Kofax Launches Ephesoft Transact 2022.1.01
New release features on-premises handwriting extraction capabilities and new features to accelerate time-to-value
Kofax is excited to announce its first release of Ephesoft Transact since the recent integration of Ephesoft into the Kofax product ecosystem. The new version of Transact includes a host of new features that will significantly simplify and accelerate document set-up processes, saving valuable time and resources. In addition, this release enables premium data extraction from handwritten documents on-premises, which will allow customers with even the strictest security policies to process handwritten documents in their own safe environment.
Here are some of the new capabilities in Kofax’s Ephesoft Transact 2022.1.01:
No Configuration, Simple Table Data Extraction
The Semantik AI Engine™ in Transact now supports data extraction for simple tables. Like the existing key-value extraction feature that was included in our May release, table extraction is built on advanced computer vision technology with a deep learning neural network and can process simple tables out-of-the-box without the need for configuration. This pre-trained model can be deployed to both on-premises and cloud environments and works for all Latin character-based languages. This feature is available to all Transact users and does not require additional licensing.
Document Design Accelerator Enhancement
The Document Design Accelerator leverages Semantik AI Engine’s new table extraction capabilities, allowing table rules to be designed with a simple drag and drop on a sample document. For document formats that use rules, this will make it even easier and faster to process documents.
Premium Handwriting On-Premises
Transact on-premises customers with strict security policies that don’t allow for any document cloud processing, now have the option to process handwritten documents and achieve high-quality results. Using their own license, customers can now run the Microsoft Azure Computer Vision OCR Engine as a Docker container on-premises and access it through our Advanced_HOCR plugin. (Microsoft Azure Computer Vision is a separate charge from Transact).
Automatic Key-Value Plugin Integration
The popular plugin from Ephesoft Labs is now officially certified and supported with Transact. The AutoKV (Automatic Key-Value) plugin solves a common problem in document extraction – rules that once processed all the data variations, can’t adapt as new, unanticipated data arrives. AutoKV addresses this ‘data drift’ by automatically deriving new rules from the validation corrections so the new variants get processed correctly in the future.
Batch Class Design Experience Enhancements
Batch class designers who want to reuse rules with other document types and batch classes can now do so with ease. This feature easily allows batch export and import of extraction rules for key-value index fields and classification. In addition, the user interface has been improved to simplify batch class design and drive efficiency.
Enhanced Email Ingestion
Our email ingestion improves attachment handling whether the content is assembled from Microsoft Outlook or modern web-based services. You’ll see a reduction in an operator’s manual exception handling of irrelevant document content.
Customers are encouraged to move to the latest version to take advantage of the newest features and enhancements. If you’d like to learn more about this release or have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Partner Manager or you can contact us here.
Using the Power of IDP and RPA to Achieve Hyperautomation
Modern businesses are capturing more data than ever before. However, most organizational leaders find that their business processing capabilities lag far behind their ability to collect user data. According to recent research, businesses only analyze 37% to 40% of data.
While many factors contribute to the underutilization of data, one key driver is insufficient staff members available to extract data from documents. The sheer volume of data businesses collect considerably outpaces their ability to extract, structure and analyze it.
Many organizations are investing in hyperautomation initiatives to overcome this data processing hurdle. The term "hyperautomation" refers to the systematic approach of identifying and automating as many organizational processes as possible.
The US hyperautomation market is projected to reach $596.6 billion by the end of 2022. Globally, the market is valued at over $9 billion.
While the hyperautomation market is experiencing meteoric growth, it is still relatively young. As such, it is continuously evolving. However, two essential tools have already emerged as integral components of an effective hyperautomation strategy. These tools are intelligent document processing (IDP) technology and robotic process automation (RPA) software.
By tapping into the power of IDP and RPA, your organization can lay the foundation for a successful hyperautomation initiative.
What Is Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)?
Intelligent document processing is a technology solution that significantly enhances the data extraction capabilities of any business. Instead of relying on individual business users to manually extract and input data, organizations can automate this process through IDP.
Modern IDP technology uses machine learning and artificial intelligence software to capture and classify unstructured data. Once the data is captured and organized, it can be analyzed using integrated technologies like RPA.
What Is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
Robotic process automation solutions are advanced pieces of software that can mimic human actions. Specifically, RPA software simulates human routing and data capture tasks. RPA has long been a valuable asset within digitally transformed businesses. However, RPA also plays a critical role in hyperautomation.
The Achilles' Heel of RPA software is that the technology must access structured data. Otherwise, RPA bots cannot accurately analyze data or provide business users with actionable intelligence. This need is where IDP comes into play.
By combining the power of IDP and RPA, businesses can feed their data processing machines more effectively. IDP technology captures and structures data. RPA bots then use this data to conduct extensive analysis. IDP and RPA are complementary solutions that can boost efficiency and productivity within an organization.
How RPA and IDP Fit into Your Hyperautomation Strategy
To create and implement a hyperautomation strategy, you must leverage the power of IDP and RPA. Additionally, you will need to use several other hyperautomation tools. These tools are closely intertwined and often overlap, which is why the concept of hyperautomation can be somewhat complex.
The core hyperautomation tools that your organization should use outside of RPA and IDP include the following:
- Machine learning
- Artificial intelligence
- Robotic process automation
- Chatbots
- Data mining
- Process automation software
Intelligent document processing is a form of process automation software. This IDP technology also incorporates both machine learning and AI.
These components make IDP a foundational element of effective hyperautomation strategies. It combines multiple tools that drive efficiency, increase data harvesting capabilities and feed RPA bots.
How to Leverage the Power of IDP and RPA
If your organization is ready to create a hyperautomation initiative that is fueled by the power of IDP and RPA, you should start by:
Defining Your Why
There is no question that adopting hyperautomation tools like intelligent document processing can transform your enterprise processes. However, to set the stage for a successful hyperautomation strategy, you must first define your organization's specific "why."
As you move from where your organization is to where you want it to go, it can be easy to lose sight of your overarching goals and objectives. By defining why you want to tap into the power of IDP and RPA, you can help your organizational leadership stay focused on its end game.
