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The Ultimate Guide to Automated Data Extraction for Businesses

Learn how automated data extraction can revolutionize your business by enhancing data accuracy, reducing costs, and accelerating document processing. Get insights on the types, benefits, and implementation strategies.

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The Ultimate Guide to Automated Data Extraction for Businesses

Efficiently managing and utilizing data has become extremely important for operational success. Organizations are inundated with vast amounts of data daily, ranging from customer details to financial transactions. 

However, traditional manual data entry processes often lead to errors, inefficiencies, and significant resource wastage. This challenge is further compounded as businesses scale, making data accuracy and timely processing paramount.

According to Gartner, poor data quality costs businesses an average of $12.9 million yearly, a staggering figure that underscores the critical need for efficient data management solutions. Moreover, companies that have transitioned to automated data extraction methods have reported a reduction in data entry time by up to 70%, leading to substantial improvements in operational efficiency.

A compelling example of this transformation is the Voltus case, a virtual power plant operator facing significant challenges in processing over monthly processing over 250 unstructured utility bills250 unstructured utility bills monthly. 

Their operations managers manually scanned these bills, consuming over 11,000 person-hours each month and delaying their payables by 48 hours. With Document AI integration for automated data extraction, Voltus achieved remarkable results: 

  • They reduced document processing time from 48 hours to just 1.5 minutes 
  • Saved more than $18,000 in processing costs each month. 
  • They achieved over 90% touchless accuracy, allowing their managers to focus on more strategic tasks than data entry.

The shift from manual data extraction to automated extraction is more than just a technological upgrade; it’s a strategic imperative for businesses looking to enhance accuracy, reduce costs, and streamline operations.

What is Data Extraction?

Data extraction is the process of transforming unstructured or semi-structured data into structured information. This structured information provides companies with meaningful insights for reporting and analytics.

Data extraction helps consolidate, process, and refine information stored in a centralized location for further analysis and record-keeping. It is the initial step in ETL (extract, transform, load) and ELT (extract, load, transform) processes.

Automated data extraction is the process of extracting unstructured or semi-structured data without manual intervention. An AI/ML-based technique is used for automated data extraction. 

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) is an automated pipeline with components like document classification, data extraction, and data analytics. The most essential element of IDP is data extraction, which is responsible for extracting key-value pairs and tables from the document.

Key-value pair

A key-value pair is a type of data extracted from documents. A key-value pair consists of two related data elements: a key, which is a constant that defines the data set (e.g., Invoice number, Seller address, Total amount), and a value, which is a variable that belongs to the set (e.g., INXXXT65532,  240 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108, United States, $68637). Fully formed, a key-value pair could look like these:

Invoice number = INXXXT65532

Seller address = 240 Washington St, Boston, MA 02108, United States

Total amount = $68637

Table

Generally, a table provides a functional, structural representation that organizes data into rows and columns and aims to capture the relationships between different elements and attributes in the data. Another type of table is nested tables, which are generally present in documents like rent-roll and are hard to extract.

‍Tables also vary in layout based on the type of document. Financial statements, rent rolls, and invoices all have different layouts.

Can Data Extraction Be Automated?

Data extraction automation is feasible and increasingly essential for organizations seeking to efficiently manage large volumes of data. Traditional manual methods are labor-intensive, prone to errors, and time-consuming. 

In contrast, automated data extraction leverages advanced technologies like AI, machine learning, and OCR to streamline the process, ensuring speed, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness.

There are several ways in which automated extraction can be done. Some of them are:

1. AI and Machine Learning Integration

AI and machine learning (ML) have revolutionized data extraction by enabling systems to learn and adapt over time. These technologies analyze vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and make data extraction more accurate and efficient. 

For instance, machine learning algorithms can detect and adapt to various data structures, enhancing the system's ability to handle diverse and complex data types, whether structured or unstructured. 

This adaptability allows organizations to automate data extraction across various industries, including finance, healthcare, and retail​.

2. Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is a cornerstone of automated data extraction, mainly when dealing with scanned documents, images, and PDFs. OCR software converts printed or handwritten text into machine-readable data, significantly reducing the need for manual entry. 

Modern OCR systems can even handle complex layouts and varying fonts, extracting data accurately from various document types. 

This capability is essential in industries like finance and insurance, where documents such as invoices, claims, and forms need to be processed quickly and accurately​.

3. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a powerful tool for automating the extraction of information from complex documents. It enables systems to understand and interpret human language, automating the classification and indexing of unstructured data in legal contracts, emails, and reports. 

By applying NLP, organizations can automate tasks that traditionally require significant human intervention, such as summarizing documents, extracting key details, and categorizing content. This speeds up the process and reduces the risk of errors​.

4. Scalability and Flexibility

Automated data extraction systems are designed to scale effortlessly with an organization's needs. As data volumes increase, these systems can handle the growing load without compromising performance. 

This scalability ensures that businesses can continue to process data efficiently as they expand, making automated data extraction a long-term solution that adapts to changing business needs. 

Additionally, these systems are flexible enough to integrate with various data sources and formats, ensuring a seamless transition from manual to automated processes​.

5. Integration with Existing Systems

One critical advantage of automated data extraction tools is their ability to integrate seamlessly with existing enterprise systems, such as CRM, ERP, and other databases. This integration ensures that data flows smoothly across different departments and processes, reducing the risk of data silos and improving overall operational efficiency. 

By aligning with current workflows, these tools minimize disruption while enhancing the accuracy and speed of data processing. Through these technologies, businesses can transform their data extraction processes, reducing manual labor and errors while increasing the speed and reliability of data processing​.

Types of Data in the Data Extraction Process

Automated data extraction deals with various data types that organizations need to process. The nature of this data can vary widely, from structured data like databases to unstructured content such as emails, PDFs, and images. 

Types of Data in the Data Extraction Process

Here’s an overview of the main types of data typically involved in the data extraction process:

1. Structured Data

Structured data refers to highly organized and formatted information to make it easy to search, retrieve, and analyze. This data is stored in tabular formats, typically within relational databases, where each row represents a unique record and each column represents a field or attribute. 

Structured data relies on a fixed schema, meaning the data type stored in each column is predetermined. Because of this rigid organization, structured data can be easily manipulated using Structured Query Language (SQL) and other database management tools. 

The predictability and organization of structured data make it suitable for traditional data processing and analysis.

Some examples include:

  • In a customer relationship management (CRM) system, structured data might include columns for customer names, contact details, purchase history, and interaction notes. This data is stored in a database where each customer is a unique record, and each attribute (like name or purchase history) is a field in that record.
  • Financial records stored in a spreadsheet can include columns for dates, transaction amounts, account numbers, and categories, allowing for easy sorting, filtering, and summing of data to generate reports.
  • Inventory management systems use structured data to track product IDs, quantities, locations, and prices, ensuring the information is consistent and easily accessible across various business processes.

2. Unstructured Data

Unstructured data is information that needs a predefined format or organization, making it difficult to process and analyze using traditional data tools. Unlike structured data, unstructured data doesn’t fit neatly into a table or database. 

Instead, it exists in formats like text, images, audio, and video, where the content is free-form and not easily searchable or categorized. 

The complexity of unstructured data lies in its diversity; it can include anything from handwritten notes to social media posts and emails to multimedia files. 

Processing unstructured data often requires advanced technologies, such as natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and computer vision, to extract meaningful insights.

Some examples include:

  • Emails contain unstructured data in free-text bodies, attachments, and metadata (like timestamps and senders). Extracting specific data from emails, such as key phrases or attachments, requires sophisticated tools to parse and analyze the varied content.
  • Social media posts like Twitter or Facebook include text, images, and videos that convey sentiments, opinions, and trends. This data is highly unstructured and varies widely in format, language, and context, necessitating sentiment analysis and machine learning for effective processing.
  • PDF documents, such as scanned contracts or reports, are typically unstructured because they need a consistent format that can be easily parsed. OCR technology is often required to extract data from PDFs and convert it into a structured format for further use.

