connectisgrp-blog

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Paper and Digital eForms Capture is Intelligent Forms

What if you could automatically extract business information from paper documents as easily as from online forms? And what if you could find any document at any time no matter who was working on it while being assured that all of the information was secure from unauthorized access? In essence that’s what  TeleForm and LiquidOffice e-forms sare all about.  They’re intelligent because they work together.

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Speed Up Accounts Payable Processing

As with Processing of Accounts Payable these also have the potential to cause huge inefficiencies, such as invoice disputes, extended Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), and customer satisfaction issues, adding significant costs within company finances. Conservative estimates place costs of manual invoicing between $30 and $60 per invoice.

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Paperless Accounts Payable Processing

Accounts Payable Processing save time and money by locating and capturing key invoice data from single or multiple page invoices. Documents and invoices are vetted thoroughly against validation rules, database look-ups from external databases and ERP systems, calculation checks, and recognition confidence ranking, item and row flagging to simplify the review process. These solutions also remember the physical field locations for maximum capture speed and accuracy the next time the same vendor invoice is processed – saving time.

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Here’s Why You Should Rethink Your Manual Order Process

Take the pain out of orderorder processing processing by removing virtually all manual touch points. Using advanced automation functionalities, each order is completely electronic and visible throughout the document life-cycle. Orders are visible at each processing step so you’ll always know where they are. To learn how you can automate your Sales Order Processes, contact Jazz from Connectis, he’s an expert on all things document process automation at 905.695.2200 x1006 info@connectis.ca

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Speed Up Order to Cash Processing with Data Capture

docAlpha InvoiceAction can be licensed to process as as 500 orders monthly and scalable to process millions. When you speed up Order to Cash processing, you’ll reduce the amount of labour and keystrokes required to complete any document capture process. This capture solution excels at recognition, application of business and mathematical rules, database lookups, document splitting, document naming controls and many other capabilities that will reduce bottlenecks, improve processes and your all important bottom line.

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Invoice Capture Automation Speeds QuickBooks Invoice Processing

You know you can eliminated manual entry of data, and speed up the approval process in your business system. A leading network of clinics Medsleep choose Artsyl’s InvoiceAction was the right solution because of its tight integration with the QuickBooks accounting system and SQL, which, in effect, enabled further customizations to meet MedSleep’s unique requirements

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Faxing in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure

You know you can do faxing in the cloud by implementing a Fax Server on a public cloud provider’s infrastructure like Microsoft Azure. Fax Server like FaxCore which is a high-performance fax engine designed to deliver fax traffic over enterprise networks of any size, can be used for this purpose.

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What is Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC)?

Governance

Governance is defined as the “combination of processes established and executed by the board of directors that are reflected in the organization’s structure, and how these processes are managed towards achieving the organizational goals”.

Being the oversight role, governance refers to the overall management approach undertaken by top management. All the activities performed under this category are designed to ensure that critical and relevant management information are able to reach the management team on a timely basis, and that the information are accurate, sufficient and complete. In turn, this will facilitate the decision-making process. Activities are also carried out in order to come up with control mechanisms that will see to it that the decisions made by top management are carried out.

Risk Management

As the phrase implies, this refers to predicting or anticipating risks that can potentially hinder the organization from achieving its objectives, and managing them accordingly.

Risks are constant when it comes to business. The task of businesses is to identify these risks promptly and deal with them. Thus, the management has to identify the risks that may adversely affect the realization of the business objectives of the company. Then they will have to analyze which risks are serious and need immediate attention. They will then have to find ways to respond to or handle these risks.

But it does not end there. Risk management also encompasses monitoring the results of the risk mitigation actions that have been implemented.

Compliance

This refers to conforming, not only with the organization’s policies and procedures but also to government laws and external regulations. It entails identifying those that have to be complied with and assessing the state of compliance of the company. A cost-benefit analysis is also called for when evaluating the possible impact of non-compliance with the rules.

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cyber attack

A few major cyber attacks of 2019 year:

Facebook User Data Leak

Date: This attack occurred on April 3rd, 2019.

Loss: more or less 540 million records of Facebook users were compromised and were published on Amazon’s cloud computing service.

Capital One Breach

Date: On July 17th, 2019, Capital One was informed through an E-mail that some of its data were being illegally stored on GitHub.  

Loss: The hacker compromised approximately 140,000 Social Security numbers and approximately 80,000 bank account numbers of U.S. customers, and 1 million Social Insurance Numbers (SINs) of Canadian credit card customers. In total, the incident affected approximately 100 million people in the United States and six million in Canada.

