DocuWare Releases Version 7.1

With Improved Invoice Processing and Expanded Workflow License Options for Cloud Users

New Windsor NY, May 21, 2019 – DocuWare, provider of cloud solutions for document management and workflow automation, releases DocuWare 7.1, the latest version of its flagship document management and workflow software. Highlights include improved workflow capabilities, a new Workflow User License, and automatic processing by line item on invoices..

Addressing the need for fast and secure workflows essential to every modern business, DocuWare version 7.1’s new features make its workflows faster, more convenient and more transparent. Now, several tasks can be processed at the same time, steps can be filtered for a better overview and notification emails sent to multiple recipients simultaneously.

Following DocuWare’s cloud-first strategy and focus on flexibility for customers, the new Workflow User License enables employees who require only read-only access to archived documents to complete their key tasks within a workflow, using a “lighter” version of the full license. These users can also fill out and save forms with this license. This new option allows teams to involve a greater number of relevant staffs in workflows in a much more cost-effective manner.

The new version also features automated invoice processing based on individual line items. With version 7.1, split posting – the assignment of these individual line items to different cost centers for multiple approvals, is effortless. Improved Intelligent Indexing recognizes individual entries and transfers them as metadata into a new field. The accuracy of these entries forms the basis for controlling the invoice workflow.

"The new features help companies of all sizes and industries to work more efficiently and save even more time," says Dr. Michael Berger, Co-president of DocuWare Group. Dr. Berger, who has led the company’s development team for more than 10 years, sees the new features as another step toward offering organizations of any scale more ways to adopt a cloud solution: "With DocuWare version 7.1, our customers have even more new ways to effortlessly handle tasks within complex processes - without the burden of investing and maintaining a complicated IT infrastructure.“

DocuWare Version 7.1 is available in cloud and on-premises versions, both set ups offer identical functionalities.

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About DocuWare

DocuWare office automation solutions deliver smart digital workflow and document control that set a new pace for worker productivity and business performance. DocuWare’s zero-compromise cloud services are a recognized best-fit for digitizing, automating and transforming key processes. DocuWare operates in 90 countries with headquarters in Germany and the U.S.

By Joan Honig • March 28, 2019 at 7:05 PM

In June 2018, DocuWare launched its new cloud-based preconfigured workflow solutions called DocuWare Kinetic Solutions. I had the opportunity to chat with Jo Ann Kreidel, Solution Manager for DocuWare Kinetic Solutions at DocuWare to get a deeper understanding of what the solutions are, why they were developed, and how you can position yourself as AP and HR solution experts to sell these solutions to your current customer base.

Learn how to become an Authorized DocuWare Partner to generate new levels of revenue: click here or contact Mary Williams at mary.williams@docuware.com.

Art: What are DocuWare Kinetic Solutions? How did these specialized solutions come about; what prompted their development?

Jo Ann: The two solutions available are:

• DocuWare Kinetic Solution for Invoice Processing captures, routes, processes and archives incoming invoices to expedite payment, minimize manual touch and securely organize documents.
• DocuWare Kinetic Solution for Employee Management centralizes, secures and shares employee documents related to recruiting, onboarding, performance and more.

These are preconfigured, cloud-based solutions for two common business applications based on the best practices we learned over the past 30 years. Inefficient manual invoice processing costs time and money and securely processing and maintaining employee documents is critical to business. These key business processes can be solved with one of our solutions and can be up and running in a matter of days. By replicating common business problems, we’ve enabled companies to work with a pre-built solution versus pre-engagement consulting solution, which can take a long time and could put the solution out of reach on a cost level.

Art: Why did you choose the word “kinetic” for the name?

Jo Ann: Kinetic represents that active energetic state of how these solutions are quick to deploy and bring fast value to the customer.

Art: What are the benefits for a customer implementing one of these solutions?

Jo Ann: The first benefit they will realize is the rapid deployment; we’ve eliminated the long, resource-consuming process of recreating standard invoice processing and employee management workflows by presenting the customer with a packaged solution of best practices based on thousands of successful deployments. With a few minor adjustments to ensure a good fit, they’re up and running quickly. The second benefit is the affordability. Since these solutions are cloud-based, no IT infrastructure needs to be purchased, installed or maintained.

Art: What are the advantages for copier dealers selling these solutions? Does DocuWare provide marketing material to accelerate selling these solutions?

Jo Ann: Taking the fear out of content services conversations was paramount for us when we looked at what sales assets were needed. As these are very defined solutions, we came up with a prescriptive, step-by-step sales process with easy-to-use, relatable tools so that every dealer could be successful regardless of their sales staff’s experience level.

Each solution has three videos: the first is a 90-second teaser, the second is a 3-minute intro video and the third is a 12-minute demonstration video. We also have a comprehensive flyer, PowerPoint presentation, FAQ sheet, Statement of Work, and PO template. We have great success stories on how deals close using these materials; some on the videos alone!

Art: When speaking with the HR department prospect, what type of discovery questions should we be asking to well position DocuWare Kinetic Solution for Employee Management?

Jo Ann: Some of those questions could be:

1. How do they handle the influx of resumes for open positions?
2. How does the hiring manager and applicant communicate?
3. How do they do onboard a new employee?
4. How does paperwork get filled out?

This solution provides HR departments with a centralized, secure digital repository for all personnel documents. With digital forms and immediate, reliable workflows, the HR team reduces manual paperwork and produces a better employee hiring experience from resume submission to interviewing and onboarding. HR staff also has more time to connect with employees, building relationships and growing company culture.

Art: When speaking with the Finance department prospect, what type of discovery questions should we be asking to strategically position DocuWare Kinetic Solution for Invoice Processing?

Jo Ann: I would ask:

1. Are you taking advantage of vendor early payment discounts?
2. Are you paying late fees?
3. How many hours are spent on data entry?
4. Is the invoice process slowed by delays in the approval process, entering data, or manual entry errors?