3. Semi-Structured Data

Semi-structured data is between structured and unstructured data and contains elements of both. Unlike structured data, it does not conform to a strict schema, but it still includes organizational tags or markers that separate data elements, allowing for partial organization. 

Semi-structured data is flexible; it can be modified without altering the entire data structure. This flexibility makes semi-structured data more accessible to manage and process than fully unstructured data but still more complex than structured data. 

Technologies like XML (Extensible Markup Language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) are commonly used to store and transport semi-structured data because they allow for hierarchies and relationships within the data.

Some examples include:

  • XML files use tags to define data elements and their relationships, making parsing and extracting specific information more accessible. For instance, an XML file might store product information with tags for product name, price, and description. Although the data is not stored in a table, the tags provide enough structure to facilitate data extraction.
  • JSON files are widely used in web applications to transmit data between a server and a client. In a JSON file, data is organized into key-value pairs that can represent complex objects and arrays, making it suitable for storing and exchanging semi-structured data like user profiles or configuration settings.
  • Log files generated by applications or systems often contain semi-structured data. Each log entry may include a timestamp, an error code, and a message, separated by delimiters. While the overall structure is not rigid, the consistent use of delimiters makes it possible to parse the data and extract meaningful information.

4. Textual Data

Textual data consists of written or printed words that convey information through language. This data type is pervasive across domains, from business documents to literature. Textual data is inherently unstructured, though it can be semi-structured when organized in formats like forms or tables. 

Extracting meaningful information from textual data often requires natural language processing (NLP) techniques, such as text mining, sentiment analysis, or named entity recognition. 

Due to its complexity, textual data can convey direct facts and subtleties such as tone, intent, and context, making its analysis both challenging and insightful. Some examples include:

  • Contracts and Agreements: Legal documents are rich in textual data, containing complex language, clauses, and terms that require careful extraction and analysis. For example, extracting essential obligations, deadlines, or parties from a lengthy contract requires tools to understand legal language and context.
  • Invoices and Receipts: These documents contain textual data related to transactions, such as item descriptions, prices, dates, and payment terms. Automated data extraction tools can pull relevant details like total amounts, due dates, and vendor names, streamlining financial processes.
  • Research Papers: Academic or industry research papers include a wealth of textual data from literature reviews, methodologies, findings, and references. Extracting information from these papers can involve identifying key themes, extracting citations, or summarizing findings for meta-analysis.

5. Numerical Data

Numerical data is inherently quantitative and is shown as numbers. It is used extensively in statistical analysis, mathematical modelling, and financial calculations. 

Numerical data can be discrete, where values are countable and distinct (like the number of products sold), or continuous, where values fall within a range and can take any value (like temperature readings). 

Numerical data is crucial for making data-driven decisions, allowing for precise measurements, comparisons, and trend analysis. Its structured nature makes it ideal for storage in databases and spreadsheets, where it can be easily manipulated and visualized. Some examples include:

  • Sales Figures: Numerical data in sales figures includes metrics like total revenue, units sold, and profit margins. Businesses rely on this data for forecasting, performance analysis, and decision-making. For example, a sales report might show the monthly revenue for each product line, helping management identify trends and make strategic decisions.
  • Sensor Readings: IoT and industrial sensors generate continuous numerical data streams, such as temperature, pressure, or humidity. This data is often used for monitoring, automation, and predictive maintenance in manufacturing, agriculture, and smart homes.
  • Financial Metrics: Financial analysis depends heavily on numerical data, including key performance indicators (KPIs) like return on investment (ROI), earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), and market share. This data is critical for evaluating business health, investment opportunities, and operational efficiency.

6. Image Data

Image data comprises visual information captured as photographs, scans, or other digital images. This data type is inherently unstructured, as it does not contain easily extractable fields or records like structured data does. 

However, image data can be analyzed and processed using optical character recognition (OCR), image recognition, and computer vision. 

