In a world where nearly 3 quintillion bytes of data are created every day, where piles and piles of documents require accurate processing for any business to run smoothly, RPA is proven to enhance operational efficiency. Before Intelligent Document Understanding, automated processes required humans to step in and process documents manually. At the same time, before Document Understanding was integrated into RPA, RPA was only usable for highly manual, rule-based processes, with only a few exceptions and standardized input. Now you can teach robots to handle an entire process. The enticing prospect of having robots operate a wide range of documents (that have an expanded array of formats and layouts) can only generate a positive impact on business performance and productivity. With such technology, humans only need to check in and validate data or handle exceptions.

Any industry should reap the advantages of automation, from financial to retail, manufacturing, healthcare, or the public sector. As UiPath USN and Gold Partners, we are constantly inspired by the impressive results of delivering RPA solutions to our clients, especially in terms of error-free data processing, speed, accuracy and, of course, employee satisfaction. An interesting insight about the latter comes from Gartner, in one of their studies on Financial businesses:

"the average amount of avoidable rework in accounting departments can take up to 30% of a full-time employee's overall time. This equates to savings of 25,000 hours per year at a cost of $878,000 for an organization with 40 full-time accounting staff."

The buildup of paperwork is a daily routine, forcing employees to focus on manual, time-consuming work instead of more valuable tasks that could free them from daunting repetitive tasks, raising motivation and driving company growth. An excellent example of how this can be improved is through the highly useful automation solution entitled intelligent document processing. In short, this describes the process performed by software robots in which they read, interpret and act on document data automatically. The UiPath definition of it is:

'Intelligent document processing technologies incorporating machine learning capabilities, allow the robots' artificial intelligence to understand documents as digital assistants. This way, we can say that document understanding emerges at the intersection of document processing, AI, and RPA.'

Business needs for automated document processing

Invoices, orders, payment notices, confirmations, timesheets, services statements, performance reviews, receipts, financial statements, request for proposals are just some of the documents that businesses need to keep track of nowadays.

Companies deal with increasing volumes of data in various paper and electronic formats. RPA 3.0 can't handle the complexity of, for instance, unstructured data or handwritten documents, which limits the efficiency of document-based processes and overall productivity.

Here is where RPA & AI come into play. The two technologies provide software robots that understand your documents, extract, interpret, and process data for a high variety of document formats from PDFs to images, and scans.

Automated document processing framework

RPA and AI are paired to enable intelligent document processing within the automated processes. Allowing automation of complex and cognitive processes must be ensured with a framework that can deal with the way documents are structured, different file formats or low-resolution scanned documents.

The UiPath Document Understanding Framework encompasses 6 steps that help you leverage a dynamic document understanding ecosystem which can extend the framework to diverse document types and business needs.

The 6 steps are:

1. Load taxonomy - define the files and data for extraction.

2. Digitize - use the optical character recognition (OCR) to provide text and its location.

3. Classify - classify the documents from the specified list.

4. Extract - extract information from

5. Validate - if needed, a human can check in to confirm or correct the extracted data.

6. Export - send the extracted info for further usage.

This framework can operate with such use cases that involve documents and the positive results are indisputable: it saves time and costs spent on manual document processing, helps reduce the risk of human error, improves compliance and prevents losses for the company and its customers.

More benefits of implementing document process automation are:

• Cost reduction: after implementing the ML-empowered RPA solution for one of our clients, the costs associated with the process reduced to 35% compared to the previous state of manual processing.

• Process standardization: operational processes are simplified and streamlined, especially for those with high manual document analysis workload with a standard operating procedure.

• Process optimization: the result of applying robotic process automation to the document processing operations brought a 40% boost in productivity.

• Increased efficiency: after one of our projects, now the results show a 17%​ reduction in time employees spent on document processing​ which streamlines the operations and helps the workforce focus on more important tasks.

• Boosted employee satisfaction: employees were relieved of the manual, error-prone steps of the process and could now focus on more value-adding tasks which led to a 40% increase in employee productivity.

• Scalability & flexibility: additional robots could be employed during peak periods to ensure the entire workload is managed without additional user intervention.

Accesa RPA & AI Solutions

Accesa is one of the leading RPA implementation partners in the DACH region. Given our Gold Partnership with UiPath and UiPath USN certification, we help you implement non-invasive, game-changing technologies that will transform your business. By automating repetitive activities, you leave more room for your employees to focus on value-adding tasks.

With over 30 RPA and UiPath specialists, we are happy to support you throughout your journey and offer RPA services tailored to your personal needs. You can discover more about our offering by joining this upcoming Document Understanding webinar.