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| Southeast firm uses WorldView system to ease workload |
| For Graham Bishop, a recent Internet-based document management demonstration was
like seeing the future. The U.S. Lumber representative could foresee greater
office efficiency and ultimately more profit for his company. He was right. |
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| “We count on our edge in technology and efficient work habits to keep our
business ahead of the competition,” he says. “When customers call on our sales
team with questions, it’s imperative we respond immediately, with complete and
accurate information." |
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| Bishop, Chief Financial Officer, and IT Manager Aaron Chancey work together to
improve efficiency within U.S. Lumber Group, a $150 million forest products
wholesale building materials distributor located in the Southeast. Besides
their home office in Atlanta, Georgia, they synchronize operations at 11 other
branch sites across five states. The business distributes both domestic and
imported forest products from Europe, Canada, South America and Mexico. The
paper shuffling needed to run a tight ship can be overwhelming. |
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| Analyzing the Market |
| Before 2002, accounting personnel and sales representatives spent a great deal
of time thumbing through file cabinets. The grind of matching delivery tickets
with invoices, re-filing them, and cross referencing documents ultimately took
some of the fun out of the distribution business. |
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| “We are always looking for technology to provide us with practical solutions,”
Bishop says. “The concept of paperless and remote access to electronic files
certainly struck a chord at U.S. Lumber. It simply makes good business sense.” |
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| Bishop and Chancey surveyed the technology market to learn how other industry
leaders improved efficiency, then contacted WorldView Ltd. to help migrate from
a paper-based system to an integrated, Internet-based document management
solution. In a matter of days in January 2002, U.S. Lumber implemented the
first stage of WorldView’s document management solution; storing COLD
(electronic text) documents automatically from their core back-office
application. The second stage involved imaging; converting paper documents to
electronically stored images. |
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| Internet-based Document Management in Action |
| U.S. Lumber introduced document management to its accounts receivable processing
department. Scanners were installed at each branch to create electronic files
of delivery tickets. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology reads
delivery ticket transaction numbers and other indexing criteria to make for
easy retrieval upon customer request. In addition, invoices are automatically
indexed and stored as COLD (electronic text) files. From then on – at anytime –
employees can use any PC with an Internet browser to retrieve the documents by
typing in a password and user ID. Invoices and delivery tickets are
automatically cross-referenced and the time savings of no longer manually
matching these documents has been tremendous. |
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| Using the power of the Internet to aid document management helps U.S. Lumber in
three important ways: |
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Customer Service. Instant access to information and cross-referencing at
the click of a mouse helps U.S. Lumber respond to questions faster.
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Space. Thanks to document imaging and COLD, U.S. Lumber expects to shed
most of its filing cabinets within two years.
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Back-up. Records formerly stored in the warehouse and suspect to
catastrophic fire or floods are stored more safely off-site in a bunkered
facility - available for instant retrieval day after day, even should disaster
strike.
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| Tipping the Scales |
| “We’ve centralized control of our processes, yet maintain a more accurate,
complete filing system that’s now instantly accessible across a distributed
network of nine locations in addition to remote sales staff in the field,”
Bishop says. “The level of service we can offer customers is greatly expanded
and enhanced. With the WorldView system, information is at our fingertips when
we need it.” |
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| “For example, if a customer calls needing to confirm receipt of a shipment,
WorldView’s solution helps us locate the signed delivery ticket – and related
documents, lets us e-mail the customer a proof-of-delivery copy, then discuss
the situation all without hanging up the phone,” he adds. “That’s a wonderful
tool to have. We can quickly answer questions of whether our products were
shipped correctly, when the orders were delivered, and who signed for the
shipment. In the end, that enables us to provide the highest level of customer
service.” |
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| Net Gains |
| Efficiency with less paper overload reduces the potential for overtime pay.
Imaging saves processing time and allows each department to allocate skills
elsewhere. Chancey appreciates the ease of implementation for Internet-based
document storage compared to an in-house alternative, as well as the reduced
demands on IT staffing, hardware, training and upkeep. |
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| “We saved money with no need to buy servers or databases, less training for
people in our department, no need to configure document types, and no need to
purchase additional software,” Chancey says. “Set up for our system was
extremely fast and painless. For us, the reward for sound document management
boils down to less paper headaches, and less capital investment for higher
levels of customer service. It’s that simple.” |