These technologies extract information such as text, objects, and patterns from images. Image data is used across various fields, including healthcare, security, marketing, and more, often requiring sophisticated algorithms to interpret and utilize the information contained within the images. Some examples include:

  • Scanned Documents: Many organizations digitize paper documents by scanning them into image files (like PDFs). OCR technology can extract textual information from these scanned images, converting them into searchable and editable text. For example, a scanned contract can be processed to extract critical details like names, dates, and clauses.
  • Photographs: Image data in photographs can be analyzed for various purposes, such as facial recognition, object detection, or pattern recognition. Facial recognition algorithms analyze photographic data in security systems to identify individuals entering a facility.
  • Diagrams and Blueprints: In engineering or architecture, diagrams and blueprints are often stored as images. Image processing techniques can extract measurements, labels, or specific features from these images, aiding in project planning and execution.

7. Audio Data

Audio data refers to information captured in the form of sound recordings. It is often stored in formats like MP3, WAV, or AAC. Audio data includes spoken words, music, environmental sounds, and other acoustic elements. 

Extracting meaningful information from audio data typically requires speech recognition, sound analysis, or signal processing techniques. Speech-to-text technology, for instance, can convert spoken language in audio recordings into written text for further study. 

Beyond transcription, audio data can also be analyzed for tone, emotion, and specific sound patterns, making it valuable in areas like customer service, media, and security. Some examples include:

  • Voice Messages: In customer service or legal settings, voice messages may need to be transcribed and analyzed for content, tone, or keywords. For instance, a customer support center might use speech recognition software to transcribe and categorize customer complaints from recorded calls.
  • Recorded Interviews: Researchers and journalists often record interviews to ensure accuracy and completeness. Extracting data from these recordings involves transcribing the conversation and identifying key themes or statements, which can then be analyzed or quoted in reports or articles.
  • Customer Service Calls: Companies frequently analyze recorded customer service calls to assess agent performance, customer satisfaction, and protocol compliance. Audio analysis tools can detect sentiment, measure response times, and flag essential issues that need follow-up.

8. Video Data

Video data comprises visual and audio content captured in a motion format, such as MP4, AVI, or MOV files. It is more complex than image or audio data because it combines visual and auditory information over time.

Extracting useful information from video data involves analyzing frames (images) for objects, actions, or patterns and processing the accompanying audio. Video analysis can involve object detection, facial recognition, motion tracking, or audio transcription.

This data type is essential in security, entertainment, and education, where visual and auditory elements are crucial for conveying information. Some examples include:

  • Surveillance Footage: Security systems capture video data through cameras to monitor premises. Analyzing this data involves detecting suspicious activities, identifying individuals, or tracking movements over time. Advanced video analytics can automatically flag unusual behavior or recognize faces from a watchlist.
  • Video Tutorials: Educational institutions and companies create videos to train students or employees. Extracting data from these videos might involve identifying key points, transcribing spoken content, or isolating instructional segments for more straightforward navigation.
  • Webinars: Businesses and educators often record webinars to share knowledge. Extracting information from these videos could involve creating transcripts, summarizing content, or identifying key slides and visual aids for distribution.

9. Geospatial Data

Geospatial data, or spatial data, describes the physical location and characteristics of objects or phenomena on Earth. This data type is often represented by coordinates (latitude and longitude) and can include additional attributes such as altitude, address, and geographical features. 

Geospatial data is crucial for mapping, navigation, and location-based services. It is typically visualized through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), allowing users to overlay different data types on maps for analysis. 

Geospatial data is collected from various sources, including satellites, GPS devices, drones, and surveys, and can be used for a wide range of applications, from urban planning to disaster management. Some examples include:

  • GPS Coordinates: Devices like smartphones and navigation systems generate geospatial data through GPS coordinates. This data provides directions, tracks movement, and offers location-based services such as restaurant recommendations or ride-sharing.
  • Satellite Images: Satellite imagery provides detailed views of the Earth’s surface, allowing for the analysis of land use, environmental changes, or disaster impacts. For example, satellite data can be used to monitor deforestation or track the development of a city over time.
  • Location-Based Data: Retailers and marketers use location-based data to target customers with promotions when they are near a store. This data is also crucial for geofencing, which involves creating virtual boundaries around a location to trigger specific actions, like sending notifications or tracking entries and exits.

