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The
Challenge
Michelle Jeffrey, IT Manager for Johnston
Publishing, faced a two-fold challenge.
The company had 2 accounting centres (Peterborough
and Milton Keynes) where banks of filing
cabinets housed 6 year's-worth of documents.
The current year's documents were kept
close at hand and a great deal of time
and effort was needed when filing documents
to ensure the correct documents could
always be retrieved. "We also rented
space externally, but retrieving documents
here was a nightmare," Michelle commented.
"It took at least a couple of days
to access a document and we were charged
£20.00 to retrieve and replace each
one.
"As purchase invoices
are registered at our 30 centres and sent
to Peterborough for payment, the regional
accountants no longer had access to them,
having to rely on a 20-character narrative
in our accounting software. At each period
end, we were inundated with requests to
fax copy invoices and, with 30 regional
accountants doing the same, this involved
an enormous amount of time and effort.
"As well as being very
tightly integrated into our accounting
software, DbArchive was the most functional
and easy-to-use system that we looked
at," Michelle Jeffrey said. "We
did some investigation work with Version
One and put together a proposal for the
Board giving real benefits and cost savings
for the whole Group. This justification
was centred on increased efficiency and
costs savings; Board approval was quickly
received." |
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Incoming
Documents
"We chose a centralised scanning
process, which is extremely fast, even
with our entry-level system of 50 pages
a minute," Michelle said. "Since
DbArchive is so tightly integrated into
our accounting software, it automatically
scans and indexes all our incoming documents
- including over 300,000 purchase invoices
per year. As we destroy the original documents,
we scan everything that's relevant - everything
from a one page invoice to a 100 page
itemised telephone bill."
Outgoing Documents
The system also automatically stores images
of all outgoing documents, e.g. sales
invoices, statements. With some Group
companies generating thousands of invoices
each week, the savings in both time and
money for the Group are phenomenal.
"We're using this facility
for all our reports - invoice audit trails,
cash audit trails and aged debt reports
- so there's no printing, filing or storing
of these. Unlike paper reports, every
authorised user can view these reports
- without moving from their desks. We're
saving boxes and boxes of printer paper.
Additionally, we find DbArchive's search
facility a real boon, as it enables us
to quickly find any item within these
reports," said Michelle Jeffrey.
"Implementing
DbArchive.. has revolutionised our accounting
practices.. and assisted in making savings
of over £500K per year."
- Mark Knight, Financial Controller, Group
Accounting Centre
Using DbArchive
DbArchive is seamlessly integrated with
the centralised accounting system at Johnston
Publishing, so authorised staff can directly
view and print document images with just
a mouse click, from both purchase and
nominal ledgers. Cash book cheque requisitions
have been added, as well as archives of
sales ledger invoices and statements,
so copy documents can be quickly viewed
on the central system via a simple query
screen embedded within the accounting
system.
Dramatically Improved
Efficiency
Michelle Jeffrey says that the whole Group
has derived extensive benefits from DbArchive.
"Overall, our efficiency has dramatically
improved. Gaining more time is one of
the biggest advantages; as filing has
been totally eliminated, we've reallocated
people's time into more constructive areas.
Unlike a paper archive, retrieving a document
now can be done in a number of ways and
we're looking forward to using DbArchive's
useful annotation facility, allowing us
to attach electronic Post It ® notes
to all our documents."
At a corporate level, DbArchive
has also facilitated organisational restructuring.
"We've been able to take on company
acquisitions without the increase in central
resources previously needed. With DbArchive
providing the ability for authorised personnel
to view images directly, all publishing
centres are now self-sufficient in producing
their own management accounts, leading
to enormous savings in time and giving
more responsibility and autonomy. A major
impact here is reducing down to just one
accounting centre - a significant reduction
in both staff and office overheads. Information
retrieval is now incredibly quick and
easy. It used to take hours to find a
document, but now, with a single keystroke,
it takes just seconds - and you don't
even have to move from your desk!"
enthused Michelle.
Financial and Environmental
Benefits
We continue to make massive savings in
paper, so we know we're contributing to
the environment and moving closer to the
paperless office," said Michelle
Jeffrey. Since eliminating paper copies
of documents, the company has retrieved
more than 40 sq. metres of office space
as well as saving at least £9,000
every year on document storage. "DbArchive
has paid for itself in just a couple of
months," said Stuart Paterson, Group
Financial Director, "and has provided
vast improvements in our working practices,
which have proved immensely beneficial
to the Group as a whole." |
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"DbArchive
has paid for itself in just a couple of
months"
- Stuart Paterson, Group Financial
Director
Conclusion
Johnston Publishing is, without doubt,
a company with vision. Michelle Jeffrey
and her team are constantly looking for
ways to improve efficiencies using their
Version One software. She believes they
have a very powerful and flexible tool
in DbArchive. Mark Knight, Financial Controller
for the Group Accounting Centre, summed
up his thoughts on the system: "Since
implementing DbArchive, we've eliminated
the time-consuming filing and retrieval
of business documents, and we also have
a valuable source of data instantly available
to all our users. Having the ability to
view and print documents on screen from
remote UK based sites, has revolutionised
our accounting practices within the Johnston
Press plc Group. All this, together with
the merging of our accounting centres,
has assisted in making savings of over
£500k per year." |
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