3. April 2021
„… we can extract 100% of the data correctly from all document types!”, up to this point the webinar presentation on the topic of “Digitalisation in Invoice Reception” was unspectacular, but this statement made me sit up and take notice. I eagerly awaited the challenging questions from the attendees at the concluding Q&A session. But nothing! Nothing at all! This 100% statement on the degree of automation in receipt capturing was apparently accepted. I hereby take this as an opportunity to face the facts and explain the BLU DELTA practice.
Doch vorab: Wie sieht die „marktübliche“ Realität aus?
Bei der automatisierten Beleg- und Dokumentenerfassung können die Automatisierungsraten – die sich darauf beziehen, wie viel Prozent der Belege eines Unternehmens automatisch als korrekt retourniert und in weiterer Folge blind verbucht werden – nicht über einen Kamm geschoren werden. Der Abgleich mit Stammdaten spielt hier eine große Rolle. Ein Abgleich kann aber nur helfen, wenn die vorgelagerte Datenextraktion erfolgreich durchgeführt wurde. Neben der Layout-Vielfalt (entspricht meist der Anzahl der Lieferanten) sind dabei die Erkennungsraten vor allem von der Qualität der Rechnungen abhängig (Scan, Auflösung, Stempel, handschriftliche Bemerkungen, etc. beeinflussen die Qualität). Bei den marktüblichen Systemen werden einzelne Layouts „antrainiert“. Das heißt, man muss die Felder von unbekannten Layouts drei bis sieben Mal „anlernen“. Somit sind 100% ein frommer Wunsch und die tatsächliche Höhe der Erkennungsrate variiert stark je nach Vielfalt der Rechnungen und entsprechend des „Anlern“-Aufwands, den man gewillt ist, zu investieren. Ist die Layout-Vielfalt gering, so halten sich das Risiko und der Aufwand in Grenzen. Bei hoher Vielfalt und großem Volumen jedoch ist genaues Hinsehen erforderlich!
Security through evaluation
Of course, it is better if the recognition rate can be determined in advance. With general AI models, the customer can evaluate the quality in advance with their own receipts. Individual invoices can be tested directly via our BLU DELTA system on our website. For a test with several invoices, online or API access can be requested free of charge, or a potential analysis can also be commissioned for sufficiently large quantities of receipts.
The BLU DELTA AI Potential Analysis – a statistically backed prediction
With the potential analysis, the customer receives a detailed report on the expected recognition rate per data field as well as on the overall recognition rate for the receipts circulating in the company within a statistically backed confidence interval.
Together with the customer, we determine a representative sample. Based on this invoice or document sample, the image data is analysed in a basic analysis and the target data is annotated and compared with the output of the BLU DELTA API (benchmark). Based on this, a detailed report on the quality of the documents and a prediction of the recognition rate of our AI model is created. In addition, the report also provides information about the optimisation potential. Thus, the customer has a secure basis to determine the degree of automation in advance.
Custom AI model as a by-product
And it gets even better. The output of the potential analysis – if helpful – is also an AI custom model optimised for the company. This model can be immediately tested live via our API and/or workflow components or directly integrated. Thus, the customer receives what BLU DELTA promises and there are no unpleasant surprises. But this much can be said in advance – it’s not 100%!
BLU DELTA is a product for the automated capture of financial documents. Partners, but also finance departments, accounts payable accountants and tax advisors of our customers can use BLU DELTA to immediately relieve their employees of the time-consuming and mostly manual capture of documents by using BLU DELTA AI and Cloud.
BLU DELTA is an artificial intelligence from Blumatix Intelligence GmbH.
Author: Christian Weiler is the former General Manager of a global IT company based in Seattle/US. Since 2016, Christian Weiler has been increasingly active in the field of artificial intelligence in a variety of roles and has been part of the management team of Blumatix Intelligence GmbH since 2018.
Contact: c.weiler@blumatix.com
