Intelligent Document Processing: Benefits and use cases

Intelligent Document Processing solutions work to address this by efficiently automating the extraction, categorisation, and analysis of data. That way, your business can improve decision-making, ensure data security, reduce operational costs, and enhance customer experiences through faster, more accurate information processing.

How IDP works: An overview

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) involves a methodical approach to converting unstructured and semi-structured data from diverse document formats into structured, actionable information.

This process utilises a combination of technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) to automate and streamline the extraction, processing, and management of data.

IDP with Iron Mountain InSight®

Next-generation IDP solutions help businesses make sense of their data.

Among market-leading next-generation IDP solutions is Iron Mountain’s InSight — a SaaS IDP solution that works to digitise, process, and manage your documents and data.

With InSight, your organisation can:

• Automate document workflows: Enhance operational efficiency by reducing manual intervention. InSight allows for the automation of document workflows through its low code environment or by leveraging Iron Mountain’s professional services to customise workflows. This automation streamlines the routing of documents, helps identify bottlenecks, and ensures the timely completion of document-centric processes.
• Integrate with your ecosystem: Seamlessly integrate the IDP platform into your existing IT infrastructure. Iron Mountain InSight supports integration with major cloud providers like AWS and Google Cloud and other content and data systems across your organisation. This integration facilitates smooth data flow and collaboration between systems and teams, enhancing overall data management.
• Unlock insights: Extract and structure previously inaccessible data to unlock valuable insights. Iron Mountain InSight Intelligent Document Processing capabilities enable organisations to transform unstructured data into structured, analysable formats. This data is then presented through intuitive dashboards, providing key information and metrics that drive informed decision-making.
• Gain efficiency: Experience heightened operational efficiency as InSight optimises various document-related tasks. By minimising the time-consuming manual processes involved in document handling and data extraction, InSight not only speeds up operations but also reduces the scope for errors, enhancing the accuracy and reliability of data.
• Scale: The scalable architecture of InSight allows your organisation to handle increasing volumes of documents effortlessly. Even as document loads grow, InSight maintains consistent performance and accuracy, ensuring that your document processing capacity scales in line with your organisational needs without compromising efficiency or security.

IDP’s applications and use cases

Intelligent Document Processing is adopted to automate and enhance the extraction, processing, and management of data from documents.

It helps in rapidly converting large volumes of unstructured and semi-structured documents into structured, actionable data. Such capabilities are necessary — and increasingly so — for organisations dealing with high document inflow, enabling them to process and analyse information more efficiently.

IDP systems streamline complex document workflows, reducing the time and labour typically required for manual data entry and document handling. They accurately extract and categorise business-critical data elements from documents, such as text, dates, and numerical information. This extraction facilitates more effective data management and analysis, aiding in better decision-making.

Additionally, IDP technologies integrate with existing organisational systems to enhance data accessibility and usability. They support compliance by systematically applying updated records retention rules to the processed data, ensuring adherence to legal and regulatory standards. More generally, IDP works to transform document-intensive processes and, in turn, improve data visibility, productivity, and operational efficiency.

IDP in life sciences

Our client, a life sciences organisation, faced challenges with managing large volumes of diverse data formats, including digital files, paper documents, and legacy media. Implementing InSight centralised this data into a secure, searchable system — transitioning from inefficient, manual processes to streamlined, automated workflows.

InSight's extraction, organisation, and categorisation capabilities improved data accessibility: Employees, particularly in research and development (R&D), experienced a 40% reduction in time spent locating and retrieving documents. This efficiency facilitated faster, more precise data handling.

Additionally, InSight's metadata tags and optical character recognition (OCR) features enhanced document searchability and understanding, enabling researchers to quickly grasp document relevance and scope. This led to more informed decision-making and improved project execution.

The platform also ensured compliance with regulations, such as HIPAA, by managing access permissions and data retention schedules. Automated processes reduced the time spent on audits by 25% and improved overall data security. Digitising physical assets further reduced storage costs, leading to financial savings.

Read the full case study.

IDP in healthcare

Healthcare settings have increasingly adopted IDP systems to manage the high volume and variety of document types typically present in this sector.

