Technical FAQs for "FormSuite for Structured Forms"

Today’s customers expect more of software applications than ever before. Piecemeal solutions that provide only a few noteworthy features are quickly being overtaken by more comprehensive platforms that deliver an end-to-end experience for users. This has prompted developers to incorporate more capabilities, while also building innovative features that set their solutions apart from the competition. Thanks to third-party software integrations, they’re able to meet both demands.

What is Third-Party Software Integration?

Third-party software integrations typically come in the form of SDKs or APIs that provide applications with specialized capabilities. Rather than building complex features like optical character recognition (OCR), PDF features, or image cleanup from scratch, developers can instead incorporate the necessary features directly into their software via an SDK or use an API call to access capabilities without expanding their application’s footprint.

From a user experience standpoint, third-party software integrations allow developers to build more cohesive software solutions that provide all the essential features a customer may require. Instead of pushing them into a separate application to interact with documents, provide a signature, or fill out a digital form, they can instead deliver an unbroken experience that’s easier to navigate and manage from start to finish.  

4 Key Third-Party Software Benefits

There are a number of important benefits organizations can gain from using third-party software integrations, but four stand out in particular:

1. Reduce Development Costs

When evaluating whether it makes sense to build functionality for an application in-house or buy a third-party software integration, cost is frequently one of the key considerations. There is often a tendency to think that it would be more cost-effective to have developers already working on the project simply build the capabilities they need on their own. After all, there’s no shortage of open-source SDKs and other tools that are available without having to pay licensing or product fees.

In practice, however, this approach usually ends up being more expensive in the long run. That’s because the developers working on the project often lack the experience needed to build those capabilities quickly. A software engineer hired to help build AI software, for instance, probably doesn’t know a lot about file conversion or annotation. While they might be able to find an open-source tool to build those features, they still need to do quite a bit of development work and on-the-job learning to get the new capabilities stood up and thoroughly tested. 

Focusing on these features means they’re not focusing on the more innovative aspects of their application. From a cost standpoint, that means they’re being paid to build something that’s already readily available in the market. When these internal development costs are taken into account, it’s almost always more cost effective to buy ready-to-implement software features built by an experienced third party. As the saying goes, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. 

2. Get to Market Faster

Software developers are always working against the clock. With new applications hitting the market faster than ever, there’s tremendous pressure to keep development timelines on track and avoid missing important deadlines. This helps projects stay within their expected budgets and prevents potential competitors from getting to market faster. Any steps that can be taken to accelerate development and potentially shorten the timeline to releasing a product could mean the difference between becoming an industry innovator or being labeled as an also-ran.

Third-party software integrations allow developers to quickly and seamlessly integrate essential capabilities into applications without compromising their project timeline. Rather than building features like forms processing, document annotation, and image conversion from scratch, teams can instead use third-party SDKs and APIs to add proven, reliable, and secure features in a fraction of the time. By keeping projects on or ahead of schedule, they can focus on delivering a better, more robust product that exceeds customer expectations. 

3. Expand Application Features & Functionality

Software development teams typically possess the experience and expertise needed to build the core architecture and innovative features of a new application. In many cases, they’re designing something novel that will provide a point of differentiation in the market. The more time they can spend on refining and expanding those capabilities, the more likely the application is to make an impact and win over customers.

What these developers often lack, however, are the skills needed to implement a variety of other features that will enhance the application’s functionality. Features like document conversion, OCR, PDF support, digital forms, eSignature, and image compression are complex and difficult to build from scratch. By integrating third-party software, developers can leverage proven, feature-rich technology to expand their application’s capabilities. This not only allows them to improve their solution’s versatility but also enhance the overall user experience by eliminating the need for external programs or troublesome plug-ins. 

4. Access Specialized Engineering Support

Incorporating features like PDF support, image conversion, and document redaction into an application poses several challenges. Some of those challenges don’t show up right away, instead, they become evident long after a software product launches. If the developers don’t have a lot of experience with the technology behind those features, minor issues can quickly escalate into serious problems that leave customers unhappy and willing to look elsewhere for alternatives. No organization wants to be caught in a situation where a bug embedded in an open-source tool renders a client’s valuable assets unusable.

By leveraging proven, tested, and secure third-party software integrations, developers gain access to support from experienced engineering teams with deep knowledge of their solutions. In addition to documentation and code samples, they can also speak directly with developers who can provide guidance on how to best integrate features and resolve issues when they emerge. The best integration providers will even work with organizations to customize their solutions to meet specific application needs, which helps create even smoother user experiences and enhances reliability.

Integrating Third-Party Software with Accusoft

For over 30 years, Accusoft has helped organizations add essential features like barcode recognition, file conversion, document assembly, and image compression to their applications through an innovative line of SDKs and APIs. Our document lifecycle technologies are backed by multiple patents and have been incorporated successfully into a wide range of applications. Our dedicated engineers provide ongoing support and work closely with customers to implement their specific use cases, ensuring that their software platform is delivering the best possible experience.

To learn more about integrating third-party software with Accusoft SDKs and APIs, talk to one of our solutions experts today.

As a developer working with lenders, you strive to build an application that makes life easier for your clients. In the financial industry, processing data is essential. In order to process it efficiently, lenders must collect data from a variety of different forms. Whether consumers are coming to them for a loan, bank account, or credit card, lenders must gather a variety of personal information from them in order to approve or decline the request.  Fintech form processing is a key capability for financial applications.

