An IDP platform is important for companies that need to process large volumes of partially unstructured documents in a short time.

By automating document processing, companies can work efficiently, reduce errors, save costs and comply with legal requirements.

Learn what to expect from an IDP platform and how it can optimize your business in this article.

What is Intelligent Document Processing?

The intelligent data processing (IDP) is a type of intelligent automation that helps users automatically find the case-relevant information in the abundance of documents and control further processing in context.

Read more about the topic here Document Processing and IDP software.

Advantages of the IDP platform for your company

Many companies process their documents using outdated methods and manual labor. In the process, the processes are neither efficient nor error-free.

If you use an IDP platform for yourself or your customers and users instead, you will benefit from these advantages:

• Cost savings by drastically reducing the cost of processing large volumes of data
• Higher Throughput Data Processing (DDV): Reduced need for highly skilled professionals to manually edit documents
• Ease of use through fast set-up and automation of processes
• Process efficiency through end-to-end automation of document-centric processes
• Increasing accuracy: Immediate significant increases in data accuracy through the use of AI.
• Strengthening the strategic goals through automated data processing leads to the improvement of the customer experience.

With an IDP platform, you make document management easy and efficient. Not only will you save money, but you'll also improve employee and customer satisfaction.

IDP platform: examples of application  

IDP can be used in any industry. Depending on the industry, the use cases differ. 

If you would like to use the advantages of IDP software in your company, the following possible applications can serve as inspiration:

• Categorization and extraction of data by RPA
• digital document archiving
• Claims Management
• Fraud detection
• Case investigation
• Contract management
• Mortgage loan application processing, customer onboarding, and cashback and loyalty program automation. 

Decide for yourself to what extent the software is suitable for your specific requirements.

Choosing the best IDP platform: 5 questions

The right IDP platform is one of the critical components for business process automation. Use the following 5 questions to find the right, effective and powerful IDP platform for your business.

Question 1: Is the IDP platform powerful enough?

The IDP platform must be able to leverage effective technologies to deal with the day-to-day and real-world challenges of document processing.

• Is the platform powered by powerful AI technologies so that it automatically learns and improves from the documents it processes?
• Can the platform capture and process both typed and handwritten text?
• Can the solution capture and process structured, semi-structured and also completely unstructured documents, i.e. does the solution understand the context in the documents?
• Can the solution handle formats with poor image quality and perform quality enhancement at the same time?

Question 2: Can it be integrated into the existing infrastructure?

It is no longer necessary to spend weeks or even months making adjustments to conventional solutions.

• Can the solution be operated in a cloud environment?
• Can they be easily integrated into existing infrastructures?
• Is it compatible with other business applications such as RPA?
• Is it suitable for different industries?

Question 3: Is the IDP platform user-friendly?

It is necessary for the IDP platform to offer a user-friendly software solution to make it worthwhile.

• Is the platform easy to use for employees without prior technical knowledge?
• Was it designed using the no-code principle?
• How accessible is the user interface?
• Can new use cases be created without help if needed?

Question 4: What is the vision of the IDP solution provider?

The crucial factor when deciding on a current technology such as IDP is to find a reliable provider with whom you can enter into a long-term cooperation.

• What is the provider's vision for the future? 
• Is there a detailed product roadmap? 
• How will the platform be improved? 
• What kind of ecosystem does the solution support? What does the solution provider's customer service look like?

Question 5: Does the platform add economic value?

In the end, the decisive factor is whether it is possible to achieve the business goals by using the IDP platform.

• Can the solution grow the business? 
• Is it easily scalable? 
• Does it enable more efficient straight-through processing? 
• Can it increase productivity? 
• Can end-to-end automations be performed with the platform?

Summary: The characteristics of a good IDP platform

The characteristics that make up a high-performance IDP platform are as follows: 

1. A flexible ability to capture, classify and extract structured and unstructured data from any document
2. A cloud-based, rapidly scalable solution
3. Easy integration and compatibility with existing software
4. Industry-independent and intuitive to use
5. An experienced, forward-thinking team behind the IDP solution

Now you know what is important when selecting an IDP platform. In the next chapter, you will find out how something like this can look in practice.