These goals and objectives will serve as mile markers as you navigate your hyperautomation journey.
Identify Processes that Are Ripe for Automation
After determining why you want to integrate IDP and RPA technologies into your enterprise processes, the next step is deciding where these solutions will make the most significant impact. During this phase of your journey, you should identify your most inefficient processes and those that would be the easiest to automate.
Often, these processes are the same, but that is not always the case. In some instances, extremely inefficient and convoluted processes will be challenging to automate.
While this certainly should not discourage you from doing so, pursuing a few "easy wins" in the early days of your hyperautomation initiative is essential. This approach will allow you to demonstrate the strategy's efficacy, improve employee buy-in and generate a faster return on investment.
Implementing IDP and RPA
Once you know your "why" and have determined which processes are ripe for automation, it is time to implement IDP and RPA technologies. To streamline this phase of your journey, you should consider partnering with an experienced implementation partner that offers both IDP and RPA solutions.
Such a partner will be able to not only provide a frictionless deployment but will also offer insights regarding how to leverage these interconnected hyperautomation resources.
After you have begun using the power of IDP and RPA, continually search for ways to improve your hyperautomation initiatives. You should explore new automation opportunities, introduce your IDP and RPA software to different departments and add more business users so that the entire team can boost their efficiency and productivity.
Doing so can reduce the workload on your staff, increase organizational agility and optimize financial performance, all while gaining critical market insights that improve your competitive positioning.
Are you ready to harness the power of IDP and RPA to kickstart hyperautomation? We can help.
The Benefits of Automation and Sustainability in Business
If your organization has explored automation technologies like intelligent document processing (IDP) solutions, you're probably already well aware of the efficiency benefits they can provide. IDP solutions can increase your organization's capacity to process documents and boost your entire team's productivity.
That said, automation technologies also offer a multitude of other benefits.
Automation and sustainability are inextricably linked. As your organization implements additional automation solutions, you'll find it's better equipped to achieve its sustainability goals.
Examining the nexus between automation and sustainability can help you better understand the sustainability benefits that automation technologies provide, giving you more reasons to incorporate them into your organizational strategy.
The Global Paper Waste Problem
While an organization's energy consumption certainly contributes to its carbon footprint, another offender is flying just under the radar -- the massive amounts of paper that global companies consume yearly.
According to a 2022 Statista report, total US paper consumption declined between 2000 and 2020. At the turn of the Millenium, the country consumed 93.4 million metric tons of paper. By 2020, that figure had dropped to 63.6 million metric tons. The US is trending in the right direction, but businesses can still do better.
What's more concerning is global paper consumption. Another 2022 report from Statista found that global paper consumption in 2021 totaled 408 million metric tons. By 2032, that figure is projected to climb to 476 million metric tons.
Cumulatively, paper production accounts for a relatively small percentage of total CO2 emissions. According to 2021 data, the paper and pulp industry generates about 2% of all CO2 emissions.
Regardless, the report also found that this figure represents an all-time high. Because paper production is projected to increase, businesses must act now to minimize their paper usage and reduce their environmental impact.
Benefits of Automating Your Processes
In some instances, adopting sustainable development goals requires businesses to compromise. Business leaders are often forced to make significant changes to their core processes that will, at least temporarily, reduce operational efficiency and decrease productivity.
Fortunately, this isn't the case regarding automation and sustainability. Implementing automation technologies yields many benefits in terms of operation and sustainability, including:
Reducing Waste
The most obvious advantage of adopting automation technologies is that these solutions help businesses cut down on waste. Intelligent Document Processing solutions, in particular, are a considerable waste reducer.
Reducing the amount of paper waste your business creates has trickle-down cost-saving effects as well. Not only will your business have to purchase fewer paper products, but it will also be able to buy fewer printers, ink cartridges, staples, staplers and paper clips. Over time, this can lead to significant cost reductions.
Additionally, decreasing waste reduces overhead expenses associated with disposing and recycling trash. While you may not be able to immediately transition to a zero-waste business model, even cutting your waste production in half will make a significant impact on your overhead expenses.
Demonstrating Commitment to Sustainable Development Goals
One of the less obvious benefits of implementing automation technology is that it allows you to demonstrate that your organization is focused on sustainable initiatives. This has become increasingly important because modern consumers are more conscious of the behaviors of the companies they work with.
After you've created sustainable development goals and taken meaningful action to achieve them, you can share this news with your target audience. Doing so will bolster your brand image, help you build trust with consumers or business partners and strengthen your competitive positioning within your respective market.
Minimizing Your Environmental Impact
Recently, businesses worldwide have been making concerted efforts to reduce their carbon footprints. You can also decrease your company's carbon footprint by exploring ways to reduce your consumption of products produced using fossil fuels.
What exactly does this have to do with automation and sustainability? Simple--Automation technologies can make your business less reliant on goods that aren't manufactured using sustainable practices. A few examples include:
- Paper
- Staples and paper clips
- Printers
- Ink cartridges
- File folders
Ultimately, minimizing your consumption of these products will diminish your overall environmental impact. While your company alone may not be able to move the needle, the cumulative effects of most businesses joining this sustainability movement can be astounding.
Decrease the Workload on Personnel
In addition to providing significant sustainability benefits, automation technologies can significantly decrease your personnel's workload, as you can use these technologies to automate processes that are traditionally tedious and labor-intensive.
Reducing your staff's workload can boost morale, improve employee retention, minimize turnover, and increase overall productivity. In an advantageous cycle, these benefits can indirectly enhance the efficacy of your sustainability initiatives.
Furthermore, employee buy-in to your program can skyrocket when your sustainability investments improve your staff's work experience. Implementing new technologies and business processes can also be much easier when everyone is on board.
Improve Financial Performance
Implementing interconnected automation and sustainability initiatives promises to reduce waste, decrease operating expenses, boost staff morale and increase team productivity.
Although implementing your automation solution will require an initial investment and commitment from the executive suite, the technology will yield a streamlined time to value.
When you account for the attendant sustainability benefits provided by automation solutions, it's clear that these technologies provide a clear path forward for your business. Automation technologies will help your organization strengthen its cash flow while enhancing its brand image and advancing its sustainability goals.
