Situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic have shown us the vital importance of being able to manage a company’s documents and data digitally, remotely, and efficiently, so that key business processes are not interrupted. In this context, technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) for data capture, content analysis and document management play a crucial role for business continuity within an uncertain economic framework, full of logistical, operational and health related problems.

For the most part, managing business processes depends on documents and data with different formats and from a variety of sources, which ultimately establish the business information that feeds those processes.

For example, companies do not receive payments from their customers unless they have received and processed a purchase order, documented a delivery process, and generated the corresponding invoices. All of this requires tools to capture, process, share and distribute the information needed to complete each vital process such as invoicing. This same phenomenon is repeated in a plethora of processes such as accounts payable, contract approval, inventory management, evaluation and hiring of personnel, etc.  All are based on the proper management of information, one of the most important assets of any company or organization.

Therefore, in times of crisis like COVID-19, organizations more than ever need tools such as Intelligent Data Capture (with Artificial Intelligence) and Information Management that allow them to manage their information efficiently and without generating interruptions of critical processes from anywhere, at any time, in a secure yet transparent manner.

Unfortunately, many organizations do not have the capacity to face this type of crisis, because their business processes are still focused on physical documents, manual processes and most importantly they lack comprehensive tools to manage all information appropriately.

In the following paragraphs, we would like to share the factors and ways in which our DocuClass solution has been enabling customers worldwide to not only ensure wide-ranging business continuity plans but also guarantee uninterrupted remote work in times of crisis.

Information Security and 24/7 Access from Anywhere

Internal as well as external users can safely and instantly access documents, reports, records, etc from any platform and/or device. Logging-in remotely is secure as the system configuration allows to define permission profiles and access roles for each group of users to control what data each user can access, the extent of permissions granted to edit and manage it, and furthermore, which specific processes the user is allowed to participate in. Searching for data and documents is instantaneous, because DocuClass is a document and information system designed for a very high volume of transactions and the user interface is intuitive and logical.

Digital Signatures: Capability to Securely Sign Documents Digitally

With DocuClass, users with the relevant permissions are able to legally sign their PDF documents directly within the system interface. This eliminates to dependency on paper for physical signatures. Documents such as contracts, invoices, purchase orders (POs), purchase requisitions, among others, can be digitally signed following the business rules and policies appropriate to their specific process. For example, a company’s legal department can request, create, review, and approve contracts involving both, internal and external users, such as suppliers, external partners, third parties, etc.

Ability to Manage Document-based and Transaction-based Workflows

DocuClass Workflow allows companies to digitally optimize all of their document processes no matter where the users are located. The information management solution will allow for automated actions, due date monitoring, automatic alerts, workload distribution, routing of documents through pre-established workflows, exception management and more. Business processes can be initiated in a decentralized manner following standardized processes. For example, an area manager can request purchase approval for a given product directly from his office, home, or hotel by entering an intelligent web form, which ensures the monitoring of relevant procurement policies and executes the initiation of an approval workflow within the organization.

100% Availability in Private Cloud Service Environments

The cloud version of DocuClass not only provides secure, instant access to information, but also allows the enterprise to focus on its core business and avoid having to dedicate variable resources to acquiring, maintaining, and managing the infrastructure needed to protect and dispose of stored data and documents. DocuClass’ cloud infrastructure, which has key industry certifications and adheres to the highest standards worldwide, ensures file integrity with multiple security protocols and full redundancy.

Intelligent Data Capture with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

One of the main problems that companies face is that many business processes depend on the ability to capture and process information from a large number of documents that arrive in different formats (paper, email attachments, TIF, office documents, PDFs, etc.) and from different sources (emails, physical mail, internally generated files, downloaded files, etc.). Processing all this information is time consuming, expensive, error prone and typically a manual process (depending on the operational work of people). For these situations, Artificial Intelligence data capture solutions such as DocuClass AI Capture provide enormous capabilities for automating processes at low cost and without the risk of human error. For example, signed contracts that reach business advisors via email can be electronically routed to a central repository to be automatically recognized, classified and needed information extracted.