UNIMED, the largest health insurance company in the south of Brazil, was facing challenges with managing a large volume of documents including medical records, hospital charts, doctor statements and more. The company has 30 offices spread out over 800 kilometers, each operating as a separate entity but sharing documentation among all offices. The original document cannot leave the office of origin, so copies of patient records and bills are sent back and forth between offices for processing every 15 days. This resulted in multiple copies of the same information at several different locations. When a patient visits an in-network UNIMED physician, the medical records and billing documents are processed and stored at the local UNIMED office. If a patient seeks a second opinion or chooses to see a UNIMED doctor in another city, the two offices must bill each other for the visit. This complex process often led to tests being repeated two to three times since the original test results are not easily available to the second physician. This was a drain on the organization’s bottom line and efficiency, and contributed to the huge amount of records UNIMED needed to maintain.

The administration department of the CHMLC is required to process several thousand documents every month; the majority of which are incoming invoices and large volumes of correspondence concerning grant applications. The center also receives personnel certificates and request forms from the branch offices. Ten employees are responsible for dealing with this huge volume of paperwork, the majority of which is received at the different offices and then transferred to central administration. Before DocuWare was implemented, incoming invoices and internal application forms used to be sent by courier to central administration. Once there, the hard copies were transferred from one table to another according to an established workflow. Each employee kept a copy of the most important document, leading to unnecessary duplications. This traditional way of handling documentation made it difficult to keep a check on processes and a large of amount of time used to be wasted searching for a specific document.

Advance Cabinet Designs Inc. (ACD) is a family-owned business that manufactures custom commercial cabinets for clients in the Northwest United States. The company had a paper-based accounts payable process that involved different employees adding documents to an information packet that moved from desk to desk. This process was inefficient and time-consuming. Additionally, ACD’s job files, which contained everything relating to a project, were in paper form and could be up to 10 inches thick. These files were often unorganized and not readily accessible to all employees. The company needed a system that would allow them to easily share information between employees and verify that the information being shared was the current version.

Before the implementation of DocuWare in 2008, all documents related to the entire workflow process of projects at KONSING GROUP Ltd had to go through a long and tedious process. Documents were sent in by mail, scanned, and distributed via email to five different departments. An equal amount of documents were physically transported from one office to another. With more than 5000 documents a month, it was necessary to have several administration officers handle the distribution and filing of all incoming mail. The documents ranged from inquiries on possible installations, to plans on installations or construction, contracts, financial correspondence, and invoices. The management at KONSING GROUP Ltd wanted a solution to their paper filing and workflow process. They wanted faster delivery and remittance of documents especially before and after a contract was signed.

Invest Bank S.A., a retail bank based in Poznan, Poland, was struggling with the management of their document workflow due to the large volume of bank mandates, transaction records, loans, credit checks, invoices, emails, and signature patterns. They were processing a minimum of 100 credit applications a day. The bank needed a solution to improve the speed of the work processes involving loan applications and the filing of the applications themselves and all the documents pertaining. It was absolutely necessary to limit the time required to process the credit documentation verifications. It was also important to obtain a higher degree of integration flexibility with other units, such as the Ultimus BPM Suite Software, which controls the entire process of form completion and activity automation that, previously, had been managed manually.

SAMSON AG, a German company specializing in instrumentation and control systems, was facing challenges with its paper-based document management system. The company was generating around 15,000 documents daily in the sales department alone, all of which had to be printed and filed. The central paper filing system was kept in several basement storerooms, and outdated documents were regularly boxed up and stored elsewhere. This led to a lot of work, especially when looking for documents. If one of the sales offices needed information about a transaction, documentation was even sent back and forth through the mail. There was no way to guarantee that the files they received were up-to-date and complete.

Before implementing a Document Management System, Lyonnaise des Eaux stored all its business documents, technical documentation, and landed property deeds in physical files. Locating a specific document was a tedious process, often leading to frustration and wasted time. Not all documents were catalogued, and those stored in the basement were never indexed, making retrieval even more difficult. The company needed a solution that would provide direct access to all archived documents and integrate with the existing APIC geographic information system. The goal was to save space and provide a large number of employees with easy access to all documents.

