About half of today’s work activities can be automated with available technology, reports McKinsey—and rote data entry is certainly a prime candidate. Before you decide if this strategy is right for your business, though, it helps to know the basics of data entry automation. That’s what we’ll cover here, starting with a simple definition:
Data entry automation is the act of adding information to a digital system using software rather than human labor. In practice, however, data entry automation is always one part of a broader workplace process—one that includes data extraction and data validation, and then concludes with data entry (or another goal further downstream).
In fact, when we discuss data entry automation, what we’re really talking about is systems integration. Employees too frequently find themselves performing this task manually, because there is no other choice. Companies are forced to rely on manual data entry software and many hours of repetitive work to move data from forms, emails, or spreadsheets into another software platform.
Smart automation technologies—including Robotic Process Automation (RPA)—remove those tasks from human staff, resulting in greater productivity, rock-solid accuracy, and better workforce utilization, all with lightning-fast returns on investment. Here’s how automated data entry can help your company achieve these benefits.
The Nividous platform transfers data with RPA bots, which are trainable software entities that perform work on existing systems. These bots interact with systems through user interfaces, so they can operate any software application. In other words, bots integrate digital systems (including the requisite transfer of data) on the front end, performing almost like a human. This smart automation doesn’t require custom software development, so it’s faster, more flexible, and more affordable than traditional approaches.
That’s not to say RPA bots act on the keystroke level, literally operating a cursor and key sensors like a phantom at the keyboard. That scenario would hardly be a robust solution; with pages shifting and data constantly moving locations, automated data transfer cannot be left to a crude emulation of human control. The reality of smart RPA is much more resilient, thanks to the dynamic capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI), along with the powerful validation controls built into the Nividous platform.
With the Nividous platform, users can easily train their own bots to recognize particular data types wherever they’re stored. A range of built-in AI technologies—Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Natural Language Processing (NLP), computer vision, machine learning—allows these bots to identify and copy the right information, even from dissimilar forms. These technologies also help bots enter target data elsewhere, within a single software application or across multiple systems: This is data entry automation guided by AI.
Data entry automation is ideal for any industry that handles data (which is to say every industry, from manufacturing to banking to life sciences). But early adopters have typically been industries with extensive back-office responsibilities, including finance, insurance, and healthcare. Here are just a few examples of how automated data entry, as part of a complete intelligent automation system, is helping companies today:
How could your operation benefit from data entry automation? We’d love to discuss the possibilities. Contact us to learn more, or sign up for a free, personalized demo to experience Nividous smart automation at work.
With over 20 years of experience in building and implementing a BPM product at Savvion, one of the principle software providers in the BPM space, Shvetal, Co-founder of Nividous, brings tremendous knowledge to help clients navigate their digital transformation journey. Shvetal’s vision has helped Nividous get recognized as a high-profile thought leader in delivering digital transformation. Shvetal plays a leading role in driving innovative products and solutions at Nividous.
Shvetal Desai comes to Nividous from Progress Software where he was the Director Of Engineering for their Business Process Management Division. Prior to Progress Software, Shvetal served as Senior Director Of Engineering at Savvion Inc, where he contributed in the development of many products in the area of BPM software. Progress Software acquired Savvion Inc in January 2010. Shvetal joined Savvion in 1996 as one of the early developers for their highly successful Savvion Business Manager product, rated consistently for many years as one of the top three BPM products worldwide by leading analysts like Gartner and Forester. Prior to Savvion, Shvetal worked at Netscape Inc in their Enterprise Servers division.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics from Mumbai University, India and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University, California.
Kaushal is the co-founder of Nividous and has been an evangelist for Digital Transformation using BPM and related technologies for over 20 years. Kaushal is a consistent advocate of approaching business objectives with a holistic view of processes, platforms, and people to generate measurable business value which has enabled him to steer Nividous ahead as a leader in process automation space.
Kaushal comes to Nividous from Progress Software where he was the Vice President, South Asia and headed Field operations as well as Shared Services that included Global Professional Services and Customer Support out of India. Prior to Progress, Kaushal was with Savvion Inc, one of the principle software providers in the BPM space, where he was the Managing Director of Savvion India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Savvion and was responsible for sales, consulting and product operations. Kaushal joined Savvion in 1995 as one of the earliest employees and worked with high technology leaders including Fujitsu, IBM and Computer Associates for incorporating cutting edge technology into their products. In 1999, Mr. Mashruwala moved to India to set up business operations.
He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communications from Gujarat University, India and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University, California.