Quest Diagnostic Breach

Date: The breach dated back to August 1, 2018, until March 30, 2019, but AMCA discovered it on May 14, 2019, and reported to Quest.

Quest Diagnostics is a medical testing giant and one of the largest providers of clinical laboratory testing services in the U.S. It was reported that a third-party data breach struck an American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) located in New York. In fact, the AMCA is a billing collection vendor that delivers services to Quest Diagnostics.

DoorDash Hack

Date: The breach occurred on 4 May 2019.

DoorDash, a food delivery service, reported a data breach whereby a cyber-attack affected its customers, drivers (also known as “Dashers.”), and merchants. In fact, DoorDash connects customers with local restaurants and relies on contracted drivers who use their own vehicles for delivery.

Canva Hack

Date: The attack occurred on May 24, 2019.

Australian online design tool, Canva, reported in a press release that account details of their customers were accessed by hackers.  

Date: The attack occurred on May 24, 2019.

Loss: 139 million users were affected by the attack. Breached data includes email addresses, city and country information, and usernames. Approximately 61 million users and passwords were also present in the database.

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What is PCI DSS?

Broadly speaking, PCI DSS is a set of standard requirements covering the technical defences and management processes of a company processing payment card data. Established by the leading card brands, it helps businesses who take and process card payments reduce fraud and protect data. Whilst it is primarily to protect credit and debit card information, the principles of PCI DSS could be used to protect data of any kind.

PCI DSS essentially lays down the foundations of solid security by defining data retention policies, establishing the right encryption and physical security, as well as setting the relevant access control and authentication procedures.

Without PCI DSS compliance, merchants won’t be able to process any card transactions. In today’s retail environment, that counts for a substantial number of transactions. Card data is also considered personal data, making it subject to GDPR, which mandates that keeping personal information secure is a legal requirement. PCI DSS is the preferred standard and one of the most reliable ways of ensuring this and is often the first thing the Information Commissioner’s Office looks at in the wake of a data breach involving card data.

The global card brands can levy fines against the acquiring banks as a result of non-compliance. These banks can in turn levy fines against merchants if the responsibility of a breach can be shown to be with them. Not being compliant can have devastating financial and reputational consequences if a breach occurs. And as non-compliance indicates a lack of basic security processes, a breach is likely.

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data center security

How to ensure Data Center Security?

1. Know Where the People Are

Physical access management to data centers is a critical component of the overall physical security of the environment. Both providing access and understanding movement through the data center is key. The use of biometric readers, anti-tailgating systems, mantraps, and other physical access control systems to ensure access to spaces is authorized and monitored is critical.

2. It’s All About the Layers

Physical security is one of the classic examples of defense in depth. To provide comprehensive physical security, multiple systems and process must work together, like perimeter security, access control, and process management.

3. You Must Train Your People

Ensuring that all personnel adhere to physical security procedures and understand the importance of their responsibilities to a data center’s physical security program is a key concept. Intruders will always look for weak links, and it has been proven time and time again that weaknesses can often be on the human side of the equation.

4. Test Your Physical Controls

Internal testing of physical security controls is an important concept in relation to physical security. Validating access grants, ensuring that video footage is recording, and verifying that anti-tailgate mechanisms are working as intended are three areas that I recommend you check. Testing of your physical controls a part of your normal operating procedures is one step that is often overlooked.

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What is Cyber Awareness training?

It’s tough to accept that cyberthreats go beyond the eye. Cyber Awareness training (CAT) or Security Awareness Training (SAT) is a priority for organizations of all sizes as it helps educates employees on existing and arising information security concerns. The awareness training helps employees and management understand IT governance issues, recognize security concerns and learn their relevance to respond accordingly. Employees should be trained in information flow and upholding information as a valuable corporate asset.

Regular training on cybersecurity is necessary when the employee turnover is high or there are many contract or temporary employees. Though the complete success of the CAT cannot be guaranteed, the metric proved a downward trend in the number of attacks over a period.

Many companies are now investing in cybersecurity awareness training programs. Education programs are conducted to educate their employees on protecting their computer and personal information and how to stay safe from various cybercriminals scouring the web for potential targets. The purpose of security awareness training is to develop essential competencies and introduce them to new techniques and methods that have been introduced to tackle possible security issues. By conducting a training program on a regular basis, an organization can ensure that they have a well-trained team who can handle security concerns in the best possible way.

