Automation and its key developments have left no business enterprise untouched and modern mailrooms are not exempt from this phenomenon either. There was a time when mailrooms had to rely on human resources and spend millions on their daily workflow. But Artificial Intelligence has led to the rise of several innovative business solutions and one such intelligence-based technology is Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Now, OCR affects your mailroom? How, in effect, automating your everyday mailroom processes with OCR technology will reverberate all across your customer experience? Questions like these are worth pondering.

Also Read : Benefits of Mailroom Management

Manual data entry and its problems

In an ordinary workplace, companies may receive from mere hundreds to thousands of inbound mails in a given day. And in your primary mode of email correspondence, your mails may consist of plain texts or email attachments. But these emails are not meant to remain stagnant and, obviously, it is truly a remarkable task to convert all these data-intensive mails into actionable business intelligence. But usually how in your mailroom the data capture is done? Unfortunately, even several technically developed companies’ go-to option is manual data entry.

But undoubtedly, manual data entry is really a time-consuming and expensive task. Worse still, it leads inevitably to man-made errors. So, in the end, your productivity is heavily compromised in the process. But, hopefully, we have another choice. Yes, rather than human-based mailroom operations, we’d better automate the entire mailroom data capture. That’s where OCR steps in.

Increased efficiency with OCR

The work efficiency of a mailroom relies solely on how easily and quickly the inbound mails are extracted and converted into business intelligence. With OCR, the incoming scanned mails are reliably extracted into a machine-readable format on the go. These data then becomes digitally editable.

Thanks to OCR’s quick and automated data capture, your usual mailroom processes of collecting, classifying, extracting, validating, and routing the incoming mails can easily be performed with minimal human intervention.

Digital data extraction with OCR renders your mailroom a productive communication hub where the information you receive is readily available for your effective decision-making. There’s no time delay and communications are real-time.

Pictorial representation of middleaged mailman with a brownbag dropping mails in a machine,and the machine shoots the mails into mailbox.

Reduced operational cost

Simply put, why do you have to waste your money when manual work is completely eradicated with OCR? By reducing the human workforce, the vast budget incurred by human manpower is minimized considerably.

For instance, in a busy mailroom, it takes a huge amount of human resource to read, sort, and distribute the incoming mails. Besides, much of the mails you receive may be in an unstructured format. But if you have automated the process with OCR, it just negates the idea of human resources. Moreover, errors are commonplace in manual works. By removing errors, you can save your valuable resources from having to rework and correct the errors. In the end, roughly half of your usual business budget is saved.

Searchable and editable data

Your mailroom is the repository for millions of paper-based documents. But if the mails you receive remain in their original format it is impossible to search and find a particular data buried deep in a document stack. If in case, you want to retrieve and refer crucial information, you need to manually search for the data – which, apparently, is unthinkable.

But with OCR technology, you can render your numberless scanned documents text-searchable. It is notable that this searchable information is easy to classify. So just by the relevant keywords, it is simple to search and find the necessary data in a fraction of a second. See how easy it is!

Easy data access & shared intelligence

OCR promotes quick dissemination of mailroom data. The digitally extracted data can be immediately shared with your business team so they can view and analyze the information in real-time. This broad exposure allows the practice of shared intelligence across your business setting.

OCR makes it possible for you to access the shared data across several devices and applications. No matter how voluminous your mailroom documents are, quick access to the data is a matter of minutes.

Enhanced customer experience

In the end, all that really matters is how your mailroom workflow can affect your end-users. If you keep on dragging to respond to your precious customers, it inordinately damages your customer experience. But in an OCR-based digital mailroom, faster response time is a trademark.

Here, the flow of information is really rapid and the insights are gathered on time from the mails, and decisions are made accordingly – resulting in an impressed and lasting customer base due to prompt claim resolution.

Looking for mailroom management services? Our experts can help you. Please reach out to us at helpdesk@avonsolutionsindia.com. Also, check out our Avon Success Story here.