RJS Supplies Riback with Efficient Document Management
Out with the old...
Until about a year ago, Riback Supply Company, a privately-owned plumbing supply company in Columbia, Missouri, ran a document management system that was definitely showing its age. The software lacked modern features that would have made its use easier, more effcient and more flexible. For example, it did not have a Web interface. This was not surprising as the product was written before businesses started using the Internet. The original vender had gone out of business, so no Web interface and no support.
...in with the new.
When it set out to find a replacement document management solution, Riback insisted that the software run on IBM i, the platform that the company uses for its Mincron ERP application. This limitation considerably narrowed the field of candidates. In addition, Riback needed a system that offered the ability to manually attach search field data to documents. Most of the software the company looked at relied exclusively on Optical Character Resolution (OCR) to extract key fields. This was inadequate. Among other documents, the company scans in three-part forms that are output on a dot matrix printer. OCR can't accurately decipher that text.
Leave it to the experts.
Implementing WebDocs was simple and fast. Employees and managment said setup was a breeze. Riback simply did the base install and RJS took over from there. Within an hour of remote setup, Riback was properly configured and able to scan and capture documents.
Riback now scans into WebDocs all of its pck tickets and accounts payable invoices, as well as customer tax exemption certificates and credit applications. These document images are then easily and immediately available to any authorized employee who needs them. The company also found that WebDocs fits well with their and Mincron's philosophy of allowing people to do complete jobs, whenever possible. Both companies believe this makes for a more fulfilling and enjoyable work-life compared to what is found in organizations that finely segment and parcel out tasks assembly-line style.
Instant ROI.
On the front-end of the document management process, WebDocs delilvers a productivity boost compared to the product that Riback was using before. In the past, a full-time employee was dedicated to scanning documents. Now, thanks to the efficiency of WebDocs, scanning is a part-time job for one employee. This reduction in labor hours has come despite the fact that business growth has led to more documents being scanned into the system each day than in the past.
WebDocs also helps to improve Riback's cash flow. The company wrote a routine that compares invoices in the Mincron and WebDocs databases to see if any invoices that should have been issued were inadvertently missed. In the past, normal business processes usually caught the error - eventually, but it might have taken a while before that happened. Now, the reconciliation job is run once a week, so billings never get old.
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