The ARQ Group has announced it is rolling out a highly accurate digital scanning solution to easily extract data from handwritten materials and optimise data management processes.
ARQ’s Document Digitiser is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and uses Amazon Textract, a machine learning service that automatically extracts text, handwriting, and data from scanned documents, to provide scanned and digitised documents that are highly accurate and require no manual review. ARQ’s Document Digitiser is used by industries such as government, retail, mining, construction, and financial services, where handwritten forms are still commonplace.
James Litjens, ARQ Group’s Head of Emerging Technology said ARQ’s Document Digitiser can make a significant difference in these industries, especially where handwritten safety reports and inspection forms are used in place of electronic devices.
“Today, many companies manually extract data from scanned documents like PDFs, images, tables, forms, and hand-written documents, which can be time-consuming, prone to errors, expensive, and not scalable,” said Litjens. “We have worked with clients to manage data from such sources more efficiently, such as using iPads, however this doesn’t work for organisations like car mechanic workshops where devices can be easily damaged.
“Our new solution leverages the power of machine learning to provide predictive insights from digitised data with high accuracy, while still allowing the workforce to use their preferred handwritten process. Research by McKinsey & Co shows that 64% of data collection activities and 69% of data processing tasks can be automated. The research also shows that only 20% of artificial intelligence aware companies use one or more related technologies for core business processes or at scale.
“Our customers are keen to increase their use of machine learning technology to achieve efficiencies by reducing their reliance on manual entry and processing. We see further applications for this handwriting analysis tool, like automatic document processing, creation of digital catalogues, enablement of automatic analytics from documents data, or compliance verification and redaction of documents. Virtually any process that involves hand-filled forms, such as government departments, maintenance workers, and even the national archives could benefit from it.”
One company that has been piloting ARQ’s Document Digitiser solution is insurtech Wrapped. CEO, Sofia Rostankowska said that ARQ’s new features are a critical part of its minimum viable product.
“We used ARQ’s new Document Digitiser tool, built on AWS and using Amazon Textract, in our app, WrApp which can centralise all of a customer’s key insurance policy details across all of their providers, enabling total visibility of costs and upcoming expiries. Amazon Textract empowers the seamless extraction of text, key data, and structure from a myriad of documents quickly and accurately. There are many more applications for this exciting technology in the pipeline as we build out our product,” said Rostankowska.
“At AWS, we are focused on helping our AWS Partner Network partners and customers leverage machine learning to create new services that efficiently assist to solve problems. This is an area where our services are evolving quickly and it’s great to see ARQ Group leverage AWS to automate document-based processes and digitise handwriting more accurately than ever. We are entering the golden age of machine learning, and I look forward to seeing more innovative uses of these new capabilities,” said Davinia Simon, Head of Channel and Alliances for Amazon Web Services Australia Pty Ltd.