In an ever-changing digital landscape, financial institutions big and small are struggling to keep up with the instantaneous product offerings which consumers are coming to expect. This mindset is pushing lenders to reconsider their data gathering processes, searching for faster, more efficient solutions.

Challenges Facing Financial Forms Workflows

There are so many forms consumers must fill out to get approved for financial requests. Loan applications, in particular, can be daunting. Underwriters need everything from pay stubs and bank statements to documented work history and credit score reports. It’s a lot of information for lenders to sort through, especially considering that it comes in a variety of formats. 

To make things even more complicated, not all of those documents arrive at the same time or from one source. A single loan application may have different forms trickling in over the course of several weeks. Whether the lender is processing that information as it comes in or storing files for review at a later date, it can be difficult to keep everything sorted properly.

But even after receiving the proper materials, the data scattered across several form fields in multiple documents needs to make its way from the page and into the lender’s databases and applications. Traditionally, that required painstaking manual data entry processes that were both slow and prone to error. While some firms have transitioned to purely digital portals that automatically transfer entered information to the proper destination, many still rely on form documents that are either filled out by hand or submitted in digital format.

For all the talk of organizations going paperless, many lenders still need to process a large number of paper forms, which will involve a combination of manual data entry and scanning documents into digital form. Even if they are set up to receive forms online, they may not have the right software tools in place to extract data from them efficiently or route them to the proper workflow destination. Here again, lenders can end up relying on manual data entry to fill in the gaps, which increases the likelihood that human error will contribute to delays and costly mistakes.

Building a Better Forms Processing Solution

FinTech developers can help lenders manage their form processing needs by designing automated workflows that can identify forms, capture data, and route files more efficiently. The process begins with good form identification capabilities that can match a broad range of documents to existing templates. Not only is this helpful when identifying documents received digitally, but it’s also extremely useful for managing physical documents once they’ve been scanned into the application. Rather than laboriously sorting through scanned files, an automated forms identification system can quickly match batches of documents to determine what kind of form information they contain and then pass them along to the next step of the workflow.

After the identification process, forms can then be aligned with the template to improve data capture accuracy. They could also be routed to the proper storage destination at that point if information doesn’t need to be extracted right away. When the time comes to capture form field content, optical character recognition (OCR) can be applied to documents to efficiently extract text and send it to various databases or other application tools. In the case of handprinted text, intelligent character recognition (ICR) can be used to accurately identify and capture data for processing. For forms with fillable information like bubbles or checkboxes, optical mark recognition (OMR) tools can quickly read which areas have been filled in without anyone having to manually review the document.

Of course, the entire identification and data capture process will go much smoother if the application managing forms is equipped with image cleanup tools that allow it to enhance document images and remove imperfections that might interfere with form processing. This not only includes deskewing and noise removal, but also form dropout capabilities which remove any template images that obscure or overlap with information that needs to be extracted.

Creating a Solution within Your Application

Your FinTech application already offers a variety of robust services for financial professionals, but integrating forms processing capabilities can make it even more attractive in a competitive market. Accusoft’s FormSuite Collection provides a comprehensive set of SDKs for processing standardized forms as part of an automated workflow. It’s the best way to integrate forms identification and data capture into your application without compromising your development timeline or sacrificing functionality.

In addition to an extensive array of image cleanup tools, the FormSuite Collection provides the FormFix component to allow applications to quickly match document images to whatever form templates an organization uses as part of its business processes. Documents can then be efficiently routed to wherever they need to be stored for easy retrieval in the future. FormFix can also perform image dropout and features OMR capabilities for accurate data capture. 

The SmartZone component is also included in the FormSuite Collection, delivering powerful OCR and ICR features that can be customized for full page or zonal data capture. With support for multiple Western and Eastern languages, SmartZone has the flexibility to handle almost any documents that pass through FinTech workflows.

By integrating the FormSuite Collection into your application, you gain much more functionality for your product and your customers gain another benefit from your services. They’ll be saving time using your application – just like you’ll save time writing code. When your clients have the ability to process data faster, they win more business. Help your customers succeed, and remain their trusted partner for digital financial technology. 

For more information on the FormSuite Collection, check out our comprehensive fact sheet. If you’re ready to see how FormSuite will look within your application environment, download a free trial today.

Rick Scanlan, Accusoft Director of Sales Engineering

Throughout time people have been looking for ways to gather information. The invention of the printing press allowed large-scale production of documents and printing of the earliest forms. Until the 1980s, information collected from forms was tabulated by hand or manually entered into a computer. Hand print recognition technology, more commonly known as Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), has progressed significantly since that time, but the accuracy and productivity of forms processing is highly dependent on form design.

There are many factors to consider when designing a form to collect hand printed responses. First and foremost, the form needs to be easily understood by your target audience. The form also needs to constrain the response area and clearly identify where the user should write their responses.

Remember that the person filling out the form is usually out of your control. No matter how well you design your form, there will always be responses that can’t be read automatically. You can encourage the form fillers to write neatly, and keep their responses within the spaces allotted, but there will always be people who don’t read instructions (or ignore them) and assume that the form will be read by a human, not by a computer. They may do things like writing a character by mistake, then drawing a big “X” over it to “delete” it. Some people have poor handwriting, or always write in cursive.

Accuracy vs Confidence

Although they’re often used interchangeably, “accuracy” and “confidence” have two different meanings with regards to ICR software. Accuracy represents the percentage of actual text that is read correctly. Since character recognition applications don’t actually know when they misread a character, they cannot self-report accuracy. It can only be calculated after the recognition process by comparing the “ground truth” (the actual text) with the application’s reported recognition results.

