What is OCR?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

What is OCR?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that converts different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files, or images captured by a digital camera, into editable and searchable data. By using OCR, businesses can extract text from these documents, making it easier to manage, store, and access information.

How Does OCR Work?

OCR technology mimics the human ability to recognize text by scanning each character on a page, recognizing them as letters and punctuation marks, and converting them into machine-encoded text. This process involves several stages:

• Image Preprocessing: Enhancing the quality of the scanned image to improve recognition accuracy.

• Character Recognition: Identifying individual characters using pattern recognition or feature detection algorithms.

• Post-Processing: Correcting errors and formatting the recognized text to match the original document's layout.

Benefits of OCR
Improved Searchability

OCR enables businesses to make their scanned documents searchable, allowing users to quickly find the information they need within a document, saving time and improving productivity.

Enhanced Accessibility

By converting scanned documents into text, OCR technology enables screen readers to read the content aloud, making it easier for visually impaired individuals to access information.

Cost Savings

Digitizing paper documents using OCR reduces costs associated with physical storage, printing, and document retrieval. Additionally, OCR helps streamline document workflows, reducing the need for manual data entry and increasing efficiency.

Data Extraction

OCR can extract key data from documents, such as names, addresses, and invoice numbers, which can then be used for various purposes, such as populating databases or automating data entry tasks.

Improved Accuracy

OCR technology has significantly improved in accuracy over the years, reducing errors in document conversion and ensuring that the converted digital documents are reliable and accurate.

Levelpath's OCR Capabilities

Levelpath leverages advanced OCR technology to provide high-accuracy document processing solutions. Our OCR system is trained on millions of documents to achieve the greatest accuracy in the market, supporting over a hundred different languages and handwriting recognition.

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Streamlined Agreements 

Levelpath's OCR technology is integral to our Agreements App, which streamlines contract management processes. By converting static contracts into searchable and editable digital documents, businesses can efficiently manage, organize, and store all contracts in a centralized repository accessible from any device.

Automated Data Extraction

Our OCR technology automates the extraction of critical contract data, such as contract parties, values, and deadlines. This automation reduces the need for manual data entry, allowing procurement and business teams to focus on high-value tasks.

Enhanced Compliance and Risk Management

With OCR, businesses can confidently manage supplier contracts and documents, ensuring compliance and mitigating risks. The centralized storage of contract data simplifies audit preparation and provides complete visibility to auditors.

Future of OCR

The future of OCR lies in its integration with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. These advancements will further improve OCR accuracy and enable more advanced document processing capabilities. As businesses increasingly adopt cloud-based document management solutions, OCR is expected to become more accessible and scalable, allowing organizations of all sizes to benefit from its advantages.

Conclusion

OCR technology has revolutionized document management by making it easier to convert, store, and access information. Levelpath's advanced OCR capabilities provide businesses with efficient, accurate, and scalable solutions for managing contracts, agreements, and other critical documents. By leveraging OCR, businesses can improve productivity, reduce costs, and enhance overall document management processes.