Recording information has been a cornerstone of civilization—from inscribing on papyrus scrolls in ancient times to logging entries into today's CRMs. Yet, despite the technological leaps, data entry remains a tedious and repetitive task, consuming a significant chunk of a business’s time and energy.

In today’s fast-paced environment, manually entering data one field at a time not only slows down operations but also saps overall productivity. So, how can businesses address this age-old challenge? By turning to a modern solution—Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR).

The Concept

Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) is an advanced technology that reads and digitizes printed text into structured data.

Consider an eCommerce platform managing vendor onboarding: each new vendor’s details need to be painstakingly entered and verified before sealing a contract.

Or think about hospitals during patient registration: patients fill out forms by hand, submit their health ID cards, and then the staff manually transfers all the information into digital systems.

In warehouse management, stock managers must log each new product, entering specifications one after the other into their inventory system.

And of course, there’s the classic sales workflow: a webform may capture only basic lead information, but sales reps have to gather additional critical details to fully qualify the lead.

In all these cases, there's constant switching between physical documents and digital systems—a mentally exhausting, error-prone process. Introducing ICR into these workflows can significantly ease the burden, allowing businesses to prioritize what matters most—their core processes.

ICR in Zoho CRM

ICR in Zoho CRM is built as an extension of Zia Vision, designed to streamline record creation and enrichment through a simple workflow.

Looking Ahead

This is just the beginning. Soon, we plan to expand ICR’s capabilities to auto-capture and update records and sub forms directly from invoices, application forms, bills, and even handwritten notes—without needing prior training. We’re also working on refining our model to make it even smarter and more intuitive.