Remote Control Technologies

The Challenge

With documentation accumulating at an alarming rate, Remote Control Technologies (RCT) was nearing its physical storage capacity. As the costs of storage increased, the manufacturer needed to eliminate the slow, labour-intensive and inconsistent processes that resulted from relying on paper-based information.

“We decided we needed to store documents electronically and eliminate physical files,” said RCT Financial Controller Marcus Bundesen.

That’s when RCT found OnBase by Hyland.

The Solution

RCT committed to the OnBase solution in June 2009. Within a month and a half, RCT had the system up and running. Designed to support the company’s use of customer service job or project cards, the initial implementation also included creating a workflow to support all of the possible requirements, from initiation to invoicing through completion.

“We started with job cards because it involved a department that was very supportive of the document management system. We thought it would have the highest return straight away and was a fairly manageable project to implement,” Bundesen said.

The RCT team developed queues for jobs awaiting management approval or invoicing and automated calls from OnBase to other databases to ease the task of collating project costs. The workflow cut down administrative time and made it much easier for project teams to find the information they needed. It also brought consistency and greater control to customer service projects.

Within weeks of the job cards workflow going live, the benefits were obvious and RCT deployed a similar workflow at four more service departments. More workflows followed over the next few years.

“Anything that requires a workflow with a document, or if it’s a transactional workflow that can’t be done in our ERP system, and if there are cost benefits, it will be put into OnBase,” Bundesen said.

The Difference

Expedites invoice processing: With OnBase, RCT completely revamped the way it processes supplier invoices. Rather than having staff manually process invoices, searching for matches against existing purchase order numbers or creditor numbers, noting the goods amount received, GST code, GST amount and whether the purchase order has been received, OnBase does this automatically once staff scan an invoice into the solution. Should it detect a discrepancy, exceptions route to the appropriate purchasing departments for investigation.

“It all happens automatically behind the scenes,” Bundesen said. “The accounts payable officer can see all the problem invoices, who’s holding them up and where they are up to. It stops the problem of emailing or sending invoices around the organisation. All the information is in the system.”

Ensures accuracy and consistency: In the past, there was little consistency from one quote to the next. Sales staff would even use different layouts in Mircosoft Word. With OnBase, staff use a standard quote template. Once a quote is accepted and a customer order comes in, OnBase automatically pulls the information from the quote and creates a new job or project card, eliminating the need to re-key existing data into the system.

“It brings an immense structure to the organisation, especially for a small company growing into a medium-sized one. Small companies don’t often have defined workflows. As you get larger, you need that definition. OnBase allows us to define, streamline and automate those flows. And as we grow, it ensures conformity."

Provides increased visibility: By using workflows, RCT ensures its staff and management know the status of any task. For example, OnBase provides insight to the quote process, showing whether it’s being prepared, with a customer or needs follow up.

“We used to have physical job cards. There would be a tray for jobs waiting for parts, another tray for jobs waiting for labour, or jobs waiting for a customer to go and install the product. Others would be used when waiting for the customer order or when waiting to be invoiced. The difference now is we can search on a customer or a customer service department and see where all the orders are up to,” Bundesen said.

Empowers business users to own their solution: Bundesen developed the structure of each workflow and worked with an in-house software engineer to create the forms and perform any scripting required - reducing the strain on IT resources or having to pay a consultant to make changes to the solution.

“I’m an accountant and I have no IT background,” Bundesen said. “But having completed the one week OnBase workflow course, I’ve found that I can still do a lot of workflows. The only thing you really need is a qualified programmer for some behind-the-scenes scripting.”

“When we looked for a document management solution, we looked at a number of options. OnBase was always out in front. Looking back, we are still absolutely sure that we made the right decision,” Bundesen said.