Q&A With Sean Morris, Director of Sales, Digitech
Sean Morris is the director of sales for Digitech Systems, a provider of ECM software. Digitech announced recently that they have certified their PaperVision Capture (advanced capture) and PaperFlow (desktop scanning) applications with the Epson WorkForce DS-770 and DS-575W wireless color document scanners, adding more reseller opportunities to the company’s existing partnership. I spoke with Sean and asked him to explain the relationship and the resulting benefits to resellers and customers.
One important piece of your recent announcement is your AI-enabled classification and data extraction tool. What sets the tool apart?
We have embedded AI technology into our scanning and capture application. The technology is patent-protected and leverages machine learning algorithms to recognize and sort documents as they are being scanned while simultaneously extracting critical data to populate not only index values in the document management system, but also fields in virtually any other line-of-business application.
How does it work?
Imagine a stack of financial records could be scanned and the AI would sort the letters from the invoices, from the goods-received receipts, and so forth. Invoices could even be categorized by vendor, if needed. Forms Magic also extracts key data on these records such as vendor, date, invoice number, line item details and total amount. Virtually any information can be designated, and the AI engine allows the information to be located in non-standard locations on the documents — going beyond the boundaries of existing forms processing applications that require templated documents and rely solely on OCR (without the AI boost) to scrape data from known locations. The information might then be used to populate index values in the ECM system and can also be exported to eliminate manual keying of the data in the accounting application as well.
The AI engine recognizes important data on each document and extracts the information to automatically populate index fields in the ECM and data in any other line-of-business application. The information no longer has to be typed by hand into either application.
What are the implications for data security and digital transformation?
Extracted data dramatically improves accuracy and requires information to pass through fewer manual work steps, which improves information security by protecting anything sensitive from prying eyes. The unique ability of our application to recognize and extract information from non-standard documents enables automation of all sorts of business processes that could not be digitized in the past.
How does this new certification add more reseller opportunities to the company’s existing partnership?
As we consider the information management market landscape, we see three trends driving customer’s purchases. First, digitization and process automation are at the forefront of business priorities, and information management technologies (including scanning hardware) are needed to help companies implement intelligent process automation. Next, advanced capture technologies will play a huge role as customers recognize that scanning information at the end of a business process simply to retain the records limits the value that scanning can offer. When used to digitize records at the beginning of a process (e.g., scanning when the invoice is received), the information from the document can be used to simplify and speed the entire business process. Finally, many hardware partners are squeezing margins out of dealer’s pockets as they try to accommodate the prices published by online retailers. Through their innovative channel program, CapturePro, Epson is working to preserve the dealer’s ability to also make money on the hardware included in information management deals.
is president and senior analyst for BPO Media, which publishes The Imaging Channel and Workflow magazines. As a market analyst and industry consultant, Ames has worked for prominent consulting firms including KPMG and has more than 15 years experience in the imaging industry covering technology and business sectors. Ames has lived and worked in the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe and enjoys being a part of a global industry and community.
