The PaperVision Forms Magic Technology is celebrating its fifth anniversary! We’re excited by what has been accomplished with the technology in that relatively short period of time. From “Best of…” tech awards to multiple organizational success stories, we think you’ll agree that this product is reshaping the industry.

What is Forms Magic and how can your organization benefit?

Manual business processes and paper documents slow you down and cost money. But switching to workflow products that route information through process steps is only one part of your automation journey. To really find the value in automation, you also need to think about how you’re capturing data from documents as well.

If you’re like most businesses, it’s likely that you still hand-key much of this information into databases and line-of-business applications. Though common, this process is out-of-date and expensive! The ability to accurately extract and identify necessary information from documents is critical for the success of your organization, and it’s where Forms Magic can make all the difference.

PaperVision Forms Magic automatically sorts documents by type and then extracts important data as documents are being scanned. The data can be used for index values in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) application or can be sent to other applications to populate databases. It virtually eliminates the need to manually type information into systems!

Forms Magic captures your information, allowing you to leverage the value of advanced algorithms and cloud document management without changing the way you manage your business or your business processes. With Forms Magic, you can:

• Eliminate manual data entry and human errors.
• Protect sensitive data with multiple layers of security.
• Integrate easily with other line-of-business (LOB) applications.
• Automatically classify documents into types.

If you are just getting to know us, we've been in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) business since 1997. Working with some of the world’s largest services bureaus (companies that scan documents for a living) we quickly recognized that hand-key indexing of data and manual document sorting not only slowed down processes but also introduced errors and cost money. While it may seem like a small inefficiency, when multiplied by hundreds of millions of pages per week, the problem was significant! As the first forms automation product to embed artificial intelligence (AI), Forms Magic caused a stir when first launched, and we’ve never looked back.

Why Forms Magic?

Right out of the gate, industry insiders recognized the potential of Forms Magic to shake up the forms automation and document capture industries. Experts at Buyers Lab (BLI), the independent product testing and review division of Keypoint Intelligence, created the award designation Outstanding Achievement in Innovation to recognize Forms Magic’s unique value when the product launched in 2016.

Jamie Bsales, Director of Solutions Analysis at Buyers Lab exclaimed, "Seeing Forms Magic technology in action, we were instantly impressed. It's like facial recognition for documents.” He continued, “This means files at first unfamiliar to the classification engine can be recognized, parsed and slipstreamed into the appropriate document workflow, greatly reducing the number of exceptions that need to be dealt with manually. Simply put, it is unlike any recognition technology BLI has seen to date among leading document work-flow solutions."

The love affair continues. In 2019, Buyers Lab awarded the software a Platinum rating, its highest possible score! In the award write-up, the analysts explained that as Forms Magic automates the recognition of data-intensive structured documents, it offers numerous benefits. The reviewers called attention to the product’s ability to:

• Streamline processes: “…greatly reduces the amount of time required to capture and process information.”
• Reduce errors: “…eliminates error-prone manual data entry and costly misfiling.”
• Improve secure access to information: “… makes information accessible to stakeholders and decision-makers.”
• Boost worker satisfaction and value: “Frees knowledge workers from tedious document classification tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value work.”

Ultimately, they proclaimed the technology as “…worth the investment.” In the end, they gave the entire Digitech Systems technology lineup Platinum ratings—a first in the history of the product testing lab.

How does Forms Magic help people like you to save money?

Nothing qualifies cost-effectiveness better than actual dollar savings.

Take Arvato's case as an example. Arvato is a €3.84 billion (roughly $4.3 billion USD) company with about 68,000 employees in 40 countries. The company works closely in partnership with its clients to solve complex business challenges that enable digital transformation and business innovation. The company's customers become more agile and competitive thanks to custom digital workflows and technologies that automate processes.

For one of Arvato's biggest technology customers, the license management process was complex. The client received more than 63,000 contracts annually. Though the client was scanning the documents for archiving, each agreement was first printed to be passed around the office through manual processes. This meant that individual workers had to flip through the document by hand to locate the information needed.

After implementing Forms Magic and other PaperVision^® services, Arvato processes about 1 million pages of licensing information annually for its high-tech client in four processing locations in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Arvato scans agreements when they are received and uses Forms Magic’s advanced algorithms to extract important information. This improvement saves time on every license processed worldwide, resulting in about $3 million in annual cost savings for the client.

"You can't automate something you can't read or look at. PaperVision Forms Magic enabled us to access the critical information our client needed. Being able to extract the data accurately has enabled us to automate the entire business process for our client, saving more than $3 million annually." - Troy Brown, Director of Innovation and Tools

How does Forms Magic streamline processes to save time?

How much time does your organization waste on manually sorting documents or hand-keying information into applications? Time is a valuable resource, and Forms Magic can give more of it back to your employees every day.

For example, Prestige Care provides independent living, assisted living, rehabilitation and home health services. Prestige has more than 6,000 employees located in 86 different facilities throughout the western United States. For its healthcare professionals, a single second could mean saving a life.

Opening, sorting and scanning inbound mail—like invoices—was a time-consuming manual process for Prestige. Each document had to be attached to a prior system, assigned to the facility it belonged to and given the appropriate code. Tyler R. Nelson, Cash Manager and AP Supervisor, realized this was a problem. If the company could improve processes, it would make things easier for not only the central office but for the other facilities involved as well, he reasoned. In addition, more efficient invoice processing would lead to direct cost savings for Prestige, because they could take advantage of early payment discounts.

Prestige implemented PaperVision^® Forms Magic to automatically classify, sort, and extract the data needed from the invoices as they were being digitized using a scanner. Prestige Care is now able to process bills within one business day!

According to Nelson:

"Thanks to the PaperVision^® Suite, AP processing services have helped automate workflow and provide company-wide consistency and control. …The time it takes us to process invoices has been reduced by 57%... We can now spend less time on accounts payable processing and more time providing the support our facilities really need." - Tyler R. Nelson, Cash Manager and AP Supervisor

Check out what other Forms Magic Users Have to Say:

"Most customers these days are used to using computers all the time so they're fluent in technology. They request a lot of documents from us and ImageSilo and Forms Magic helps us speak their language. Now, I click a button to send documents directly to our customers." - Stefanie Evans, GPC Contracting, Staff Accountant.

"PaperVision^® Forms Magic has revolutionized our AP processes! We've been able to cut our invoice processing time by over 75%. We're saving the organization money and improving relationships with our business partners. We love Forms Magic!" - Jason Sojka, MSI builders, Network and Computer Systems Manager.

"We've seen the document management industry completely transform over the last 30+ years. Thanks to the PaperVision^® suite, we can help our clients integrate emerging technologies into their business process in order to help them gain time, space and efficiency." - Mark Casey, Casey Associates, Owner.

Conclusion:

This is just a sampling of the customer stories and awards that PaperVision Forms Magic has received in its first five years. We can’t wait to see what the next five bring, as we continue to improve the technology and make it even easier to setup and use.

Make PaperVision Forms Magic a part of your success story! Contact us today.