Tarrytown, NY - September 7, 2006 - Datacap Inc., the leading
provider of flexible document capture and forms processing software solutions to
organizations worldwide, today announced the results of the first significant
survey on scanning and OCR in accounts payable. The end-user survey was
commissioned by Datacap, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. and IOMA
(Institute of Management Administration). Results were compiled and analyzed by
Power Decisions Group of San Francisco.
More
than four-hundred AP managers participated in the survey during May-June 2006,
which addressed a range of invoice automation issues, including scanning,
electronic invoices, OCR for data entry automation and outsourcing.
The
survey provides exclusive insight on invoice scanning trends and the bottom-line
benefits achieved by organizations that have incorporated scanning into the
invoice process. Analysis of the survey results points to broad awareness of the
benefits of imaging, OCR and workflow in accounts payable.
Ninety-three percent of survey
respondents report they recognize the efficiency and financial benefits of
scanning, but often are impeded by the company's chief financial officer (52%).
Based on the poll, CFO's are generally the decision makers for AP technology
purchases within an organization.
Key
findings from the research include:
* 32%
of respondents scan all their invoices
* Only
12% of all respondents use OCR forms processing technology to automate the
processing of invoices
*
Average cost to process an invoice manually is $24, ranging from .22 cents to
$350
* More
than 70% of respondents indicated that less than 9% of their invoices are
distributed via electronic (email or EDI)
* More
than 50% of respondents said their current invoice processing system is
inefficient
* Less
than 20% of all respondents outsource invoice scanning
* 42%
of respondents report scanning high volumes of invoices (between 5000 and 25,000
monthly); while 52% scan between 1000 and 5000 monthly
"An
overwhelming percentage of AP professionals acknowledge the impact front end
scanning and data capture can have on their organization's bottom-line," said
Scott Blau, CEO of Datacap Inc. "But this research also sheds light the
obstacles AP departments face when proposing these solutions and the slow
transition AP personnel are making from manual to more efficient, automated
processing of invoices. This report should be required reading for
CFOs."
The
Survey respondents represented a wide range of organization size and industries,
with 24% in manufacturing, eleven percent and nine percent of the respondents
representing the healthcare and insurance Participants employed in education and
the financial services industries represented eight percent each of the polled
audience. AP professionals in business services (6%), utilities (6%) and
government (4%) completed the survey sample.
The
final survey report is available for free download at
http://www.datacap.com/downloads/apsurvey
About Datacap Inc.
Since 1988, Datacap Inc. has provided leading document capture and forms processing software solutions to organizations worldwide. Datacap Taskmaster software efficiently transforms paper into information, reducing data entry costs and improving information accuracy. A client/server, rules-based document capture workflow platform, Taskmaster provides highly flexible solutions for both image indexing and data entry automation. Taskmaster also enables scanning, indexing and administration from a browser and integrates with all leading document management systems.
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