Document Workflow Automation Platform

The challenge

Digitalization was accelerated starting in 2020, and companies across the world faced an increasing demand to digitize and standardize their workflows. Starting with manual information gathering through various documents and simple file archives, they needed a quick and reliable solution.

Most of the current users were still using scanned documents for which we needed various special adjustments to sort through the information. Additionally, a huge amount of time was spent on processing large files of over 200MB. 

So we faced a real challenge to build a new solution that would automate and scale complicated processes in a much more efficient way.

Understanding the real pain to solve real problems

Conducting audience research is an essential part of any MVP development process to understand the client’s audience. This process will not only help us connect their needs to upcoming features and user experiences, but also build the product around their core problems and prioritize all the processes based on these insights.

As the initial discussion led to a long list of functionalities, which could impact the project and exceed the budget or the timeline, we wanted to make sure that we are on the same page. So, the first step in getting things started was to coordinate with our client and run a survey across all their target audiences to understand what exactly is important for each of them. After having the preliminary results, we decided to approach the most fruitful industry where most of the use cases and clients had the most common features. 

It’s a common fact that government organizations across the globe still have multiple processes that need to be simplified and digitized for better coordination and functioning of the whole ecosystem. So, we approached the first months of work and delivered a functional MVP in about 7 months. 

From MVP to a scalable, full OCR Software Solution

Feedback and good client communication is a second piece that makes the engine run at the speed required by each project. After an initial session of feedback with the main client, we quickly defined the next steps and adapted the MVP to be tested by their audience.  

Getting the chance to see how people were using the MVP and what mattered most for them helped us draw the conclusions that were needed to adapt the roadmap for further product development. We went back to the drawing board and started working on those functionalities for which we could reuse the functionalities that we already built, which helped us deliver a new release for two more industries in less than 3 months.

Due to the lack of local technology solutions, those bureaucratic organizations requested the product to also include a Desktop version that will be able to run on a local server. So, a custom solution for desktop development was needed. This request led to another challenge as the initial product was not developed with this in mind, but since we used flexible technologies, such as Nodejs and Reactjs, we were able to adjust the app and have it run very fast.

The final product also integrated service for monitoring different applications through a newly developed service called License Manager, and the possibility to enable or disable licenses remotely, which in the past have been a complicated process. 

The result

Delivering an MVP solution for the client’s core audiences and getting solid feedback helped us launch a successful product that would automate OCR processes that took important amounts of time from an employee's schedule.  

As we keep ongoing communication with both the client and its customers, we are able to find the perfect solution and the perfect balance between all the needs of their target audience. A big win for the software development industry in Romania.