Document Management - A Healthy Integration

22/06/2011 12:56
Document Management SoftwareIndigo North Health uses tight Laserfiche-Ricoh MFD integration to boost workflows, accumulating savings and streamlining internal processes

Challenge: Document Management efficiency

Located across three campuses, Indigo North Health operates on a tight budget, balancing the provision of quality services with a streamlined yet highly efficient staff and infrastructure. Not surprisingly, internal efficiencies that contribute to improved services are a high priority for the organization’s CEO, Cameron Butler; and high on the agenda in late 2009 was document and file management.

“We rely heavily on suppliers and contractors,” Cameron says. “So it’s important for everyone that the flow of information, whether in the form of general correspondence or finance-based documents is incredibly efficient. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case; and with the business having doubled over the past five years, we were in the position of having to identify and implement a more efficient means of managing our documents and files.”

Answer: Document Management Software by LaserFiche

In partnership with Copy Print Scan (CPS) Albury, a Ricoh Business Partner, Indigo North Health sought to evaluate the suitability of a Laserfiche and Ricoh MFD (Multi-Function Device) solution. Following an extensive evaluation process, Cameron gained approval from the organisation’s board to partner with CPS on the solution’s implementation.

“The first and most important aspect of our document management on which we worked with the CPS team was our accounts payable invoice approval process,” Cameron says. “And by the first of July 2010, we had a streamlined workflow that’s nothing short of fantastic.”

Saving a day every fortnight

So where does that saving come from? Firstly, as invoices are received—either electronically or in hard copy—from suppliers and contractors, they are immediately transferred to the organisation’s Laserfiche Document Imaging Software where they are assigned to a particular cost centre. At this point, the customised workflow developed by the CPS team kicks in and an email is automatically sent through to the cost centre’s manager.

The savings realised up to then are through:

Eliminating the manual distribution of invoices.

Reducing the instances of having to request misplaced invoices from suppliers.

Removing the need to manage a large number of paper-based accounts payable files.

Next, it’s the Laserfiche-based approval process that adds even greater efficiency and savings. With the e-mail received, cost centre managers receive an embedded link to the invoice, which, when clicked, displays the invoice on their screen along with the ability to approve or deny the payment, specify an expense code and add notes for the accounts payable team if required.

Once closed, the approved or denied invoice is sent immediately through to the accounts payable team who then take the appropriate follow-up action. Again, the savings accumulate. This time, though, through:

Streamlining the invoice approval process.

Achieving instant transmission of approvals from the cost centre manager to accounts payable.

Fully eliminating instances of invoices lost in transit.

Dramatically reducing the “chasing up of approvals” by accounts payable.

A well-defined audit trail

A key enabling factor in the matching of invoices to purchase orders is the advanced and highly accurate OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capabilities of the Laserfiche’s Document Management solution. Whether invoices are scanned in at the MFD or received by fax, the solution automatically scans and translates each word on the document, then updates an integrated index database.

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