Besides performing the regular indefinite security tasks like employing security defense solutions (firewalls) and protection systems (IDPS), employee awareness is the foremost concern. Organizations should consider cybersecurity training as one of their significant strategies to reduce exposure to various threats. When trained on cybersecurity awareness, the chances of falling victim to an intrusion attempt decreases.

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How to prevent Prevent Cloud Security Threats?

to prevent Prevent Cloud Security Threats:

1. Educate your employees.

For most organizations, there is an easy explanation for the security threats: uneducated employees. By teaching your employees proper defense practices, you can minimize risk and prevent cloud security threats:

Involve the entire company. When employees are actively involved in protecting company assets, they’re more likely to take ownership of their obligations regarding security measures. Involve the entire workforce in security training and brief them on best practices moving forward.

Set up a plan. Set up a response protocol in case employees feel they have been compromised. Create a document that offers users steps to take in several scenarios so they will always be prepared.

Run unannounced security tests. Educating your employees is important, but not if none of the information is retained. Invest in tools that allow you to send simulated phishing emails to see if workers take the appropriate action given the scenario.

2. Secure a data backup plan.

As the cloud continues to mature, the possibility of permanent data loss is high. Make sure that whatever happens, you have a secure backup of that data (this is more about securing your business than your actual data, but provides the same peace of mind).

IT managers should distribute data and applications across multiple zones for added protection, as well as adhere to best practices in daily data backup, offsite storage and disaster recovery.

3. Who has access to the data?

Sure, the location of your stored data is important — but nowhere near as important as who has access to it.

IT managers: who is doing what, who has access, and what are they trying to access? Establish access controls to manage risk. Tie user identities to back-end directories, even for external identities.

Be proactive and put security measures in place to make sure that your data is protected, and take things a step further: a smartphone access control system allows you to easily manage users and assign door access from virtually anywhere.

Rather than utilizing one too many passwords, implement single sign on (SSO) authentication capabilities.

4. Encryption is key.

Cloud encryption is critical for protection. It allows for data and text to be transformed using encryption algorithms and is then placed on a storage cloud.

Ask your provider how data is managed. To ensure the protection of your data before it leaves your business, you can encrypt at the network’s edge, ensuring the movement of data in the cloud is protected. Once the data is encrypted, keep the keys that both encrypt and decipher your information. Having both of these means that even if the information is stored at a third party provider, all information requests will need to involve the owner.

Do not store encryption keys in the software where you store your data. IT teams need to keep physical ownership of encryption keys as well as vet the strength of the encryption techniques being used.

5. Take passwords seriously.

Since files are zipped and encrypted with passwords, it’s important to choose one wisely. Most passwords — 90%, to be exact — can be cracked within seconds.

“Passwords containing at least eight characters, one number, mixed-case letters and non-alphanumeric symbols were once believed to be robust,” noted Duncan Stewart, director of technology for Deloitte Canada, recently. “But these can be easily cracked with the emergence of advance hardware and software.”

Although the limitations of our ability to remember complex credentials means there is a tendency for password reuse, don’t fall into that risk category. Come up with distinct, original passwords to deter hackers.

As for the future? Here’s the good news: SMS passwords, fingerprint requirements and smartphone access control systems will soon be the norm for passwords.

6. Test, test, test.

When putting measures in place to protect your cloud, think like a criminal. One of the best ways to do this is penetration testing: an IT security practice designed to identify and address vulnerabilities as well as minimize cloud security threats.

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security configuration

Security Configuration Management is the ongoing process of identifying and managing changes to deliverables and other work products. The Security Configuration Management plan (CMP) is developed to define, document, control, implement, account for, and audit changes to the various components of this project. It provides information on the requirements and procedures necessary for CM activities and establishes the methodology for configuration identification and control of releases and changes to configuration items. It also describes the process for maintaining status accounting and verifying the completeness and correctness of configuration items throughout the system life cycle.

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Workflow Automation for Education

In the last few months, you’ve likely had to digitize many manual processes you participate in at work. You know, the ones you approve, print, and drop off to the next person in line. Now that you have some sort of digital process, the next step is Workflow Automation for Education.‍

Forms and Workflow Applications‍

Forms and workflow applications are used to automate processes so you can be more effective. Automation software is best used to automate repetitive, high volume processes. This type of software can increase the accuracy and efficiency of a process, boosting productivity and allowing you to focus time and energy elsewhere.

