November 13, 2023
An eye-opening and actually somewhat shocking introduction to Webinar”Perfect integration of PDF data into the EDI workflow” Klaus Schaffer had himself from the new Semadox partner EDITEL Let it come up. The EDI expert quoted from a recent WKO survey, which confirmed that Austrian companies were truly not very innovative when it came to digitizing processes. And “not a high level of willingness to innovate” is a major understatement — catastrophic underperformance is more likely to happen.
According to Schaffer, only five percent of the companies surveyed would prefer structured electronic incoming invoices with the option of further processing of invoice data. The rest prefer the invoice as a PDF - this would then be printed out and processed manually, reveals the WKO study. Or if you just want to send it by post anyway, the digitization nightmare continues.
Really now? It is the year 2023 - and only five percent of Austrian companies rely on a digitized process of exchanging invoice data? Even though the majority of the companies surveyed were micro and small enterprises, this love for slow, error-prone and expensive analog business processes is appalling.
Of course, there is a connection between company size and degree of digitization. That was the only comforting explanation for the disastrous figures in the survey: over 90 percent of the companies surveyed were small and micro enterprises. A sole trader who receives 10 invoices per month will have little motivation for digital optimization. The printed PDF is “good enough”. Even if there were many good arguments that a completely digitized workflow would make sense in these cases too; you would save yourself a few working hours per month; in addition, there would be perfect documentation, transparency, traceability and a number of other benefits.
But companies that have relied on electronic data exchange for a long time also face challenges time and again. The keyword is EDI, i.e. Electronic Data Interface. This standard standardizes the exchange of structured electronic data in business processes. The roots of EDI go back over 50 years — and yet EDI is still not running perfectly even in 2023.
Many companies are faced with the challenge that the inherently wonderfully elegant and highly automated EDI process is disrupted by a document format that is also very popular and widely used in business processes: the PDF. Most companies are faced with the challenge of integrating data from PDF documents into an existing Electronic Data Interface (EDI) process.
PDF is extremely widely used. The file format is extremely low-threshold, anyone can both create and read it. It is perfect for email communication, is universal and fast. Almost any computer system can export data in the form of a PDF document.
The only big question is how to efficiently and automatically extract the data from such PDF documents so that they can be transferred to the EDI process for further processing? If a company receives hundreds, often thousands or even tens of thousands of PDF documents per month in the form of orders, invoices, order confirmations or delivery notes, then this process should be made as efficient and error-free as possible.
In the webinar”Perfect integration of PDF data into the EDI workflow”, presented by Klaus Schaffer, Business Development Manager at EDITEL Austria GmbH, and Julian Rath, Managing Director of Sematox GmbH, we presented a solution to this problem: the seamless integration of PDF documents into the world of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Don't miss the opportunity to learn from the experts and take your company to the next level of efficiency and security in business communication.
Watch the webinar “Perfect integration of PDF data into the EDI workflow”.
Dive into the world of PDF data extraction and let your company benefit from this innovative technology. Stay at the forefront of business communication and don't miss out on this exclusive opportunity!
Image source: Semadox
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