This is where our solution can save a company money straight to the bottom line. They can quickly process invoices before they are due, catching that early payment discount and avoiding those late fees. Keeping vendor payments on time is necessary to maintain good vendor relationships. This enables a company to build a stronger negotiation position for better pricing or additional discounts to save even more money. Best of all it is a win-win; a company pays less and vendors get paid faster.

Art: Can we integrate DocuWare Kinetic Solutions with MFPs and networked scanners? If so, can you please tell me how?

Jo Ann: At its core, a DocuWare Kinetic Solution is still a DocuWare system. MFPs or network scanning devices will always be a fundamental source for DocuWare systems. This means they can absolutely be the on-ramp for paper invoices, HR forms, or any documentation into DocuWare. It is a fast and easy way to get documents into an electronic workflow so that automated processes will analyze the document with OCR, enter it into workflow logic, and safely store it into an archive so that it can easily be found later.

Art: Would that mean from the scanner you would open a DocuWare Kinetic Solution and then scan the images?

Jo Ann: There are several MFPs available that allow for calling up DocuWare directly from the front panel, however, you may not even need to do that. When DocuWare is running in the background, it is monitoring folders. Even the simplest desktop scanner can save a document into a monitored folder. Once there, DocuWare will identify it and process it based on a configuration for that specific document.

Art: Can we also use scanners that are connected locally?

Jo Ann: Yes, absolutely. A DocuWare application can process documents in a variety of ways. Certainly that includes whether the device is connected locally or networked.

Art: Do you have a sales success story to share?

Jo Ann: Definitely. A dealer recently demoed DocuWare Kinetic Solution for Invoice Processing to a global technology manufacturer and the overall reception was very positive. After the meeting, the prospect informed the sales rep that they had recently reviewed other vendors. They liked our solution best because they felt we have the best understanding of AP needs and our solution is configured in a way that helps them achieve their goals faster as opposed to the competition who are offering traditional, consultative content services solutions.

When we showed them how an invoice from an unknown vendor triggered an automated new vendor form and Form W-9 request, they were impressed with our understanding of exactly how their accounting processes needed to run. This was important to them as AP fraud is on the rise, and each time a new vendor invoice comes in, the process of onboarding that vendor is time-consuming.

This is a perfect example of how we can win new customers with our preconfigured, cloud-based solutions.

Art: This all sounds great. Thanks for sharing all this information and thanks so much for your time!

Jo Ann: Anytime; thank you, Art.

Learn how to become an Authorized DocuWare Partner to generate new levels of revenue and provide customers with top-notch office solutions: click here or contact Mary Williams at mary.williams@docuware.com.

8:30 a.m. in Germany is 2:30 a.m. in my native east coast U.S. time zone. I was jet lagged from the previous day’s flight. It was already hot, and there was no air conditioning in the conference room of the hotel in Bad Wörishofen. Coffee. Europe has the best coffee.

My discomfort alleviated, I still did not expect that this day in July of 2016 would have such a profound impact on DocuWare and the way we operate. This was the first day of a workshop that introduced our senior management team to a new strategic planning and implementation process called Hoshin Kanri.

“Strategic planning,” “implementation process,” “Hoshin Kanri” – we’re getting into dangerous waters. This business jargon tends to cause eyes to roll … but stick with me because what I am talking about is how we were able to better organize our energy and effort to achieve significant business results. In short, how we’re able to put a strategic vision into action.

Hoshin Kanri, also known as policy deployment, is a methodology that enabled us to achieve breakthrough goals by ensuring a laser focus and precise alignment throughout the organization. I would like to take you through the Hoshin Kanri methodology, and along the way, I’m happy to share a story or two about my experiences.

The Hoshin Kanri 7-step Process

1. Establish Vision vs. Current State

   In this phase an organization determines their true goals. What is it they want to achieve at the most distilled level?  This critical step sets the direction of the compass needle and determines where you want to travel. In this phase a company may do things like review its mission statement, its processes, and its current key performance indicators (KPIs). The organization openly discusses what they are doing to move in the right direction and what is not working.

   This is difficult. If you have ever sat on a committee that is responsible for writing or rewriting a company’s mission statement you might already have experienced the challenge that comes with defining company direction: its main goals, values and vision.

2. Develop Breakthrough Objectives 

   Breakthrough objectives aren’t like other goals your organization has probably set in the past. They are “breakthrough” in the sense that they are goals that might seem impossible to achieve at first glance.

   These types of goals force your organization to do new things such as introducing new products, entering new markets or transforming your service delivery model. These are the goals that are going to force change within your organization, and that won’t happen overnight. These goals have a three- to five-year time horizon.

   I won’t share DocuWare’s breakthrough goals as they are proprietary to our business, but I can share the categories they address. We have three targets:

   1. Sales excellence
   2. Excitement working with our solutions
   3. Excitement interacting with our company
   

   It was at this phase of the planning that the management team started to feel aligned – our departments all had a direct role to play in reaching one or more of these goals.

3. Develop Annual Objectives

   Breakthrough objectives are huge and meeting them doesn’t happen all at once. In this phase you develop one-year goals that will get you moving towards your breakthrough objective, “This is what needs to happen next year for us to reach that goal in five years.” 

   This was an exciting step for us. We started thinking about what we really needed to do in the next year. Under each of our three targets we developed one or two initiatives, all of which were focused on revamping our processes.

   Throughout the organization, we found that if we only optimized processes we had in place, we could only achieve incremental change (maybe a 5-10% improvement by changing a small thing here or there). We couldn’t keep doing things the same way and expect a significantly different result.