Christian Health Care Center (CHCC) was struggling with redundant data entry, slow insurance invoicing time, and poor internal information sharing. The Center manages a variety of documents from different departments, with a focus on digitally managing the documents in the Admissions and Education Departments. Each of the Center's programs has its own admission process and set of documents, all of which require an application, signed consent forms, billing information, a copy of the insurance card, and insurance verification documentation. This information was manually entered into the Center's system, and other necessary documents were added to the patient's record. The Education Department needed to store staff certifications and sign-in sheets for clinical and non-clinical programs, as well as other documents such as tests and course outlines. The Center was looking for a powerful, modular, document imaging system that could provide not only a departmental solution, but one that could grow into a workflow system throughout the organization.

Bromwall Ltd., a rapidly growing insurance broker, was facing the challenge of managing a flood of paperwork on a daily basis. The documents, ranging from policies and claims to client presentations and new business, were coming in from various sources. The paper-based system was inefficient and time-consuming, often requiring employees to return phone calls after first identifying the case and matching the pertaining records. The company needed an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to manage the influx of documents and free up time for personnel to handle other tasks. The solution also needed to integrate with 'Act! by Sage' and 'Paperport' by Nuance, two other standard software systems used by Bromwall.

The Providence Center, a mental health and substance use treatment center, was struggling with the limitations of paper-based medical records. These records were only accessible from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and needed to be requested in advance of appointments. This was a hindrance to providing quality care to clients, especially in emergency situations. The Center had already eliminated most of its handwritten forms and had an electronic forms creation system in place, but once the forms were completed, they were printed and stored in a paper medical record. The Center needed a solution that would allow for 24/7 access to clinical records, improve the quality of records by reducing human error, and meet the privacy requirements of HIPAA.

Serviceline, a company that provides maintenance and repair services for kitchen/catering equipment, was facing several challenges. The company was dealing with a high volume of paper-based Field Service Reports (FSRs) that were sent in by mail, taking at least two to three days to arrive. These reports then had to be manually indexed by a Job Manager. This process was time-consuming and inefficient. Additionally, the company was required to retain information for its customers and suppliers, which led to a need for a large amount of physical storage space. The company was also looking to improve its customer service and invoice control processes.

Fletcher Jones Mercedes-Benz (FJMB), the largest Mercedes-Benz dealer in the USA, was struggling with the volume of paper records generated from car sales and repair orders. The company could only store six months of documentation onsite, and the rest had to be moved to a third-party offsite storage facility. This resulted in slow retrieval times, inefficient document management, and high costs, estimated at $40,000 annually. The paper-based system was not keeping up with the volume of records FJMB needed to manage. The company wanted a system that could index automatically without the need for manual intervention, and that had the ability to scan a stack of documents and automatically recognize and separate the pages into individual records. They also wanted a system that stored the images in a non-proprietary format and gave them the ability to backup information on CDs or DVDs that would work as a stand-alone system.

Jack Tighe Ltd, a UK-based industrial painting company, was struggling with the multitude of invoices that needed to be processed every day. The process they were using was cumbersome. Purchase and sales invoices, remittance advices, supplier statements, all had to be individually photocopied and distributed. Numbers had to be manually assigned, stamps needed to be applied and then returned or transferred to other departments. The accounts department received over 100 invoices by post every day, which had to be sorted based on which Jack Tighe company they referred to. In addition, about 150 sales invoices needed to be produced in any one day. The invoices were typed into Microsoft Excel by entering relevant information into templates set up for the different customers. After creating the sales invoices, an invoice number was assigned from and was then copied as it was printed. One of the copies was sent to the customer, one copy went to credit control for the ledger where it was filed numerically. The third copy went to a job file. Whenever remittance advices and statements from suppliers were received, they were filed in alphabetical order under different files such as credit control or customers names. Whenever a customer called to check on the status of his payment or order, files had to be physically carried to the desk. Only after searching for the relevant statements could the customers be called back and their queries be answered.

