It is easy for us to think of computers as word processors, Web browsers, communications devices and entertainment hubs, but lost most of the time is one of the technology’s most powerful uses: That of automating repetitive tasks.
While we’re still working on enabling computers to recognize faces and make good decisions on their own, the computer has long had the ability to do away with boring, manual, mind-numbing work. It arguably is the best use of computers, the main thing they originally were built to perform.
How this core function of the computer can be used by almost every business is through extracting information from documents, sorting, and automatically populating spreadsheets and databases. This is something that computers are exceptionally good at, and yet many of these jobs are not automated within many businesses.
One way to jumpstart the process a bit is through the use of an old technology: the fax.
Vast amounts of data are still stored on paper, making them inaccessible to this prime function of the computer. Most of the time we have someone within our office manually take this printed data and make it digital. But, there is a simpler way.
Fax-over-IP (FoIP) is a new spin on the old fax technology. By using a device such as AudioCodes’ (News - Alert) fax ATA solution, businesses can turn their existing fax or multifunction printer into a device that can send faxes digitally.
By making faxes digital, data can then be unlocked from print and become accessible to computer automation. By being faxed through FoIP, paper documents can then be stored electronically, converted into text using optical character recognition, and automatically have data extracted and inserted into a database or document storage system.
This is a far more efficient use of computers, and it can reduce man hours.
Computers are fundamentally time-saving devices, yet so often their potential is wasted. But with a little creativity, businesses can take better advantage of these powerful machines on their desks.