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Mobile Capture

What Is Mobile Capture?

Mobile capture is a technology that allows you to use your smartphone or tablet's camera to accomplish a wide range of administrative and imaging tasks. Examples include making a mobile deposit to your bank account or taking a photo of a driver's license in order to open a new account in your name.

For businesses, mobile capture takes digital document management to an entirely new level because it lets them benefit from the functionality outside the confines of their offices. Mobile capture lets your employees access documents from your digital archive on their mobile devices.

Employees with the correct permissions and access capability can add images and scan or update existing documents while on the go using a mobile device, probably one they use each day.

Why Is Mobile Capture Important?

Mobile capture can help customers and businesses simplify individual transactions. It also promotes customer self-service. Optimally, mobile capture can result in faster processes for businesses, more positive levels of customer satisfaction, and increased efficiency.

Businesses that use mobile workforces can benefit greatly from mobile capture because it lets them view, edit, and process documents when not in the office. It helps them collect critical information from customers and gather signatures, all while in the field and not sitting at a desk.

For example, suppose your employees are often transporting documents back and forth from the office to customer sites. Mobile capture systems can prevent important paperwork from being lost or misplaced because the software allows workers to scan or take photos of documents and have customers sign them in some instances. This also ensures a business is adhering to compliance laws, since they’re not transporting physical files back and forth from the office to a job site.

What Does Mobile Capture Let Businesses Do?

Capture Photos

With mobile capture software, employees can use the built-in camera on a smartphone or tablet to easily upload photos and index them. In some cases, business customers may also have access to mobile capture features that allow them to complete certain tasks, such as remote banking.

Capture Documents

For mobile workforces who use electronic documents with customers, mobile capture lets them take a photo of the document and have the customer provide a digital signature if necessary.

Electronic Forms

Customers and employees can use mobile capture to complete electronic forms with important data. This way, signatures and other information can be collected and saved more securely than paper records.

Improve the Customer Experience

In any type of business, keeping the customer happy and satisfied is the key to success. In many cases, mobile capture can help improve the overall customer experience. Businesses may be able to boost customer retention, generate a more positive experience, and increase customer growth. When customers have access to tools like mobile capture, they may be more likely to become repeat customers, recommend your business to others, and benefit from the convenience this type of system offers.

Types of Businesses That Use Mobile Capture

Financial Institutions

Some of the best-known examples of businesses that use mobile capture software are banks and credit unions. Bank customers can use mobile capture as part of mobile banking applications to make check deposits using the built-in camera on their smartphones or tablets. Mobile capture technology lets the user take a photo of the back and front of the check so the bank can later verify its authenticity.

These types of mobile capture systems often let the user input data as well, such as the deposit amount and which account they want the money deposited into. This allows customers to make deposits from anywhere on the road or at home without having to make a trip to the bank.

Remote deposits completed with mobile capture technology tend to be less labor-intensive for banks, which may save them money in the long run and improve overall efficiency. No teller or branch location needs to be open at the time of the deposit, either, so customers can enjoy the convenience of completing deposits on the weekends and outside of workweek business hours.

Transportation Companies

For businesses that regularly transport goods to customers, such as trucking companies and other delivery services, mobile capture can be an important part of their ability to do business.

Mobile capture technology is often part of a bigger mobile application that drivers and other employees use on tablets or smartphones. These systems may allow them to:

  • Communicate with in-house operations, business partners, and supervisors
  • Keep track of deliveries
  • Collect signatures from customers
  • Manage documents
  • Receive message alerts
  • Access any internal driver portals

For transportation companies, mobile capture can be part of a larger content and digital document management solution so employees can capture, save, and process information while in the field.

Construction Industries

Mobile capture is an important part of the construction industry. Whether a firm of builders, architects, or both, these companies have many supervisors out in the field working directly with their customers. Mobile capture helps them conduct their business in a way that’s convenient and secure.

DocuWare worked closely with a company called Century Fence and helped them on their journey to becoming a paperless business. The company’s goals were to reduce dependence on paper-based files, expedite workflows, and make records both searchable and available to employees with the appropriate permissions. Century Fence also wanted its field superintendents to be able to access project documents remotely.

DocuWare’s solution integrated with Century Fence’s existing ERP and accounting programs, and by the third month of rollout, mobile access was provided to field superintendents on tablets.

The company considered DocuWare’s implementations a success, as it found that the easy-to-use and transparent workflow encouraged everyone to work together, and mobile capture capability for field superintendents and others ensured document compliance, prevented lost paperwork and enhanced communication among multiple groups of people.

Mobile Capture Features

Depending on the mobile capture software used, it may have certain features that help increase its usefulness for customers and staff.

Image Quality

Many mobile capture systems have an image-quality alert that won't process an image correctly if the picture is deemed to be unclear, too dark, or unreadable. Some systems may even prompt the user with tips on how to adjust the camera to get a better image. This might include getting closer to the document or angling the camera differently.

These built-in features can help streamline processes for bank customers, transportation and construction companies, and other businesses that use mobile capture because they prevent back-and-forth communication about unreadable images or documents and ensure efficient processing.

Indexing

Many mobile capture systems also have built-in indexing systems that allow staff to organize captured documents and images by date, customer, or some other method for easy retrieval. This can help save time later when accessing transactions or preparing invoices.