Real Estate And Construction Firm Lays Digital Document Foundation With GRM

For a growing Virginia-based Real Estate and Construction Management Company, moving to a new facility was the ideal opportunity to transition more paper-based information to the cost savings of a digital environment.

Washington, D.C (PRWEB) - GRM, a leader in lifecycle information management solutions, announced today that it is providing majorpaper-to-digital migration services to a growing Virginia-based Real Estate and Construction Management Company.

“The opportunity emerged from plans for the company to relocate its operations,” said Greg Chalmers, Digital Sales Executive for GRM’s Washington D.C. facility. “While strategizing that move, the company’s leadership saw that significant cost savings could be realized by transitioning more paper-based information to digital. As a result, GRM and several other information management providers were asked to bid on the electronic conversion of some 200,000 large format drawings and more than 1.7 million pages of leases, financial records and Human Resources documents.”

At an early, but critical stage in the vetting process, when personnel at the real estate company started expressing concerns about sending their important physical files offsite, Chalmers helped calm fears. He discussed GRM’s PrecisionPLUS process for securely managing files from pickup through conversion, ensuring staff members that their information would always be easily accessible.

When the field of contenders was narrowed to three, including GRM, the real estate company decided to put the finalists to a test. Each vendor was given two boxes of files to convert and deliver in accordance with the file layout required by the company’s Yardi Orion real property management solution.

To pick up the files, Chalmers was joined by GRM Client Relations Manager, Sam Schor, who walked the client through GRM’s entire system and process. In short order, the test files were bar-coded and transported to a GRM facility. But then an urgent call came from the main client contact, asking for a specific file that was needed immediately. Instead of the client enduring a 2-hour round trip journey to retrieve the file, a time-saving alternative of scanning and sending the digital copy electronically was suggested.

From the first emergency call to the client receiving the digitally converted copy, it all took less than 30 minutes.”

Impressed with GRM’s rapid turnaround, the client gave the other two vendors a similar challenge. One took two hours to deliver a requested file; the other didn’t respond until the next day. Both of these providers also failed to demonstrate an effective process for maintaining continuous file accountability.

“Ultimately,” continued Chalmers, “GRM’s ability to track, locate and deliver files rapidly proved to be the deciding factor in winning the business. It wound up being more important than any other factor.”

Working closely with the client, Chalmers and Schor have already begun the paper-to-digital migration. Commercial and residential leases as well as financial and Human Resources files are being converted for Yardi Orion-consistent imaging running parallel with the GRM Online Record Center digital repository. In support of the ongoing process, GRM has made arrangements to provide monthly uploads of client files to Yardi for import into its Yardi system.

From the GRM D.C. facility to its Cloud-based Online Record Center, files are now being imaged, converted and electronically uploaded to provide secure storage, immediate access, workflow automation integration and substantial savings in time and cost. For the monthly uploading of client files to Yardi, a file compare tool will be employed to ensure that all properties and units in the Yardi database have an associated lease and lease correspondence file.

“Through GRM’s solution,” said Chalmers, “the client now has an effective, single source repository for realizing information sharing and collaborative teamwork enterprise wide. This enables faster, more informed decisions, the elimination of time-consuming manual tasks, increased accuracy and reduced overhead.”

“The client’s staff has been won over by the system’s ease of use and quick responsiveness,” added Schor. “Cost-effective applications have already been run for finance, commercial and residential properties management, leases and Human Resources, with more expected to follow.”

About GRM
GRM is a leading provider of lifecycle records and information management solutions. The company continues to demonstrate technological leadership by bringing proprietary innovation to document storage solutions, digital records management, data protection services, document shredding services and healthcare release of information.

Fully integrated products and services include: eAccess remote inventory control, the private Cloud-based Online Record Center ECM, business process workflow automation with the industry’s most powerful eForms application tool, a blended paper to digital migration solution, the GRMpedia retention regulatory research tool and consultative Compliance and Governance expertise.

GRM's full service capabilities are available in major markets throughout the U.S., including, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

GRM is also currently the largest records management company in China. GRM also has facilities in Lima, Peru and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. For more information, visit the GRM web site at http://www.grmdocumentmanagement.com.