What Is Data Capture

Data capture is the process of extracting key information from documents and converting it into a workable format. While this can be done manually via data entry, the term ‘data capture’ usually refers to intelligent data capture, which is carried out by sophisticated software following the scanning or digitisation process.

Intelligent data capture is incredibly helpful across a range of sectors, helping to quickly and effectively make information easily accessible via computers and other electronic devices.

Hospitality  
Customer satisfaction and feedback is extremely important in the hospitality industry, as is receiving feedback in a timely manner. Automatic data capture allows hotels and restaurants to process feedback forms extremely quickly and deal with any issues as soon as possible.

For example, Cleardata completed a data capture project for Branded Restaurants, using state-of-the-art scanners and data capture to log key customer feedback surveys for them. This reduced processing costs, freed up staff time and ensured feedback was returned quickly. 

You can read more in our case study.

Healthcare 
In the healthcare sector, data capture is regularly used to digitise patient records so that key data is available to healthcare practitioners when required.

Information from patient surveys can also be processed using intelligent data capture to quickly return results and help improve patient care.

Cleardata’s secure data capture service handles sensitive data with the utmost confidentiality. 

Legal 
Many solicitors and law firms utilise data capture for claims processing. Claim forms can be specially designed to use standardised formats for the swift and precise capture of data and processing of forms. 

Cleardata can help you to design forms that facilitate intelligent data capture, before processing the forms on your behalf and returning the data to you in the desired digital format. 

Education 
In the education sector, data capture can be used anywhere that large volumes of data need to be processed, where that information is presented in a structured manner. Pupil feedback forms are a good example of how data capture can be very helpful in education: Oundle School recently used Cleardata’s data capture services to process 1100 pupil surveys using their Kodak Alaris i5850S high performance scanners, which can output 210 pages a minute. Read more here.

When it comes to higher education, universities have lots of paperwork to process on a daily basis. Data capture can help institutions process new student enrolment forms and feedback forms more quickly and easily.

Finance 
Invoice processing and scanning is a regular administrative task that can use up a lot of staff time. By using Cleardata’s outsourced mailroom and invoice processing service, invoices can be digitised on arrival, using our high-tech Kodak scanners and have data captured automatically using intelligent data capture software. We even offer data validation and exception handling service. This enables invoice data to be validated against your business rules e.g. No PO, No Pay.  Other data such as invoice amount, supplier name, legal entity can also be checked and an exceptions list provided back to your Accounts Payable Team to action. This ensures invoices are paid quickly and accurately and helps improve supplier relationships.  

Retail
Data capture is useful in the retail industry, where you are collecting large amounts of customer data. For example, recruiting customers onto loyalty schemes usually requires them to fill in a form. In this fast-paced retail industry, you want to have customer details in the system as soon as possible and avoid staff having to spend too much time manually entering the details. Automatic data capture can swiftly pull all the customer’s information from membership forms and include them in your CRM system quickly and efficiently. 

Marketing
Market research is the bread and butter of marketing – you need to know your target audience inside out. One way to achieve this is through the use of questionnaires. Intelligent data capture technology greatly speeds up the process of data collection via questionnaires, cutting out a large chunk of the administrative work.

Whichever sector your business is in, get in touch with Cleardata today to find out how data capture could optimise your operations. Call our team on 0800 046 8083 or contact us