ROTEX Heating Systems, a manufacturer of heating systems, was facing challenges with its invoice authorization process. The company was receiving approximately 150 incoming A/P invoices per day, which required four eyes to verify each invoice. This process was pushing the previous way of distributing invoices and gathering signatures via internal mail system to its limits. When employees were out sick or on vacation, the invoices would stack up their mailboxes, resulting in weeks, not days, for certain workflow steps. At the same time, central administration often lost track of where everything was. As a result, the company was rarely able to take advantage of early discount payments. Additionally, a lot of time was wasted searching for proposals, order confirmations or contracts, and documents needed for everyone`s daily work.

Profusio Leipzig, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, is required to create comprehensive documentation and protocols regarding the production process and must retain them for at least 5 years after the expiration period of the drug has ended. This results in more than 450,000 pages of production, quality control, and release documents that have to be archived every year, adding 1,500 every day. The company needed a solution to better cope with this document volume and to be able to quickly find documents on demand. The company also wanted to save natural resources by completely going paperless. The documentation security was the key aspect in drug manufacturing.

Mengali Accountancy, a boutique CPA firm, was looking to streamline their work processes, improve fraud prevention, and transition to a paperless office. The firm was dealing with a high volume of incoming documents received via mail, which were then manually scanned, indexed, and routed through a predefined workflow. This process was time-consuming and involved mundane tasks of filing and refiling paper documents. The firm also wanted to divide their workload by task and client and match them to the skill set of each employee. They aimed to assign basic transactional processes to entry-level staff, thus freeing up senior accountants to address more complex tasks.

MANN Energie, a specialist for wood pellets and eco-electricity, was dealing with a significant amount of paper waste in their offices. This was not only consuming a lot of storage space and organizational effort but also contradicted the company's environmental philosophy. They were looking for a solution to restructure their business processes, save space, staff time, and make a choice for environmental sustainability. They needed a document management system (DMS) that could handle the types of documents and information generated daily by the company electronically. They aimed to significantly reduce processing times, especially for their paper-based workflows.

SCHERDELGroup, a leading supplier to the automobile industry, faced numerous organizational challenges due to its impressive growth. The company had been using a mechanical circulating filing system to store and administer business documents at their German headquarters. However, when paper files reached capacity in the late 90’s, the management team began to look seriously at document management. The increasing piles of paper and the increasingly global nature of their business necessitated a solution that could convert information on paper into centrally stored information that could be used by employees worldwide. They wanted a Document Management Solution (DMS) that was a secure investment that could keep pace with their company’s dynamic development. Modularity and flexibility were also top priorities – it was especially important to integrate with their existing diverse application environment which includes custom ERP, CRM and accounting software.

GOETTFERT, a leading manufacturer of rheological testing equipment for the plastics and rubber industry, was facing challenges with its document management. The company had to deal with a large number of documents such as email, paper documents, drawings, telephone notes, customer correspondence, orders, proposals, order confirmations, shipping slips, and invoices. These documents needed to be assembled, shared, and stored, which was a time-consuming process. The company was looking for a solution to reduce the time and effort spent on document management and improve efficiency.

The State Tourist Office of Bad Brückenau Spa, a business owned by the state of Bavaria, was dealing with a large volume of documents every month, amounting to about 5,000 documents. These documents, which included contracts, regulation compliance forms, invoices, and documents for managing events and guest facilities, were all read, processed, and stored. Many had to be completed chronologically as part of a workflow, and several departments needed to have access to the documents. The records were all collected and placed in binders for retrieval near various workstations, before they were ultimately relegated to the Royal Kitchen in the Main Hall’s cellar. Long search times for older documents were especially tedious. New legal retention requirements meant that their paper archive was quickly at capacity and it wasn’t possible to add on.

The Town of Henrietta, located in Monroe County, New York, was facing a significant record-keeping problem. Paper documents were filling both on-site and off-site storage facilities at a costly pace. These documents included town meeting minutes, planning and zoning case files, registration forms, claims, and lawsuits, all of which needed to be permanently archived. Searching for important documents in filing cabinets and vaults had become a daunting task, and off-site document storage and retrieval was a growing expense. The town's IT Coordinator recognized that implementing a document management system would solve their paper file problems. The top priority was finding a solution that could seamlessly integrate with their existing software such as RPS (New York State Real Property Tax System), BAS’s Municipal Clerk Licensing System, and ABBYY.

