
A well-designed system will:
- Offer quick and easy storage and retrieval of information.
- Ensure integrity and continuity of recordkeeping practices despite personnel changes.
- Align with the retention periods of the records it contains.
- Be expandable and flexible enough to meet users’ needs.
Optical Character Recognition
A crucial capability of successful document recognition systems is OCR or optical character recognition. OCR extracts data from uploaded documents, enabling the system to recognize, index, extract and store information. Another key function of a document recognition system is the ability to configure the types of documents needed for extraction. By being able to configure a general format for what fields and values to extract from a document, users have much more control over what gets extracted and how the extracted information is organized. This allows for more efficient data collection and better usability of the information extracted.
- Optical Character Recognition algorithms can automatically digitize these documents, extract the required information, and enter them into an online database for storage, alleviating the need for large, expensive, and even error-prone manual entry teams.
- OCR technology provides the backbone for automating invoice and utility bill processing. By adding machine learning, artificial intelligence, and an extensive quality assurance process – the process is optimized for success.
ANB’s Document Recognition Management (DRM) Software Solution
DRM is an intuitive document management system that automates workflow and document tagging for a variety of files, making document organization more efficient. These tags enable the user to locate documents easily and index the contents of those documents quickly. DRM’s indexing can search through tags, file names, and metadata to find whatever the user needs.
DRM’s document recognition has advanced OCR that expedites the extraction of relevant information from documents in an automated workflow or configuration. To extract specific information, DRM can make custom configurations based on document type and content e.g. an Automatic Nameplate Recognition API that works on all certificate formats. To continually improve upon its configuration accuracy, DRM utilizes machine learning. This feature takes user feedback and learns from errors to constantly improve the system’s recognition of content.
Unique Features of DRM
Role-Based Access
The cloud-based platform controls access to viewing documents and their related analysis and manages processing workflows responding to the business changes.
Auto-Extraction
Upon upload, various insights are extracted from a document based on context and configuration. This makes it easier to review and search relevant content from documents and integrate analysis with other platforms.
Document Explorer
The documents and images are managed in an intuitive file explorer that automates routine workflow actions such as document tagging, extraction of relevant text, and search indexing the file’s contents.
Machine Learning
The system recognizes the content based on configurations built for document templates. When a user provides feedback with corrections to the data, the system learns from the errors to improve the recognition as we advance.
Analytics
Customizes reports to make the complex analysis simpler for easy review. View detailed reports on a single screen on the uploaded documents. Reports can be customized to be ad-hoc or scheduled.
Benefits of DRM to Utilities
- Automated workflow
- Reduced storage space
- Low cost
- Enhanced security
- Easier information retrieval
- Robust indexing of documents
- Quick deployments
- Better collaboration
- Better backup and disaster recovery
Document recognition and management systems have gained traction in almost every industry; ANB Systems has combined the two in its proprietary DRM software. DRM exceeds most systems’ standard features with its automated tagging, advanced OCR, and machine learning capabilities.
Written by – Sanjeev Panja
Sanjeev Panja during his six weeks summer internship at ANB Systems. Sanjeev worked heavily with DRM, in which he especially enjoyed configuring field section searches on differe\ forms.
