ADM Investor Services International (ADMISI) was facing challenges in managing and storing customer-relevant documentation. The process of creating new documents was cumbersome, involving filling out different Word templates and then printing them out. The company also had to deal with the authorization of letters by financial managers, which required manual intervention. Retrieving information was a time-consuming process, with employees having to search for hours in the paper archive. The company also had to comply with data protection regulations (GDPR), which was difficult due to documents being stored in different file cabinets or server drives.

Shelter Products, a distributor of lumber, plywood, and other building materials, was facing challenges with its accounts payable system. As the company's operations grew, so did the need for an efficient accounts payable system. The company was missing out on early payment discounts due to lost or incorrectly routed paperwork. The company had to process around 100 invoices a day, and paper processing took hours to route invoices to the appropriate trader assistant. The company needed a solution that could streamline its accounts payable processes and improve efficiency.

Chicagoland Fat Loss Camps, a company offering nutritional counseling and exercise programs in the Chicago area, was facing challenges with its paper-based client enrollment and tracking system. The company held kickoff events every six weeks, with 50 to 70 attendees at each location. Attendees interested in the program would fill out paper forms, which often resulted in incomplete or illegible information, requiring employees to follow up. This caused delays and presented barriers to converting event attendees to clients. Additionally, staff kept track of weigh-in numbers, supplement orders, and referral bonuses on paper. Employees worked long hours to input data into the company’s ERP system, costing about $3,000 per event.

Corestruc, a South African conglomerate active in the concrete, real estate, and agricultural industries, was struggling with paper-based administration due to the geographical distribution of its subsidiaries. The decentralized employees only travelled to the headquarters in Polokwane once a month, leading to an average processing time of four weeks for incoming A/P invoices. Urgent documents were sometimes scanned and forwarded by email, but this often led to a loss of control as it was unclear if the copy of the invoice had been processed or not. Additionally, when a document was filed away at their headquarters, subsidiaries were dependent on their colleagues in Polokwane to look through the documents to answer an inquiry. This required documents to be retrieved, copied, and sent out repeatedly.

Community Action Agency of St. Louis County (CAASTLC) was facing a significant challenge due to its paper-intensive programs. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), for instance, received up to 500 applications during peak times, generating about 20,000 paper files. Each application required proof of income, a utility bill, and other personal information, which were rarely submitted together. As bills and other documentation arrived, staffers had to retrieve the physical files and add new information. When the state’s requirements for LIHEAP grew stricter while the number of applicants increased, CAASTLC became buried in paper. Another challenge was CAASTLC’s drug and alcohol education program that stored some older files offsite, which cost money to retrieve.

Josep Bombardó's textile company, based in Sabadell, Spain, had been using electronic document archiving for some time. However, they encountered problems with using Windows folders, especially when collaborating on documents or assigning editing rights. Stricter data protection regulations led the management to look for more professional solutions. The lack of security in the storage of personnel documents, which were still in paper form, was a significant concern for the management. They needed a solution that could not only store documents digitally but also optimize previously manual and time-consuming work processes.

Daviess County Public Schools (DCPS) in Owensboro, KY, was facing challenges with its traditional method of collecting and exchanging information with parents via paper forms. This process was time-consuming, inefficient, and frustrating for both parents and staff. Parents with more than one child had to fill out the same information on multiple forms, which was inconvenient. Additionally, the school had to keep track of document retention schedules on paper, which was a daunting task due to different document types being purged on different schedules. For instance, attendance data had to be kept for 20 years while health information obtained by school nurses was kept for only five years.

The Porter County Sheriff’s Department was facing challenges due to budget cutbacks and the need to manage a large volume of documents including warrants, case reports, tickets, and jail documentation. The process of storing and retrieving these documents was inefficient and time-consuming. For instance, warrants were stored in file cabinets and had to be verified by dispatchers who were also handling emergency calls. Case reports were typed, printed, and re-keyed into a law enforcement management program, taking up to six hours a day. The department was also dealing with a large volume of jail records and a county requirement to store a copy of every ticket issued for 10 years.

Interlázaro, a family business producing fresh fruit in the Saragozza region of Spain, faced logistical challenges due to the geographical distance between their fields and administrative office. They had to handle up to 60 invoices and delivery notes per day, which were sent back and forth between the office and the orchards. Documents were often forwarded with a time delay or were lost completely, especially when several people were involved. This posed a significant challenge for internal approval processes, as the employees responsible were also working in various fields.

Horizon Underwriting Managers, a leading insurance company in South Africa’s marine and shipping industry, was facing challenges with its document management process. The company had to deal with individual insurance issues in shipping, which meant that the time and effort required to prepare each contract was high. Employees had to repeatedly rework drafts, print them out, sign them, and then send them to the customer. In addition, many customers requested copies of the contract, which meant that the printed documents had to be scanned and sent to the customer by email in addition to the actual contract being stored in a fireproof archive. The double burden of managing a high volume of email on the one hand and meeting involved statutory requirements on the other proved to be untenable for the company in the long run. Plus, the workload for employees was barely keeping pace with the strong growth of the company.