   We ended up identifying five major processes within DocuWare that we wanted to transform and called it “xxxx process Version 2.0.” We developed a vision of what these processes would achieve and gained a shared understanding of what our expected result would be. This was our first year’s annual objective

4. Deploy Annual Objectives

   If you’re noticing a trend where each previous step starts to cascade down to the next for a more specific refinement, then you start to see how the Hoshin Kanri methodology works. It takes a big vision and breaks it down into actionable steps.

   In this phase, you establish concrete steps for what your organization will really start to do. Here you plan specific, measurable goals that are assigned to initiative owners and supporters within the leadership group of your organization.

   Under the umbrella of “Excitement working with our solutions” DocuWare determined that there were two driving variables that went into “Exciting Work” equation – 1) things that our users found exciting and delightful, and 2) things that detracted from that excitement.

   We started to think in different terms. We already had excellent metrics around bug numbers, support case volume, and satisfaction with our help desk … but what if we started thinking about the fact that every time a user interacts with an expert from our company that we aren’t living up to our mission, and that it could be taking away from their overall excitement of our solutions? Of course, we want to continue to be there to delight our customers with excellent service when they need it, but we also really needed to focus on empowering our users to manage their digital transformation without an expert. From this we decided the number of support cases each customer opened with DocuWare through their life cycle was a powerful metric to monitor. I asked my teams to find specific trends that pointed to where we could proactively empower customers before they had a need to contact us. This work became the basis for my team’s first year annual objectives.

5. Execute Annual Objectives (aka Just Do It!)

   Through steps 1-4, an organization aligns strategic vision with a clear roadmap to achieve that vision.

   In Step 5 you simply do it. I say “simply” but obviously doing the work is a big challenge, and no one approach is the “right” way for every organization. Many organizations implement well-known approaches like Six Sigma DMAIC, Kaizen Events, Plan-Do-Study-Adjust cycles, or A3s.

   A mentor of mine once said “the product of strategic planning is the planner, not the plan.” I think there is a lot of truth in that statement, but I also think he never went through a Hoshin Kanri planning. We had planners AND a plan.

   To implement our plans, we used an A3/PDCA approach. DocuWare’s leadership team created action plans and milestones. We created a lot of new processes to ensure collaborative and transparent teams across divisions. Throughout the first year with a little trial and error, we found our way quickly.

   High visibility KPIs are a key part of our Hoshin Kanri initiative. The methodology provides many tools which make closely tracking KPIs possible. They’ve got great names, like the “Bowler” (it looks like a score card you keep at the bowling alley) and the “X-Matrix” (which is not another awesome movie with Keanu Reeves). We ended up having a lot of action plans going on at DocuWare. The great thing was that even though we all are working on different plans, they all are synchronized, pointing each department in the same direction.

6. Monthly Review

   One of the pitfalls organizations face when creating a yearly plan is that it sounds great at the beginning of the year but as the daily work never seems to end, the plan gets delayed, stalled, or even forgotten. To bring about a great change requires a lot of dedication, and most importantly a lot of effort. In fact, most advice on Hoshin Kanri will tell you that a minimum of 60% of a leader’s time should be focused on achieving an annual goal.

   The only way to ensure that is to review the progress often, and while action teams should meet at a minimum every week, the leadership round must meet at least once a month to review the status of all Hoshin Kanri projects.

   Hoshin Kanri truly transformed DocuWare’s senior leadership monthly meeting. Every initiative owner is responsible for giving a status update on his/her project and a discussion about the KPIs happens as an entire management team, not limited to subgroups or divisions. The phrase “red is the new green” became a motto, because unachieved KPIs (marked in red by our tools) are not look at as failures or non-achievements but simply as an opportunity to further push us to change more in our organization, to break even further from our status quo and find new and innovative ways to bring change. Fast change.

7. Annual Review

   Hoshin Kanri is a cycle of work that brings an organization toward an extremely ambitious goal.

   Of course, along the way adjustments will need to be made, minor course corrections here and there. An annual review is an extremely important step. It’s an opportunity to look at what happened over the last 12 months and figure out what needs to be done in the next 12. Next year’s goals and action plans need to be set.

   DocuWare’s first annual review was held just two weeks shy of one year after our kickoff of Hoshin Kanri. I was frazzled because I arrived a day later than expected (Pro Tip: if you forget your passport, there is absolutely no way they are letting you on a plane headed out of New York). Coffee. Great European coffee. Cures all ailments.

   Each of our initiative owners prepared a presentation to review the past year’s achievements and shortcomings. I reviewed the several enhancements in our product, changes in our processes, and in our adaptations of our communication strategy with the management team. These better enable our users to meet one of the goals in DocuWare’s mission statement which is to “manage the digital transformation of their business processes and their dynamic adaptations without the need of experts.” We talked about what could be done better. I had noticed one of my major KPIs wasn’t really telling the whole story and we worked as a team to figure out what the best metric would be. And then we circled back to step 3, a little wiser than the year before.
   
   Looking for other ways to boost productivity in your organization? View our webinar "Boost Productivity by Connecting Data Across all Enterprise Applications."

   
   
   

   About the author:  

    Jon Langdon is the Vice President of Client Services & Quality Worldwide. He oversees the operation of DocuWare’s Support, Professional Services, and Quality Assurance Teams in Germany, United States, and Bulgaria. He holds an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of New Haven. He is currently spending his spare time learning the craft of woodworking.

You probably don’t know me but I’ve been in the industry now for over 20 years and have been fortunate to be successful selling Canon, Ricoh and Kyocera products in both hardware and software sales.

I remember when I started it was all about hardware. I used to say “black and white paid the bills and color sent me on vacation”. Back in those days a color sale would be $40,000 plus and would always be a generous commission. I remember speaking with another colleague of mine back then who had been in the industry for many more years than I and told him “ I wanted to be a color specialist”. His response was why “would you want to only sell color”? Those words rang true and I learned much from him in our years together.

