Session Abstract

Is your organization struggling to manage a vast amount of paper records while the promise of deploying AI technology for relief seems elusive? Hope Ignites, a non-profit supporting 1200+ motivated young people in need through middle to high school, post-secondary education and career launch, faced the gigantic task of modernizing its information management systems for incoming paper documents, and archiving decades worth of historical documents. Pete Schweiss, Director of Technology Services at Hope Ignites, understood early on that before leaping into deploying AI technologies, they needed to quickly and accurately digitize documents to unlock the power of AI to classify, tag, and route critical information. An important step in Hope Ignites' Digital Documents Initiative was utilizing Ricoh’s advanced, cloud-ready document image scanners and software tools to transform paperwork into data that is easily accessible, managed, and shared across the organization. With AI-driven automation in place, Hope Ignites can handle terabytes of data, reducing manual intervention and improving data accuracy, speed, and accessibility. These automated processes, from document classification to nuanced tagging using document AI, streamline operations and enable Hope Ignites to focus on what truly matters: empowering young people. Schweiss will outline Hope Ignites' journey in modernizing its information management system and the benefits and learnings of how digitization served as an on-ramp to AI-driven data automation. Participants will gain actionable insights and strategies for developing their own digitization and AI-driven data automation plans to streamline information management, increase access to data, and improve collaboration and information sharing across the organization.

Note to event organizers

I will be sharing our case study using Ricoh Document Scanners to build an on ramp to document intelligence. This solutions leverages Ricoh's EdgeXperience and Microsoft's Power Automate platform.

Peter Schweiss

Pete Schweiss is the Director of Technology Services at Hope Ignites, where he drives the organization’s technology strategy across the United States, Mexico and Guatemala. With a career dedicated to supporting the nonprofit community in St. Louis, Pete is committed to delivering the best solutions through a forward-thinking, efficiency-focused approach that ensures seamless operations. His expertise in building and sustaining strategic partnerships enables him to secure high-quality, cost-effective products and services for the organization. Pete plays a vital role in fostering the strategic growth of Hope Ignites. Now more than ever technology plays a critical role in the future of Hope Ignites, as they work to triple their impact by 2035. Pete’s vision as a technology leader is to deliver a user experience that is efficient for team members across the network, allowing them to remain mission focused and continue to foster growth within the organization.

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