Is OCR useful? How can businesses use it to improve their Productivity?
Businesses thrive on competition. To get the largest market share, they have to outperform their counterparts. For that, they spend billions on increasing productivity, process automation, cycle improvements, turnovers, and customer retention rates.
One technology that can increase the overall efficiency of a business is OCR Technology. The technology is being used by retail, health care, medicine, large-scale manufacturing, robotics, automotive, government departments, and all institutions looking for data acquisition and analysis.
This blog post explains how Businesses can use OCR to their advantage.
What is OCR?
The OCR stands for optical character recognition. The technology uses advanced AI software to convert any scanned or printed image/file into digital text. The digital text is easy to compile, store, sort, and analyze.
Businesses with digitalization work faster and show high production rates. This has prompted businesses all around the world to use OCR to their advantage. The current global market for OCR stands at USD 10.65 Billion.
Types of OCR
The OCR can be divided into two simple types
- Full OCR
- Zonal OCR
Full OCR
Full OCR is used to convert the complete input into text. The text is recognized either in the form of words or distinctive characters. The output is the result of the combination of these words/characters.
This OCR method is particularly useful for converting trade agreements, process details, rules, and procedures into editable text format.
Zonal OCR
Zonal OCR relates to targeted conversions. The tool identifies the selected area from where you want to extract the information. The tool uses optical mark regulation to identify those patterns.
The method is most suited for QR scans for banking transactions, challans, employee IDs, and other works of that sort. It is also useful for converting blurry images into text and auto-filling forms.
How to use OCR?
The easiest way is to use an OCR Tool. All you need is to select input and upload it on a quality tool, the rest would take care of itself.
We have selected the following image, which is a business card.
For conversion, we have chosen OCR Online because of its high accuracy. Let’s see how the tool converts it:
You can see that all data has been converted into digital form. Businesses can convert all their printed data into digital by using any credible OCR tool.
How can businesses use it to improve their Productivity?
The OCR can improve the productivity of the business in the following ways:
* Higher Production
The OCR directly impacts your production rates. With OCR all manual verifications can be automated. The material verification, machine operation checklist, operational times, routine inspections, and other parameters can be auto-filled by using OCR.
For Example, the supply of raw material for a mobile assembly line requires verification of the material checklist. With OCR you can fill the checklist by scanning the input code. It saves you from all clerical work.
* Faster Data Collection
The OCR contributes to faster data compilation. The manual filling of data requires a lot of clerical work. With OCR you can add data patterns and trends to make similar sheets.
The compilation is quicker, giving your business an edge among your peers.
* Ease of Data Storage and Sorting
Digital data is easy to store. The data of a whole physical library can be stored in a simple hard disk. Previously, companies used to have a separate storeroom and staff just to store important files. With OCR you don’t only get easy storage, it also provides higher data security.
The editable data is quite easy to sort. You can simply access it by using a reference number. This saves a lot of your productive time.
* Accurate Data Analysis
The OCR provides you a chance to compare different data sets. While discussing a case study, you can inculcate all factors into one editable document. With hand-written data, you cannot show all previous trends on one page.
For Example: while discussing sales of 2015, you can include data on trends, turnovers, branding types, market analysis, customer age, and product quality in one case study of yours.
This allows the management to evaluate all concerning factors. You get accurate decision-making with a high probability of the desired outcome.
* Better Resource Management
The OCR frees up management from clerical and verification tasks. The employees can concentrate on their fundamental job descriptions to produce great results.
For Example, A production engineer shouldn’t spend 4 hours a day on reporting, he should work on improving process flows.
The same goes for quality, planning, supply chain, audit, marketing, sales, and other departments. It also allows management to rank employees as per their performance.
* Better Customer Service
Customer satisfaction defines the long-term success of a business. If the end-user isn’t satisfied, everything becomes worthless.
Knowing its importance, most businesses have a separate customer relations department. The department works to get feedback from the end user. With OCR you can get real-time feedback from customers regarding your products or services. You can also ask to take customer suggestions for future improvements.
This gives a clear insight into your current market standing and upcoming market trends. By properly working on it, you can achieve higher customer retention rates and greater annual turnover.
* Transparency
OCR doesn’t require any male intervention for data analysis. This makes data collection transparent and accurate. The data doesn’t include any human bias. Based on this data, you can decide about employee promotions or future business policies without any hesitation.
This brings greater trust among the employees. And instead of questioning the data, the focus is on improving the numbers.
When the whole team focuses on improvement, this trust translates into victory and long-term success.
Final Words
This article highlights the importance of OCR for any business. Based on the above points, we believe every business should include OCR To get higher productivity and market share.
Do give a read to all the points. And share your feedback. We would love to know what you think about the technology and its scope.