Accounts Receivables Department
 Document imaging is of particular benefit to Accounts
Receivable departments. These departments typically are
the largest paper generators within a company. They are
also the largest consumer of clerical staff time. Much
of that clerical staff time is used up in managing all
of the paper that comes into the department.
With document imaging, a number of business problems can
be solved. For example, in a typical A/R department,
there is the problem of controlling the time and cost of
filing, of locating documents when needed, and of
managing collections. Typical tasks include printing
pick tickets, invoices, delivery receipts, and
statements, handling customer service calls from
customers, and doing the collections themselves. This
clerical staff time costs the company money.
One imaging client, prior to installing imaging, did a
study to determine just how much time the customer
service group was using. They found that every time the
telephone rang in the customer service department, 12 to
15 minutes of staff time were consumed. This included
the time to listen to the customer, to take notes about
the billing issue, and to hang up the telephone. Next,
the customer service rep would have to go to various
files, searching for the needed documentation to support
the billed amount. Since files were not always together,
this required multiple searches before all of the
documentation to substantiate a charge was located.
Finally, the clerk would have to make copies of the
documentation, fax or mail it to the customer, and then
return all of the originals back to their respective
files.
Based upon what one minute of fully burdened clerical
staff time cost, they were able to determine just how
expensive it was to operate a customer service
department. In spite of its cost, there was just no
other choice when dealing with paper records.
After that same company installed our imaging system,
they found that the average telephone call was reduced
to only 4 to 5 minutes. Now when a customer calls and
says that they haven't received a copy of an invoice and
are not going to pay the bill until they receive it, the
clerk can instantly call up the needed documentation
right on the screen and fax it directly to the customer
while they are still on the telephone. No searching for
documents, no wasted effort, no lost time.
While this was the main business problem that this
particular imaging client was trying to solve, it turned
out that there were a number of other side problems that
were also solved. They found that, since they could get
documentation out to their customers more quickly, their
own collections came in faster. They reduced their
average days outstanding from 59 days to 48 days with no
change in their other procedures and no increase in
staff. They were also able to free up floor space that
had been previously allocated to file cabinets to more
productive uses.
Overall, based upon actual hard dollar savings, they
were able to recover their investment in the imaging
system in less than 12 months. They are also able to
increase their sales volume with no increase in clerical
staff. The clerical staff members were able to learn how
to use imaging in just a few days. Morale increased
since they had to spend less time on mind-numbing paper
shuffling tasks. It was the best investment that they
ever made.
|
"The
document imaging system has changed our business beyond words. The document search capabilities are invaluable. People wonder what they did before fax
machines, and we wonder how we functioned before document imaging. It is user friendly and it pays for itself ten times over. It is WELL worth the
investment."
-- J & B Materials, El Cajon, CA |
|
|
Accounts Receivable