Building Sustainable Models
Automation and sustainability should never be treated as separate concepts or ideas. Instead, automation should be viewed as a valuable tool that can be used to achieve sustainability goals while also making your entire organization more efficient.
If your company has begun prioritizing sustainable development goals in its overarching organizational strategy, automation technologies should be a cornerstone of your plan.
Employee Spotlight: Dave Almond
As Ephesoft continues to grow, employees are a critical part of who we are as a company and represent our values, brand and drive innovation. Get to know one of our team members and enjoy many more interviews to come.
Dave Almond, Director of Engineering
5.3 years at Ephesoft
Dave Almond’s career at Ephesoft began in July 2017. Since then, he has held several positions within the organization and amassed a wealth of experience, making him a critical part of the team.
Today, Dave holds the title of Director of Engineering. This position gives him the opportunity to have a hand in all of Ephesoft’s top projects and solutions. He also has the chance to work with our dynamic and talented team of engineers, developers and support staff.
While Dave has been a member of Ephesoft for five years, his history with the company’s innovative technology spans nearly a decade. Dave’s first experience with Ephesoft came about in 2013.
At that time, Dave worked for a company interested in automating a labor-intensive manual process. This particular process had become a significant pain point for the company, as it was error-laden, time-consuming and inefficient. The process involved staff members manually entering tens of thousands of tenant records for a social housing company. As you might imagine, this undertaking was detrimental to productivity and resulted in a tremendous amount of waste.
Though the mere thought of manually entering this many records may seem foreign today, the concept of hyperautomation did not come about for another six years until Gartner coined the phrase in 2019. Even still, forward-looking professionals like Dave were already exploring ways to drive efficiency by leveraging automation technology.
Dave’s desire to improve efficiency for the company led him to Ephesoft. After convincing the organizational leadership to adopt the technology, he and his cohorts built an automated process around Ephesoft’s platform. As soon as the company went live with Ephesoft, productivity skyrocketed, and errors all but vanished. The strategy worked so well that the company still uses it today.
After Dave’s first interaction with Ephesoft, he was hungry to become more proficient with the technology. Later in 2013, he became an Ephesoft Certified Engineer. He went on to open his own company and built several solutions on the Ephesoft Transact platform between 2015 and 2016.
In late 2016, Dave contracted with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. As part of his responsibilities with Hewlett Packard, he helped deploy Ephesoft Transact for a U.K. financial institution. Unsurprisingly, the deployment went off without a hitch.
After accruing nearly five years of independent experience with Ephesoft’s technology solutions, Dave decided he wanted to work directly with the company. This led him to become part of the Ephesoft family in 2017.
Dave’s first role with Ephesoft was as a senior consultant in the Professional Services team. As part of this team, he provided consulting and support services to new and existing Ephesoft clients. Dave excelled in this position, as he is a genuine “people person” and enjoys stepping up for his clients.
After serving on this team for approximately 18 months, he transitioned to his first leadership role with Ephesoft. Dave became the manager of the EMEA and APAC PS teams. He spent nearly two years in this role and then became the Director of Engineering in January 2021.
Dave has experienced the “power and flexibility” of Ephesoft from several different perspectives: customer, system integrator, professional services consultant and developer. This dynamic range of experiences with the technology serves Dave well as he asks challenging questions and “provides leadership and direction to the engineering and product teams at Ephesoft.”
When asked what he enjoys most about his current role with Ephesoft, Dave stated that he gets “a real kick out of solving problems for customers and designing and building cool new technology.”
While Dave loves his role as a builder and fixer, he also enjoys the other side of his job. Specifically, he relishes any opportunity to lead, mentor and help his team hone their skills.
In terms of career challenges, Dave dislikes that he cannot fix “everything all at once.” He wishes he had more hours in the day to instantly put all of his clients’ “great ideas” to use. Fortunately for Dave and Ephesoft clients, he has a great team around him that can fill critical needs and meet delivery deadlines.
Dave’s passion for his clients and the growth of his team are evident in everything he does. Considering his professional mantra, this should come as no surprise.
“A job’s not worth doing unless it’s done properly.”
Dave lives this mantra and encourages his team to do the same, especially when developing solutions for clients.
When Dave is not working on refining Ephesoft’s dynamic lineup of products or helping his team achieve personal growth, he pursues one of his several hobbies. Dave’s go-to way to unwind is photography, although he has admittedly shelved this hobby for those that are less time-intensive.
These days, Dave spends his evenings building gadgets or tinkering with microcontrollers and other electronics. He also writes code for home automation tech. Additionally, Dave enjoys playing indoor short mat bowls and outdoor crown green bowls. These games are popular in the United Kingdom but virtually unheard of in the U.S. He plays leisurely games with his family. He occasionally signs up for competitions with his daughter. The pair typically do pretty well, according to Dave.
His other hobbies include hiking, walking and exploring nature. When he has a little extra downtime, Dave is known to plan out more involved adventures or make his way to museums and historical sites.
Dave is well-rounded both professionally and personally. His unique mix of talents, interests and skills make him a perfect fit for Ephesoft, especially when these attributes are paired with his unflinching passion for automation technologies. Like the company he works for, Dave enjoys pushing the innovation envelope.
Dave Almond clearly is and will remain a valuable part of the Ephesoft team for years to come.
Employee Spotlight: Josh Burt
As Ephesoft continues to grow, employees are a critical part of who we are as a company and represent our values, brand and drive innovation. Get to know one of our team members and enjoy many more interviews to come.
Josh Burt, Senior Engineer
3.1 years at Ephesoft
Josh Burt is a fundamental difference maker on Ephesoft's data science team. His work as a senior engineer is invaluable to Ephesoft and its diverse array of clients.
Upon meeting Josh today, one would immediately realize that he was destined to pursue a profession in data science. He has an affinity for identifying table structures, analyzing value pairs and detecting patterns among massive amounts of data.
