Digitization and transformation for the document-burdened enterprise with Foxit and IDC
With any business, there is likely to be a surplus of documents and content, capable of driving positive outcomes; yet, the creation, editing, and organization of said documents tends to leave more to be desired.
Offering their expertise to help organizations transcend traditional, manual document processes, DeeDee Kato, vice president of corporate marketing at Foxit, and Holly Muscolino, group vice president, content strategies and the future of work at IDC, joined KMWorld’s webinar, Intelligent Document Automation in the Era of Generative AI, to discuss recent trends and findings shaping the future of document workflows.
With more than 1 billion people using Foxit technology, Kato explained that Foxit’s competitive advantage lies in its 20-plus year track record, superior ROI, easy and fast integration, effective user training, 24/7 human phone support, and more. Foxit is trusted by a wide span of major companies, including names like Baker McKenzie, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dell, helping a variety of personas—from doctors to medical coders, lawyers, court clerks, insurance agents, and more.
Kato then posed a hypothetical: What if you could scan a document, capture and extract relevant information from unstructured data with AI, and then optimize workflows by streamlining document processing and reducing cycle times?
Only, this isn’t a hypothetical—with Foxit’s Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Platform, enterprises can achieve that exact document efficiency described by Kato. Foxit’s platform is underpinned by three key pillars:
- PDF editing and eSign collaboration with generative AI (GenAI) integration for summarization, translation, content creation, and more
- Sensitive data protection through AI-based sensitive data discovery and redaction to ensure compliance
- Data extraction automation powered by AI, extracting data from PDFs and other unstructured documents
With these capabilities, Foxit’s IDP Platform delivers on a myriad of fronts, noted Kato. These include enhancing efficiency by automatic repetitive tasks and reducing manual intervention; improving accuracy in document processing with AI, minimizing errors and enhancing data quality; and increasing cost efficiency with AI technology that saves both time and resources.
Echoing Kato’s sentiment regarding the importance of document processing, “it probably surprises none of you…that documents drive business,” noted Muscolino. Furthermore, “it’s really hard to think about any business process that does not involve some sort of document. [There are] document centric processes across every business function.”
From marketing to HR, finance, legal, supply chain, and IT, document processes are extremely relevant. And, like any other facet of modern business, digitization, automation, and transformation is crucial to ensure business optimization, continuity, and resiliency, according to Muscolino. This was particularly exacerbated by the pandemic, as the increase of work-from-home environments signaled that manual document processes were no longer a viable option.
As evidenced by an IDC study, flexible work environments—whether solely remote or a hybrid mix—are here to stay, though not without challenges. Some of the largest obstacles in supporting remote and hybrid workers are technology consistency to employees across remote and on-site environments, as well as secure, remote access to data, apps, and/or content, according to IDC’s 2023 WW Future of Work (FoW) report.
Transformation will continue to play a large role for many enterprises seeking to modernize—but what does it mean to transform document workflows?
According to IDC MaturityScape: Content-Centric Workflow 2.0 model, transformation typically adheres to the following flow of change:
- Beginning as ad-hoc, manual workflows that depend on individual effort
- Isolated digitization and automation initiatives without a formal strategy
- Internal content-centric workflows become digitized and automated with some integration, paired with standardized processes with leadership support from IT
- Enterprise-wide strategy and funding toward reengineering content-centric workflows, supported by a broad portfolio of relevant technologies fully supported by leadership and IT
- Full commitment to the continuous improvement of content-centric workflows by leadership, leveraging AI and advanced analytics to support orchestration and decisioning
Muscolino explained that many enterprises are only at the beginning stages of document workflow maturity, indicating that many challenges remain toward true digitization and transformation.
Enterprises must begin by evaluating their existing workflows, noted Muscolino, where a broader strategy will guide this transformation and feature a variety of integrations to ease change management.
For the full, in-depth discussion of IDP and content-centric workflows, featuring statistics, examples, thorough analyses, and more, you can view an archived version of the webinar here.