“Confidence,” on the other hand, represents how certain the application is that it has identified a character correctly. Each character result generally has a confidence value ranging from 0 to 100, which can be calculated based upon a variety of recognition characteristics. Confidence values can also be returned for each line of characters or each field in a form in addition to each character individually. 

If the ICR engine’s confidence does not exceed this value when reading a given character, it may reject the character and replace its text output with a placeholder until it can be reviewed manually. This is typically done when the engine is unable to determine what a pattern of pixels represents. Some engines (such as Accusoft’s SmartZone) can instead be configured to report the character result with the highest confidence or return a list of possible characters, each with individual confidence values. A final determination can then be made through human review or other data validation operations. 

The industry accuracy average for ICR applications is about 70%. That means that three out of every ten characters are read incorrectly or aren’t recognized with a high enough confidence to be considered accurate. One should never expect 100% accuracy in any forms processing project, but a successful ICR application should exceed 70% accuracy. A rate of 85% or higher is considered good (although that’s still 15 bad characters out of every 100). With a little planning and some basic form design elements in place, however, you can usually exceed the 70% threshold.

In fact, since the way people fill out your forms has such a big impact on recognition results, taking small steps to improve compliance is immensely beneficial. Without changing any other aspects of your form, simply changing user instructions can provide a significant improvement in recognition rates.

5 Simple Ways Improve ICR Software Recognition Rates

1. Tell the user that the form will be processed by a computer.
2. Stress the importance of writing plainly, carefully, and clearly.
3. Ask them to use block letters and avoid cursive handwriting.
4. Put the instructions in bold at the top of the form, or just above the first field.
5. Show character examples such as how an “A” or a “2” should be formed.

Field Design Considerations for ICR Software

Properly laying out the areas for printed responses can make the most significant impact in accurate hand print content recognition. A common mistake in field design is to provide a freeform area for a response. This design is often a simple blank line where people should write. Without any character restraints, people will write in cursive, run their characters together, write on top of the line, or write multiple lines in a single line response area. All of these factors will have a serious impact on intelligent text recognition accuracy.

A form needs to have a defined response area for each character, encouraging character separation. Some approaches for character separation work better than others, and are described below.

Comb Lines

Comb lines are horizontal lines with small vertical separators called tick marks. This is traditionally the most common type of hand print form design, often used in manual data entry applications. However, it’s not as well suited for automated ICR processing as other approaches. While the tick marks may encourage people to separate their characters, they rarely ever write the characters within each space. The spacing between the vertical lines on many forms is frequently too close together, making it almost impossible for the average person to stay between the lines. The height of the tick lines also plays an important role in encouraging character separation.

If you use comb lines, provide plenty of room between each of the vertical tick marks. Make the tick marks tall enough to encourage people to write between them. A vertical height at least half the height of the expected character is usually sufficient.

Example of a Poor Comb Line

Example of a Good Comb Line

Character Boxes

Character boxes are usually the best method to encourage character separation. A good character box design will allow users to write their characters completely within each box. Unfortunately, many forms contain boxes that are too small and too close together. People often can’t write small enough to keep an entire character within a box. Pencil lead creates strokes that are usually much wider than with pens, making it even harder to constrain the character. The following are some general guidelines for designing character boxes.

Each box should be square in shape. Rectangular boxes with the height taller than the width can make the user feel like they need to squeeze their characters into the space. This often results in characters written in a compressed vertical form, reducing accuracy. A square shape encourages wider, more normally formed characters.

Narrow Boxes

Square Boxes

Single character response locations, such as for Male (“M”) or Female (“F”), should be provided in a single box separated from other responses.

Multiple character response locations, such as a Name field, may contain separated boxes if space permits. 

They could also be joined together when space is a consideration. If joined, a thick separator between the response locations, at least one-fourth the width of a response area, should be used to discourage characters entering other boxes.

Individual fields should be separated by enough space to easily identify where one field stops and the next starts. Spacing of at least 1.5 box widths is recommended to prevent users from interpreting the space as a valid character location.

Rows of fields stacked vertically should be separated by at least one half the height of an individual box.

Boxes can be printed with either solid black lines or dropout colors, depending on the scanning and forms processing technology used. Some forms processing technology, such as Accusoft’s FormSuite software development kit (SDK), best performs form identification and alignment when all boxes and form contents are retained. Software-based form dropout is used to remove the boxes from the image after scanning. The original image with boxes intact may then be archived for future reference.

Several forms processing systems require dropout colors to be used when printing forms. For example, a form is printed in red ink, and a red bulb in the scanner eliminates the red content when the image is captured. Unlike these types of forms processing technology, the FormSuite SDK doesn’t require any special printing, paper, or inks. It provides much greater printing flexibility and reduced printing costs. The use of general purpose scanning technology without requiring special bulbs may also reduce capital costs.

Paper Thickness and Bleed-Through

The quality of paper can impact recognition accuracy in dual-sided forms. Form paper should be thick enough to prevent the back side content from bleeding through when scanned. Fields on form fronts and backs may also be offset to ensure that any bleed-through content from one side will not interfere with field recognition on the other.

Example of Bleed Through

Processing a Hand Print Form

Intelligent character recognition accuracy can often be increased through image enhancement and other pre-processing activities. Many scanners today include image enhancement technologies that will create a good representation of the original image. This enhanced image may work well for viewing or archival purposes, but it may not be the best to use for content recognition. Lines or boxes in the image may interfere with field recognition. Dot shaded fields may prevent easy recognition of filled content. Filled forms might be received via fax at a low resolution, where built-in image enhancement is not available. The use of post-scan image enhancement processes can significantly improve forms processing and intelligent text recognition.

