Gartner defines the accounts payable application market as cloud-based solutions that use intelligent automation to empower finance teams to independently manage end-to-end invoice processing, execute payments, and maintain master data across one or more ERP systems. These applications deliver configurable workflows, real-time analytics, and integration with procurement and treasury systems, creating a unified and scalable accounts payable operation.
Gartner defines intelligent document processing (IDP) solutions as specialized data integration tools that enable automated extraction of data from multiple formats and various layouts of document content. IDP solutions ingest data for dependent applications and workflows and can be provided as a software product and/or as a service. Organizations receive and process documents in multiple formats to enable activities such as onboarding new suppliers, receiving applications for loans or insurance claims. This results in large volumes of documents, the content of which is designed for human comprehension rather than machine processing. Extracting data from content is essential for document processing and the automated activities this supports. IDP solutions fulfill this role, augmented by and potentially replacing people. Documents are received in physical form, typically paper, which must be scanned for digitization, or in digital form, such as emails and PDFs. The content of these documents has varying layouts, ranging from structured formats, such as tabular or outline (e.g., list or hierarchy of headings) or invoices or contracts, to unstructured formats (i.e., free-flowing, such as an email). Layouts that fall between structured and unstructured, or mixing the two, are often referred to as semistructured.