Quickly digitalizing paper documents, transforming them into true information assets

Large amounts of contracts, applications, reports and other documents are prepared on a daily basis at various companies and public institutions. In many cases, the originals are still stored in paper documents, which is one factor that inhibits the sharing and utilization of information. Additionally, many business processes require exchanging paper documents, which creates an obstacle when attempting to introduce new work styles such as remote working.

FUJIFILM RIPCORD G.K. was established in September 2020 through a joint venture between FUJIFILM Business Innovation (formerly Fuji Xerox) and US-based Ripcord, Inc. with the aim of solving such challenges. By combining the know-how of FUJIFILM Business Innovation cultivated in business process outsourcing services for converting various paper documents^*1 into electronic format and streamlining work processes with the technology of Ripcord for quickly converting paper documents using robotics technology and AI, we will contribute to reforming business processes involving paper documents.

The service is performed according to the following flow: (1) a dedicated robot scanning paper documents at high speed and high image quality and converting them into digital data, (2) AI automatically tagging and classifying attribute data such as the title using optical character recognition (OCR) technology to facilitate storages, searches and utilization, and (3) managing the data in the cloud. Processing the information without human involvement reduces the risk of information leaks as well, securely and quickly digitalizing valuable information and integrating it to the customer’s workflow.

The scanning process can handle several hundred million pages, far exceeding conventional services that were available. Another distinctive characteristic is that not only is the information digitalized but it is also automatically categorized and classified for easier utilization later. For example, digitalizing handwritten application forms used to open accounts at banks and increasing their searchability will help streamline operations at branches and speed up providing services to customers. At insurance companies, digitalizing insurance claims sent from insureds will allow a business in which assessment work can be performed anywhere.

The company has already begun providing services to several financial institutions in Japan and will gradually roll these services out in Asia, Oceania and other areas overseas.

• *1 Such as estimates, order forms, delivery forms, invoices and receipts

• *2 Stands for Application Programming Interface. A method that allows different applications to be linked to each other