A temporary copy of the image can be created solely for use with the ICR application. Enhancements are performed that directly impact recognition. If poor recognition results are received, additional enhancements may be performed, looping through a series of “enhance – attempt to recognize – enhance – attempt to recognize” processes until the field is read with high confidence or a decision is made to route the image for manual data entry. Once recognition is complete, the temporary image is deleted and the original image is archived.

Certain enhancement processes are specifically designed to improve character recognition, especially when you don’t have control over the form design. For example, forms that contain shaded fields in response areas can be very difficult to recognize. Dot shading removal with character smoothing can significantly improve recognition of those fields.

Software-based form dropout—removal of background form content—can allow recognition of content that has been written over master form elements. For example, users completing forms with comb lines often write on top of the lines, resulting in very difficult recognition. An automated comb line removal process will remove the comb lines and reconstruct the intersecting characters, allowing for accurate recognition.

Before Comb Removal

After Comb Removal, with Character Repair

Improve ICR Application Performance with Focused Recognition and Data Validation

Some fields are designed to allow only certain characters to be entered. For example, a date field may allow only digits, or only digits, dashes, and slashes. A “Male/Female” field may only allow the characters M and F. Ensure that your form contains instructions or examples for each field to ensure the user knows what characters are allowed. ICR technology such as Accusoft’s SmartZone ICR/OCR component allows definition of allowable characters, increasing accuracy by focusing the recognition engine towards specific characters.

Remember that the industry average for hand print recognition is only 70%. Data validation and correction is critical to a successful hand-printed forms recognition system. Use recognition confidence values to locate suspect characters. Use two or more ICR engines in a voting process, comparing the results from each engine to determine the highest confidence results. Recognized data should be compared against database tables, dictionaries, lookup tables, or other data validation tools.

A “key from image” process is typically required to validate low confidence data. You should develop a process to display suspect characters or fields to a human for manual data entry. Human interaction is the most expensive part of any data capture process, so any efforts you can take, such as strong form design or additional image enhancement processes, will easily pay for themselves when compared to the cost of manual data entry.

Test Your Form

It’s critical to develop a prototype of your form then test it on a sampling of actual users. Present the form to people who have not seen any previous versions and ask them to complete it. Statistical sampling and analysis is helpful when testing forms that will be used on a large scale. Forms for smaller audiences do not require scientific analysis. Just be sure that you employ representative users in the test.

You should also test your recognition processes with enough sample data to get a good sense of the results. Identify weaknesses in the form or recognition, make changes, then retest to confirm improved results.

A Note About OMR

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR), sometimes known as “mark sense,” is the analysis of form locations to determine if a mark is present. Examples of OMR zones include check boxes on a form to designate male or female, multiple choice responses on a high-stakes educational exam, or diagnosis results on a medical form. The OMR response areas may be a single box, multiple response zones such as a “check all that apply” field, or a true/false designation.

Many forms contain some type of OMR field. Designing an OMR field is simpler than for character recognition, but still requires careful consideration. Whether you use an oval bubble, square box, or open brackets, be sure the area is large enough for the user to easily mark within the designated space. 

Common OMR field design errors include making the box too small for people to easily mark within the zone, or printing the boxes too close together, resulting in more than one box containing the mark. Some users will circle an OMR response area instead of filling in the box. Similar to character responses, providing clear instructions and example marks can significantly improve recognition results. Even great instructions will not prevent some people marking a zone in error then drawing a big “X” over in an attempt to “delete” the mark. Business rules must be developed to handle multiple mark situations and manual key-from-image operations are usually required to determine user intent.

In Conclusion

Many factors influence the accuracy and success of a hand print forms processing system. The extra time and consideration spent in forms design will pay strong dividends in recognition accuracy and reduced costs for manual data entry. Carefully consider your target audience to design a form that will be easily understood and completed, and can be easily recognized and processed by ICR software.

Rick Scanlan joined Accusoft with the acquisition of TMSSequoia in December 2004. With 27 years of experience in the document imaging market, Rick has served in a variety of technical, business development, and corporate management roles. He has developed extensive expertise in a wide variety of imaging technologies including document viewing, information capture, image enhancement, and forms processing. Rick currently manages Accusoft’s sales engineering/pre-sales team and helps define Accusoft’s product strategy and future development. A native of Oklahoma, he earned Bachelor of Science degrees from Oklahoma State University in Business Management, Economics, and Management Science and Computer Systems.

The world of investment technology moves almost as quickly as the investment markets themselves. Without the right FinTech tools, today’s individual investors are likely to be left behind the latest financial trends. That’s why FinTech investment solutions are once again becoming a major point of emphasis for developers looking to expand access to key financial services.

The History and Impact of FinTech Investment Solutions

As a subset of the FinTech industry, “invest-tech” is sometimes used to refer to a wave of innovative investment management technologies that are helping to connect aspiring investors to the information and financial services they need to capitalize on new opportunities. Like many other FinTech applications, investment software tools have played a pivotal role in expanding access to financial markets and helping consumers take direct control of their investment decisions.

Much of the early FinTech investment market was driven by “robo-advisor” services that used sophisticated algorithms to provide customers with investment guidance. The boom reached its peak in the mid-2010s, with a record 81 new invest-tech solutions hitting the market in 2014. Since then, the number of launches has dwindled as established incumbents in the financial services sector moved in to acquire some of the most promising firms.