Nobilis Group, a successful sales partner for exclusive fragrances around the world, was facing challenges due to its rapid growth and the increase in the amount of paper used for order processing. The majority of orders still arrived by fax and had to be sorted by hand, which was time-consuming. The processes involved in inter-departmental processing of paper-based incoming invoices were equally complex. The goal was to completely digitize both the order and the invoice documents. As a central electronic document pool, the DMS to be implemented was to securely archive and manage all types of incoming and outgoing documents, and at a later date – even personnel records and other confidential business documents, such as contracts.

UTi United States, Inc. is a family-owned firm that handles all aspects of international trade between the United States and Mexico. They coordinate and file the necessary documents with U.S. and Mexican customs agencies on behalf of their clients. Each import and export transaction is accompanied by a number of documents which may include: customs forms, invoices, certificates of origin, bills of lading and other papers which help clear the transaction. The documentation for each transaction must be saved to satisfy customs regulations as well as for responding to follow-up activities. With 200 active customers, it’s not unusual for UTi to receive questions regarding import/export transactions. Customer inquiries, and the completion of intra-office activities, require employees to look at one or more of the documents relating to a shipment. UTi understood that the electronic storage of documents, or document imaging, provided a host of benefits to companies where employees frequently referenced many different documents during business procedures.

Sedus Stoll, a leading European manufacturer of office furniture, was facing challenges with its document management process. The process for purchasing production materials was complex and divided between several departments and locations. This decentralized process caused long delays in accessing information, resulting in numerous copies of documentation being sent to different offices. The internal mailing service was overloaded by the delivery of so much paper. Over the years, more and more working copies and local subdirectories of information were created; soon anyone looking for information was forced to also rely on the memory of coworkers. Too often, this information was exchanged by phone, making the transmission of figures especially error-prone. In addition to numerous private subfolders, the purchasing information was also available on microfilm. The Sales and Accounting departments had access to two microfilm readers in order to retrieve order confirmations and invoices. With so many working copies of information, finding needed documents became more tedious and difficult.

Langenscheidt Editorial Group, a renowned publishing house, was facing challenges in maintaining high-quality customer service due to the growing heaps of documents that noticeably slowed down the retrieval of important records. The first document management system the company used provided quick access to documents, improved the ability to answer questions and shortened work processes. However, the system could not keep up with Langenscheidt's increasing requirements. As a result, one of the first prerequisites for a new document management system was the migration of data from the existing system to the new system. Secure storage of records subject to retention requirements and audits was another important criterion for Langenscheidt. The new system was first implemented in the order processing department.

Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG (BIFAB) had a wealth of information stored in various formats, including card indexes, contracts, historical publishing bibliographies, and readers’ queries. However, this information was not easily accessible to all staff members, and searching for specific information was time-consuming and inefficient. The company’s contracts were kept in the management office, and searching for a contract involved at least two members of staff. Searching for information in the historical publishing bibliographies was also extremely time-consuming, as it involved carefully removing the very old and sometimes very delicate volumes from their shelves. The large number of readers’ queries, which were filed with the answering letters, was getting out of control. The company needed a solution that would make all necessary information available in a secure, simple, fast, and transparent manner.

The Tippecanoe County Clerk’s Office in Indiana, USA, was tasked with maintaining and storing a vast archive of legal, historical, and ownership records. The challenge was not only to store the information but also to provide timely access to it for internal and public use. The county had numerous storage facilities, and most of the records dated before 1990 were stored on microfilm. The process of retrieving a document was time-consuming and could take up to three days. The County Clerk discovered that money was available in the records budget to modernize the storage of records. A plan was developed to gradually transfer the county’s records into DocuWare.

ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a leading supplier of mechatronic solutions for the automobile industry, had over a million corporate and technical documents in their electronic archives by 2004. The company needed a new system that could carry over the legacy documents at low cost, demonstrate a flexible and customizable software structure, and promise to be a safe long-term investment. The requirements for electronic document administration had drastically risen over the years. Features for process management and optimization, such as the ability to generate workflows, were nonnegotiable. They also were looking for a certified SAP interface. In the interests of preventing their applications from growing out of control, for years they have held to the strategy of consistently standardizing all their business processes to fit into their SAP environment.

