Sterling Chemicals finds complete document management solution
Texas-based Sterling Chemicals manufactures petrochemicals that are used to make a variety of consumer and industrial goods. The company employs about 300 people and has annual sales of more than $800 million. Sterling recently revolutionized the way they handle information by adopting a paperless approach towards managing critical business documents.
Information bottleneck
Sterling faced a variety of paper-related document management and handling issues. Purchase orders created from its ERP system were handled manually, slowing down workflow and PO approvals. Invoices were produced on preprinted forms that were mailed or manually faxed to customers.
Manual document management costs high
In addition to the cost of having forms printed, form inventories had to be maintained, operators had to load the appropriate forms when required and, if the invoices were to be faxed, that had to be done manually, all of which added to Sterling’s labor and other expenses. The company wanted to find a way to eliminate the high costs associated with preprinted forms, while still maintaining the professional look they projected to customers.
An all-in-one solution
Sterling selected a suite of RJS products to help them better manage information and reduce paper costs. The suite includes more than 50 software tools and applications, all of which work together to automate information delivery, create professional electronic forms and manage documents electronically.
Integration is key. The software easily integrated into Sterling’s existing IT infrastructure with minimal programming costs. Data from the company’s System i servers smoothly integrates into Lotus Notes and a number of other purchased and in-house developed applications.
Paper costs significantly reduced
Sterling eliminated pre-printed forms by using the bundle’s WinSpool Electronic Forms software. Now, forms like invoices are designed from scratch or created by scanning and overlaying pre-existing forms. All necessary data is automatically merged from spool files, and reports are printed or saved as PDF, PCL or Postscript files.
Workflow improved
Sterling uses the bundle’s WinSpool Email Report Server software to email new purchase orders directly from its ERP system to managers for their approval. Managers, who may be on the other side of the planet visiting customers, can review and approve the documents through their normal e-mail software or on their PDAs.
Built-in flexibility, scalability
Sterling also plans to use the bundle’s WebDocs application for online storage of documents that currently exist on paper. That will make the information on the documents more easily accessible to employees, thereby better leveraging the value of the company’s information assets.
Sterling also appreciates the fact that it has been able to meet all of its document management needs with the help of a single company, RJS. “We had a lot of different products for report distribution and other functions,” said A.J. Rao, a business analyst for the company. “We’re now able to consolidate all of that on one document management solution, RJS.”
ROI quickly achieved
In addition to the improvement in productivity and the reduction in forms printing costs, Sterling was able to achieve a return on its investment in less than one year.
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