I’m guessing your dealership has a document management networking team that supports sales for products like Docuware. Long ago I realized this gave me another arrow in my quiver and allowed me to position myself as an expert salesperson in our industry. Why would I just want to sell Canon, Kyocera and Ricoh when I have other software applications to offer my clients?

At first the sale may seem daunting as it is a far cry from feeds and speeds. I suggest you take the time and learn two different departments. Accounts payable and Human Resources. It doesn’t matter the industry, these departments function almost identical in every business and if you could “speak their language” you’ll unlock the door to more sales.

In my experience these sales are also very profitable as they replace labor which is often an exceptionally high cost for business. So… look around your clients and prospects offices and see if you can find boxes of paper (which I’m sure you will). Ask about Accounts Payable and Human Resources and you will find opportunities that will help businesses streamline their processes, make them more efficient and profitable and will rely on you as their trusted business partner.

Bring in your Docuware representative or network specialist and listen to the language they use. Once you’ve done it a few times you can approach any business and add value.

 Monte Jensen

Note from Art:  Monte has been a Print4Pay Hotel longer than I can remember. I'm thinking 15 years at least. Monte is one my peeps in my inner circle of connections in the industry. We try to chat at as often as possible. Monte is the real deal and has a wealth of experience to share and I thanked him for sharing this blog with us today.  Thanks again Monte! 

The Salmon Companies, a transportation partner of the United States Postal Service, started using DocuWare to merge its business processes with those of a company it acquired resulting in an efficient, flexible, digital accounting workflow. The accounting process automation improved employee productivity, reduced costs and secured information.

Founded in 1946 for hauling a load of mail for the United States Postal Service (USPS), the Salmon Companies have expanded from a regional transportation company to a key supplier for the USPS. The company has 30 locations and 10 branch offices throughout the United States. Their fleet of 1,500 trucks transport mail throughout almost every state in the nation. Throughout their growth they have focused on using technology to better manage their business and operating costs to achieve their mission of delivering the mail for the USPS “safely on time, every time.”

Requirements

A number of years ago, Salmon acquired a company that used DocuWare. As the two companies merged their processes, Salmon decided to speak with an Authorized DocuWare Partner to see how they could better leverage this technology to fit their unique business needs. Salmon has only one customer, the US government, and fitting the accounting and business process to the government’s expectations is a top priority.

Solution

Authorized DocuWare Partner, Business World, worked with Salmon to identify the needs and inefficiencies in their existing accounting process. They worked with Salmon to build a custom workflow based on amount and location. Salmon loves DocuWare’s modular nature which enables them to easily modify and change business processes to meet their evolving needs. The staff was involved in the creation of the business workflow and Salmon tweaked processes based on employee feedback. The workflow process is based on a system of rules and electronic stamps that route a document through the workflow.

“We have only one customer and we have to mold our system to fit the client; our business is a little bit of a different animal that way. DocuWare’s flexibility allows us to not only work through our custom processes, but drives us to consider more effective and efficient means to an end,” said Steve Christian, Director of IT.

Salmon processes more than 15,000 documents a month in their accounts payable processes. Most indexing is automated with DocuWare’s Intelligent Indexing feature and the solution is integrated with the company’s Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains accounting system, making it a holistic approach to servicing their client.

Benefits

Employee productivity has gone way up now that processes are fast and efficient. Salmon has lowered costs by eliminating the printing of multiple copies of a document and sped up document processing time. Filing errors have been eliminated and additional savings are realized by not having to pay to store paper documents in an offsite facility.

DocuWare has expanded to the Human Resources and Safety departments to securely store confidential information and retain documents with long retention schedules, such as employee files, benefits, discipline, deductions, 401K and driver safety documents.

Conclusion

“If we have a problem we always look to see how DocuWare can fix it. We are constantly reviewing our processes and looking for ways we can improve. DocuWare’s modular nature is a good fit for us,” Christian said.

This document can also be found here:
http://pub.docuware.com/en/the-salmon-companies

For more information please visit our website at:
www.docuware.com

Growing autobody company, Carubba Collision, integrated their accounting software with a document management solution to optimize its accounting processes.  The results: a corporate accounting department able to meet the demands of a growing business without additional staff.

Established in 1955, Carubba Collision is the largest body shop conglomerate in upstate New York with 16 locations across 11 cities. The company is dedicated to assisting customers with insurance claims and works hard to restore its customers’ vehicles to pre-accident condition, appearance and performance. Over the last two years, Carubba Collision entered a high growth phase opening 4-6 new locations a year.

Requirements

To manage this growth, Carubba’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Sean Penner, took a closer look at their existing software platforms. Since they were currently using capturing software, PSIcature by Psigen, to bring invoices into QuickBooks for processing and DocuWare, their document management software to store the invoices, it was determined that a tight integration could easily be leveraged through workflow automation and staff training.

Solution

CFO, Sean Penner, worked with his Authorized DocuWare Partner, ComDoc, to review DocuWare’s functionality and decide which features could best be utilized by Carubba. The Authorized DocuWare Partner provided hands-on training for all employees on the use of DocuWare and implemented tighter software integrations such as an “Invoice Look Up” button in QuickBooks which would take the staff directly to the needed invoice in DocuWare. They also added the “Connect to Outlook” feature which allowed the staff to easily send, receive and upload documents via email.

Benefits

“A general training on the basics of storing and searching in DocuWare and giving employees proper access, made a huge impact on employee buy-in resulting in an increase in our accounting department’s efficiency,” said Penner.

Carubba’s accounting staff was absolutely thrilled with the new work processes because it took away the tedious tasks like filing paper documents. They now have the ability to research a question and respond without ever leaving their desk. This goes a long way in improving customer service.

