eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Panasonic System Communications Company of North America has introduced PremierOCR, an advanced PDF optical character recognition, compression and conversion platform.
The platform is designed to make files smaller, faster, easier to process and searchable, according to the company. It incorporates image processing, real-time OCR accuracy, advanced compression and numerous other technologies including batch multi-threading and encryption.
PremierOCR Solution also utilizes its OCR capability to render precise editable and searchable files from multi-directional, color, low-contrast text, barcodes and other data types.
“OCR is one of the most important technologies today when it comes to document management in general. Whether you are scanning new documents or converting existing documents to text-searchable documents,” Joe Odore, Panasonic’s product manager, told eWEEK. “OCR is the driving engine for simple document searches or extraction of information to more advanced document management application.”
OCR, he said, creates extractable data that helps to create information workflows. In the past, most of this was performed manually by inputting the necessary data from a document regardless if it was digital or physical.
“While there has been endless news and articles on the paperless office, this reality has yet to come to fruition,” Odore said. “Paper will continue to be part of our world for many years to come. Not to mention, the countless amounts of documents still sitting in warehouses and filing cabinets which many businesses have not even decided on what to do with these documents.”
He explained government, legal and healthcare customer continue to use paper-intensive processes that require data to be extracted from these sources, and the most-efficient way to digitize these documents is to use a document scanner.
“So while the scanning technology itself has matured over the last 10 years, the necessity has not changed,” he said.
By creating compact, web-friendly PDF files, PremierOCR Solution allows documents to be e-mailed, accessed, shared and stored more efficiently.
File compression also leads to faster download and upload speeds for documents, allowing for swifter transmission over cloud and mobile platforms.
“Keeping the process simple reduces time spent scanning and extracting data. Not to mention the reduction of time spent on training users how to use the software or equipment,” Odore said. “Automating as much of these process is key to preventing bottleneck in a daily business process.”
That is why OCR accuracy is important, he said, as this nearly eliminates manual intervention during a data extraction process or workflow.
“I would also like to point out that most users today are used to a wizard-based operation as this keeps the training requirements down to a minimum,” Odore noted.