Georg Fischer DEKA GmbH, a pipe system specialist, was facing a challenge due to the extensive production data they had to archive. The laws surrounding product liability required that all manufacturing documentation is securely retained for more than 50 years. The company was looking for an alternative to archiving with paper due to the increasing storage space requirements. Additionally, the company saw this as an opportunity to re-think and reorganize the way their company communicates. In the past, each work group as well as each individual staffer had their own filing system. Records were manually organized, copied and filed in binders. Then after each year, the documents would be placed in a central storage space, which only an authorized employee could access. The search for any older records was rather difficult and took a lot of time. Any exchange of documents between departments was often problematic and even more time-consuming. Customer inquiries could not be handled quickly, since documents had to be moved within the building via “tube mail.“

The City of Niles, Michigan, provides its residents with water, sewer, and electricity services. The Utilities department was struggling to fulfill customer inquiries and perform internal audits due to the complexity of their billing software and electrical rates. They were unable to view or recreate old bills, and only had access to the dollar amount of the bill. Detailed information such as the rate, meter number, service location, and address was essentially lost. When electrical rates changed, the software was reprogrammed with a new rate structure, making adjusting the rate or recreating an old bill impossible. The department wanted to implement a flexible document management system that could grow and change with the department’s changing needs.

Douglas County, Oregon, with a population of 100,000, was facing challenges in managing a large volume of records across multiple departments. The Sheriff’s Department had years of old case reports stored on paper and microfilm, making the vast reservoir of information essentially useless because it wasn’t searchable. The Health Department had original documents stored in several locations, causing inefficiencies and making compliance with HIPAA privacy requirements difficult. The Assessor’s Department was dealing with a large volume of forms, resulting in long document retrieval times. The County needed a system that could handle a large volume of documents, operate in a multi-site environment, automate indexing, and possess advanced search features.

Tompkins Cortland Community College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY), was facing challenges with their paper-based student file system. The college's two most important student documents, the student folder and permanent record card, were physically stored and could only be accessed by one person or department at a time. This led to inefficiencies as staff members from various departments had to physically retrieve the folder from the last department who had referenced it. The college had previously digitized all 40,000 of their permanent record cards, but the system used was outdated and no longer met their needs. They needed a non-proprietary, flexible system to store all documents digitally and provide seamless access to all staff members involved in a process.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Justice had a challenge of managing documents across its 150 courts located across the country. Each court maintained its own paper archive, making it time and cost-intensive to obtain documents from other locations. The Ministry of Justice had a clear vision of what they wanted from their Document Management System (DMS). They wanted to streamline processes, integrate their Oracle database, and provide access to the document pool from all locations. The decision to install a DMS came as part of the „Phare Programme“, an international project launched by the European Union. The goal of the project is to successively automate the organization and processes of the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice.

sudhoff technik, a wholesaler of custom rubber, plastic, and aluminum products, was facing challenges with its warehouse workflows. The company was dealing with a large volume of paper documents, including incoming documents and approximately 130,000 outgoing proof-of-shipping slips and invoices. The process of sorting and filing these documents was tedious and prone to errors. If a customer called to track a shipment, an employee in the warehouse would have to go through all of this documentation to find the answer. The company was also building a new logistics center and needed to eliminate the space-wasting paper archive and make their business processes flow more efficiently.

JTE Recruit, a recruitment agency startup, was struggling with the management of hundreds of documents daily, including emails, client contracts, and candidate documents. The recruiters stored all these documents on their own laptops, making it difficult to capture much of this information within a central organizational structure. Searching for information was particularly problematic with this form of decentralized storage. As the company grew, it became increasingly untenable to work in this way and both their employees and customer service would suffer for it.

Before the implementation of DocuWare, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation faced several challenges in their accounting department. The process of mailing completed invoices and accompanying documents to the corporate office for filing was time-consuming and occasionally resulted in lost documents. Staff also spent a significant amount of time searching through files to find paper documents. As a publicly traded company, Cabot is also required to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, which was a cumbersome process with their previous system. The company needed a solution that would streamline their workflows, improve access to information, and help them adhere to compliance standards.

Hydratech Industries, a company specializing in high-pressure solutions, was facing challenges with their document management system. The company had accumulated countless documents over the years from various departments including R&D, Quality Assurance, and Sales. These documents, stored in a simple folder structure on the server, included production documents, technical drawings, emails, and contracts in both English and Chinese. Each project group had its own filing system, resulting in different folder structures and access rights. This led to confusion among employees who often did not know where to find important documents or which version was the most current. Long search times were common and when documents needed approval, large amounts of data had to be sent back and forth by email. Team members often only learned about new documents late on.