Josh's journey to Ephesoft started in the rural Idaho countryside. He was born and raised in Boise, Idaho although he now recently lives in Seattle, Washington. His first exposure to programming occurred when he was 13 years old. His junior high school lacked a full-length programming class. Fortunately for Josh and Ephesoft, the school did host a short-term programming class. During this introductory course, Josh had the opportunity to program a robotic arm and make it perform basic movements. From that moment on, Josh Burt was a programmer.
He spent the next five years learning programming skills and taking computer science courses at his high school. Josh's passion for computer programming was on full display, as he and another student were essentially teaching the course themselves to their peers since the actual instructors did not have that much programming experience.
Upon entering college, Josh had focused his major on microbiology but later changed it to computer science. He began taking courses in bioinformatics, autonomous mobile agents and genetic programming. After obtaining his initial degree in this field, Josh enjoyed pursuing software engineering opportunities. After wrapping up his college experiences, Josh decided that he would acquire a job in software engineering. His early responsibilities included system administration, tech support and program direction.
Before connecting with Ephesoft, Josh was content with his current position. He was managing a team of engineers that developed APIs. While that role was rewarding, it didn't quite satisfy Josh's fascination with artificial intelligence and machine learning. At the time, he was really into evolutionary computation and evolving neural networks and was looking for a place to learn more and apply his skills working with others passionate about these topics.
Just as Josh was settling into his management position, a friend and current Ephesoft employee, Mark Studer, contacted him about an opportunity at Ephesoft. Josh was immediately intrigued because he would get to leverage his full array of skills and learn more about the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Josh arranged a visit to Ephesoft, and the rest is history.
When asked about his initial perception of the company, Josh stated that he "knew this was the right place when I met the people." That initial meeting was three years ago. Shortly after that, Josh had an interview with the management team and joined Ephesoft. Now, Josh Burt is a Senior Engineer with Ephesoft and is part of the data science team. According to Josh, most of his time is spent exploring ways to automate redundant or inefficient processes. He and his teammates are constantly sharing wisdom with one another for the good of the group.
Josh says that he gets to introduce them to engineering best practices and cloud computing principles. In turn, the conglomerate of data scientists exposes him to modern machine learning tools and technologies. To say that Josh loves his position with Ephesoft would be an understatement. He is a lifelong learner who pursues his passion daily at work. Josh is constantly exposed to new information and provided opportunities to flex his programming skills.
However, there is one component of working at Ephesoft that Josh enjoys even more than his role. We are talking about the people, of course. In Josh's words, Ephesoft is home to "some of the brightest, friendliest and [most] passionate people I've ever worked with." The energy among the staff is what convinced Josh to leave his former role and take a position with Ephesoft. He describes the corporate culture as "amazing" and enjoys collaborating with his co-workers daily at work.
Shortly after two years with Ephesoft, Josh made his move to Seattle. He made this transition in pursuit of better educational opportunities for his children. This move required him to leave Boise and the group of engineers that he collaborated with regularly. Josh has maintained interactions with these talented individuals remotely, but it is not quite the same. He is eager to return to face-to-face gatherings with his co-workers and plans to do so as long as it is practical. He spoke highly of Ephesoft's various team-building events that it hosts throughout the year and expressed that he looks forward to the next gathering. Holiday parties and summer get-togethers highlight some of Josh's favorite company celebrations.
When not pursuing innovation at Ephesoft, partaking in holiday parties or spending time with his family, Josh proactively seeks out continuing education opportunities. He jumps at any chance to hone his craft and learn more about machine learning technologies. Josh also participates in educational opportunities that challenge his weaknesses so that he can turn them into strengths and better fulfill his career goals.
His favorite quote is "bless all forms of intelligence," and he works to live his life in a manner consistent with that sentiment. He exemplifies this personal ethos by allowing science and nature to challenge his perceptions in a manner that promotes progress in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence.
30 Frequently Asked Questions About Ephesoft Transact
While most companies have different business models, objectives and use cases, there are often common and frequently asked questions about Ephesoft Transact. We hope this is a useful resource to help you in your intelligent document process journey with us.
Q: What languages are available and supported in Transact?
A: Ephesoft offers English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Polish as officially certified languages with comprehensive support. However, our AI and OCR engines can extract data from many other languages, including but not limited to Russian, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Czech, Afrikaans and Arabic.
Q: What operating systems are available?
A: Windows and Linux.
Q: Can Transact be deployed on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google?
A: Transact can be deployed on any cloud platform that supports Windows/Linux VMs including AWS, Azure and Google. Transact Cloud customers are hosted on AWS.
Q: For Transact Cloud, what data centers are available for my global organization?
A: We currently operate in Oregon, North Virginia, Canada, London, Frankfurt, Singapore and Sydney. AWS has multiple Availability Zones, so other regions may be considered.
Q: How does Transact integrate with other technologies?
A: Ephesoft’s platform uses open architecture so there are many integration options. The most common is via Web Service APIs and connectors (also referred to as iPaaS solutions) to integrate with any other application, such as an ERP, CRM, ECM, Content Services, LOS, EHR, RPA, BPM, workflow, repository or any line of business software. Learn more about APIs and Connectors. Transact offers flexibility with both synchronous and asynchronous APIs and processes.
Q: What APIs are available?
A: We have over 60 pre-configured Web Services to perform advanced capture actions in your custom applications. These range from simple actions like determining which batch instances can be seen by an individual user, to performing classification or extraction procedures. Additionally, using iPaaS platforms like MuleSoft, Workato, Catalytic and others, customers can connect Ephesoft with thousands of other applications quickly.
Q: How can I get my documents into Ephesoft Transact's system for processing?
A: Transact has the ability to use a distributed thin client web scanner for physical document scanning; high volume scanners can send documents to a monitored folder/email; documents can be sent in via email; documents can be manually uploaded in the Transact UI; documents can be bulk processed using cloud storage systems, such as Amazon S3; or, developers can use the REST API to stream documents into Transact.
Q: Do I need to use Ephesoft developers or services to train new documents for classification and extraction?
A: No, customers and partners can attend our online education courses to learn how to build batch classes for automated classification and extraction processing. See how easy it can be, check out this Ephesoft Transact tutorial.
Q: Which percentage of accuracy do you usually have in recognition?
