“DWS were not only able to provide a cost-effective solution, but the installation and training took less than two days, so there was minimal disruption to the office. They also took the time to really get to know our business and provide a solution that met our needs and budget. The difference they have made to our day to day business is outstanding, our employees are delighted with the new system and we look forward to working with DWS to further improve our systems and processes in the future.”
Mark Bennett
The Challenge
Bennet Christmas Insurance Brokers, based in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, have been providing competitive insurance policies to both private and commercial clients since 1967.
In recent years many businesses have made the transition to a ‘paper free office’ to improve efficiency. For a number of years Mark Bennett, Director of Bennet Christmas had wanted to do this for his Company, but the document management systems he had been shown had been complicated and expensive. Mark was then approached by Document Workflow Solutions (DWS) who were able to alleviate his concerns and meet his criteria for a new system.
The Analysis
As part of their comprehensive consultation process, DWS carried out the following:
- An onsite visit to the Bennet Christmas offices to see how documents were currently being used
- They asked Bennet Christmas to work out how much time was being spent on retrieving documents
- DWS considered the fire risk involved in having the documents on site and the impact that losing these documents could have on the business
The Findings
The analysis showed:
- Bennet Christmas customers were not able to receive an instant response to telephone enquiries. The case file would have to be physically retrieved from a different floor where the documents were stored and the customer called back. Not only was this poor customer service, but Bennet Christmas also had to incur the cost of the call backs.
- Retrieving the files was found to take up to 30% of employees time each day, which resulted in significant amounts of money being spent in wages for document retrieval. As a paper intensive business, problems also arose if the file was on someone’s desk, as it meant that other members of staff would not be able to find it without a significant search.
- The archive files consumed an entire floor of the building for storage. Not only could this space be used for expanding the business, but it could even be let out to provide additional income.
- If there was a fire the documents would be lost, which could leave the company legally liable and vulnerable to being sued
Another important factor was the ability to integrate the new system seamlessly into CVL’s existing IT infrastructure.
The Solution
DWS was able to provide Bennet Christmas with a range of solutions that met all of their needs:
- DWS implemented its state of the art document management system called DocuWare. Bennet Christmas employees can now search for client files quickly and easily using the software’s simple user interface and powerful search engine
- DWS supplied Bennet Christmas with a scanner so that new client files can be scanned in to the system electronically, removing the need to keep physical copies.
- DWS provided a full consultation service throughout the process, installed the software and scanner and provided training to Bennet Christmas employees.
- DWS collected, scanned and indexed the floor of archived files, removing the need for the physical copies. The scanned data was supplied and uploaded to the server by DWS. The exercise would have taken Bennet Christmas years to complete; DWS completed the task within a few weeks.