Let’s dive into seven ways to use forms and workflow applications at your institution.‍

When to Use Forms and Workflow Applications in Higher Education:

1. Purchase Order Approvals‍

Filing and processing purchase order requests is clunky and slow when paper and PDFs are involved. Users have to print, fill, scan, and send manually. The requester must sort through the form to determine which fields and instructions apply to them, not the back office, and they may have to get approval or notify multiple departments.

With a forms and workflow application, you can dramatically simplify this process.

Save your users and approvers time by doing the whole process digitally; the user can access, fill, send, and get approval all online. You can even eliminate the number of fields a user has to manually fill by synching your forms and workflow software with the institution’s identity database. The form filler’s name, department, and office phone number can autofill, minimizing tedious work.

Purchase order forms may require document uploads, such as receipts or vendor documentation. By adding required fields, the user cannot submit until documents are uploaded.

Use automatic routing to decrease the manual steps in your purchase order process. In the workflow, administrators can set approved purchase orders to automatically route to payroll. With this routing feature alone, an administrator somewhere on campus has 10 minutes back per purchase order filed, quickly adding up over the course of a week.

From start to finish, forms and workflow software saves time and manual entry work. ‍

2. Flexible / Remote Work Agreements‍

Over the last few months, required remote work became the norm. Still, institutions may need a process to notify leadership of how many staff are on campus or in their home offices in the future and to note any supplies borrowed from the institution.

A PDF process provides many opportunities for error. To request ongoing remote work, the employee may need to enter start and finish dates, the number of business days they expect to telecommute, telecommuting time to the nearest hour, phone numbers, addresses, and more.

Using a forms and workflow application, you can implement field validation to limit clerical errors. For example, an error will appear if a date is not entered correctly (i.e. month, day, year). Additionally, field validation means you don’t have to add so many reminders to the form. You can leave off the asterisk instructing how to enter a date, rounding to the nearest hour, and adding dashes to phone numbers, making the overall experience better for the form filler.

Your form may have sections for specific types of flexible work, such as change to start and end time or a compressed work schedule. Using a PDF, every user has to sort through every section, even if it doesn’t apply to them. With a forms and workflow application, use conditional logic to open sections only as the user needs to see them. This will limit the amount of noise and potential confusion for the form filler. ‍

3. Vacation Request‍

Using paper and PDF for a process as common as this one may be costing more than you realize. Allow me to illustrate.

Let’s take an institution with 500 full time faculty and staff, for example, and assume each person requests vacation time twice per year.

Let’s estimate it takes the requester approximately 20 minutes to find, fill, and email the vacation form to their supervisor. In a two-step approval process through a supervisor and senior staff member, the approval takes five minutes. Then, onto human resources where someone manually enters the approved time off into an HR software. Let’s estimate that takes approximately five minutes, which may be a stretch.

If 500 employees request time off just twice per year, taking 30 minutes of time from various parts of the institution, that adds up to 500 hours. If those employees earn an average of $40 per hour, this process costs $20,000.

With a forms and workflow application, many steps in this process become automated. Via a forms and workflow platform, the requester’s name, employee ID number, department, and supervisor can be automatically entered into the form through integrations with the institution’s identity systems. The form could also be integrated with the HR system and display how many days of vacation the employee has left. The employee won’t need to access the HR system and find this information themselves as they fill the form. Let’s estimate this process takes 5 minutes.

Then, through an automated workflow, the form is immediately sent to the employee’s supervisor and a senior staff member. Let’s estimate it takes these individuals one minute to approve.

Pending approval from both parties, the form is routed to human resources. However, via integrations with campus systems, dates and hours of requested time off are automatically entered into the human resources software, saving time for HR staff and eliminating one opportunity for error. Let’s estimate this requires no time from staff.

In this scenario, it takes six minutes to request and approve time off. Across an institution with 500 employees who make two vacation requests each year, this takes 100 hours. Assuming those employees earn an average of $40 per hour, this process costs $4,000.

With a forms and applications software, you’ve saved $16,000 with just a single form and workflow. There are plenty more opportunities to use this software, such as in the research administration office. ‍

Research Administration Processes

4. Principal Investigator Status Request‍

A researcher must apply for “principal investigator” status to lead a funded research project. The application process, often carried out via paper and PDFs, can require 3-5 approvals and includes conditional instructions. For example, if the applicant is not a faculty member, they need to send the form through additional approvers.

Using a forms and workflow application, this type of form is significantly simplified for the user.

Using conditional logic, the user sees only the fields that apply to them. For example, more information may be required if graduate students are involved in the research project. If the user indicates graduate students will be involved, a new section appears with applicable fields. If the user does not make this indication, they won’t be bogged down sorting through extra fields.

