Earlier this year AIIM conducted a survey, in partnership with Parascript, called “The Leaders in Capture.” The purpose of this annual survey is to better understand how organizations are using advanced data capture techniques currently, what their vision and plans are for the technologies and capabilities in future, and where they feel are the roadblocks to success and the avenues to gaining advantage.
This research is valuable because it provides a real-world snapshot of the current state of adoption and implementation of advanced capture. Indeed, 100% of the survey participants are actively involved with managing the planning, selection, configuration, or operation of a document capture. As a result, the findings and perspectives provided by the survey are rooted in the day-to-day struggles and success experienced in AIIM member organizations today.
Leading Questions
We asked participants a number of questions, but our focus was most predominantly aimed at these three inquiries: How are people capturing information today? What are the roadblocks and opportunities associated with data capture? And where are things headed in terms of technology selection and application?
Survey Findings
There were some important findings, many of them are included in this infographic.
The direction of document processing automation over the next three years is definitely trending away from paper to a more digitally focused approach; 70% of survey respondents indicate that they plan to expand document processing to include more digitally-born documents this year. And 41% said they plan to more fully embrace electronic forms.
The intersection of advanced capture and Robotic Process Automation is on the minds of survey participants. Advanced capture is already involved with 10% of existing RPA implementations and almost 25% say they plan to incorporate capture into RPA-based processes in 2019. Indeed, only 4% said they plan to use RPA without capture.
Future Plans
Where are organizations planning to use RPA? Over 40% said they are using it in records management. Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable, Human Resources, and customer onboarding all ranked high for RPA with capture. Automation of new account openings, legal services and claims processing are also on the radar for many organizations.
Roadblocks
There were some drawbacks that were uncovered in the survey. The greatest weakness identified is the inability to extract handwriting on documents. The complexity of configuration and the learning curve to get proficient were also identified as roadblocks to innovation, and the inability handle unstructured documents continues to be a driving concern among capture users.
Paper is still prevalent when it comes to data capture. All respondents say that they manage multiple document types, and 65% say they have more than ten document types and variations within these types. But there are some inroads to going paperless; 40% of survey participants indicate that AP/AR is ‘mostly paperless’ and HR, onboarding and contract management also ranked high on the going-paperless scale.
Machine Learning
Most survey participants, over 62%, said that they have not yet implemented document automation with Machine Learning. Of those that have adopted a combination of ML and capture technologies, however, nearly 40% said they were satisfied with the results so far. This may account for the upswing in adoption over last year; 38% in 2019 vs 30% in 2018 have advanced capture with Machine Learning.
Real World Snapshot
This annual survey is an important one because it provides a real-world snap shot of adoption trends based on empirical feedback. AIIM practitioners from government and private sectors, banking, finance, and insurance, and a range of IT and high tech industries all provided their experiences and opinions regarding the day-to-day struggles and successes experienced in organizations today.
The Digital Transformation Journey
At AIIM, we believe that every organization is on — or should be on — a Digital Transformation journey. At the heart of this transformation journey is information, the currency that fuels and funds the digital transformation journey. It is the common denominator in customer experience, business agility, operational excellence and automation; all stem from intelligent information management.