Healthcare organisations face significant data management challenges. They deal with large amounts of unstructured and semi-structured data across different formats, including digital files often stored in disparate systems, leading to inefficient document handling, security risks, and compliance issues.

By adopting InSight, our healthcare clients transition to a centralised system that securely consolidates both physical and digital documents. This shift facilitates faster and more reliable access to data and streamlines document management processes. For example, through InSight, healthcare employees experienced a notable reduction in the time required to locate and retrieve documents, thereby enhancing productivity across various departments — from clinical staff to administrative personnel.

The economic impact of implementing InSight is notable, with companies reporting significant reductions in storage costs due to the decreased need for physical document retention. Digitising documents allows healthcare facilities to repurpose former storage areas for operational activities, contributing to additional revenue generation.

Read the full case study.

IDP in human resources

Human Resources (HR) departments handle numerous document-intensive processes, whether related to onboarding, leave requests, benefits administration, or others. A national retailer recognised the need to streamline these processes due to the inefficiencies arising from diverse and manual workflows within their HR operations. The organisation sought a solution that would unify workflows, centralise document access, and enhance overall efficiency.

The retailer selected InSight, thereby centralising all HR documents into one repository and safeguarding Personal Identifiable Information (PII) previously dispersed across various systems. Centralising this data now cuts down the time employees spend searching for documents and improves the management of document visibility and retention.

By teaming up with us, the retailer transitioned from manual to automated workflows, resulting in more accurate and faster document processing. This change enhanced efficiency while also prompting the organisation to consider further automation and digitisation in other business areas.

The successful deployment of the new system involved close collaboration between the company’s internal experts and Iron Mountain's services team. This partnership ensured the solution was tailored to the retailer's requirements. The HR staff received extensive training on the new system before its official launch, facilitating a smooth transition to the updated workflows.

Read the full case study.

Security at the forefront

Today, organisations must prioritise data security.

Here’s a look into how InSight facilitates superior data security. To learn more, read our security overview whitepaper. 

Employing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cyber Security Framework (CSF), InSight® constructs a robust, multi-layered security strategy that seamlessly integrates with our clients' existing security measures. This, in turn, enhances their ability to meet critical certification and compliance requirements.

End-to-end security strategy

InSight’s security framework spans from the initial ingestion of content to the secure storage of digital documents and metadata. It incorporates a comprehensive approach to security, starting with the physical security of hosted data centres. The design and construction of these facilities are rigorously focused on safeguarding the physical servers and infrastructure that underlie the platform.

Following physical security, InSight covers the security of hardware and software, including progressive layers that address the infrastructure's resilience against threats. Operational security is tightly managed with technical constraints and processes that align with compliance specifications such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II.

Moreover, InSight ensures the protection of data through several proactive measures:

• Secure deployment and data privacy: Services are deployed securely with privacy safeguards that protect end-user data during storage and communication between services.
• Granular control and auditing: The platform provides granular control over user access, complemented by easy-to-use auditing and tracking capabilities.
• Security-conscious workforce: By engaging a security-conscious, highly vetted workforce and developing rigorous standards, InSight maintains high levels of governance and security awareness among its personnel.

Advanced security technologies

To protect against and respond to cybersecurity events, InSight incorporates:

• Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Data Loss Prevention (DLP): These technologies help shield the system from unauthorised access and data breaches.
• Regular penetration testing and encryption: Regular testing of the system's defences, along with robust encryption protocols for data at rest and in transit (AES256, TLS 1.2/3), ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data.
• Incident response and recovery plans: In response to a security incident, Iron Mountain InSight® promptly activates predefined procedures to mitigate the impact. The system is engineered for rapid recovery, minimising both downtime and potential data loss.

In addition to these security features, InSight provides enhanced security measures that allow organisations to grant or restrict access to content within the platform based on roles and metadata. This results in a combination of flexibility and security, ensuring that sensitive information is accessible only to authorised personnel, thus strengthening data governance and compliance with regulatory requirements.

Learn more about Iron Mountain’s InSight’s Intelligent Document Processing capabilities and how they can serve your specific operational needs.