Today, the bulk of Carubba’s invoices arrive in paper and are scanned and automatically indexed. DocuWare is increasing employee accountability because it gives management an audit tool to review invoice accuracy. Documents are no longer filed. Carruba holds onto paper documents for 30 days, then shreds them.

Conclusion

Carubba is very happy with its DocuWare solution and hopes to expand it to its Human Resources department. As a final thought, Penner stated, “We’ve eliminated a couple of hours per employee per week by getting rid of manual, paper processes. It’s hard to quantify how many hours we’ve saved but the bigger benefit is that we’ve been able to add more stores and grow our business without adding operational costs such as more staff in accounting.”

Learn more about DocuWare here

DocuWorld 2018

May 7^th through the 10^th I attended this annual event which Docuware puts on for the ADP community.  Beginning with the Meet and Greet ****tail party Monday right through to the last technical session on integrations Docuware put on a great show.

One of the reason for attendance was the renewal of our DSC technical certification to maintain our ADP status.  Docuware was smart about this in that they split the days up between key notes and product presentations in the mornings and break-out sessions in the afternoons.  That way attendees were not sitting through an entire day of one or the other.   With partners from 20+ countries Docuware certainly demonstrated its true global nature.

Day 1, Tuesday morning was all about the release of Docuware version 7 (Koala) for both Cloud and On-Prem.  Of course Digital Transformation, was prominent throughout all of the presentations.  Jurgen Biffar, Steve Behm, Kevin Potts, Stefan Schindler, Mike Hellebuyck and Jeff Russo all added their passion for the product’s direction to the conversation.  My biggest take away was the introduction of “Kinectic Solutions” which will be pre-configured instances dedicted towards specific business functionality.  The first of which will be AP and HR on-boarding.

Koala boasts a huge structural change in Docuware by consolidating server services and engines to enhance performance.  We were given several presentations focusing on these changes and what they mean not only for customers but for us as their partners. 

Content Library now replaces Content and Thumbnail servers as well as Workflow engine.   Job server from Desktop components is merged into Platform.  Background Process Service now handles Instant Autoindex, Workflow Engine Tasks and former Content Server tasks just to touch on a few.

Tuesday night also featured what I thought was another smart move by Docuware.  Rather than having everyone simply standing around and mingling we had Casino night.  Who doesn’t like a little action after a long day of learning?  Dinner and drinks were available of course, but for some reason the lines were a lot shorter than I’ve normally seen them.   Hmmm, I wonder why? 

All of the “money” won was turned in at the end of the night for tickets towards a drawing for 5 -6 different prizes donated by some of the vendors in attendance.  Great night and lots of fun.  By the way, that’s my stack in the fore-ground.

Day 2, Wednesday had us back in the main ballroom for a continuation of the General Session with presentations by Steve Behm, Thomas Schneck, Max Ertl, Dr. Michael Berger, Markus Koelmans, Stefan Schmidt with a closing by Jeff Russo.  Continued focus on version 7 promoting the case for Docuware (unlike many of its competitors) is not simply a cloud or an on premise company, but in fact both.  Touting the industry driven migration from ECM to Content Services (a topic for another time) the presenters made the case for Docuware as a solution for businesses of all types while focusing principally on the SMB market.

Wednesday afternoon brought additional technical sessions focused on the new version’s functionality.  The presenters did a great job making the topics interesting and informative.  You know, it’s all about us geeks.

Wednesday night brought the final dinner for the event. , this time by the pool.  I obviously took these prior to the event as I did not want to infringe on anyone’s privacy or provide evidence of questionable behavior that may have arisen during the dinner.  It has been known to happen.

Finally for Thursday, there was a demo challenge at 7:30AM by various partners.  This was followed by additional sales and technical sessions which all wrapped up before lunch allowing everyone to make their flights home.  Kudos also to Docuware for chartering buses for attendees to return to the airport.  Saved me the $90.00 taxi ride and I think they actually got their quicker than the taxis did on the way out.

All in all another great event by Docuware.  If I had one point to make I would wish for a little more time to attend some of the other, non-required sessions just to feed by head outside the normal stuff.

Special thanx to Rick Backus for this blog.  If you'd like to know more about Rick, you can visit his Linkedin profile here.  If you're interested in learning more about partnering with DocuWare please visit here.

General Construction Company Improves Cash Flow with Accounting Workflow Management Software

General construction contractor specializing in telecommunications, Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc., implemented DocuWare Cloud in their accounting department to improve invoice approval times for employees in the field. Now, invoices can be approved from any mobile device. The solution boosted the accuracy of their cost accounting procedures by 90%, sped up invoice turnaround time, and improved cash flow.

Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc. (TEPS) is one of California and Nevada’s top telecommunications contractors, helping to build and maintain cell towers throughout that region. The company also provides general facility maintenance services that includes the building and maintaining of HVAC and AC/DC power systems, radio frequency systems, distributed antenna systems, hydrogen fuel cells, generators and battery backup systems. With a fleet of more than 50 one-ton, four-wheel drive trucks, and a Sno-Cat ATV vehicle with all-terrain tracks and certified drivers, the company can make on-site service calls to any location; in any season. 

Requirements

TEPS knew it was time to upgrade their accounting workflow to something electronic but the final push came when they received a request from a large customer for electronic copies of TEPS material invoices to better understand the material charges. In addition, almost 90% of the invoices TEPS received were digital and it just didn’t make sense to continue to print and process invoices in a paper-based format.

The company began looking for a solution that met these requirements: 1) mobile-ready and accessible from any device, 2) cloud-based and would not need to be tied to their server and 3) easy to implement and maintain.

Solution

After some research, TEPS choose to implement DocuWare Cloud in their accounting department as it fit all their requirements. The solution was configured and implemented remotely allowing for a quick go-live date.  Of the company’s 75 employees, about 18 people were trained to use the system.