Speaking of getting bogged down, use parallel routing to decrease the amount of instructions on the form. Instead of a paragraph of approval routing instructions, just use automation.

Parallel routing allows you to send a form through a path when a specific answer is chosen. For example, a provost must be included in the approval process only when the applicant is not a faculty member. When indicated, the form can be routed to go to a director, dean, and provost, before making it to the vice president for final approval.

After the form has been approved, use integrations so administrative staff can skip manual entry. By integrating the form with your research administration software, the research office can spend their time helping faculty win grants instead of manually entering data. ‍

5. No-Fee Grant Extension Form‍

Research projects don’t always meet deadlines, and when that happens, researchers can request a no-fee extension on their grant. Similar to a principal investigator status request, this process requires a form with many fields and conditional information.

When completed on a digital forms and workflow platform, this process becomes easier for everyone from the user, to the approver, and the administrative office.

In this process, the requester will need to enter basic data like their name, email, and school. This type of data could be easily autofilled in a digital forms and workflow application. Taking it one step further and perhaps integrating research administration software, the form could also autofill the project’s title, sponsor’s name and ID, and current project end date. That’s a total of seven fields that could be completed in the blink of an eye, decreasing workload for the user.

Administrators will need to know if this grant extension will impact subaward projects. Using conditional logic in a forms and workflow software, the user will only see questions about subaward projects if indicated. Additionally, administrators could add conditional logic to show more fields on human and animal subjects as the user indicates.

Finally, use email notifications to notify of approval. Once the research and development office has approved the grant extension, they can simply check a box and the requester will receive an email notification that can be customized if necessary. You can even input fields from the form into the email template, such as the number of months granted in the extension.

Other offices can use some automation help as well, such as the registrar’s office.‍

Registrar’s Office Processes

6. Course Withdrawal‍

In a nationwide survey of 1,200 college students at both four- and two-year institutions, Zion and Zion found 41% of students dropped a class during their freshman or sophomore years. These new students are likely still becoming accustomed to the academic environment, including the homework workload and business processes within academia.

Using paper or PDF forms to withdraw from a course can be difficult. The student may need four or five approvals to withdraw.

Forms and workflow software can make the process less stressful on the student by automatically routing those approvals. Instead of reading through paragraphs of instructions on where and how to submit the form, the student can simply push a button. Automatically, it will be routed to their advisor, professor, and dean.

Additionally, with parallel routing, the software can route the form everywhere it needs to go. For example, if the student indicates they participate in an athletics program, their form may need to go through athletics. Perhaps the student is an international student and withdrawal may need to route through international student services. Parallel routing takes little effort for administrators and lifts the burden off of the student.

When withdrawal is approved, the form makes its way to the registrar’s office. Rather than arriving by paper, which can be easily misplaced, the information can arrive via an email notification. Better yet, the form is integrated directly with the student information system. Upon the final approval of a student’s withdrawal form, their credit hours automatically drop. ‍

7. Change of Major Form‍

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an estimated 30% of undergraduate students will change their major at least once within the initial 3 years of enrollment. At an institution of over 10,000 students, assuming even distribution, this means at least 1,100 change of major forms will be filed annually.

As a PDF-based process requiring at least two or three levels of signatures including deans of the current and proposed departments, this process can easily inundate administrators with the execution and tracking of tedious manual work. If processed via email, requests can easily be lost, causing significant delays. In addition, once processed, an administrator will manually need to update the student information system with the approved change, taking more time.

Forms software with built-in workflow can empower a registrar’s team to significantly reduce major request processing time for all parties involved.

Utilizing built-in integrations with the student information system, a student’s ID, GPA, cumulative credits, and current major/minor can automatically populate in the form, reducing risks of manual errors. The system can filter forms based upon special criteria as well, such as if a student is receiving veteran benefits.

The student can electronically sign the agreement and have it automatically sent to the appropriate college deans, based upon information in the form, for their review. If approvals are missed, an administrator overseeing the process can automate push reminders to move the process along. Finally, once complete, the process will automatically update the student information system with the newly approved major, removing time required and possibly manual entry errors.

The best part? A solution like this, using a tool like Kuali Build, can be built and rolled out literally in less than a week - quickly proving the ROI from administrative time saved. This time can be reinvested in focusing on quality curriculum and initiatives to support long-term student success.

Automating processes using a forms and workflow platform will clearly increase efficiency across your institution.

