As volumes fluctuate document processing becomes more challenging. Often times documents such as applications, invoices, or even utility bills need to be entered in real time. With tight deadlines and limited staffing, businesses choose to outsource their document processing tasks in order to increase productivity, efficiency, and their bottom line.
As data collection from utility bills moves beyond simply recording periodic usage to tracking consumption trends over a period of time for smarter energy management insights, utility bill outsourcing solutions also need to innovate and match stride with the changing times.
ARDEM was contacted by a utility tracking and energy benchmarking company to help them optimize data processing from incoming utility bills. The task at hand was to process data from over 11,000 utility bills and provide advanced analytics for smarter decision-making.
Every company or organization needs effective strategies that enable data-driven decision-making and it is no different for utility or energy data collection processes.
Adopting advanced technology including automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence provides strategic opportunities for cost-savings and improvement.
The average accounts payable workflow is embroiled by a repetitive and time-consuming process. With an automated solution, it allows businesses to better utilize and allocate their resources to maximize business efficiency. Lack of visibility increases the risk of errors and lost invoices which further increases the cost to process an invoice. Accounts payable departments are pressured with the need for real-time data, shorter cycle times, and lower operational costs. So, what are the best practices to automate your accounts payable process? Read More
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) works by converting images of handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. This text is made readable by machines and aims to automate data extraction through data capture technology. While this technology is used widely today, it does require some manual effort in order to produce the highest amount of accuracy, especially with utility bill auditing. Depending on the quality of the handwritten or printed text, OCR technology may choose a specific character based on what it determines is the best match. So how well does OCR automate your invoice and utility bill processing? Read More
Organizations are taking the initiative to collect data on utility consumption in order to provide sustainability reports to help improve their impact on society. The majority of the large cities in the US have different benchmarking ordinances that require large commercial, industrial, and multi-family properties to report their benchmarking compliance statistics. One of the challenges that these organizations find is that there is a large manual effort required when collecting and organizing the data to analyze for utility bill data management. As a result, organizations are searching for more cost-effective solutions for utility consumption and sustainability reporting. Read More
Data entry is the most commonly implemented method of utility bill processing. However, traditional data entry methods are incredibly inefficient. While there have been improvements over time, many businesses are still inefficiently entering utility bills by hand. This slow and redundant process has a higher likelihood for errors and a slower cycle time increases the chance of late payments. With the rise in automation technology, businesses have been finding solutions to utilize technologies impacting utility bill processing. Read More
Businesses, especially ones that operate multiple buildings and facilities, know that utility expenses account for a fair amount of their overall operating costs. In addition, manually processing these utility bills is time-consuming and runs the risk of errors which can end up adding additional fees. Automating utility bill processing streamlines your process for efficient utility invoice management across multiple locations to improve visibility and reporting. By reducing the cycle time, accuracy, and efficiency, businesses gain a competitive edge while maintaining a lean team. Read More
