Intelligent Documents? How to Simplify Your Business by Putting Document Technology to Work for You

When using the word “intelligent” in a business setting, you’re typically talking about things like your workforce or your decision making process. But…your documents? That’s probably a new one. In this post we’ll explain what an intelligent document is, and why the evolution of digital technology makes document intelligence critical to the success of your business.

Let’s start by changing your idea of what a document really is (hint: it isn’t just paper).  In truth, a document is really just a container we use to carry important information back and forth (in this case, the information that drives your business), which makes an intelligent document a better, more flexible container, one that can improve the flow of information and make your business run better.

By now you’re well aware of the seismic shift that has occurred regarding how documents drive business. No doubt it’s already impacted the way your organization runs – a greater reliance on mobile devices and cloud services, an increase in scanning. And now the need for intelligent documents.

No one is more passionate about document technology than Xerox, arguably the inventors of the concept of document intelligence thanks to their ConnectKey® Technology, which goes beyond the hardware to establish an ecosystem that enables intelligent documents, simplifying the way work gets done.

So how does an intelligent document help you work better?

• Intelligent documents are searchable.Search through metadata to make the document easy to find in file systems, or search through the content itself, dramatically simplifying the processes of finding the right information. Imagine scanning in receipts for an expense report and going back in later to search by total amount of the purchase or date. Bonus: searchable documents can also be converted from unstructured paper data to editable digital data, like a Microsoft Word or Excel file.
• Intelligent document are secure. Intelligent documents are secure thanks to encryption, virus protection and rights-management, creating clear audit trails of all activity to simplify compliance and reduce risk.
• Intelligent documents help you connect. Intelligent documents can be connected to your workflows and processes so you can automatically extract information. This reduces manual data entry and allows files to be routed directly to the appropriate recipient, or to storage systems like the cloud or internal servers for group access or archiving, with file sizes are automatically optimized for the minimum impact on network performance. With today’s technology, it’s easy to program a button labeled “Invoices” that routes directly to your Accounts Receivable department file share, sorted into the right folder.
• Intelligent documents help you collaborate. Thanks to version and authorship tracking, real-time collaboration becomes much easier, empowering your team to work together more effectively across multiple locations.

ConnectKey Technology has changed the way we think about multifunction printers by bringing together convenience, productivity, security and cost control to help your business work better. This software runs across a suite of multifunction printers, providing significant improvements to both the user interface and the systems management and integration capabilities that run behind the scenes.

ConnectKey technology lets your team work the way they want to – whether from mobile devices, or by using cloud storage solutions like DropBox or Google Drive. That level of autonomy and convenience breeds productivity and reduces frustration.

Smarter also means faster – like the ability to customize the UI right at the device level, putting buttons exactly where you want them and starting customized workflows right on the home screen so that processes become simplified and the device easier to use.

ConnectKey Technology helps improve productivity by automating many of the tasks teams perform daily – for example, the unified address book with favorites stores your frequently used contacts, eliminating the need for keying in phone numbers for fax or email addresses for scanning every time.

Smarter also means safer. Xerox partnered with McAfee to provide new levels of security out of the box for every ConnectKey enabled MFP – guarding your printers and the information that passes through them with security software that’s similar to what you current trust for your PCs. The same industry standard features you’d expect, such as disk encryption and protocol compliance, are also present here, while larger enterprises will be pleased to learn that ConnectKey Technology is also compatible with Cisco TrustSec for easy integration into more robust security environments.

Cost control is also part of the game. By enforcing less expensive printing methods, ConnectKey Technology reduces energy consumption. It can also provide accounting reports to improve visibility and even help you recoup costs.

Convenience, Productivity, Security, and Cost Control?

They don’t call it an Intelligent Document for nothing.

To learn more about how intelligent documents from ConnectKey Technology can simplify the way your business works, go to www.xerox.com/connectkey

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