Data Extraction Techniques and Algorithms

Data Extraction Techniques and Algorithms

The data extraction process acquires data from source systems and stores the extracted data in a ‘data warehouse’ for further examination. There are two options for extraction methods:

1. Logical Extraction

Establishing a visual integration flow is imperative when extracting data logically. It helps developers devise a physical data extraction plan.

With the logical map in place, you must decide on which extraction approach to choose:

Full Extraction

All data gets extracted directly from the source system in its entirety. You don't have to account for any logical data, such as timestamps, to be associated with source data since you are copying everything contained in the source system, entire tables, in one go. 

For instance, assume that your source database has 500 records or more. Copying the table using the SELECT and FROM database commands would be faster.

If you include the WHERE clause on timestamps, extraction will take longer, depending on the table size and whether the timestamp column is indexed.

Incremental Extraction

This approach extracts data in increments. It also extracts data altered or added after a well-defined event in the source database. Well-defined events mean anything trackable within the source system via timestamps, triggers, or custom extraction logic built into the system.

In transactional operations, standard master tables such as Product and Customer comprise millions of records, making it illogical to perform complete extraction every time and analyze the previous extraction with the new copy to mark the changed data.

2. Physical Extraction 

A physical extraction performs a bit-by-bit copy of the full contents of a mobile device's flash memory. This extraction technique enables the collection of all live data as well as data that is hidden or has been deleted. By creating a bit-by-bit copy, deleted data can potentially be recovered.

Source systems typically have certain restrictions or limitations. For instance, logical data extraction from obsolete data storage systems is inconceivable. Data extraction from such systems is only feasible via Physical Extraction, which is classified further into Online and Offline Extraction.

There are three methods to extract data from documents:

1. Manual Data Entry

Humans read the document and manually enter the data into the systems. Manual data entry can be a simple and easy-to-use method for entering small amounts of data.

Still, it can be time-consuming, prone to errors, inefficient, and expensive for businesses that need to process large volumes of data regularly.

2. Rules/template-based extraction

The method first uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert images of text into machine-readable text. The OCR information is sent to the next steps of the pipeline. 

The next steps use hard-coded rules and workflows varying for each document type. Custom rules are written using both image and text-based patterns.

Straight-through Processing (STP), a metric used by Document AI companies, can be defined as the percentage of documents processed/extracted without needing any manual human correction.

Rules/template-based extraction provides perfect STP for data extraction from structured documents. However, it is not a reliable data extraction solution for semi-structured documents because different rules need to be written for various formats and document types. 

Furthermore, these rules need to be updated even for minor changes to the structure. The documents may come from third-party sources, so their format is out of our organization’s control. For instance, today's average mortgage application exceeds 350 pages and over 60 major document types. 

This solution cannot handle the variety and complexity of documents coming from diverse sources and struggles to provide consistency in the process.

3. AI/ML-based extraction

AI/ML-based extraction is used for automated Data extraction. This method also first uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Along with the text information, layout and style information is vital for document image understanding. 

Today with the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, more specifically the innovation of MultiModal learning for data extraction, we get highly accurate State of the Art (SOTA) results.

AI/ML Based extraction has made significant progress in the document AI area. This method makes it possible to extract data from documents with varying content and structure. It can deal with the variety and complexity of documents from diverse sources. 

It can further adapt to changing structures by finetuning or pretraining the model on the updated data structure. Hence, it can be a reliable data extraction solution for both semi-structured and unstructured documents.

Document AI companies have generic AI models for different document types like W2 forms, W9 forms, Acord forms, Bank Statements, Invoices, Financial Statements, Rent rolls, etc. 

For each document type, models are trained on a huge volume of data consisting of varying content and structure. We can simply use those models as they provide great accuracy and high STP.  For even higher accuracy, we can easily finetune the model on our data.