A: Accuracy depends on several factors, such as the ingestion, original clarity and quality of the document and tolerance settings based on business rules. If the application detects an error, the system alerts the user to validate the data, which is referred to as human-in-the-loop and brings straight-through accuracy rates down. Most customers report 80% accuracy or higher for known documents (unknown documents can vary). Some customers have reported as high as 99.9% accuracy. For handwritten and cursive documents, customers report up to 88% accuracy, which is extremely high compared to industry standards of about 30%. Learn more about data accuracy here.
Q: What are field extraction success rates?
A: This question is another way of asking about accuracy. Please see the answer to the above question. Users report that they can get up to 99.9% success rates.
Q: Can a human make edits to the extracted data?
A: Yes, Transact has a validation stage, where a user can confirm or make corrections to the extracted data. This human-in-the-loop (HITL) step is important because it gives users the opportunity to validate any information the system flags or to simply spot-check the data for accuracy. Having a HITL will boost accuracy rates and instill user confidence.
Q: How many pages can you process per minute/hour?
A: Our solution is designed to be scaled horizontally or vertically. Performance can be scaled by adding more cores to a server. Or, creating and adding more nodes to form a cluster. We don't require specialized graphics hardware and can run on generalized hardware as low as 4 cores with 8GB of RAM for an on-premises environment. Please contact our solution engineering team to estimate the sizing of a Transact environment based on your requirements.
Q: Does Transact have its own OCR or AI engines?
A: Transact leverages the following OCR engines: Nuance OmniPage, Tesseract and OpenText Capture Recognition Engine. We also use our proprietary Semantik AI Engine developed to provide category-leading accuracy and performance and to accelerate the extraction of data from unknown document types. Additionally, Transact can connect to third-party OCR services like Google Cloud Vision, which allow customers to use their own Google account or plug into ours.
Q: Machine Learning, AI, OCR… How do I make sense of the various technologies used in capture?
A: Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that can mimic human intelligence on a broad scale. Intelligent document processing solutions use several types of AI software, such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML) and computer vision. There are different types of AI used in Ephesoft’s platform, including the capture process using OCR or optical character recognition. Check out our IDP Glossary to learn more.
Q: Do we need Professional Services’ help all the time to train new documents?
A: We are always here to support your needs. However, in our training courses and on the Ephesoft Documentation site, we teach you how to do it yourself.
Q: What is your price model?
A: Ephesoft offers a flexible pricing structure for cloud or on-premises deployments that includes annual subscription and consumption based options starting at 120,000 pages/year. For more information, click here. We work with our customers and partners to find the best pricing for the services you need.
Q: Do you have a reference in my industry?
A: We have over 100 different use cases in many industries worldwide. It is highly likely that we have a reference that will meet your needs. You can also browse our Success Stories here.
Q: Where are your offices located?
A: We are headquartered in Irvine, California with offices in Boise, Idaho, UK, Germany, Italy and Singapore. Visit our About page for more information.
Q: Do you have a compliance certification?
A: Yes, we are SOC 2 Type II certified.
Q: Does Ephesoft have an Accessibility Statement?
A: Yes, please go here to request it.
Q: How often do you provide new releases?
A: We generally offer two releases a year with free upgrades for customers with an active support contract. We advise our customers to be on the latest version. On-premises clients can install it themselves, work with Ephesoft professional services or hire their partner’s services team.
Q: Do you have a user limitation?
A: No, there are no limitations.
Q: How many days does it take to implement the system?
A: This depends on the deployment environment, products and add-ons you choose. Some offerings, such as Universal Document Automation, can be up and running in a few minutes. Customizable options in Transact can range from 1 week to 4 months (including UAT and Go-Live) depending on several factors such as number of document types, field variations, handwriting, table extraction, custom scripts for additional automation, etc. We work closely with every customer throughout the sales and delivery cycle to keep their deployment on track and achieve a successful implementation. Visit our Professional Services page for more information.
Q: Can we test Transact?
A: Yes! Click here for a free 10-day trial.
Q: Do you have a partner that is close to us?
A: We have about 250 channel, global consultancies and system integrator partnerships. We will recommend the best fit based on your requirements and location.
Q: What makes Transact better than other intelligent document processing tools?
A: Why Ephesoft? This explains it all right here. Based on customers, partners and industry experts and analysts, they report results like 95% faster processing times, up to 99.9% accuracy, average cost reduction of 50%, fast deployment and time-to-value, easy to work with and great functionality. We are focused on customer success with a dedicated CX team and strive to develop cutting-edge, innovative solutions that address real challenges our clients face. Let us prove it!
Q: What else is needed for full end-to-end automation beyond IDP? Who do I turn to?
A: We work closely and have partnerships with most major technology companies, such as AWS, Microsoft, leading RPA vendors, ERP vendors, workflow vendors and iPaaS vendors, who we are happy to put you in touch with. We also have established relationships with 250 channel, global consultancies and system integrators that offer full end-to-end services. We would be happy to make recommendations.
Q: Do users need to be trained to use Ephesoft?
A: Yes, we offer a variety of training options based on the type of user you are. Please visit this page for details.
Q: What are the most common use cases?
A: We have identified more than 100 use cases being used for Transact. Accounts payable or invoice processing is the largest use case among our customers. Other common ones include loan processing, claim processing, compliance, mailroom automation, records digitization, handwriting extraction, transcript processing, human resources, customer onboarding and ID extraction.
Q: Can I use Transact for several use cases at the same time?
A: Yes, Transact is often used across the enterprise for multiple use cases. Only one IDP platform is necessary as Ephesoft offers unlimited users and it can be easily connected to any other application.
Do you have more questions or other frequently asked questions about Ephesoft Transact? We have answers! Please contact us here.
Ephesoft Passes SOC 2 Type II Certification Again with Flying Colors
Independent Audit Verifies Ephesoft’s Internal Controls and Processes
Ephesoft is pleased to announce that we have completed and passed our SOC 2 Type II audit, performed by KirkpatrickPrice. This attestation provides evidence that Ephesoft is strongly committed to security and to delivering high-quality services to its clients by demonstrating we have the necessary internal controls and processes in place.
