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Re: <Tech> Back to EDI-to-FAX and OCR
Yo, Allen,
I am replying to EDI-L, instead of in private email, because I think this
is a subject of general interest. That is, so-called SME enablement
(enabling small and mid-sized customers and suppliers to do some variation
of e-commerce, including with EDI) is becoming a major deal among B2B
professionals.
You were replying to, "I think you will find OCR to be very problematical.
It's slow, different typefaces drive it nuts (not to mention handwriting
giving it a coronary), and it needs careful proofreading so your client
doesn't ship 1,000 flounders instead of 1.000 fenders. And if you aren't
scanning a standard form, the output needs all of the manual processing of
an unformatted email message, since you don't know what fields any of the
numbers belong in."
At 07:33 AM 11/13/03, Allen Hoffman wrote:
>Thanks Jeff,
>
>This is exactly what I told my client.
>Their biggest problem is that they are dealing with Governmental agencies
>where a paper PO is mandated. Their customers are all small departments
>who want to mail their POs to the company. They claim 30 customers is
>over 80% of the business. They have already implemented web forms and EDI
>and have maxed out the umber of customers who will use these technologies.
Do I understand correctly that your client is a private company which sells
to a lot of small agencies of various federal, state, and/or local
governments in the USA? (For the sake of illustration, the image which
comes to mind is a manufacturer of traffic signs who sells to traffic
agencies at all levels of government.) Of course, I am not asking for any
uniquely identifying info.
If so, and if those agencies are mandated to send POs on paper, and if they
are mandated to use their own forms, some are probably handwriting on them.
This is the worst possible case for OCR. IMHO, it sounds like you are stuck
with keying-in as the least expensive IT technology. (I can't imagine OCR
being less expensive in this situation.)
Maybe this is a marketing/sales problem, not an IT problem. If I were a
bottom-line-responsible manager in your client company, with a bonus which
relied on profit, I would review the profitability of each of these
customers. All other things equal, I would let the competition have all of
those customers who are forecast to be unprofitable over the next four (?)
quarters (not those who send-in an unprofitable order now and then). That
way, my company would make more money, I would make more money, and the
competition would be damaged.
I might do this with a minimum order size, or I might use the common
practice of having a schedule of discounts from "reference prices" based on
how much the customer bought in the last four (?) quarters.
>I wanted to walk away from OCR (run actually) but the customer is always
>right so I am exploring options for him. He wants to do a pilot
>project. Have you heard of any OCR solutions that work?
>
>Allen Hoffman
><http://www.ediguyconsulting.com/>www.ediguyconsulting.com
>917-544-0019
...
Sorry, I have not heard of an OCR solution which is less expensive that
keying-in in this situation.
--Jeff Mick
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