In many instances, those acquisitions were made to expand existing digital capabilities or to secure a new base of established investment customers. Since the typical FinTech investment user was younger and possessed fewer assets, the profit margins for many start-ups were simply too low and the costs of customer acquisition too high. This dynamic has gradually shifted the industry’s focus toward the B2B market, although crowdsourced investment platforms remain quite popular among many retail investors. 

The Current State of FinTech Investment Technology

FinTech investment platforms roared back into the public consciousness following the COVID-19 pandemic as the combination of work-from-home mandates and accumulated savings caused a rise in retail investment. Individual investors made up 19.5 percent of stock market activity in the first half of 2020, an increase of nearly five percent from the previous year. On a particularly busy day of trading, individual investors constitute a whopping 25 percent of market activity.

Thanks to mobile FinTech apps from startups and established players in the financial services industry, more people than ever before have access to investment opportunities, which has caused significant disruption to the market. The controversial rush on GameStop stock in early 2021, for instance, demonstrated just how much impact easy-to-access these platforms could have on investment trends.

This resurgence in retail investment could very well spark another wave of interest in FinTech investment apps, especially from established firms looking to expand their digital capabilities and capitalize on the growing market.

Enhancing the FinTech Investment Experience

For developers building the latest iterations of FinTech applications, there are a few key features worth focusing on to deliver a better investment experience. 

Sharing Data and Portfolios

While being able to access investment portfolio data on demand is valuable, customers are understandably concerned about the security of that data. Whether they’re building a retail investment app or a managed digital vault, developers need to provide a way of viewing private information securely. This is especially critical for digital documents. Relying on an external application for viewing or even just using the default browser viewer could potentially expose information to unauthorized users. By integrating secure, native viewing features, developers can ensure that investment portfolio data remains within a protected application environment.

Protecting Proprietary Research

One of the key benefits of working with an investment firm is having access to their market research when making financial decisions. In many cases, financial projections are calculated using proprietary formulas embedded within spreadsheets. Unfortunately, spreadsheets pose a number of security and compatibility problems. Even if a workbook is shared securely, there’s often little to stop someone from copying the proprietary formulas embedded within the cells and using it for other purposes. FinTech developers need ways to make those spreadsheets available without also compromising the valuable formulas developed over years of painstaking research.

Improving Data Capture

Making the right investment is all about having the right information. That data could come from a variety of sources, and in many instances it will need to be collected and analyzed before it can be of any use. Automating the data capture process can help to get that information into a customer’s hands faster. For example, customer information can be updated quickly by automatically extracting data from structured forms like tax filings. Scanned documents can also be converted into searchable PDFs using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which makes it easier for AI-powered tools to sift through data in search of trends and potential opportunities.

Choosing the Right FinTech Investment Integrations

Building a successful FinTech application requires developers to build innovative tools that set them apart from the competition while also implementing everyday functionality that often lies outside their experience or expertise. Features like document viewing, annotation, and file conversion may be integral components of their platform, but take both time and development resources to build from scratch. By turning to SDKs and APIs, developers can quickly roll out new features without detracting from their primary software development goals.

Accusoft has been working with FinTech investment platforms for many years, helping developers to build powerful InsureTech applications without sacrificing the viewing and image processing technology that customers expect.

• PrizmDoc Viewer: Adds secure HTML5 viewing, annotation, conversion, and redaction capabilities to web-based applications, allowing developers to control every aspect of the viewing experience without compromising privacy.
• PrizmDoc Cells: Provides full XLSX support for applications, making it possible to securely upload and share Excel workbooks without exposing the source file or allowing users to access and copy proprietary formulas.
• FormSuite: A versatile forms SDK that allows developers to add form template identification and data extraction to their application, making it easier than ever to automate and streamline workflows.
• ImageGear: In addition to conversion and compression tools, it also provides full-page OCR for converting scanned documents into searchable text.

Learn more about how Accusoft is helping FinTech developers to drive the next generation of investment technology platforms.

Today’s legal organizations are facing a number of transformative changes when it comes to managing documents. Briefcases and file folders are rapidly being replaced by laptops and tablets, and firms that are unwilling to adapt to the new digital-first landscape are at risk of falling behind their competitors. As LegalTech developers work to build the legal document software to facilitate this complex transition, they need to keep a few of these challenges in mind.

Top 3 Legal Document Management Challenges

1. Transparency

The ability to deliver a quality customer experience has become the key competitive differentiator for many businesses and the legal industry is no exception. While there will always be a market for specialized “big law” firms that provide strategic, customized services to high-end clients, the majority of firms are focusing more on routine legal services. Today’s legal customers expect the same level of transparency they get from other businesses when it comes to pricing, communication, and visibility into the legal process.

Putting the right LegalTech systems in place to facilitate key document management processes can help legal teams build a better relationship with their clients. Developers can provide those systems by integrating essential features like secure document viewing into their applications. An HTML5 viewer with file conversion capabilities makes it easy for firms to share important documents with clients without endangering privacy. Annotation markups can speed up the review process, and redaction tools allow documents to be shared without exposing personally identifiable or confidential information.

2. Contract Automation

For firms handling high volumes of routine legal work, having the right automation tools in place for streamlined legal document management is essential for sustainable growth. According to one estimate, nearly a quarter of legal work could be handled by automation technology, which not only frees up attorneys to focus on more high value tasks, but also allows firms to take on additional clients without overburdening their existing resources.