"Ensuring that our customers know that we take security, controls and operational effectiveness seriously is critical to our business. It’s a sign of integrity, trust and best practices,” said Chris Holmes, Manager, IT Operations at Ephesoft.
A SOC 2 audit provides an independent, third-party validation that a service organization’s information security practices meet industry standards stipulated by the AICPA. During the audit, a service organization’s non-financial reporting controls as they relate to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy of a system are tested. The SOC 2 report delivered by KirkpatrickPrice verifies the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of our controls to meet the standards for these criteria.
“The SOC 2 audit is based on the Trust Services Criteria,” said Joseph Kirkpatrick, President of KirkpatrickPrice. “Ephesoft delivers trust-based services to their clients, and by communicating the results of this audit, their clients can be assured of their reliance on Ephesoft’s controls.”
Ephesoft’s CEO, Ike Kavas, Appointed to Board Member of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School
We are pleased to announce that Founder & CEO of Ephesoft, Ike Kavas, has been appointed a board position by the dean, Deryck J. van Rensburg, and will serve for a minimum of 3 years for the Graziadio Business School at Pepperdine University.
The Graziadio Board is a high profile business advisory council whose primary objectives are to enhance the school’s reputation, offer advice and counsel to the dean on strategic issues and the curriculum from a business perspective, become a resource for fund and development through advocacy, and stand as an advocate to the external constituents. Board members are in a unique position to provide guidance, direction, and connections to students, affecting their personal growth and future employment. Ike will also serve on one or several committees.
“The board position fits perfectly with both my personal and Ephesoft’s values to elevate those around us in our community,” said Ike Kavas. “I’m especially excited to offer guidance and opportunities to our future workforce and next generation entrepreneurs. Our world, including businesses large and small, are constantly evolving with technology being a major force in this transformation. My company is driving and experiencing these developments first hand and I look forward to sharing my insights with Pepperdine students and helping to shape the curriculum.”
Ike was introduced to the prestigious university in 2017, when Pepperdine University became a client of Ephesoft, using its intelligent document processing solution to help process documents in their Admissions, Finance & Advancement departments. The results were increased efficiency and document processing was 95% faster after implementing Ephesoft (for more information, read the Pepperdine University success story here).
“We’re looking forward to having Ike on the board and tapping into his experiences in technology and entrepreneurship,” said Stevan R. Calvillo, Chair, Graziadio Board. “It’s important to have a wide depth of business leaders helping to further our goals at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, as well as help pave the way for graduates’ career opportunities.”
53 Intelligent Document Automation Terms: A Glossary
With the rapidly evolving information age, Ephesoft offers a glossary for all the terms you need to know to understand and utilize intelligent document automation.
Adaptive AI
Adaptive AI is a specific class of artificial intelligence solutions. These technologies can continuously learn and "self-update" by analyzing historical data and applying it to new data sets.
APIs
APIs or application programming interfaces are connections between computer devices and various programs. APIs allow intelligent document processing software to share information with other applications to facilitate seamless information flow between systems.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence refers to technologies that can mimic human intelligence on a broad scale. IDP solutions use several types of AI software, such as natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML).
Automation Hero
At Ephesoft, an automation hero is an individual that spearheads hyperautomation efforts within their organization. These individuals work with our experts to identify and implement the right automation solutions for the unique needs of their company.
Batch
A batch is a large grouping of records or documents that should be processed together, rather than having each record processed separately. At Ephesoft, a “batch class” refers to a project in Transact. A “batch instance” refers to a job in Transact.
Classification
Classification is a critical step when determining how to process a particular document. Classification within IDP refers to the process of identifying a document based on the characteristics or metadata it contains.
Cloud Hybrid
Also known as "hybrid cloud," a cloud hybrid is a computing environment that leverages both on-premise resources and the public cloud. The combination offers peak performance, scalability and minimized upfront investment. Ephesoft launched the first cloud hybrid platform for document processing called Cloud HyperExtender.
Cognitive Document Processing
The most advanced forms of IDP software, such as those offered by Ephesoft, perform cognitive document processing. This means that the technology mimics the cognitive abilities of humans by using AI, machine learning and NLP tools.
Computer Vision
Computer vision technology is a field of AI. Computer vision software allows computers to analyze and derive information from digital videos, images or other visual input sources.
Contextual
Certain types of AI software are described as being "contextual." This means that the software can process documents by using additional information from historical data and other sources to improve its accuracy and, as the word suggests, provide context.
Data Extraction
Data extraction is the process of retrieving information from physical and digital documents. Once extracted, the data can facilitate the automation of various business processes.
Data of Interest (DOI)
Data of interest is the result of adaptive AI, and includes all data pairs that a user or system will need to discern context or understanding about the document’s purpose, how to process it, and how it is associated with the organization.
Day Zero Accuracy (DZA)
Day Zero Accuracy is a measure of a system's accuracy on the first day and is helpful in understanding time to value and how quickly a system will begin returning value or ROI. IDP solutions with a high DZA enable companies to begin capturing results with high levels of accuracy as soon as the solution is implemented. A system that delivers incredibly accurate results when activated provides immediate benefits to an organization.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the practice of integrating technologies into all business practices to increase efficiency and profitability.
Digitization vs. Digitalization
Digitization involves converting specific documents and images into a digital format. In contrast, digitalization is a broader term that refers to the act of transitioning away from analog systems.
Document Change Rate (DCR)
DCR is a measure representing the number of fields that must be corrected or revised during manual review. DCR per document is the total number of fields that the model misses in the given document to predict. This is a good indication of how accurate an IDP solution is and the level of confidence that can be placed on the system.
Extraction
Extraction is the process of identifying and capturing specific index fields (metadata) within documents. Examples of index fields are Company Name, Address, Total Amount and others.
Field Change Rate (FCR)
The Field Change Rate is the average number of times that a field is revised on a manually reviewed document. For each given key (e.g. InvoiceNumber, TaxRate), it looks at how often do the values need to be added/changed/modified.
Handwriting Recognition (HWR)
Handwriting recognition software is a valuable component of IDP technology. HWR tools allow the software to automatically recognize and extract information from handwritten documents.
Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)
Human-in-the-loop or HITL is a method of information processing that uses a combination of machine learning capabilities and human input in order to increase its efficiency. IDP solutions should provide efficient HITL support since AI-based IDP platforms are not 100% accurate and must accommodate exceptions.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation is a strategy that involves identifying and automating as many IT and business processes as possible. Hyperautomation uses multiple technologies, platforms and tools to facilitate this broad-scale automation.
Indexing
Indexing is a legacy approach that involves manually linking a file with a specific tag so that it can easily be located in the future. IDP solutions have automated much of this process and enable documents to be indexed with greater accuracy, efficiency, and speed.
Ingestion
Ingestion is the first phase of document processing. IDP ingestion is the process of accumulating documents for analysis and data extraction.
Integration
Integration is the process of interconnecting various applications, devices, APIs, etc. An IDP solution integrates with other digital resources to allow for process automation and the ability to share information between solutions.
Integration Engine
An integration engine receives data from multiple systems, modifies this information and relays it to other applications.
Intelligent Automation
Intelligent automation involves automating redundant processes using AI technologies. Cumulatively, these technologies allow businesses to streamline decision-making.
Intelligent Capture
IDP technology uses intelligent capture to identify and automatically extract critical information from electronic and paper documents without human intervention other than managing exceptions.
Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR)
ICR allows IDP solutions to learn various fonts and handwriting styles over time. This will increase its processing accuracy and ability to recognize handwriting.
Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)
IDP is a software service that extracts important data from digital and physical documents through data capture technology.
iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service)
iPaaS is a platform that standardizes the integration of applications across an entire organization. iPaaS is designed to help organizations integrate their various SaaS (software as a service) applications.
Key-Value
Key-values are a means of storing nonrelational data in groups or key-value pairs. This method allows organizations to store massive amounts of data.
Knowledge Graphs
This term refers to a general-purpose knowledge base and is commonly used in areas such as knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, natural language processing, ontology engineering and the semantic web. A knowledge graph represents a collection of entities, or data of interest, along with how those entities are related and information about them, known as metadata. Today, knowledge graphs are used extensively in anything from search engines and chatbots to product recommenders, cognitive automation and other AI-based services.
Line Item Matching
Line item matching is a function of IDP and hyperautomation solutions. These technologies can ensure that invoices and purchase orders, or other sets of corresponding documents, match.
Machine Learning (ML)
Machine learning is a field of computer science and a subset of AI that involves using algorithms that can learn and adapt. Machine learning technologies evolve over time to become more accurate and efficient.
Metadata
Metadata is descriptive information about specific data. Examples of metadata include who authored a file, when or how it was created, what it is about and more.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Natural language processing technologies can process and analyze natural language, such as those contained in physical and digital documents.
Normalization / Normalized / Normalize
Machine learning technologies must normalize data so that it is usable. The normalization process is sometimes referred to as "data cleaning." Normalized data appears similar across various fields and records so that the software can adequately process it.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
OCR software or services convert raw images of text into machine-encoded text along with positional information so that these raw files can be further processed, e.g., analyzing the text to extract meaningful data.
Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
Whereas OCR technology "reads" written text and images, OMR software reads information that is marked on tests, surveys, etc. like checkboxes. OMR technology is used to process multiple-choice tests and similar documents.
Perfect Recall Documents (PRD)
Perfect recall documents are files that have been processed with perfect accuracy. In order to be considered PRD files, the documents must be able to be recalled or queried with 100% accuracy.
Post-Processing
Post-processing is the final phase of IDP. During this phase, extracted data is examined using a set of validation rules and AI-based processes.
Pre-Processing
Pre-processing is the first stage of IDP. During this stage, the quality of the documents is enhanced so that they can be more accurately classified and analyzed.
Recall
Recall is the measure of a model or system correctly identifying true positives.
Repository
A repository is one of the possible storage locations for documents.
Robotic Processing Automation (RPA)
Robotic Processing Automation is a technology that is used to automate repetitive business processes using bots, digital workers or robots. This software can be programmed to perform a wide array of redundant tasks.
Semantic Data
Semantic data is more than just a piece of data. Semantic data includes the meaning and intent surrounding the data. It is the deep, multi-dimensional understanding of data and the relationships between the entities. Understanding the semantic data can lead to accelerated insight through AI and machine learning.
Semantic Technologies
Semantic technologies are designed to help computer software better understand various data types. These technologies are integral to machine learning and automation and are often used to create and deploy knowledge graphs.
Semi-Structured Data
Semi-structured data is information that does not conform to specific data models but has some general structure, such as tags or other identifying markers. Semi-structured data has a structure that might be discernible to the human eye but isn’t easily processed by a computer system.
Straight-Through Processing (STP)
Straight-through processing occurs when an automated process can be performed with zero manual or human intervention. STP is a measure of how accurate and efficient an intelligent document processing system is versus how much manual validation and intervention is required.
Structured Data
Structured data is clearly defined groups of information that can easily be searched or queried because they adhere to repeatable patterns.
Unstructured Data
Unstructured data includes all information that does not follow a formal pattern or data model. This data cannot easily be searched and typically includes audio files, emails, physical documents, faxs, PDFs, etc.
Validation
Validation is the process of confirming that information gathered from documents is accurate and correct. Validation can be performed manually or through the use of AI technologies.
Workflow Automation
Workflow automation refers to the process of systematically designing and automating a specific series of tasks. Workflow automation can be used to increase productivity and efficiency. For instance, workflow automation allows businesses to auto-generate essential documents, assign tasks, sign these documents and distribute data across various systems.
>> Do you have another intelligent document automation term, word or definition you’d like to submit for consideration? Reach out to us here.
Digital Transformation in Insurance Overview
The insurance market is hyper-competitive. To stand out from the competition, your organization needs to meet your customer’s demands: fast response times to inquiries, easy access to critical information and a streamlined user interface.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. Today’s insurance industry is afflicted with slow processes that distress both your customers and your employees.
Let’s explore the shortcomings of the insurance industry’s processes and how digital transformation in insurance forges a path towards more efficiency and productivity.
