Have you ever found yourself spending hours zooming in and out on an image of a scanned contract, searching for an important clause?
With the average legal department having 9,800 documents, and each document containing an average of 9 pages, looking for a specific clause can become a time-consuming task. As they present only an image of your document, scanned documents are not easy to analyse when you do not have access to the actual content of the original documents.
This is where OCR comes to the rescue!
Optical character recognition (OCR) is a widespread technology that automates data extraction from scanned documents and images, to then convert the text into a machine-readable form that can be searched easily.
For instance, you received a hard copy of a report. You’d like to use selected results of it to present to the Board. Using OCR, you will be able to do scan the report automatically into a full-text recognition format and search through its content. Simply put, you can now access information that was initially in a locked format.
#1 Search for information easily
Whether you want to find a key date in a litigation case or search for a legal clause, counterparty name, or a legal entity named in a document, with OCR, you can find this information quick. The time that is usually spent scrolling through documents for hours searching for relevant information can now be utilised for high-value tasks.
#2 Analyse contract easily
OCR can be combined with AI in order to analyse documents. With OCR, you can scan contracts and convert their content to editable formats while with AI, you can ensure this information is indexed and used for contract analysis.
#3 Make well-informed decisions
Whether the business needs to conduct an audit or evaluate a case based on its risks, OCR can be used to make sure that all information needed (that might originally be in a format that is not user friendly) is available. With OCR, you can ensure that you make the most out of the information that might otherwise be lying in documents scattered around in different cabinets and desks. Scanning, editing, categorising and storing documents in the relevant dossier means that all the information you need is centralised in one place, enabling you to make well-informed decisions.
Any legal department regardless of its size or financial capabilities can integrate OCR with other tools that are in place. With OCR, you can save time, improve efficiency, increase productivity and reinforce the role of your legal department as the value driver of the business.
Legisway is a legal management solution that offers the OCR function to help your legal department generate value from all the important data, regardless of their original format.