Suppose you need to extract data from a high volume of semi-structured and unstructured documents. 

In that case, your obvious choice will be to use AI/ML-based data extraction as it is more flexible and accurate than both the other methods. Let’s further discuss the advantages of ML-based extraction over rules/template-based extraction: 

  • Handling unstructured data: Machine learning-based data extraction can handle unstructured data, which does not have a predefined format or structure. Rule/template-based extraction methods are typically limited to extracting data from structured documents with a specific format or layout.
  • Adapting to changing data: Machine learning-based data extraction can adapt to changing data over time. Even if the format or structure of the data changes drastically or new types of format are introduced, the extraction algorithms can be retrained or finetuned to continue extracting the data accurately. Rule/template-based extraction methods may need to be updated manually to handle changes in the format.
  • Improving accuracy: As we train or finetune the model on more data, Machine learning-based data extraction can become more accurate. This can result in more reliable data extraction than rules/template-based methods, which are prone to errors if the rules or templates do not accurately reflect the data.
  • Handling multiple languages: Since the model can be trained on documents of different languages, machine learning-based data extraction can handle multiple languages. Rules/template-based extraction methods may be limited to a single language or require separate rules or templates for each language.

Overall, AI/ML-based data extraction is more flexible, adaptable, and accurate than rule/template-based methods, making it a better tool for extracting data from various sources.

Data Extraction Use-Cases and the call for automation

Data extraction is useful for businesses in many industries, including lending, insurance, commercial real estate (CRE), and logistics. 

Data Extraction Use-Cases and the call for automation

Data Extraction Use-Cases and the call for automation

Some examples of how data extraction is used in these industries include:

Industry Documents processed Use-Case
Commercial Lending Loan applications, Financial Statements, Credit reports, Salary slips, Employee Papers The extracted data helps lenders process and evaluate loan applications efficiently, assess potential borrowers' creditworthiness and track records, and manage their loan portfolios.
Insurance Insurance applications, Claim documents, IRS Tax Forms, Acord Forms The extracted data helps insurance companies process and evaluate insurance applications efficiently, assess risk, and manage their insurance portfolios.
Commercial Real Estate Balance Sheet, Rent Rolls, Operating Statements, Offering Memorandum, T12 Statements The extracted data helps commercial real estate companies manage their portfolio efficiently, track property values, and identify potential investment opportunities.
Logistics Bill of Lading, Shipping Certificates The extracted data helps logistics companies track and manage shipments, identify cost savings opportunities, and improve their supply chain efficiency.

Data extraction facilitates companies to migrate data from documents, credentials, and images into their databases. 

This feature helps avoid having your data siloed by obsolete applications or software licenses. Let's have a look at some use cases of data extraction in different industries in detail:

1. Commercial real estate data extraction

Real estate investors analyze historical sales data for a specific property and compare it with similar other properties on distinct parameters to estimate the investment potential. 

Most property managers extract this historical data from various document types and categorize them in a structured manner before comparison. However, manual extraction is susceptible to all kinds of errors, thus resulting in inaccurate data sets and erroneous estimates. 

Perks of Automation

  • Automated data extraction helps you extract historical sales data from various non-standard property documents and streamline sales comparisons. You can process CRE Models in real-time and receive error-free reports.
  • You can extract standard fields such as property details, building details, as well as adjustment details with the convenience of adding, deleting, or moving any field.

2. Logistics document processing

Logistics service providers extract and analyze heaps of data from invoices, bills of ladings, as well as other documents, and manually feed in updates to the TMS or ERP. 

Commodity traders, shippers, food producers, and logistics providers are required to process hundreds of Bill of Lading documents every day. This process is executed manually, which is prone to human errors and delays. 

Perks of Automation

  • Automated data extraction software processes bill of lading and other logistics documents in real-time yielding over 99% accuracy.
  • Process shipping details, purchase details, as well as other additional information with the advantage of reduced cost, faster processing time, and error-free results.