The Problems with Insurance Processes Today
Companies that fail to adapt to digitalization and technological advances will struggle to survive. Here are four significant problems insurance carriers and agencies face as they struggle to transition.
1. Slow Filing Processes
1. Slow Filing ProcessesThe current processes for filing insurance claims are slow and laborious. Between ever-changing compliance regulations and the growing quantity of physical documents that need to be processed, manual document management can only move at a snail’s pace.
2. High Customer Expectations
Today’s customers expect to get what they need when they need it. But when faced with the slow processes of the insurance industry, they are almost guaranteed to end up dissatisfied.
This pattern has led more insurance carriers and agencies to adopt tools and systems that ease the strain of these customer relationships. But doing so reveals new risks—if carriers choose the wrong tools, they may add even more strain to their processes.
3. Privacy Concerns
Data breaches in the United States have significantly increased within the last decade. As such, there is a growing concern among customers about securing their data. They want to be sure the data they share for insurance claims, including their financial and personal information, is locked tight in a digital vault. Therefore, insurance carriers and agencies must invest in high-performing security systems to attract new customers and keep those they have.
4. The Ever-Changing Socio-Political and Economic Landscape
The insurance industry is, unfortunately, intertwined with the tumultuous changes of government. For example, revisions in who is eligible for Medicare and Medicaid benefits can drastically affect an insurance carrier’s client pool. Fortunately, offering innovative insurance solutions may help keep their clients and agents around, regardless of the socio-political or economic landscape.
5. Human Error
Monotonous and mundane tasks are ripe opportunities for human error. But when it comes to collecting insurance information, human error can lead to the improper care of your clients, causing them to seek other insurance carriers.
What’s the Solution?
Insurance carriers must adapt to combat the challenges facing them and there is a rather large and complex ecosystem of technologies that can be leveraged to digitally transform the processes described above. One key technology in this ecosystem is Intelligent Document Processing (IDP). IDP automates document processing from ingestion to data output into other business systems and enables insurance digital transformation far beyond document automation as it turns unstructured into actionable data.
What Does Digital Transformation Mean for Insurance?
Digital transformation in insurance means adopting and integrating technology and software to make insurance services more efficient. For example, an impactful digital transformation initiative that insurance providers can implement relatively easily is streamlining their document processing practices to deliver the speed and efficiency their clients crave.
Digital transformation is moving at an accelerated pace in the insurance industry. Here are just a few processes that carriers and agencies are already using to improve through digital transformation:
- Claims processing
- Policy qualification
- Account opening
- Payments
- Customer engagement
- Onboarding new businesses
- Underwriting
- Creating contracts
- Communicating with customers
- Invoice processing
Insurance Digital Transformation Technologies
How do carriers improve in these areas? With the right tools.
Here are three tools insurance organizations implement to streamline the above processes:
1. Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)
Intelligent document processing is an AI-powered software solution that automatically extracts information from electronic or physical documents and sends it to other business systems such as ERP, RPA, BPM, ECM and others enabling end-to-end automation. This process usually involves six fully automated steps with human controls built-in for exception handling:
- Ingestion: Onboarding electronic and physical documents through scanners or other devices
- Image Processing: Document normalization, image clean-up and rotation
- Classifying: Using keywords and content-based classifications to sort documents
- Extracting: Taking data from documents to create key-values
- Validating: Validating and approving data taken from the documents
- Delivering: Delivering data to business systems
Intelligent document capture is an essential part of digital transformation in the insurance industry. With it, insurance providers can rely on structured, highly accurate data accessible within minutes after document ingestion in their business systems of choice.
This technology is also vital for maintaining proper security and data compliance. With continual updates and new regulations to protect privacy and maintain security, insurance companies need a way to ensure compliance as they start any digital transformation initiative. This holds true for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Personally Identifiable Information (PII) data compliance, which must be met to support GDPR and privacy laws. Insurance companies must have a way to train the system to find sensitive information and then have the ability to redact it to prevent data leakage or loss of sensitive data. When documents are digitally secured, they are much harder to lose or allow to slip into the wrong hands. To meet privacy and security frameworks, an IDP solution can overcome these obstacles to improve compliance.
2. Artificial Intelligence
Self-service solutions are on the rise, and AI is what makes that possible. If you have a customer-facing application or website, AI makes those interfaces tolerable for customers. For example, AI helps personalize the experience and speed up the process of settling insurance claims.
3. Big Data and Analytics Platform
Aside from speed and customer satisfaction, digital transformation in the insurance industry also uses big data to get actionable information about your customers. This type of data offers insights that can be highly valuable to insurance agencies, helping reveal patterns in customer behavior or better understand the trajectory of your company.
When an IDP platform is used with big data, the data will be much more accurate. Without document capture software, employees have to manually input each data point—a process that leaves plenty of room for human error as well as being time-consuming with large amounts of data. Intelligent document capture software accurately extracts the right information, thus building confidence in your data.
What Are the Challenges with Digitalizing the Insurance Industry?
Insurance’s digital transformation process can be complicated. Common challenges include:
- Managing data: Just because carriers and agencies can now access a wealth of data does not mean they have the resources to properly analyze it. Many companies can feel overwhelmed with all the data they can access and may not be able to efficiently or effectively capture meaningful insights.
- Cyberattacks: While many digital transformation solutions also include air-tight cybersecurity, data breaches are always a possibility. And when data leaks, the carrier’s reputation can be severely damaged.
- Phasing out old processes: The transition to new digital solutions may cause growing pains. Employees will need to unlearn the old way of doing things and readily adopt the new technology, which may take longer than management would like.
How You Can Prepare for the Future of the Insurance Industry
Numerous trends, including the rise of insurtech (insurance technology) ventures and an increased focus on giving a more personalized experience, could shape the future of digital transformation in insurance. But if you want to start preparing for those changes, you must first adopt proven transformation techniques, including intelligent document capture technology.
Ephesoft’s intelligent document processing solution helps insurers get their work done faster and meet their customers’ high expectations. Schedule a demo today to see how your insurance agency can streamline its processes. You can also learn more on our insurance industry webpage and read customer success stories.