Benefits

The new solution allowed TEPS to easily offer better customer service by quickly emailing requested supplier invoices to their clients.   The system turned out to be a huge time saver as well; TEPS has shaved off 20 man-hours a month which were spent on tracking down payable invoices out for approval.  With DocuWare in place, “approvers” that are in the field on job sites can now review and approve invoices on their mobile device keeping the accounting process flowing smoothly in a timely manner.

The company’s receivable invoice turnaround time has also been reduced by 2-3 days each month, creating better cash flow predictions in a real-time setting.  With total transparency, better business decisions can be made, and more critical tasks can be taken on as a result of implementing DocuWare.

“DocuWare Cloud allows us to do our jobs a lot faster. I can see where in the process each invoice is and easily know who I need to nudge to keep the system flowing,” said Pam Souza, Controller for Total Environmental & Power Systems, Inc.

Prior to implementing DocuWare Cloud, any invoice under $1,000 was paid with no review. With the new solution in place, every invoice is easily routed through a digital approval process, solidifying that every purchase is legitimate, the price is correct, and that the cost has been assigned to the right job number.

“We found that a lot of our invoices had inaccurate job numbers. With DocuWare Cloud, we simply have our project managers look at every invoice, large and small, and make sure everything is accurate. If the job number is wrong, the approver simply makes a digital note for us to change it. It is very important to apply our costs to the correct job and I’m happy to say we’ve improved the accuracy of our cost accounting by 90%,” stated Souza.

On the accounts receivable side, TEPS has enhanced their invoice turnaround time, narrowing the gap between completing a job and invoicing for the work, positively impacting their cash flow.

Conclusion

The owners of TEPS are very happy with the contribution DocuWare Cloud has made to their bottom line and look forward to expanding it to other departments.

Coordinated Information Management in Social Services Positively Impacts Families

United Family Services, a nonprofit agency that provides services for juvenile offenders and their families, implemented DocuWare Cloud to manage case files between five offices. Improved information security coupled with quick, easy access to information when needed has provided caseworkers more time to dedicate a higher quality of interaction with their clients. Productivity and accountability has also improved along with a lower stress-level for workers as they keep the goals of their organization in mind.

United Family Services (UFS) is a nonprofit organization that was established in 1991 in Arkansas to provide services for at-risk-youth, as well as juvenile offenders and their families. The organization’s goal is to keep families together, prevent out-of-home placement and reduce commitments and re-commitments to the Division of Youth Services Juvenile Justice System.

To achieve these goals the agency offers: Casework, Aftercare Services, House Arrest, Education and Therapy, Mental Health Services and Emergency Shelter and Residential Treatment.

Requirements

United Family Services has five offices throughout the state, over 50 employees and hundreds of clients, many of which are in multiple programs. Before implementing DocuWare, the agency was completely paper driven and transferring files between offices was cumbersome. If a client moved, someone would have to physically drive the file to the new office. Files were often quite large and the agency was running out of space to manage all this paper. In addition, the policies and procedures they had in place to secure their files and check for missing documents were laborious and inefficient.

UFS knew they wanted to implement an electronic database that could be shared across locations and across departments. Ease-of-use and cost were major issues and the agency just did not have the budget for a large software purchase expense. After evaluating five or six solutions, UFS decided to implement DocuWare Cloud because of its consistent cost per month, the software’s features, and the integrity of the agency’s trusted IT vendor and Authorized DocuWare Partner.

Solution

Lekita Thomas, UFS’s Special Program Manager, set up a series of workshops with her supervisors to standardize document and form names across programs and develop a uniform list of index fields. The agency’s intake form was also revised to make it relevant for all programs so information didn’t need to be duplicated. After an employee training class was held, caseworkers started using DocuWare Cloud immediately for all new clients. The second step was to scan all active files into DocuWare. To speed up this process, the agency hired and trained “scan workers” who completed this project in just two short months.

As a last step, the “scan team” met with case workers one-on-one to back scan their files. The agency is required to store seven years of case files. Once the files from the past two years were digitized, the decision was made to stop back scanning older files and focus on expanding the use of DocuWare to other work processes. Furthermore, with DocuWare Cloud in place, document retention became completely automated.

The agency set up 2-3 scanning stations in each office and developed a list of who was responsible for scanning which documents. Each program has its own “digital” file cabinet. The agency uses DocuWare’s “All Cabinets” search if they need to find the original intake form for a client or review which programs they are enrolled in.

“We made using DocuWare mandatory. Moving away from paper was hard for some of our employees but after a few weeks of seeing the benefits of a digital document solution and the user-friendliness of DocuWare Cloud, those that initially opposed came back to us to tell us how much they really liked the new system,” stated Thomas.

 Benefits

Revising the intake form and renaming documents eliminated duplicate work, simplified information access and streamlined document retrieval across the agency.

“Most of our clients are in more than one program, so when we revised our intake form, we eliminated a lot of unnecessary paperwork. Our updated form only has to be filled out once, regardless of the number of programs they join,” said Thomas, “And with more than 700 clients in multiple programs, this reduction in the amount of paperwork is a good thing.”

Document retrieval time has been drastically reduced now that files no longer need to be physically reviewed and checked in and out of a file room. When using paper, the agency had a lot of procedures and policies in place aimed at keeping track of information. Today, digital access and security have replaced those processes. Likewise, gaining the ability to electronically search a large case file has had a significant impact on the usability of existing information. These factors combined enhanced employee productivity.

Additionally, employee stress levels have decreased as the burden of working with time-intensive paper processes has been lifted allowing employees to have more bandwidth to dedicate to quality interactions with their clients. This new flexibility has improved their work-life balance and overall job satisfaction.

“I had a case worker take her client to a community college to enroll in school. The client felt very out of his element, so his caseworker took the time to sit with him throughout the entire financial aid process. DocuWare Cloud has lifted a burden for my caseworkers. They always made time for their clients but now they have the flexibility to really make a difference” said Thomas.