A.B. Martin Roofing, a fast-growing building supply company, was facing challenges in managing its supplier chain. The company deals with multiple vendors from whom they regularly purchase steel, hardware, lumber, machine parts, nails, screws, and other materials. The paper invoices that arrived from these vendors were hard to track or verify that the merchandise billed for had already been delivered. The company had no system in place to know where an invoice was or on whose desk it was. This lack of organization led to a time-consuming process of sorting out the invoices.

EquiPro Investments, a firm that buys account receivables and recovers money owed to credit card companies, was struggling with its old software which was too slow to handle the volume of transactions. The company needed a faster setup to keep up with the fast-paced industry. The complex operations required swift and precise communication between EquiPro and vendors involved in the recovery process. The company was also dealing with a large volume of work that required a lot of manual labor in document distribution.

Beachcomber Tours, a South African subsidiary of Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels, had been using a cloud-based document management system to support its various departments. However, as the company grew, the existing system could not keep up, especially in terms of email archiving and shared document access. The company tried switching to a file sharing platform integrated into the Office suite, but this did not yield any improvement. The company was unable to find a satisfactory solution for email archiving, which was a critical task for them.

EBB Truck Center, a specialist in the commercial vehicle sector, was facing challenges with its accounting processes. The company's decentralized structure, with several branch offices, meant that receipts were often in transit for days and sometimes even lost. This led to delays and inefficiencies in the processing of incoming invoices. The company was also looking to digitize its entire sales process, which was typically accompanied by more than 100 pages of documents and records. These were previously collected in 30 binders, making the process cumbersome and time-consuming.

Agrar-Markt Deppe, a leading agricultural machinery dealer in Central Germany, was facing challenges with their document management. The company was dealing with 1,800 incoming A/P invoices and 3,000 outgoing A/R invoices per month, which was extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. The documents were filed at various locations, leading to repeated retrieval, copying, and sending between offices. The company needed a solution to guarantee tamper-free archiving and to standardize their work processes across all locations.

Corsicana Bedding, Inc., a national mattress manufacturer, was facing challenges in managing its documents and cash flow. For each delivery, the company produces an invoice which acts as a proof of delivery document. With over 350 deliveries a day, the company wanted to invest in a system to collect information from all locations and make it immediately available to the corporate office. The situation the company faced was that information took too long to get back to the corporate accounting department so that customer account information could be updated and reconciled. In addition, responses to customer questions were delayed until the information was received. Business critical documentation was being shipped by multiple people from various locations. This presented a huge challenge for customer service personnel located at the corporate office, often making it extremely difficult to research and resolve disputes quickly. This in turn led to upset customers who simply wanted answers.

TECHNO COLOR's huge volume of documents had become increasingly problematic: every day, about 1,000 pages of paper were tucked into binders and stored throughout various departments. Records from recent years were clustered in huge wall systems, while older documents were stored in dedicated warehouse space on pallets. This was all done in order to meet the legal requirements in their industry for document retention. Aside from all the wasted space, this paper-based archive had another problem – the search time that employees used to find individual records. Even employees working on the same project often had to look through different departments for delivery slips, contracts, test results or measurement protocols. At that point, copies were often made, so that duplicates were again stored at someone's own desk. This did not, however, guarantee that the information they found was the most current - like whether new details were discussed with a client, if new parts were already announced or if a recall was expected.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) was facing several challenges in managing its vast amount of documents. The agency needed an efficient way to store, access, and distribute all kinds of documents including engineering drawings, permits, technical reports, sample data, compliance documents, photos, and inspections. Thousands of documents were submitted to the IEPA each month, primarily for permit reviews and inspections. The original paper documents and microfilm were physically housed in the headquarters’ office, making it impractical for field office employees from all over the state to review a file. This required the IEPA to either ship the original documents back and forth between offices or maintain duplicate copies. Copying large format drawings and engineering documents was costly for the IEPA, who was forced to pass the cost on to private industry. The Bureau of Land’s three record rooms contained 1.5 linear miles of paper files in addition to copious amounts of microfilmed records. Maintaining such a large volume of records consumed staff resources, lengthened record retrieval time, and contributed to deteriorating file integrity from copying and shipping records. Meeting the Freedom of Information Act and providing communities, legal firms, environmental consultants, and concerned citizens with requested information was also a daunting task. The agency could receive 500 requests for a 1000 page file forcing them to devote significant time and resources in meeting these requests.

GE Capital Bank, one of the premier financial institutions in Poland, was facing challenges with its paper-based document management system. With a consumer loan portfolio exceeding $1 billion, the bank had several hundred users accessing loan documents. However, the paper-based system meant that the same document could not be used by more than one person at a time. The retrieval process was time-consuming, with documents demanded from the archives taking a day to be available. This was particularly problematic for the Customer Service and the Vindication Department, who needed to process loan requests and other loan-related matters quickly.

The Mobil Oil Health Insurance Fund experienced a rapid growth from 3,000 members in 1999 to over 500,000 members in 2002. This growth was due to a change in law which opened corporate health insurance companies to external members. The rapid influx of members posed significant challenges for the staff, organization, and IT infrastructure. Mountains of paper started to pile up and the manual filing cabinets appeared to be growing unrestrictedly. In order to have fast answers for its members and to manage the internal paper flood, the Insurance Fund decided to implement a document management system in 2000. The electronic filing system was meant to create “space for employees instead for files” and shorten filing and research procedures.

