Over the past 30 years, capture technology hasn’t changed much – that is, since we moved to a Batch-based, back-office production method of converting paper at high speed and extracting indexes and data. Now, at last, we are on the verge of another shift in the paradigm.
With the growth of mobile and social technology, rise of multi-function devices and focus on user empowerment, there is a proliferation of data to be captured. Data is coming in as a mixture of voice, emails, text messages, audio and more. In order to optimally capture and process all this information (while weeding out the “junk”), we need to do so in real time, or at the “point of impact.” However, this creates the challenge of meeting volume swings, while at the same time figuring out how to streamline processes, reduce costs and maintain compliance.
To meet these challenges, the industry is moving toward the next wave of capture technology: “Capture 2.0.” Leveraging cloud technology, Capture 2.0 involves real-time and mobile processing. This method is far less paper based, and is used primarily for capturing information from all sorts of unstructured and semistructured inputs to feed business processes and analytics. Most importantly, cloud architecture is scalable. So, as volumes fluctuate, it is simple to configure and reconfigure the technology to meet the business’s changing capture requirements – there are infinite possibilities.
Today, the pieces of Capture 2.0 are virtually here. The technological underpinnings are already available, making it very realistic to understand and process incoming data in real time. As cloud-based capture technology continues to gain traction, it is up to solutions providers and integrators to select and glue together the technology offerings – like classification, recognition, validation and repair – in order to serve their customers and stakeholders more efficiently.