Batch OCR (or Ad-hoc Document OCR) creates text renditions of images (make images text searchable) for use with native OnBase internal or external text search. See here for details.
Full-Text Search includes an OCR component that makes images full-text searchable by Autonomy IDOL, providing hit-highlight (and page-to-page) navigation of search words found on the document. See here for details.
Does your organization need Batch OCR? It depends, but most likely no.
If you are ONLY looking to extend Full-Text Search functionality to image documents, then no, you don’t need Batch OCR.
However, you may need Batch OCR if you need to:
1. Create text renditions for internal and/or external text search (which is unlikely if you have IDOL Full-Text Search)
2. Output different renditions of an original image (i.e. store as PDF, Word, RTF, Text, etc. format)
3. Convert an image-only PDF to a searchable PDF (PDF Image with Searchable Text)
4. Automatically rotate/deskew/invert pages during capture
To put it another way…
In terms of facilitating OnBase Search, the best case is to use Full-Text Search, which includes OCR. So, if you only need OCR for the purpose of full-text searching, then you don’t need to purchase Batch OCR.
External Text Search vs. Full-Text Search
This Search Feature Matrix, compares native OnBase external text search to IDOL Full-Text Search. As you can see, IDOL Full-Text Search:
1. Supports a larger variety of file formats (PDF, Office, Forms, DWG, etc.)
2. Enables faster search speed (due to indexing)
3. Provides more advanced search features (Fuzzy, Soundex, Thesaurus, etc.)
4. Offers multiple search interfaces (Custom Query, Personal Page, Public Access Viewer)
With this said, every OnBase implementation is different. Please contact your Solution Provider to discussion your requirements in detail and/or post specific questions to the Community Forum. Thanks!