Contract management is one area where LegalTech developers are making huge strides in terms of automation. Thanks to document assembly tools, it’s now possible to programmatically build contracts from customizable templates, replacing fillable sections with client and case specific information (such as names, dates, and various numbers). Assembling contracts in this fashion significantly reduces the manual errors so often associated with copying and pasting in a word processing program. It also allows firms to draft contracts much more quickly, helping them to accommodate growing workflows as their business scales over time.

3. Accurate Data Capture

Gathering information quickly and accurately is becoming just as important to the legal industry as it is to other sectors. It’s especially valuable for a legal document management system that needs to support complicated processes like eDiscovery, contract negotiation, client intake, and court filings. Without some way of quickly converting documents into digital form, sorting them into the proper database, or finding and retrieving files when they’re needed, attorneys will struggle to handle cases and the needs of their clients efficiently. 

Law firms have been slow to replace their paper-based records systems with digital versions, but LegalTech developers can help to ease the transition by building forms processing and barcode recognition capabilities into their applications. Data extraction tools can pull essential information from a wide range of legal forms much more quickly and accurately than would be possible with manual entry. This is especially useful for streamlining the client intake process.

During the eDiscovery process, it’s not uncommon for firms to gather scanned images of documents that cannot be readily searched. Optical character recognition (OCR) tools can extract the text from these images and use it to create a searchable PDF file. This makes it much easier for attorneys to locate important details when they’re needed most.

When it comes to managing files, assigning barcodes to them makes it easier to sort and track them within the legal document management system. When a document uploaded months ago is needed for a court filing, it can be pulled up right away simply by referencing the barcode. They are extremely useful in instances where large batches of files need to be processed immediately, but not reviewed until later. This is a common issue during eDiscovery, when a batch of documents may be received from one source (such as a government agency) and stored in a database for later review.

Integrating the Right Features LegalTech Customers Need

Although LegalTech solutions understandably put a lot of focus on managing billable hours and facilitating client communication, developers should not overlook the immense value of effective legal document management software. By building these tools directly into their applications, they can provide an all-in-one solution that allows firms to reduce their technical debt and improve efficiency across their practice.

Accusoft’s collection of API and SDK integrations can transform LegalTech platforms into fully-featured document management systems for law firms. We work closely with developers to ensure that we enhance their application’s capabilities with proven technology so they can get to market faster.

If you’re building the next generation of document management systems for law firms, Accusoft has the integrations that will set your application apart from the crowd. Talk to one of our LegalTech specialists today to learn out how we can help you meet the legal industry’s evolving needs.

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Accusoft is attending the LegalWeek 2023 event in NYC, are you? Come visit our booth #2304 and discover software to manage your documents better.

For more information on Accusoft’s software integrations for eDiscovery and case management applications, visit our Legal industries page.

Long resistant to technological change, the insurance industry has made great strides over the last decade to implement innovative InsurTech solutions that upend longstanding market practices. As insurance providers explore new strategies for attracting a new generation of customers, they continue to rely heavily upon InsurTech developers to build the solutions that help them expand their customer base.

The Insurance Industry’s “Protection Gap”

Today’s insurance companies are offering more products and services than ever before, and yet at the same time, most people are carrying less insurance they need to protect themselves from risk. This “protection gap” is at least partially the result of large amounts of friction when it comes to purchasing insurance. People are either choosing to not buy insurance products, or they don’t know what options are available to them.

Part of this problem is the result of outdated models many organizations use to sell insurance. There’s an old adage that insurance is something that is “sold” rather than something that is “bought.” In this model, customers are expected to interact with an insurance agent who actively sells them a particular coverage.

Unfortunately, this model is becoming less and less effective in an increasingly digitized world, especially when it comes to younger generations of customers who expect the same level of frictionless convenience from insurers that they now get from many financial services (especially those powered by FinTech solutions).

What Is Embedded Insurance?

One potential solution to this challenge is a new strategy known as embedded insurance. This approach first identifies purchases or situations where insurance is required or would present clear added value. Some examples could include the purchase of an automobile, a vacation package, or even a potentially hazardous activity like skiing. An appropriately risk-adjusted insurance package is then offered to customers at the point of sale, or “embedded” within the customer experience.

There are tremendous advantages to this strategy. In the first place, it allows insurers to offer their products to customers who need them most at the precise point when they need them. Rather than having to go through the laborious process of contacting an insurance agent to get a quote for a new automotive policy after someone buys a new car, they can simply update their plan or add insurance services at the same time they’re purchasing the car itself. Customers are less likely to put off getting insurance (and then often forgetting to do so later), and the insurance provider has an opportunity to offer services to the people most likely to purchase them. For the provider, it’s a much more efficient approach than relying on outdated cold calling techniques to sell policies that may or may not meet the current needs of a customer.

Technical Challenges of Embedded Insurance

In order to embed insurance offerings effectively, however, providers first need to overcome a few technology challenges. From improved data capture tools that allow them to conduct faster, more customized underwriting to integrations that connect their applications to partner ecosystems, a new generation of InsurTech solutions will be needed to remake insurance business models.

Better Data Capture

Having accurate information is essential to insurance underwriting. This is even more important when it comes to embedded insurance because rates need to be calculated quickly so they can be provided along with other purchases. In many cases, form information may need to be processed quickly to obtain key data on the customer and the details of their purchase. When InsurTech applications are equipped with automated forms processing tools, they can quickly extract key information and use it to make faster, more data-driven decisions.