FALKE, a clothing company, had been storing its documents digitally since 1997 with the help of a service provider. However, this process was not efficient as documents were unavailable for a week and customer enquiries had to be stalled. Access to data was not user-friendly and was not possible from workstations. Copies were therefore often stored locally in departmental and workstation archives. FALKE was also looking for a system that could be expanded over time, allowing foreign sales companies to be connected in stages, enabling direct access to documents from the individual departments’ applications, and the introduction of a workflow to optimize document processing times. The company generates a thousand outgoing invoices each day, in paper form alone enough to fill an entire file. They are printed from COLD data. In addition to this there are 50 customer documents a day, 2,000 ledgers a month, 70,000 accounts lists a year, as well as 50,000 incoming invoices, 20,000 internal documents, and 15,000 payment documents for credit transfers or checks each year. This comes to an annual total of half a million documents, with retention periods of up to 10 years.

Independent School District 196, a K-12 public school district in Rosemount, Minnesota, was struggling with a paper-based hiring process. The district, which serves more than 28,000 students and is one of the area’s largest employers, was facing administrative headaches due to the manual review and check-out of resumes. Principals and hiring supervisors had to visit the district office in person to review applications, which was time-consuming and inefficient. Additionally, the HR department was maintaining employee files in paper form, which posed security risks and made it difficult to comply with governmental and internal regulations.

Comelf AG, a Romanian manufacturer of technical components, parts, and machines, was struggling with an overwhelming amount of documents that were disrupting their work processes. The purchasing, sales, and technical departments were responsible for managing the majority of these documents, which were created, copied, processed, and then stored locally every week. For time-critical processes, email was also used. The flood of documents was particularly disruptive for the purchasing department. If a department needed a certain product earlier than planned, this request would unleash a series of unclear processes in purchasing. A buyer had to search through documents page by page, before digging through old email. This process was lengthy and a time-waster for employees. The subsequent approval process wasn't much simpler: signatures were not easy to obtain, especially if colleagues were working outside the office. Small details could derail the entire process.

Salmon Companies, a key service provider for the United States Postal Service (USPS), has grown from a regional transportation company to a nationwide entity with a fleet of 1,500 trucks. Despite their growth, they faced challenges in managing their business productivity and operating costs. Their accounting system was outdated and inefficient, leading to increased costs and reduced employee productivity. The company needed a solution that could automate their accounting system, reduce costs, and provide fast, secure storage and access to information. Additionally, when Salmon acquired a company that used DocuWare, it was crucial for the two companies to merge their processes to meet government requirements.

Carubba Collision, a body shop conglomerate in upstate New York, was experiencing a high growth phase, opening 4-6 new locations a year. This rapid expansion posed a challenge for the company's accounting department, which was struggling to manage the increasing volume of invoices and other financial documents. The company was using PSIcapture to transfer invoices into QuickBooks for processing, but the management team felt that a tighter integration between platforms could be achieved by implementing DocuWare’s workflow automation capabilities.

Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc. (TEPS), a top telecommunications contractor in California and Nevada, was facing challenges with its paper-based accounting workflow. The company received a request from a large customer for electronic copies of their material invoices to better understand the material charges. Additionally, almost 90% of the invoices TEPS received were digital, making the paper-based format inefficient and outdated. The company needed a solution that was mobile-ready, cloud-based, and easy to implement and maintain.

On Point Custom Homes, a Houston-based custom home builder, was in need of a cloud-based solution that would allow its employees to access data and review and approve invoices remotely from job sites. This need was further amplified when the company experienced a server and backup drive crash, forcing them to revert to a paper-based system for a few months while they researched the best fit digital solution. The company required a solution that was mobile-ready and offered security and flexibility.

The metal manufacturing company was previously storing all their important documents in paper folders, which were sometimes archived multiple times in different departments. The space needed to handle this growing flood of paper and the time needed to carefully file around 100 orders a month became increasingly problematic. The company needed a solution that would not have interface problems with other software solutions in the company.

United Family Services (UFS), a nonprofit organization in Arkansas, was struggling with a paper-driven system for managing their services. The process of file management and sharing was slow and cumbersome, especially when a client moved and the paper files had to be manually transferred to the new office location. UFS wanted to implement an electronic database that would allow documents to be securely accessed and shared digitally. The main driving factors for this change were cost and ease of use.

GSC Logistics, the largest trucking company operating at the Port of Oakland, was facing challenges due to strict industry regulations. The trucking and shipping industry is highly regulated, requiring companies to store and manage a mountain of paperwork. GSC archives driving logs, hours of service, and daily vehicle maintenance records for over 200 owner-operators who work with them. The company is also required to store quarterly truck inspections and registration documents, driver’s DMV records, license, application, and proof of medical and vehicle insurance. In order to ensure compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requirements, GSC needed a system to enable them to identify which records were on file and which were missing. The solution also needed to provide information for California Highway Patrol (CHP) audits.