Now that DocuWare Cloud is in place, the agency’s file rooms have been repurposed and turned into an on-site clothing room for kids and adults clothing. “We may have a client going to a job interview with nothing appropriate to wear. A quick stop at our on-site clothes closet can make all the difference. I’m so glad that we now have the space to provide this service,” continued Thomas.

Approximately 10 employees, who used to work as “gatekeepers” and were responsible for checking files in and out of the file room, have been reassigned to other tasks.

Conclusion

DocuWare was so successful with the case files that the agency moved their Human Resources documents to DocuWare. Indexing the documents was easy and setting up security and controlled access rights to meet privacy requirements was straightforward. United Family Services even converted some of their HR forms from word documents to an online form that automatically indexes and stores itself when the new employee hits the “submit” button.

For Thomas, the biggest benefit for her personally is the increase in employee accountability.

“I never need to ask an employee, ‘How many visits did you do this week?’ I can just look up the information in DocuWare. I love the transparency it brings to our process,” said Thomas.

DocuWare Corporation | 4 Crotty Lane, Suite 200 | New Windsor, NY 12553

(888) 565-5907 | www.docuware.com

Bank Achieves AP Process Improvement with Cloud-based Digital Workflows and Secure Document Storage

Southeast National Bank implemented DocuWare, a modern document management solution, to digitize its own accounts payable process. The results: invoice approval time dropped from one week to a few hours positioning the company for future growth without the need to add staff.

Southeast National Bank (SENB) is a regional bank with 5 branches and 65 employees, offering a full range of banking services. 

Requirements

For their accounts payable department, SENB relied on a time-intensive paper-based system of making copies and shipping documents between branches for approval. The bank was ready to improve their accounting processes and streamline their workflow, so they contacted their IT vendor who evaluated their processes and suggested DocuWare Cloud because it offered them the flexibility, security and the quick onramp time they were looking for.

Solution

Working with an Authorized DocuWare Partner, the bank’s workflow was evaluated and a simpler process was developed using DocuWare Cloud. Employees were brought together for a training session and everyone quickly got onboard. Today, invoices and other accounts payable documents are routed through a digital workflow and approval process using electronic stamps. DocuWare interfaces with the bank’s general ledger software, Phoenix, and an accounts payable software, Banktel Systems, to streamline the entire process.

“When our vendor recommended DocuWare Cloud, we thought that was a good fit for us because we are very comfortable with the cloud software model and the security it offers our information,” said Don Schlorff, CFO and COO of Southeast National Bank.

Benefits

The bank’s entire accounts payable process changed for the better. Their old process was labor and time-intensive requiring them to make copies and ship them from branch to branch. Today’s process is very transparent and invoices are never “lost” in transit or left on someone’s desk.

“Our invoice approval process used to take a week, now it’s done in a few hours. Time savings is the biggest benefit DocuWare Cloud has brought us, plus knowing that our process is now so much more efficient, secure and searchable,” said Schlorff.

With DocuWare in place, Southeast National bank is positioned to grow without needing to add more staff. Additionally, the accounts payable person has been able to take on other responsibilities, allowing the company to leverage their human resources.

Conclusion

“DocuWare is so flexible it could really do anything; we started with it in the accounts payable department because moving to a digital system is what had to happen. We have been very happy with the results and will look for other areas where DocuWare can streamline our processes,” said Schlorff.

DocuWare Corporation | 4 Crotty Lane, Suite 200 | New Windsor, NY 12553        (888) 565-5907 | www.docuware.com

I was fortunate enough to spend some time recently getting to know Mike Hellebuyck, Senior Sales Director – West, at DocuWare and catch a glimpse of what life on the road is like for him.

As a sales director at DocuWare, he travels around the country, along with his team of Regional Sales Directors (RSDs), building successful business and personal relationships with Authorized DocuWare Partners and equipping them with the best tools and resources to sell DocuWare’s document management solutions.

Take a behind-the-scenes look at how he supports DocuWare Partners and why he loves making them thrive, with some fun stops along the way!

If any of this sounds like you want to be part of the action, learn how to join the global DocuWare community:  click here or contact Mary Williams at mary.williams@docuware.com.

Mike, thanks for the time today.  In sales, we are always reminded of  building relationships with our prospects.  Could you tell us more about yourself?

I was born and raised in Michigan, graduated in state, and have been in the ECM/document management space for roughly 16 years. I have 2 kids, Averie who is 6 and Hudson who is 3.  Outside of work, I enjoy vintage cars, fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling. I have always wanted to be in sales and knew it was my calling.  I started with DocuWare in 2012 handling MI, OH, IN and the Pittsburgh, PA area.  The territory was struggling to produce and I turned it into a top performing territory in just one year.

Pit Stop #tacobell What's the reason for the huge smile?

I got to the hotel late one night and I was hungry.  The Taco Bell was actually adjacent to the hotel, within walking distance.  I walked over and the doors were locked – the sign said “drive-thru only.”  So I walked through the drive-through and proceeded to jump up and down next to the order sign in hopes of triggering the tire sensor for vehicles.  Obviously I don’t weigh as much as a car, so I waited for the next vehicle to pull around to trigger the sensor.  When I heard “welcome to Taco Bell, please go ahead with your order”, I replied “I’m not in a car, I’m walking through and need a Burrito Supreme and a Mexican Pizza… lots of hot sauce.”  I was then told I would not be served unless I’m in a car, so I approached the vehicle behind me, had the gentleman roll down his window and engaged in a 1 minute sales pitch on why he should help me out… well, it worked!  I handed him my cash and walked around the corner to wait.  He pulled up and placed his order along with mine and met up with me around the corner to deliver my late night snack.  

How many partners do you work with? How is it working with them?

