Digital Mailroom – Document Data Extraction

Core aspects of digital mailroom systems - automated document data extraction

DCS can add additional value to your digital mailroom solution with document data extraction. Using the example of a customer service operation, the mailroom workflow would not only be able to classify an incoming document as a complaint letter, but with extraction technology would be able to match the letter to a customer record and then deliver the letter to the right desktop with full customer history.

In the mailroom workflow, document data extraction follows the initial document capture and classification processes, which digitise and sort documents ready for delivery. Without the extraction process, documents which have been classified, for example, as invoices would simply be routed to the accounts payable department. Here, staff may need to key invoice data manually into their line of business system, whereby the keying process will typically incur a certain level of error.

Manual data entry can be avoided upstream in the mailroom workflow using sophisticated Kofax extraction technology which is able to locate and extract data from practically any document. As typical examples, data such as purchase order number, invoice number, date, amount and supplier name will be extracted from an invoice document, while extraction from a document classified as correspondence would generate data such as to, from, date and subject. The technology is also ideal for forms processing with the capability to extract both printed and handwritten information.

The extraction process can include stages of validation and verification, requiring varying levels of operator intervention, and will route exceptions for more specific handling. Routing of extracted data is taken care of using the DCS FileStore workflow program which uses pre-defined rules for accurate delivery of document data to staff, processes or systems, as well as being able to trigger alerts and generate process metrics and KPI data.