IDP platform in practice: Konfuzio

Konfuzio offers IDP software with AI-based OCR for all document types. 

The focus is on fast and reliable retrieval, categorization and processing in different languages to enable the optimization of data and document-related processes.

The provider targets companies of all sizes, but especially system houses, consultancies and large enterprises.

Typical use case documents include:

• invoices
• Insurance policies
• Vehicle documents
• E-mail box organize

Through Hybrid AI consisting of the hybrid use of different AI technologies, Konfuzio can immediately infer the complete context of a document from a technical point of view. Thus, AI investments can be minimized and AI projects can be significantly standardized.

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) can be incorporated into existing processes through various integrations. This has the following advantages:

• Quick and easy setup
• Reduction of processing costs
• Suitable for business users
• Automation in all areas of the company
• Customizations by developers
• Processing of any documents  

Intelligent document processing functions

Konfuzio's IDP platform helps organizations manage documents, streamline business processes and improve workflows.

In this way, companies themselves or their customers and users can be supported holistically:

• Intelligent Document Processing for automated document processing
• Input Management: Processing of your mail and incoming e-mail including automatic extraction of data from PDF, image, Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents such as invoices, waybills, contracts and system reports
• Automatically categorized filing thanks to document classification
• Emails with attachments: Extraction of email data such as orders, lead notifications, system alerts, and trip confirmations
• API & SDK Development: Extensive access for developers to the web interface and document AI. With the AI and UI module, you can implement your own document workflows in a particularly individual way.
• Preparation for DMS/ECM and Document archive: Automatic preparation and correction through categorization, assignment and filing in the document archive. Secured and qualitative recording of index values and search filters.
• Sophisticated indexing and search functions for easy automatic storage, processing and retrieval of documents

You can use Konfuzio's AI software via web browser and REST API and process PDF, TIF, PNG, JPG, JPEG and email formats.

The powerful solution can be implemented both in the cloud and on-premises.

A special highlight is the Python SDK, with which you can use the AI thanks to the OCR SDK train for special document types and further individualize their application. 

Integration

If you want to automate your company in a holistic way, you should also pay attention to which other programs the IDP software is compatible with. 

In the "Integrations" area, Konfuzio offers the following options, for example:

• REST API
• Google Docs
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Excel Power Query
• Airtable
• Numerous other RPA, ERP or CRM systems

Konfuzio offers IDP software that you can easily integrate and quickly deploy. The possibilities are limitless, since you can train and develop the AI. Thus, the IDP software is used to increase the efficiency of document processing and thus of the entire company.

Konfuzio in check: Is the IDP platform suitable?

The following points - as already listed above - are characteristics of a good IDP platform:

1. Flexibility 
2. Cloud-based and fast scalability
3. Easy integration into existing systems
4. Industry-independent
5. Intuitive handling
6. Experienced, future-oriented support

If you now want to find out whether Konfuzio meets the requirements, the questions can be answered as follows:

• Flexibility: Yes, through adaptive AI and Python SDK suitable for both structured and unstructured documents
• Cloud-based and scalable: Yes and yes
• Easy integration: Given, wide choice, e.g. REST API, Google Docs, Microsoft applications and other RPA, ERP and CRM systems.
• Industry-independent: Yes
• Intuitive handling: Yes, through numerous options for customization of the application
• Support: Experienced (since 2016) and future-oriented by claim of continuous development of Konfuzio

Conclusion: Automate your business with IDP!

An IDP platform optimizes your document processing beyond pure OCR software.

In my opinion, an IDP platform is mandatory for all companies that deal with a high amount of data processing and want to operate successfully and efficiently. 

What do you think about IDP platform? Do you already use it? Feel free to write me your opinion on this topic in the comments!