Parrish

Like many small companies coping with rapid growth, their invoice management process grew over time to become complex, cumbersome, and unwieldy. When they received an invoice, they scanned it and created an electronic copy. The copy was then manually emailed to corporate headquarters, where it was printed out, and then scanned again into a basic file server for processing by the accounting department. At the time, the customer lacked any optical character recognition (OCR) or text recognition technology, so searching for a specific invoice was a tedious, manual process, and integration with accounting software was non-existent.

This wasn’t a big problem when they were a small outfit, but they had grown to 25 retail locations, mainly in the South, and were processing approximately 50 invoices, statements, or receipts per day per location, which adds up to a potential workload of more than 350,000 documents per year. Something had to be done and so they asked Parrish Consulting, their IT services vendor, for help.

Jimmy was familiar with his customer’s IT environment and extremely knowledgeable about scanners and designed a solution that works for them. The first step was to install a fi-7300NX scanner at each of the 25 locations. The scanners are networked, so each scanned image is automatically routed via a virtual private network (VPN) to a SharePoint server at corporate HQ. Jimmy also installed PaperStream NX Manager server software to manage each scanner and direct the flow of digitized files. This allowed him to eliminate the need for dedicated computers to operate the scanners, saving the customer money while reducing the operational footprint of each scan station. To complete the setup, automatic scanning profiles were remotely configured on each scanner’s touch-screen display, making the document capture process fast and easy for store employees.

Now, each store scans invoices as they come in (the fi-7300 can scan 60 pages per minute; up to 9,000 per day). The scanned image then gets transferred to a server that Parrish Consulting maintains, which then automatically forwards it to a Microsoft SharePoint server at corporate.

The server runs an automated script that, using the naming structure of the file, sorts the various invoices into store-specific SharePoint folders. The corporate accounting team then reviews the folders and processes the invoices, updating the accounts payable system. Once the invoice has been processed, it is moved into an annual folder, where it is stored for audits or other post-processing purposes.

The new workflow completely eliminates the manual steps of printing, scanning and uploading files that used to take place at corporate when they received the emails and the client estimates they have cut their paper usage at HQ by three-quarters as a result!

It also enables convenient backup and recovery, so that critical business records are always kept up to date. As an added bonus, the PaperStream NX Manager server software produces searchable full-text PDF output which enables office staff to easily and quickly retrieve any specific invoice or statement, as needed.

Finally, as no issues have come up with the Ricoh scanner since it was deployed, and Jimmy was able to seamlessly integrate it with the Microsoft software that the customer already had, they saved $20,000 they had budgeted for a third-party package, but which they wound up not needing. Needless to say, according to Jimmy, the client “was ecstatic” because of this cost savings.

The next step, according to Jimmy, is for them to go back into their storage areas and scan the boxes and boxes of paper files stored throughout the various locations and archive them on a single server for future audits. Not only will this make these vital business records accessible via the network from a single, centralized location, but it will also enable them to get rid of all those boxes and recover that real estate for more useful purposes, such as training or office space.