Versatile Viewing Capabilities

Whether an InsurTech application stands on its own or is integrated into another service offering, customers will often need to view information about their policy options in order to make an informed decision. On the firm’s end, insurance agents may need to review application details or bring up other resources to review when finalizing rates. By building viewing capabilities into their InsurTech applications with integrations like an HTML5 viewer, developers can ensure that their customers will never be caught depending upon external platforms for document viewing or sharing.

Expanded Contract Automation

Many insurance policies still require some form of contract, even if digital signature technology allows these forms to exist entirely in electronic format. Having the ability to rapidly assemble a contract as part of an embedded insurance solution can further enhance the streamlined customer experience. InsurTech developers can integrate automated document assembly tools to rapidly build contracts from pre-existing templates and quickly fill in the necessary details or add additional clauses.

Accusoft InsurTech Solutions for Embedded Insurance

Accusoft’s collection of SDK and API integrations give InsurTech developers the tools they need to enhance the flexibility of their applications. Our software solutions provide proven, market-ready viewing and processing features so development teams can keep their focus on refining their platform’s innovative core functionality. Whether it’s the versatile forms processing features of FormSuite, the powerful HTML5 viewing capabilities of PrizmDoc Viewer, or the automated document assembly tools of PrizmDoc Editor, Accusoft integrations can help InsurTech developers get their applications to market faster and explore the possibilities of embedded insurance.

We’ve been working hard to design software integrations that meet the needs of the insurance industry and InsurTech developers. Download our InsurTech solutions fact sheet to see how our constantly evolving family of SDKs and APIs can improve your application’s capabilities and performance.

Today’s organizations gather information from a variety of sources. Structured forms remain one of the most popular tools for collecting and processing data, and anyone who has filled out such a form recently has likely encountered the familiar bubbles or squares used to indicate some form of information. Whether these marks are used to identify marital status, health conditions, education level, or some other parameter, optical mark recognition plays an important role in streamlining forms processing and data capture.

What is Optical Mark Recognition?

Optical mark recognition (OMR) reads and captures data marked on a special type of document form. In most instances, this form consists of a bubble or a square that is filled in as part of a test or survey. After the form is marked, it can either be read by dedicated OMR software or fed into a physical scanner device that shines a beam of light onto the paper and then detects answers based on how much light is reflected back to an optical sensor. Older OMR scanners detected answers by measuring how much light passed through the paper itself using phototubes on the other side. Since the phototubes were very sensitive, #2 pencils often had to be used when filling out forms to ensure an accurate reading.

Today’s OMR scanners are much more accurate and versatile, capable of reading marks regardless of how they’re filled out (although they struggle if the mark is made with the same color as the printed form). More importantly, OMR software has made it possible to capture data from OMR forms without the need for any special equipment. This is especially helpful for processing forms information that exists in digital format, such as PDF files or JPEG images. 

The History of Optical Mark Recognition

One of the oldest versions of forms processing technology, OMR dates back to the use of punch cards, which were first developed in the late 1800s for use with crude “tabulating” machines. The cards typically provided simple “yes/no” information based on whether or not a hole was punched out. When fed through the tabulating machine, a hole would be registered and counted. This same basic principle would allow more complex machines to perform basic arithmetic in the early 1900s before serving as the foundation for early computer programming by mid-century. Entire computer programs were stored on stacks of punch cards, which would remain in use until well into the 1970s when more powerful machines made them obsolete.

Although OMR operates on the same principle as a punch card, it instead uses scanning technology to detect the presence of a mark made by a pencil or a pen. This form of identification was first popularized by IBM’s electrographic “mark sense” technology in the 1930s and 1940s. The concept itself was first developed by a schoolteacher named Reynold Johnson, who wanted to streamline test grading. He designed a machine that could read pencil marks on a special test paper and then tabulate the marks to generate a final score. After joining IBM in 1934, Johnson spearheaded the development of the Type 805 Test Scoring Machine, which debuted in 1938 and revolutionized test scoring in the education sector. In production until 1963, the 805 could score 800 sheets per hour when run by an experienced operator.

The 805 registered marks by using metal brushes to sense the electrical conductivity of graphite from the pencil lead. While effective, it had limitations in terms of reading speed and flexibility. When Everett Franklin Lindquist, best known as the creator of the ACT, needed a machine that could keep up with Iowa’s widespread adoption of standardized testing in the 1950s, he developed the first true optical mark reader. Patented in 1962, Lindquist’s machine detected marks by measuring how much light passed through a scoring sheet and was capable of scoring 4,000 tests per hour.

Throughout the 1960s, OMR scanning technology continued to improve and spread to a variety of industries looking for ways to rapidly process data. In education, however, the OMR market would soon be dominated by the Scantron Corporation, which was founded in 1972 to market smaller, less expensive scanners to K-12 schools and universities. After placing the scanners in educational institutions, Scantron then sold large quantities of proprietary test sheets that could be used for a variety of testing purposes. Scantron was so successful that their distinctive green and white sheets have become synonymous with OMR scanning for generations of US college students.

The next major innovation in OMR technology arrived in the early 1990s with dedicated OMR software that could replicate the drop-out capabilities of commercial scanners. Part of the reason why scanners used proprietary, pre-printed forms was so they could use colors and watermarks that would not register during scanning for more accurate reading. Thanks to OMR software, it became possible to create templated forms and then remove the form image during the reading process to ensure that only marked information remained.

Take Control of OMR Forms with Accusoft SDKs

Accusoft’s FormFix forms processing SDK features powerful production-level OMR capabilities. It not only detects the presence of check or bubble marks, but can also detect markings in form fields, which is particularly useful for determining whether or not a signature is present on a document. Capable of reading single or multiple marks at 0, 90, 180, and 270 degree orientations, FormFix can also recognize checkboxes and be programmed to accommodate a variety of bubble shapes. Its form drop-out and image cleanup features also help to ensure the highest level of accuracy during OMR reading.