Riegele, a family-owned brewery based in Augsburg, Germany, was facing a challenge of managing a flood of paper documents. The company wanted to reduce the time and effort required for compliant, tamper-free archiving of around 80,000 delivery slips and 12,500 incoming invoices annually. The company was looking for a solution that could offer a good price/performance ratio and ease of use and setup. The solution also needed to seamlessly integrate with their existing SAP ERP system.

KEMWEB, a digital agency, was facing challenges in optimizing its administrative processes. The company's existing system, a mix of a self-developed digital filing system and physical folders, was not meeting the demands of an agile, growing company. The auditing process was particularly problematic. The company was looking for a Document Management System (DMS) that could integrate with existing applications and adapt to the needs of individual departments. A cloud solution was preferred.

BACS Banco de Credito y Securitizacion S.A., a leading financial solutions provider for investment companies and capital markets based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was struggling with inefficient document processes. With only 20 employees responsible for the documentation inventory and filing of more than 50,000 loan documents that came through BACS each month, the company was overwhelmed. The existing workflows were almost entirely manual in nature, leading to frequent loss or misfiling of documents, reporting errors, and limitations. The company found it increasingly difficult to keep track of documents as they were shared and moved between multiple departments. Searching for specific documents and client files was a time-consuming and inefficient process that often left employees frustrated. BACS needed a solution to help them keep up with the demands of their growing company and make it easier to comply with FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), which stipulates privacy policies for bank documents and limits the ways consumer information can be shared.

Smithfield Foods, a large pork processing group, was struggling with a highly manual and paper-based accounting process. The company's accounting department received over 12,000 invoices annually, which were compared with open purchase orders or forwarded to the responsible manager for approval. However, the payment process only took place every 14 days, meaning approved invoices often had to be stored again. The final documents were placed in hanging files, while older documents were transferred to an external archive. Over time, the space requirements and manual processes became a burden. Different employees had to access documents – often multiple times – and then had to file them again.

Adam Transporte, a family business based in Germany, specializes in transporting all kinds of vehicles. The company was looking for an ECM software that could seamlessly connect to their specialized email system, David. Most of their suppliers issue invoices in a digital form, with only a few incoming A/P invoices arriving by post. The direct and automated processing of the documents in a digital workflow was therefore of highest priority. When they did a head-to-head comparison, DocuWare‘s solution came out on top in part because of its Connect-to-Mail functionality and Intelligent Indexing Service.

National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) is an international non-profit organization representing 18 crop insurance companies. They manage data and information, conduct research and analysis, and conduct educational activities on claims adjustment, ethics, policies, and procedures. With a staff of 45, NCIS needed a secure single location where it could store and manage their corporate documents such as internal meeting minutes, information from the federal government, and bulletins it distributes to its members. They also needed a better way to track the different versions of notes as they worked towards making a decision and they needed to be able to easily research when and why a decision was made. The organization also needed to update its document retention policy regarding email in order to free up room on its servers. In general, they saw the benefit of making their processes as paperless as possible.

The Biggest Loser Resorts, a well-known fitness and wellness resort, wanted to streamline its accounting processes across its three locations in Utah, California, and New York. The resort was looking to reduce document processing time, streamline invoice approval for internal and remote employees, and strengthen document retention compliance. The resort also wanted to adopt environmentally healthy business practices. The challenge was to find a solution that could address these needs while also providing secure archiving.

The Newark Group, an international paper and cardboard recycling company, was facing inefficiencies in its administrative business processes due to the high volume of paper documents. Particularly in accounting, order processing, and production, tons of documents had accumulated over time. One employee was singularly dedicated to managing the central paper archive. Searching for certain documents was increasingly time-consuming, and the physical exchange of documents between two locations often led to documents being lost or untraceable, often because of misfiling. The company sought to eliminate these issues and lay the foundation for savvy digital workflows by introducing an electronic document management system.

