The Difference Between Document Capture and IDP—and Why It Matters
Every industry and area of technology has its own jargon—the words, phrases, and abbreviations that are largely meaningless to outsiders but common to the people within each sector. In our industry, the difference between two terms often requires clarification: document capture, and intelligent document processing, or IDP. These terms are related, but quite different in their scope.
Document Capture
Document capture is straightforward: the capturing of information on a document, typically a paper document that needs to be digitized for use in business systems. Things like paper forms, IDs, and invoices are loaded into a document scanner which has built-in technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) and image enhancement features to convert the paper into a clean digital image with every character individually recognized for data extraction and searchable storage.
As documents are rapidly scanned, each individual page is loaded into document capture software—in our case, KODAK Capture Pro. This advanced document capture software is typically used in environments that need to routinely process heavy volumes of paper documents, typically captured in large batches. Capture Pro quickly outputs these batches into multiple digital formats and destinations, and a popular use case is what we call scan-to-archive: digitize it, get the data you need from it, and store the digital file somewhere.
The need to capture data trapped in paper has been foundational to businesses for decades, and it’s still a vital component of information management—especially in paper-intensive industries like healthcare, education, finance, and the public sector. However, many enterprises today are expressing an increasing need to apply deeper automated intelligence to the document capture process. For most businesses, 70% of documents they process are already digital, and in a variety of formats. This is where intelligent document processing (IDP) comes in.
Intelligent Document Processing
IDP factors everything within the scope of document capture and more—a lot more. In fact, in IDP, capture is just the first and most basic step in a much more comprehensive process. KODAK Info Input Solution is web-based IDP software that quickly onboards documents of any complexity from any source—not only scanned paper and watched folders, but email attachments, mobile uploads, online forms, and more—and then transforms them into business-critical information that is automatically validated and integrated directly into downstream systems and robotic process automation (RPA) tools.
Info Input Solution provides low-code and no-code configurations that require minimal training, and it delivers short time-to-value. Another significant factor is its ability to integrate with leading AI platforms like those offered by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
This “technology agnostic” approach that we call Open Intelligence™ is unique in the IDP market. It enables enterprises to confidently choose an AI platform that will upgrade its capabilities automatically over time, scaling and future-proofing the IDP solution for evolving needs.
Here's another perspective on the differences between document capture and IDP capabilities, and where they overlap—specifically our document capture and IDP software offerings. Looking at it this way can help business leaders determine when to consider one software solution versus another, and when to potentially expand their existing document capture system into a robust IDP platform.
Benefits of Migrating Document Capture into Next-Level IDP
Every enterprise has a unique set of workflows, needs, goals, and system integration requirements. Finding the right software solution depends on many factors, but we are seeing an increasing level of interest in next-level IDP solutioning to cover a wider array of business needs and to achieve a higher level of competitive differentiation.
In addition to the features and capabilities mentioned earlier, here’s are some additional benefits of deploying a robust IDP platform led by KODAK Info Input Solution:
- Lower IT workload
- Centralized setup, maintenance, and support
- 1 installation on 1 server can support thousands of users and billions of pages
- Thin clients connect to server via URL; works with any modern browser
- Significantly less manual labor and risk of human error
- Automated AI-powered classification, extraction, and indexing with our Open Intelligence™ architecture
- Automated validation via integrations like database lookup and 3-way matching
- Fully automate even complex document processes
- Scripting enables limitless customization and integration for business process automation
- Improve employee productivity and focus
- Embedded one-button easy scanning in apps like Salesforce and SharePoint eliminates application switching
- Flexible authentication methods
- Supports the most common authentication methods, including SSO, Active Directory, SAML, OKTA, and more
This isn’t a complete list of benefits, but you get the point. Some enterprises have an expanding array of data processing needs so it makes sense for them to migrate their document capture systems into more robust IDP platforms like KODAK Info Input Solution. For other businesses, document capture covers all the bases.
Capture Pro and Info Input Solution are both award-winning software solutions for a reason. As with most decisions around technology, it's all about finding the right fit—for your environment, workflows, and business objectives. We look forward to continuing to work with companies and our partners to find the best fit and deliver this deep value to enterprises all over the world.