3. Agreement parsing and rental application for property managers

As a property manager, you might have your desk or email inbox flooded with applications for properties that you manage. Weeding through all the paperwork to extract the core information that differs from application to application can get extremely tedious. 

Such credentials hold the utmost significance, and thus, the sensitive information must be handled scrupulously.

Perks of Automation

  • Automated data extraction provides you with the necessary data, which can be downloaded in Excel, XML, CSV, or JSON format, or you can use Salesforce and Google Sheets integrations.
  • Data extraction software extracts differences between different rental applications and sends that information to precisely the place where you need it. 

4. Accounts payable processing

Today, many invoices are sent in PDF format via fax or email. Individuals manually input the data into their ERP platform, Excel sheets, or any preferred software program.

However, since enterprises send and receive thousands of invoices every day, it becomes unavoidable to have automated accounts payable solutions to alleviate the load of manual entry and make the payable workflow system quicker, more accurate, and error-free.

Perks of Automation:

  • Automated data extraction locates and extracts the fine-grained data figures inside the digital invoices. It also pulls intricate patterns, such as invoice line items.
  • If a business receives hundreds of invoices from various suppliers, automated data extraction can help streamline these invoices in varied formats and deliver error-free reports.

How to Choose the Best Automated Data Extraction Solution

How to Choose the Best Automated Data Extraction Solution

When picking a document processing software for your business, you should be careful about different features that different platforms offer. Something that might work for one company may not work for the other.  Therefore, you must have the following parameters in mind when making a purchasing decision:

1. Intelligent data capturing

The data extraction tool must be able to extract data without losing information from different document types, such as contracts, delivery notes, accounts payable, and more, and categorize them in their respective blueprints.

2. Accuracy in results

Companies prefer a data extraction tool that delivers swift results; however, it must also be highly accurate. The extracted output must retain information, and the tool must be able to extract tables, fonts, and crucial parameters without compromising the layout.

3. Storage options

Pick a data extraction platform offering secure storage and seamless backup options. Cloud-based extraction enables you to extract data from websites seamlessly at any time.

Cloud servers can swiftly extract data relative to a single computer. The quickness of automated web data extraction affects the speed of your reaction to any rapid events that impact your enterprise. 

4. Simplistic UI and robust features 

Advanced automated data extraction software must operate on a simplistic UI. The layout of the software interface at launch must be simple enough to navigate you through executing a grinding task. 

Besides providing an easy-to-use UI experience, the platform must also not compromise on the essential features.

5. Price

Pricing might not be the most crucial factor, but it is a thoughtful consideration. It might not be a wise decision to invest in exorbitantly expensive software with extravagant features that do not apply to your company or choose the wrong pricing plan. 

Consider evaluating the features of the software while ensuring that the cost stays within your budget.

Automate Data Extraction with Docsumo

Docsumo is a powerful and flexible solution for automating data extraction, designed to meet the diverse needs of modern businesses. With cutting-edge AI technologies, Docsumo simplifies the automated extraction process, making it efficient and highly accurate. Some key features and benefits of Docsumo's automated data extraction:

  • Instant and Accurate Document Data Extraction: Docsumo allows businesses to extract data from documents instantly and with a high degree of accuracy. Docsumo’s tools can identify and pull the required information from even the most complex documents, whether a single data point or an entire table.
  • Plug-and-Play with Pre-Built AI Models: Docsumo has over 30 pre-built document AI models that are ready to use. These models can handle everyday business use cases, such as processing bank checks, ACORD forms, utility bills, bank statements, and invoices. Their plug-and-play nature makes them easy to deploy without extensive customization.
  • Customized AI Model Training: Docsumo can train custom AI models using just 20 samples for businesses with unique needs. These models learn and adapt over time, ensuring the key data is accurately extracted even when labels or formats change.
  • Smart Table Extraction: Docsumo excels at extracting data from complex tables, including nested ones that span multiple pages or contain multiple tables within a single document. The system can be trained to capture valuable data from these tables with precision, streamlining data processing tasks.
  • Cost and Time Efficiency: By leveraging Docsumo's automated data extraction, businesses can reduce processing costs by up to 80% and significantly accelerate document timelines. This efficiency is achieved through precise unstructured data analysis, eliminating manual data entry and reducing errors.

