CASE STUDY FACTS:

CLIENT: Cardell Cabinetry

DIGITECH SYSTEMS RESELLER: CASO Document Management, San Antonio, TX

PROBLEM: Manual accounting processes stifled productivity and customer service

SOLUTION: PaperFlow™, PaperVision^® Enterprise and PaperVision^® Enterprise Report Management

RECOGNIZED BENEFIT:
“With PaperVision Enterprise Report Management and the Digitech Systems comprehensive ECM system, Cardell has more than doubled productivity. Now we spend less time processing invoices and more time serving our customers.”

- Chris Wallace, Systems Manager

By the 1990s, Cardell Cabinetry was becoming one of the leading custom cabinet makers in America. As their business expanded, accounting documents were coming out of the woodwork, and the accounting department found they could no longer stay ahead of bookkeeping processes.Consequently, invoices piled everywhere, and Cardell knew there had to be a better way.

That better way was the installation of Digitech Systems comprehensive Enterprise Content Management (ECM) suite. Cardell can now manage all their accounting information management needs with one simple system that increases their invoicing productivity and saves $165,000 annually.

The Situation

With more than 40 years experience, a thousand employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, Cardell is one of the largest manufacturers of cabinets in the U.S. Venturing far beyond traditional kitchen and bath settings, Cardell has a broad array of products and installations that prove their cabinets can go anywhere.

Cardell was no stranger to information management. Two imaging systems had been previously implemented, but they did not adequately address company goals. Even with the second one, Cardell needed five full-time employees to scan and input paper documents into the system.

Producing as many as 3,000 invoices every day, Cardell had a requisite number of documents to manage. Five employees spent up to five minutes manually indexing each document. As a result, the accounting department was consistently two or three months behind schedule.  The scanning room was always filled with boxes of invoices waiting to be scanned, and three accounting employees consistently worked overtime every Saturday.

If a customer service representative needed a copy of a 45-day old invoice, they frequently had to dig in boxes for the paper original. Their system slowed customer service, aggravated representatives and delayed invoice payment cycles. “Manual indexing was the root of our problems,” said Chris Wallace, Systems Manager at Cardell. “We just couldn’t keep up with the invoices.”

Overwhelmed with paperwork, Cardell’s primary goal was to catch up with the scanning process and eliminate overtime and unnecessary labor costs. They needed a system that would facilitate employee productivity, improve customer service and shorten invoice payment cycles. Cardell uses an IBM I Series AS400 server to produce invoices, so they also needed an information system that would work with print stream or COLD/ERM data and help them capture and manage invoices efficiently.

The Solution

Cardell contacted CASO Document Management, a Digitech Systems reseller, to explore new solutions for their persistent problems. Cardell investigated several content management systems. They chose a Digitech Systems solution, because it offered a comprehensive solution at an affordable price and enabled rapid deployment. Implementation and training took just one week.

Cardell used three Digitech Systems components to create a customized ECM system. For invoices generated by the AS400 server, PaperVision Enterprise Report Management, a print stream processing component, allows Cardell to eliminate manual indexing by extracting data, automatically capturing index information from each invoice and storing all invoices in the PaperVision Enterprise ECM system.

To scan supporting documents into the ECM system and associate them with their corresponding invoice, Cardell prints barcodes representing invoice and sales order numbers onto paper documents. PaperFlow, the production-level scanning and indexing system, reads the barcodes and captures the supporting documents. Using match and merge technology, PaperFlow pulls index values from invoices already stored in the ECM system and uses them to index the supporting documents. By grouping documents with like index values, PaperVision Enterprise combines all related documents into a single document set. This enables users to perform a simple keyword search, open one document and have all the information they need.

Recognized Benefits

Today, Cardell captures, indexes and archives invoices with no manual data entry. By managing and retrieving invoices electronically, Cardell boosts productivity, eliminates the need for three full-time employees and the need to pay overtime labor. Every year, they save $105,000 in payroll expenses and $40,000 in overtime costs. “The labor savings were immediately apparent,” said Wallace. “We can index and input a couple thousand invoices in just five minutes.”

Accounting no longer prints and accumulates paperwork—resulting in a $20,000 annual paper supply savings. Plus, they converted invoice storage space into office space. The customer service department freed nearly 300 square feet of file boxes, and accounting cleared out 1,200 square feet, which now houses eight employees from the engineering department.

Since implementation, Cardell sends out invoices sooner and receives payments more quickly. On average, invoices are paid 15 days earlier, increasing cashflow.

These increased capabilities allow Cardell to stay focused on customer service. With information at their fingertips, employees save at least 15 minutes searching for each invoice. Now, representatives don’t have to call customers back to answer questions. They take more calls and resolve issues quickly. “With PaperVision Enterprise Report Management software and Digitech Systems’ comprehensive ECM system, Cardell has more than doubled productivity. Now, we spend less time processing invoices and spend more time serving our customers,” said Wallace.

Over the past six years, Cardell has seen tremendous business growth. Revenue jumped from $90 million to $340 million, and the number of invoices climbed from 3,000 to 6,000. Thanks to the new ECM system, the accounting department managed the heavier workload with no problem.

With all the monetary savings, Cardell received a 101% Return On Investment (ROI) and was able to leverage reserves when they needed them most. During their growth spurt, they used savings from the ECM system to hire 15 new customer service representatives. “That growth period would have been a nightmare without Digitech Systems. There’s no telling how much the old system would have cost the company,” said Wallace.

About CASO Document Management

CASO has been an innovator in developing practical, cost-effective imaging services and document management systems since 1994. With a management team totaling more than 100 years of experience, they have a proven track record with even the largest commercial and government requirements. CASO offers a full-range of imaging services or a comprehensive custom solution tailored to each company, industry or specific project. Their New York and Texas offices support hundreds of regional and national clients in government, finance, education, healthcare, manufacturing and other sectors.

To learn more about CASO, call 888.388.CASO or go to www.casoinc.com.

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