The decision to use a DMS came in early 2009 after dhmp was created by the merger of two previously independent consultancy firms. Some company employees already had experience of working with an electronic filing system, but others were used to working with a paper filing system. This required an enormous amount of space: Around ten million sheets of paper had to be stored and archived in a tamper-proof format each year. In some branches, this meant that older documents which were only needed on a very sporadic basis had to be moved to alternative storage for financial reasons. During the merger, they wanted to streamline processes throughout the company. They decided to stick with the Addison platform and to switch to the DocuWare document management system.

H&J Martin, a leading European provider of Facilities Management services, was facing challenges with their paper-based approach to business and administrative processes. The company was generating around 12000 engineer service reports, 3000 suppliers sales invoices, and numerous amounts of paper on a monthly basis. The long search and processing times for paper-based systems were affecting the ability of employees to source the information they needed. In 2010, the team at H&J Martin Facilities Management decided it was time to replace their paper-based approach with an integrated document management system. The company sought to significantly reduce the high number of paper copies and enjoy savings in future archiving space. They also needed a system that could integrate with their existing software environments and could be expanded later.

PEER Bearing Company, a global manufacturer of bearing and bearing-related products, was facing challenges with its sales order workflow. The company was using a combination of manual processes and fax transmissions to receive orders from customers. Once an order was placed, an acknowledgement confirming the terms of the order was printed and faxed back to the customer. This process was time-consuming and prone to the loss or misplacement of paper documents. These important sales records were stored in file drawers and eventually moved to boxed storage in a warehouse. Nearly 140 man hours a week were needed to organize and file the orders paperwork. With so much paper in the office, employees were always leaving their desks to find the information they needed. The company was spending $18,000 annually in printing and faxing costs and an additional $42,000 in labor costs associated with faxing, filing and retrieving paper documents.

Metalen Galler, a Belgian iron and steel products wholesaler, was facing increasing pressure from competition and increasing demands from customers for attractive prices, flexible delivery options, and short processing times. The company's sales structure was divided into areas of steel products and iron products, resulting in a decentralized storage and separate processing methods. This led to time-consuming searches as more copies were made and documents were filed more than once. The annual volume of 200,000 documents created huge amounts of paper, leading to bad morale among employees. The company needed to find a way to increase the efficiency of its business processes without neglecting customer service.

The King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in Amman, Jordan, is a specialized cancer hospital treating both adult and pediatric patients. The operations at KHCC, like all hospital operations, are very paper-intensive. These paper-based documents are generated from multiple departments within KHCC such as clinics, wards, pharmacy, etc. The paper documents contain comprehensive information about cancer patients who receive treatment in the hospital and represent authenticated reference history for all patients. The Medical Records Department at KHCC is responsible for keeping all paper-based documents of all patient files and ensures that they are available upon request. However, its paper-based patient records can only be accessed from 8:30 am to 5:00, Saturday through Wednesday. These records needed to be requested in advance of appointments and were physically delivered to the various clinics. Records that were missing, misfiled or with another clinic were a hindrance to providing day-to-day quality care to the patients.

Prophete, a leading two-wheel manufacturer and wholesaler, needed to maintain a balance between customer demands for reasonable price, fast availability, and high quality of service. They realized the need for modern IT programs that could increase both the efficiency of business processes and the ability to communicate information to customers and sales partners. This led to the decision in 2006 to expand their IT department’s document repository by introducing a centralized document management system. The company required a central document repository with company-wide access, work-flow functionality, and integration with Navision and ABBYY FlexiCapture 8.0 Professional.

Butterfield Private Bank, a part of the Butterfield Bank Group, was facing a significant challenge with the huge amount of paperwork created every day. The bank was looking for a solution to reduce this paperwork and save on paper and storage costs. Additionally, the bank needed to meet government regulations and requirements of the Data Protection Act. The bank's activities were divided into three main areas: personal banking for High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI), banking and corporate accounts, and investment portfolios. As a result, a main file for each customer was kept, with many other files necessary on one single person as documents came in for filing in various departments. The information collected on these individuals was cross-departmental, leading to a complex and paper-heavy filing system. The UK government regulations required that transactional records be kept for 7 years, adding to the volume of paperwork.