Marketing Personal SA, a Latin American multinational company, faced challenges in tracking orders and ensuring their delivery. The company's operations team was responsible for administering new orders, managing issues relating to package deliveries, and responding to inquiries and claims made by advisors. However, tracking was complex, and the shipping costs invoiced to Marketing Personal by the delivery carriers did not reflect effective monitoring of deliveries and inquiries to customers. The Customer Service Department did not have clear and timely information about the various phases of delivery, so they could not give real-time responses to inquiries. They had to rely on projected delivery information and paper documents from the operations team. All documents generated during the transport operation are stored for several years as proof of delivery for payments and as legal back up documents. There are risks associated with manually processing transport documents - they can get lost or damaged making them ineffective as points of reference.

Mercy Health Network, a nonprofit organization operating hospitals and healthcare facilities across 18 states, was facing challenges with its Mercy Clinical Laboratory. The lab, which analyses over 1,800 samples a day from patients across 17 hospitals and 300 facilities, was struggling with a slow and inefficient paper-based system for processing lab orders and billing. The lab contributes approximately $30 million to the hospital’s annual revenue, so digitizing processes was a high priority. The lab needed to speed up the processing time from when a specimen is received to the time it is billed. During the period the lab was looking for a new system, it had $7-8 million in lab work waiting to be billed. The goal was multi-pronged: automate processes; reduce time-to-bill; streamline document sharing between patient access, medical coding and billing teams.

Berwick Retirement Communities, a family-owned company that builds and manages retirement homes in British Columbia, Canada, was facing challenges with its vendor invoice approvals and payments process. With six retirement homes to operate and more being built, plus two head offices in different locations, the process was complex. Invoices had to circulate between different offices, in paper or email form, to collect the necessary signatures and approvals. This led to unnecessary redundancy and complexity, with several copies of invoices being made in different locations. Staff had to call different offices to locate the invoices and ensure all signatures were collected. When vendors called to inquire about payments, Berwick personnel weren’t always able to locate specific invoices and had to contact other offices to track down the missing paperwork.

Young Automotive Group, a premier car sales company in Layton, UT, was facing challenges with its new employee orientation process. The process required all newly hired employees to travel, sometimes from remote locations and out of state, to a specific location to complete paperwork. This was not only inconvenient and lengthy, but also increased the company’s expenses as it reimbursed new employees for travel expenditures and gas mileage. The company was also dealing with cumbersome paper processes for HR procedures, including processing exit interviews when employees leave the company, and managing bonus rewards and other employee benefits.

Criterion Tool & Die Inc., a third-generation family-owned company, manufactures precise components for no-failure industries such as medical, aerospace, and photonics. The company is required to retain documentation about the parts it supplies for the lifetime of the products and instruments due to government regulations. These requirements resulted in thousands of paper documents stored in the company’s facility over many years. The paper and large storage space made locating documents time-consuming and difficult. In addition, the company had to produce all supporting documentation in a timely manner when requested for audits.

Century Fence, a family-run custom fencing provider and pavement marking contractor, was looking to reduce its dependence on paper-based files, speed up workflows, and ensure records were easily accessible. The company wanted to implement a digital mobile solution to provide field superintendents with remote access to project documentation. The solution needed to integrate with their existing ERP and accounting programs and manage documents such as quotes, contracts, insurance, site plans, email correspondence, and more. The company's project folders remain open and active for about three months during the quoting, staging, installation, and billing phases of a project. It was crucial for Century Fence superintendents to be onsite and have quick access to project files during this time.

As Kowalski’s Markets grew and expanded, managing paper accounting records became very difficult. It took one corporate accounting employee 3-4 days a week to type the invoice information into the accounting system. Department managers were also typing the invoice information to compile a weekly report. The process was time-consuming and inefficient, leading to a need for a more streamlined solution.

Elit, a Romanian meat business, experienced significant growth in recent years, leading to an increase in daily deliveries and the creation of over 4,000 delivery slips and outgoing invoices daily. The customer confirms receipt of the goods on these documents, which are then returned to the company. For the company’s invoicing department, this process meant a lot of work. Before using a document management system (DMS), employees had to check each signed document individually and manually. Especially in disagreements, the manual approach was especially negative: sometimes several weeks passed before the money was received. In addition, a productivity test revealed that hundreds of invoices remained unpaid every month - resulting in a correspondingly large number of follow-ups and time wasted.