Despite major advances in technology, paperwork is still slowing down many organizations, and employees still can’t find the documents or information they need when they need them.
Most companies know that the real problems that need solving are things like making sure Accounts Payable invoices get paid on time, Human Resources can create reports faster and remain in compliance, and that sales teams and employees get up-to-date information. Organizations can streamline all those workflows and simplify records management with Enterprise Content Management (ECM).
For some, it’s difficult to grasp how an Enterprise Content Management system differs from typical online document storage systems like Google Drive or DropBox. An ECM solution goes far beyond simply storing content to managing and leveraging that content to improve business outcomes.
To help demonstrate just how powerful this type of document management software can be, check out these six real-world Enterprise Content Management examples. You’ll see how ECM applications helped to transform broken business processes and make life easier for the following industries.
Halquist Stone is a Wisconsin-based company whose full line of building and landscape stone is distributed nationally. The company was established in 1929 and has continued to grow, but their paper-based sales order process changed very little since those early days. Customers and employees were both becoming increasingly frustrated because it would take days to process an order. Orders were sometimes lost, and supervisors and sales associates spent most of their days entering data into spreadsheets instead of completing their day-to-day duties.
Now, with an ECM platform in place, order processing takes a few hours instead of a few days. Supervisors can answer customer questions in a more timely manner, complete orders faster and quickly make necessary changes to orders.
Customer and employee satisfaction rates have increased dramatically, along with an estimated annual cost savings of over $120,000. Plus, orders are electronically delivered to supervisors within hours, speeding up production and delivery time. “Nearly 3,000 hours spent on data entry per year has been eliminated,” says Wade Balson, Controller and CFO, Halquist Stone.
The Green Bay Area Public School District has more than 21,000 students, making it the fourth largest in Wisconsin. Decades-worth of paper-based student records took up considerable space and were difficult to access. The situation also made it increasingly difficult to secure confidential student records and remain in compliance.
The school district digitized all student documents with the help of Gordon Flesch Company’s (GFC) custom ECM solution. Scanning existing documents involved a bar-coded “cover sheet” that automatically input the records into the district’s Student Information System (SIS). The elimination of paper documents increased access and secured student information, and it also supported green initiatives by eliminating mountains of paperwork. Authorized staff can now access the secure document repository to retrieve student records from anywhere.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Reserve (USDA ERS) is a government agency responsible for anticipating trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment and rural development. Reports, outlooks, charts and data series are then published on the ERS website. Much of this was time-sensitive information with a specific publication date, so employees at the USDA ERS were looking to make collaboration easier for faster publication.
Working together, ERS staff and Gordon Flesch Company (GFC) business analysts designed workflow-based business processes to optimize the handling of all that data. Simultaneously, they increased throughput volumes, decreased the possibilities of human error, enabled full text search and centralized collaboration. Now, over 90% of hard-copy forms and paper documents have been eliminated and converted to electronic files, thanks to ECM software, and employee collaboration and efficiency have greatly increased.
Hamilton Capital is an independent wealth management and investment firm based in Columbus, Ohio. Adria Rosebrock, Director of Wealth Management Operations & Training, was inspired to implement and manage a review policy and system for all internal documents using Laserfiche. Working with GFC’s analysts, she was able to pull together a robust system to store, control access and automate the updating process for materials.
Hamilton Capital now has an automated annual review process in place for internal resources. Rosebrock says that the collaboration between Hamilton Capital and GFC produced a workflow that allows the company to always have forms, resources and a knowledge base that will serve the company now and into the future. “They had the expertise and showed us how to use the security settings, rights management and metadata to build a really powerful process that did what we needed.”
Established in 1979, Columbus Center for Human Services, Inc. (CCHS) is a Central Ohio-based nonprofit and has more than doubled its number of employees within the last five years. After choosing to implement an ECM system, all CCHS employees easily collaborate on business processes through automated notifications and task routing. Information is readily available and can be found within seconds, and workflows are entirely paperless and digital from start to finish. Estimated yearly savings are more than $32,000.
“With our annual cost savings, CCHS is now able to expand our programs and services for individuals with developmental disabilities, instead of dedicating so much of our budget to administrative work,” said the organization’s Executive Director, Becky Sharp.
Based in Minneapolis, Bellisio Foods is one of the nation’s leading frozen food companies. Its Jackson, OH facility alone employs 1,300 employees and produces approximately two million entrees each day. The food industry is highly regulated and is subject to frequent audits and safety inspections at a moment’s notice. The Jackson quality assurance department needed a more efficient and effective way to quickly produce documentation for these inspections or risk delaying production.
Gordon Flesch Company launched an ECM system that manages, organizes, maintains and electronically delivers all of Bellisio’s Quality Assurance records on demand. Handwritten records that were once stored offsite are now scanned into the ECM system each day and can be produced for inspections on demand. What once took hours now only takes a few minutes. Compared to the days prior to ECM, it’s estimated that their Laserfiche system saves 500 labor hours each year.
These ECM examples demonstrate how the right information management solution can tackle inefficiencies and provide tangible solutions for every business. Simply put, ECM can help solve almost any business process problem you may be struggling to solve.
Check out the free guide below to learn more about ECM technology. And, if you’re ready to start digging out from underneath that pile of data and documentation you’ve accumulated, contact the ECM experts at Gordon Flesch Company for a complimentary assessment of your business environment.