Supporting my team of RSDs, I work with about a dozen partners. Some we work with a lot, others not so much, but the door is always open to get them more engaged.  It’s always fun working with the partners as there are a lot of personality mixes.  Being good at sales means being able to adapt quickly to partner’s demands, while juggling communications between them, the customer, and of course, corporate.  Understanding and realizing very quickly how you need to work with a partner and how to help them become successful can be difficult but also very rewarding; especially if they have the same passion as me. 

The best thing I can do for a partner is to add value to their business.  If I’m just a channel manager, I’m no different than the competition and that’s why I strive to be a true partner that can add value by engaging directly in sales efforts to win business.  In many ways, as a sales manager, I’m the DocuWare cheerleader, relationship manager, solution presenter, and corporate controller for partners - the glue that ties a lot of things together.  I support corporate initiatives to partners, along with working side-by-side with sales representatives to help them through challenges; I’m their shoulder-to-lean-on and the motivator to get greatness out of them. 

The biggest joy for me is watching a partner grow from not producing much to reaching the top echelon of our partner rankings. The entire company gets on a roll and you see the momentum and teamwork.  Everyone gets excited and it makes my job very rewarding.    

How different is each week? Are some months busier than others?

Each week holds new journeys. Sometimes the events can be similar but the audience is always different so it stays exciting.

The busiest months include every month! And the last few days of each month are especially busy with all of us pushing hard to get deals done. If I had to choose just one, I’d have to say that September of 2017 was the busiest month in DocuWare history from a raw sales number; I’m not alone in saying it was also the busiest month for every RSD.

Almost looks like a scene from Wayne’s World and you guys were getting ready to blast out a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, right?  Just kidding, seems like you all were having a GREAT time. 

DocuWare RSD Mark Michonski, ComDoc, Inc. Document Management Specialist Ron Holtzer, and myself were on our way to a prospect appointment and game-planning how we were going to attack and close the deal.

What do you like best about your job? How are the relationships?

I would be lying if I didn’t say the opportunity to make as much money as I can, but that’s about me! Other than myself, I truly enjoy building relationships and watching the hard work pay off by a partner becoming successful and building a thriving DocuWare business.

I'm hoping that’s a sack of cash you’re toting around!  

I had landed in Pittsburgh, PA and was early.  My counterparts were in another meeting so I had a little time.  I decided to Uber to a casino in Downtown Pittsburgh and play a slot machine while waiting on my team to meet for lunch at the casino’s restaurant. No, I didn’t win, but was able to talk to the Accounting team at the casino about the benefits of DocuWare.  If you lose enough, you can talk to anyone!

How do you manage your work relationships vs time spent with your family?

These are my kids, Hudson and Averie.  My wife Amy is hiding from picture in back.  I was on my way out the door heading to the airport.  I wanted to get a goodbye shot and the kids wanted to be part of the fun, so they are waving hi and bye to all of you!

I miss my wife and kids while on the road but I know that I’m in a great industry and the opportunity is there to make a very good living as long as you work hard.  I know that if I can make my partners successful, it will make me successful. Having a roof over my head, food on the table, and a good education for my children is the most important thing for my family.  Fortunately, the good news is: I’m usually at home on the weekends! 

How do you help your partners succeed?

I help them succeed by getting their commitment to do things that I know have proven results. In my opinion, the secret sauce to being successful in this business is determination and patience. You also have to offer fair compensation plans; if you don’t, sales reps will simply not push the solution. I help my partners through these scenarios with proven solutions and open communication.

Hoping you're on your way home?

I was heading off to California for another week of travel.  I was lucky to see my flight wasn’t cancelled due to weather coming into town.  It’s always stressful with flights; you have to be very diligent about finding alternate options on the drop of a dime.  

What’s the best traveling story you have?

I was on a long road trip and it was late. After morning presentations in Buffalo, NY, I hit the road for my trip to Dayton, OH. At approximately 10:45 p.m., I received a text/call from a partner that had his demo system crash; he had a very big presentation the following morning and needed help.  I couldn’t do the meeting for him remotely based on my travels, so I pulled off the next exit and pointed my car in the other direction.  I made it to his house at 12:00 a.m. (midnight) and sat in his kitchen downloading my Virtual Machine shell to his laptop and configured a demo.  While I was working in his kitchen, he looked at me and said “I can’t believe you are here…. I just can’t believe you are here right now”!  At the end of the day or night, so to speak, he had his demo up and running for his morning meeting and was able to present and close the business a few weeks later.  I left his home at 1:00 a.m. and kept driving another 1.5 hours to my hotel.  

This looks like a great lunch spot to catch up!

TBS Ohio Solutions Architect Mark Parianos, DocuWare RSD Mark Michonski and myself were having lunch overlooking a river near Cleveland, OH.  It was a nice place to eat, strategize on upcoming sales calls and recap the previous days’ events.  It also provided a great opportunity to really connect with our partners to build relationships, which is very important. 

Why should dealers partner with DocuWare? What’s the best thing about working with the DocuWare team?

It’s simple. DocuWare provides companies the best opportunity to build a successful, sustainable document management business.  There are a lot of products out there, some very similar to DocuWare.  Your company can choose to represent any of them, but with DocuWare, you are investing in both a top product and a special kind of partner relationship. 

We are truly dedicated to your success and want to be directly involved in your company to build your DocuWare business.  Many times you are left on your own shortly after signing on with a product, and unfortunately many of these companies fail.  Sink or swim!  We do not play that way.  We have a well-balanced team of RSDs with an entrepreneurial spirit, dedicated to heavily engaging with partners to excel.

If I were a company looking at reviving or developing a new a document management business and had dedication and persistence, I would definitely consider DocuWare.  My team and I will get it done with you.

Please feel free to look me up on LinkedIn and connect - I’d love to get to know you and bounce ideas around!