Achieve better compliance with intelligent document processing

One of the most daunting hurdles for executives is regulatory compliance, which can create a roadblock to profitability. Unprecedented manoeuvres are to be expected when a new mandate is established, causing executives to deal with headaches, ask vexing questions, and experience anxiety along the way.

Amid a dynamic regulatory landscape, the inclination to put up SOS signs whenever a new requirement is proposed or passed is understandable. Regulations for governments, finance, and data protection have progressed in great numbers and complexity. Hence, organisations are exposed to risk as it becomes increasingly difficult and time-consuming to manage.

Every year, executives are daunted with new reasons to prioritise risk and compliance, fuelling more worries about their organisation’s readiness to manage it effectively. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, risk and compliance management has veered into uncharted waters populated with unprecedented, hidden obstacles and challenges relating to business continuity, accountability, liability, profitability, as well as worker and customer safety. These and other issues have forced executives to re-examine how their businesses operate.

The 2022 Kofax Intelligent Automation benchmark report, which included respondents from Singapore, revealed that business leaders are focused on operational and financial workflows, with a specific interest in automating routine transactions. Top of mind for Singapore executives in the survey was ensuring the ongoing orchestration of their myriad automated processes to keep systems running smoothly.

As per the study, 94% of decision makers say key processes must be updated to adhere to regulatory compliance. The shift towards automation comes down to executives striving to streamline their operations. At least 82% want to transform back-office operations and 92% are intent on maximising the value of IT investments.

Enterprises have had to reprioritize and detour from long-held plans to digitally transform their business operations. Processes that would have complied to new regulations easily were still done manually.  The consequence of this stalled approach means the associated errors and delays of “the paper game” will continue to drive up the cost of compliance.

Kicking document processing workflows into high gear

Whether the regulation is new or existing, the problem is that it adds complexity to operational workflows, and this inherently increases the risk of errors. Document processing workflows are extremely susceptible to this due to the inevitability of human error. As a result, manual and paper-based processes are a common cause why organisations fall afoul of regulators.

Intelligent document processing is becoming de rigueur for organisations to de-risk workflows and ramp up its activity. A typical, AI-enabled intelligent document processing platform is capable of extracting data from millions of documents in virtually any format, and it’s faster and more accurate than human workers. Automation also makes it easier for organisations to verify the provenance of their digital records, allowing them to satisfy the necessary legal evidentiary thresholds for compliance. Mitigating this risk helps accelerate business objectives across the enterprise and helps executives sleep better at night.

Executives must realise it’s important to place automation efforts back at the top of their priority lists to adapt to new regulatory requirements at an optimum pace. Adopting machine learning, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence with existing platforms will enable organisations to achieve hyperautomation, provide audit trails and compliance reporting, and elevate business to the next level. Even those companies in a hybrid state of automation and have already captured documents digitally need to re-evaluate processes and map out their next steps toward end-to-end intelligent automation.

How intelligent automation puts risk-averse executives in the driver’s seat

Company leaders looking for the most reliable route to compliance can confidently follow the road to end-to-end workflow automation. Intelligent document automation would make sense for them, especially if they are risk-averse.

Their clients can have an elevated customer experience, assured data protection, and security through content-aware workflows and audit trails with a visible chain of custody. Intelligent document processing enables consistent business rules and data protection policies, including automatic redaction, watermarking, and rules-based printing. 

Workflow automation also empowers businesses by freeing up their employees’ time. Instead of working on manual tasks, employees can instead focus on productivity and efficiency while enriching information quality and accuracy. Furthermore, using intelligent document workflows within the cloud boosts security and efficiency.

However, business regulation will not ease its complexity any time soon. Executives who want to achieve their financial goals need to drive digital transformation. They need to focus on automating information-intensive business workflows to improve efficiency while meeting compliance requirements. With document processing at the heart of many businesses, utilising the new generation of intelligent document processing platforms helps organisations stay ahead of their compliance challenges.