For expanded forms functionality, including optical character recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR), developers can also turn to FormSuite for Structured Forms. Featuring a comprehensive set of forms template creation tools and data capture capabilities, FormSuite can streamline forms processing workflows and significantly reduce the costs and errors associated with manual data entry and extraction.

Find out what flexible OMR functionality can do for your application with a fully-featured trial of the FormSuite SDK. Get started with some functional sample code and explore FormFix’s features to start planning your integration.

The last twelve months have seen an unprecedented shift in the way organizations and customers are utilizing digital services. According to data gathered by McKinsey in 2020, digital adoption made roughly five years worth of progress in a span of eight weeks at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this massive shift impacted almost every industry, the government sector in particular faced tremendous disruption as its legacy systems struggled to keep pace with demand.

Many of the changes in the way people access government services are likely to remain in place even after the threat of the pandemic recedes, which creates a huge opportunity for software developers specializing in GovTech applications. A closer look at GovTech trends for 2021 provides some insight into those opportunities.

5 Key GovTech Trends to Watch in 2021

1. Remote Functionality 

Government agencies had to fundamentally rethink the workplace in response to the pandemic. Non-essential personnel transitioned to working remotely whenever possible, but this move created a number of challenges in terms of collaboration and security. Employees still need to be able to view, edit, and share files without compromising privacy or creating version confusion. All too often, remote workers resort to ad hoc solutions involving third party programs and conventional email, all of which make it incredibly difficult for an organization to maintain control over its essential files. GovTech developers can address these challenges directly by building software that facilitates remote collaboration entirely within a secure application.

2. Doing More with Less

One of the downstream consequences of social distancing restrictions and stay at home orders has been the erosion of sales tax revenue at the state and local level. While the impacts have not been as catastrophic as originally feared, many states are still facing significant budget shortfalls despite making deep spending cuts. The pressure will be on to find GovTech solutions that are easy to implement, use, and maintain. Efficiency and flexibility will continue to be important considerations as state and municipal governments seek out platforms that can address multiple needs and allow them to eliminate costly redundancies.

3. Shift to Digital

When government offices were forced to shut their doors in the early days of the pandemic, they had to scramble to find ways to deliver services digitally. This was especially difficult for agencies relying on legacy infrastructure and outdated software, but the transition to digital is unlikely to slow down anytime soon now that it’s underway. According to a recent study, 61 percent of government officials surveyed believe that the pandemic has accelerated their digital transformation goals, while 75 percent claim that their agency is pushing to offer even more services digitally. That will mean plenty of opportunity for innovative GovTech developers that can provide the automation and data management tools governments need to bring their services into the 21st century.

4. Fight for Privacy

Government agencies sit upon massive amounts of private data that must be kept secure at all costs. From personally identifiable information like Social Security Numbers to contracts and applications that contain confidential business data and vital trade secrets, governments have a responsibility to protect sensitive data at all times. They need systems and software that not only keeps files safely within the secure confines of an application, but also provides the redaction capabilities that allow agencies to comply with information requests. By designing platforms that promote transparency while also protecting privacy, GovTech developers can play an important role in building trust between government and citizens. 

5. Citizen-Centric Experience

The combination of evolving public expectations and demographic change was rapidly reshaping the delivery of government services even before the pandemic. In a global survey conducted in late 2019, Accenture found that 50 percent of respondents believed that requests to an agency could be resolved faster with the use of AI assistants or chatbots and that a transition to 24/7 access to government services would be greatly beneficial. Respondents also wanted easier access to their personal information (74 percent), faster response times (73 percent), and greater visibility into the status of their queries and applications (64 percent). Younger citizens accustomed to customer-centric experiences are further shifting expectations of what services the government should be able to offer digitally. It will fall to GovTech developers to design applications that connect citizens to their government and streamline processes that have long relied upon inefficient manual practices and direct physical interactions.

Enhance Your GovTech Application with Accusoft Solutions

Working with the government sector presents a number of challenges to even seasoned developers. From meeting complex compliance and privacy requirements to managing a dizzying range of document types, building and implementing an effective solution takes a great deal of time and development resources.

One of the easiest ways to speed up that process is by incorporating proven functionality into an application with SDKs or APIs. Accusoft’s collection of software integrations helps GovTech developers get to market faster by providing reliable and government-ready content processing features.

• PrizmDoc Viewer: A powerful HTML5 viewer with annotation and redaction capabilities, PrizmDoc Viewer makes it easy to view, edit, and manage public records, contracts, and even more sensitive documents all within a secure GovTech application.
• ImageGear: With ImageGear’s extensive image processing, conversion, and compression features behind them, GovTech applications can easily improve document workflows, consolidate information, and meet government archiving standards (thanks to PDF/A support).
• FormSuite: Processing government forms can quickly overwhelm an application if it doesn’t have the capabilities to handle multiple form types or clean up document images. FormSuite for Structured Forms is a collection of forms processing SDKs that helps GovTech applications quickly sort and extract data from structured forms for superior speed and accuracy.

As GovTech trends continue to accelerate in 2021, developers need partners they can trust to provide secure, reliable functionality to their applications so they can focus their efforts on building software that meets the exacting needs of the government sector. Learn more about how Accusoft can fulfill that role and elevate the potential of GovTech applications.