Document management system improves processes for design company

Released 13/04/2011

Version One document management system allows company to streamline its processes

Design engineering and project management services provider On Line Design & Engineering is to streamline its purchase-to-pay (P2P) processes and free-up document storage space with the implementation of Version One's document management and imaging systems.

These new systems, which will be made available to authorised users across four sites, are expected to reduce manual data entry by 85% and save up to 50 staff days a year by replacing inefficient paper-based processes. The planned go-live is July 2011.

With approximately 2,500 financial documents being handled each month between the company's 580 staff and its two subsidiary businesses, document storage and retrieval was becoming a growing concern for On Line Design & Engineering.

The company therefore sought a document management solution which would integrate into its Sage 200 accounting system to free-up storage space and speed-up its invoice authorisation processes.

Solving a problem

Steve Laird, finance director from On Line Design & Engineering, says: "Since our formation in 1982 the business has grown rapidly, however we still rely on paper processes for our financial documents. As a consequence we started to encounter issues around document retrieval and an ever decreasing lack of storage space which was impacting our efficiency levels."

"We evaluated several document management suppliers but chose Version One due to the software's superior functionality and its proven ability to integrate into Sage 200," says Laird.

The implementation of Version One's software will put an end to the paper-based approval of purchase invoices and enable the paperless storage and retrieval of financial documents by drilling down through Sage 200. Version One's optical character recognition (OCR) technology will automatically capture and verify purchase invoice data, reducing manual data entry and associated errors.

Automated process

In addition, using Version One's authorisation module, invoice approvers will be automatically emailed a link to the invoice enabling them to approve, reject or query it on-screen directly from their PCs. This replaces manual and time-consuming approval processes involving posting and physically signing paper invoices.

Laird comments, "By eliminating time-consuming manual processes we anticipate that Version One's systems will save us up to 50 days of staff time each year and reduce manual data entry by 85%. This will transform staff productivity levels and make our P2P processes significantly faster. By no longer having to store paper copies of documents we will free-up a minimum of 15m2 in storage space in addition to cutting the costs associated with photocopying, posting and filing invoices."

"Being able to securely store and instantly retrieve documents from an electronic archive will give us the reassurance that our data is always secure and will alleviate the problems of documents going missing. Version One's software will also provide us with a robust business continuity plan and make it easier for us to comply with changing legislation in the future," adds Laird.

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