Organisations utilise data from various sources to strategise, build corporate models, identify trends, and stay on top of the competition. Their unstructured data contains a lot of potentially useful information. But gathering that data isn’t easy, and it can take a long time to analyse all the information.
Automated data extraction makes it easy to transform unstructured data into information you can use. Utilising a computerised system powered by machine learning could be the right choice for your organisation. Here are a few things you should know before you invest in automated data extraction software:
The purpose of data extraction is to gather information from one or more sources for processing. The data is then typically transferred to a data warehouse, an ERP, CRM, or RPA system. You can use this process for printed or digital documents.
Manual data extraction is time-consuming and monotonous. As the number of documents increases each year, it’s becoming even more challenging to consolidate all the data points relevant to your business. Relying on manual data extraction is very time-consuming, and most organisations are looking for ways to automate.
Your organisation’s resources are better spent on a system that can quickly comb through and collect relevant data. Unstructured data is challenging because, unlike structured data sources, you might not know exactly where to find relevant information. This is particularly true of lengthy PDF documents and reports. Automated data extraction sorts the relevant data from large amounts of information into a workable format.
Automated data allows organisations to customise their data needs. You can teach your data extraction software to extract the data you need. The most powerful systems are powered by machine learning or artificial intelligence because these systems understand documents the same as humans. Your organisation can even set up your automated data extraction service in real-time to stay on top of incoming changes.
Some data extraction services require you to build a machine learning module from scratch, while others (e.g. Acodis) use a combination of owned and community modules. Community modules are pre-trained and solve most of the data extraction challenges out of the box.
With all the technical jargon, it might seem like data extraction software is hard to set up and use. However, we offer a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to find and access the data you need.
Users don’t need any coding experience to use an automated data extraction system. In fact, some interfaces are point and click, providing an easy to navigate user experience. You can find a plan that fits your needs and your comfort level.
Streamlining the collection of data is a simple but effective way to increase productivity. Quicker access to more data allows leaders to make educated plans and decisions about strategy and improvements faster.