Docsumo’s powerful and adaptable solution makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to optimize their data extraction processes. 

Whether using pre-built models or creating custom solutions, Docsumo ensures that data extraction is seamless and highly effective.

A Case in Point: National Debt Relief's Transformation with Docsumo

The impact of Docsumo’s automated data extraction software is exemplified by its work with National Debt Relief, one of America’s largest debt settlement firms. Facing the daunting task of processing over 350,000 debt settlement letters annually, the firm needed a solution to handle the complexity and volume of its data extraction needs. 

By integrating Docsumo’s Document AI, National Debt Relief was able to achieve:

  • 98% data extraction accuracy, overcoming challenges posed by varying fonts, layouts, and image qualities.
  • 95% straight-through processing, reducing the processing time from 5-10 minutes per letter to just 40 seconds.
  • 2,100+ person-hours saved monthly, allowing the team to focus on client interactions rather than manual data processing.

Daniel Tilipman, Co-Founder & Executive Board Member, noted, “Docsumo does an excellent job for our specific use case. Debt settlement letters vary a lot from each other, but Docsumo manages to capture data accurately almost every single time at an unprecedented processing speed.”

With a proven track record, Docsumo is a go-to solution for businesses looking to revolutionize their data extraction processes.

Get Started today to discover how Docsumo can streamline document management and operational efficiency.

Conclusion

Automated data extraction is transforming how businesses manage and utilize data. By leveraging advanced technologies such as AI, OCR, and NLP, organizations can streamline the extraction process, significantly reducing manual effort, improving accuracy, and speeding up data processing.

Whether dealing with structured, unstructured, or semi-structured data, automated solutions provide the flexibility and scalability needed to handle diverse data sources efficiently. As the examples and tools discussed in this guide demonstrate, automation is not just a trend but a necessity for businesses aiming to stay competitive in a data-driven world. 

With solutions like Docsumo, organizations can easily integrate automated extraction into their workflows, cutting costs, minimizing errors, and unlocking valuable insights from their data. Investing in automated data extraction enhances operational efficiency and positions businesses to adapt quickly to future challenges and opportunities. 

As data grows in volume and complexity, the need for reliable, scalable, and accurate extraction methods will only increase, making automation a crucial element of any forward-thinking data strategy.

Suggested Case Study
Automating Portfolio Management for Westland Real Estate Group
The portfolio includes 14,000 units across all divisions across Los Angeles County, Orange County, and Inland Empire.
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Written by
Ritu John

Ritu is a seasoned writer and digital content creator with a passion for exploring the intersection of innovation and human experience. As a writer, her work spans various domains, making content relatable and understandable for a wide audience.

What is automated data extraction software?

Automated data extraction software is a tool that uses technologies like AI, OCR, and machine learning to automatically capture and process data from various sources, such as documents, images, or web pages. Unlike manual data entry, which is time-consuming and prone to errors, automated extraction software can quickly and accurately extract data, reducing operational costs and improving efficiency.

How does automated data extraction differ from automated data entry?

Both automated data extraction and entry streamline data processes but have different roles. Automated data extraction captures and converts data from unstructured sources like PDFs into structured formats. Automated data entry inputs structured data into systems like databases or CRMs, improving accuracy and speed while reducing manual work.

What are the benefits of using automated data extraction tools?

These tools improve efficiency, reduce costs, enhance accuracy, and scale quickly, making them crucial for handling large data volumes.

Can automated data extraction handle unstructured data?

Using technologies like NLP and OCR, automated data extraction tools can process unstructured data such as emails, social media posts, and scanned documents.

Is custom AI model training necessary for automated data extraction?

Custom AI models are beneficial if your business has unique data processing needs. They can be trained to handle specific formats and improve extraction accuracy over time.

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