If you’re ready to look for the right automation solution, take a look at Kuali Build. Our customers are already using one or more of the processes described above. Click here for a no-pressure self-guided tour of Kuali Build.‍

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Government Workflow Automation

Benefits of Government Workflow Automation

Create Workflows, No Coding Required

Workflows can be designed and deployed, no coding skills or technical knowledge necessary. Administrative users can map, build and publish an entire department-level business process in minutes. Need to make a quick change? Modify hierarchical rules, without having to reconfigure the whole workflow.

Improve Accountability And Transparency

Workflows empower employees to quickly identify missing approvals or required documents, expediting request fulfillment while providing organizational visibility. By centralizing and automating communication and task assignment, workflows promote a level of accountability sure to improve employee performance.

Just Set And Forget

Leverage workflows to define, set and trigger both one-time and recurrent activities and events. Rules are so dynamic that workflows can complete multiple tasks at once, regardless of complexity.

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Healthcare Workflow Automation

How Healthcare Workflow Automation is Boosting the Bottom Line

When integrated into the clinical workflow, AI can empower clinicians at the point of care.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t always have to be about the attention-grabbing aspects of the technology, like robots in surgery. One of the most prominent benefits of AI is automation in healthcare, which often flies under the radar when it comes to headlines. Despite its lack of hype, using AI to automate basic tasks in operations and administration can result in better patient experience, quality of service, improved project implementation and lower costs.

Advances in AI and machine learning are driving key shifts in how technology is applied in everyday healthcare settings. As practitioners and business and IT leaders work to improve clinical outcomes, patient experience and hospital operations, understanding the opportunities these emerging technologies present is critical.

Through AI and machine learning, computers are taught to recognize patterns in unstructured data, turning it into structured data in a way that enables automation. Over the next two to three years, innovations in areas such as electronic health records (EHR), revenue cycle and operations will enable AI throughout the healthcare system. What’s more, AI will be integrated into the clinical workflow in existing tools like the EHR and picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), empowering practitioners with real-time data at the point of care.

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Unlock the Economic Opportunity in Automation in Healthcare

One of the main benefits of AI is that it enables new projects and innovations previously thought to be out of reach due to cost or time constraints. If the cost of a new project can be reduced by 50 percent by using AI to automate key aspects, then the project becomes possible. And cost-savings in one area can free up dollars to invest in other areas. In administrative workflow assistance alone, AI represents an $18 billion value, according to Accenture.

As Medicare reimbursements decline and payroll costs rise, putting AI to use in the automation of basic tasks and processes can result in improved quality of service, a smoother customer care experience, more effective project implementations and lower costs.

In radiology, PACS systems are using AI to automate tasks such as worklist optimization and hanging protocols — critical applications that can improve workflow and productivity for radiologists and radiology administrators. That has a positive impact on patient care, but also on clinician and staff productivity, which translates to profitability for either the healthcare organization or the radiology reading group that serves it.

4 Ways Automation in Healthcare Can Make an Impact

As these new tools take hold, having the right infrastructure to support high performance computing — fast, dependable and capable of handling lots of data — is paramount. Outside of radiology, automation can have a big impact in many operational and administrative areas:

Faster data to enrich EHRs. Vendors are working to modernize the capabilities of EHRs to generate and extract data in as close to real time as possible via new application programming interfaces and novel ways to harness data. Such efforts could reduce physician frustration and enhance patient care as practitioners get the information they need at just the right time in just the right setting.

Improved ordering. One of the most time-consuming processes for physicians is the ordering process within the EHR. Ten years ago, a physician could scrawl an order onto a prescription pad in seconds, compared to the multiple clicks it takes to complete an order now. Predictive technologies and AI can make a real impact to drive efficiencies.

Smarter billing. Payers are working to automate decision-making, such as pre-authorizations, using machine learning. AI deployments in revenue cycle applications can help organizations generate bills more quickly, ultimately presenting bills to patients and families before they leave the hospital or practice. That’s critical, for example, for high-deductible health plans with higher patient payments.

Adaptive staffing. Health systems are beginning to use machine learning to adjust staffing to support fluctuating emergency department patient volumes and to reduce wait times in ambulatory services. By leveraging historical data across multiple sources, organizations can understand when to staff up to handle an influx of patients for the upcoming flu season or ramp up other support staff during warm weather to ensure a smooth patient experience in the emergency room.

It is clear that AI has vast potential for healthcare organizations to innovate. It has already started on the administrative side of healthcare and the future is boundless.