Filanc Construction Builds Paperless Business Processes With eCopy Document Imaging Solutions From Nuance
Nuance recently announced J.R. Filanc Construction Company Inc. has selected Nuance's eCopy PaperWorks software to create paperless office processes that make it easier to keep workflows moving.
With half its employees out in the field at construction sites every day, Filanc found using courier services to send and retrieve stacks of documents to and from job sites was expensive and led to inefficient work processes. So they decided to go paperless to reduce costs and improve workflows.
Today at Filanc, all corporate information goes into a Microsoft SharePoint repository with every department having its own SharePoint page. And to bring paper-based information, such as invoices, construction specifications and job plans, into SharePoint libraries, Filanc uses eCopy PaperWorks software.
"PaperWorks software has minimized the touches of a document that is moving from hardcopy to a SharePoint library to a business workflow," said Rob Slaughter, information technology director at J.R. Filanc Construction Company. "It has helped us make valuable corporate information more accessible - and not just in the office but also at our job sites."
Microsoft SharePoint and eCopy PaperWorks are components of the Thin Operating Platform System envisioned by company president and CEO Mark Filanc to go towards a paperless office and have a green business. PaperWorks has built-in integration to Microsoft SharePoint - and this tight connection between the applications allows Filanc to store scanned documents in SharePoint libraries so workers anywhere can fully participate in SharePoint workflows.
For example, to accelerate accounting processes, Filanc project managers at work sites now receive emails with links to scanned invoices stored in SharePoint. Using PaperWorks on their laptops, they check-out documents from SharePoint, act on them using eCopy annotation tools and then check-in updated documents with full version control by SharePoint, completing review and approval while in the field.
Filanc is no longer printing out accounting and other documents, and sending them by courier to work sites. PaperWorks provides remote support through Citrix Presentation Server so Filanc users can view, edit and save documents from any client device at any location - especially important for mobile workers that move among multiple job sites.
PaperWorks and Microsoft SharePoint are also working together in Filanc offices to improve business processes. To capture paper-based information, Filanc office personnel scan documents to a shared network folder using an office copier or scanner. Once someone scans a document, the Nuance software adds a notification on the person's desktop toolbar that scanned documents are available.
Filanc personnel can then act on the documents at their desktops using PaperWorks tools such as text annotation, redaction and time stamps. Documents are saved as searchable PDF files - to make it easy to search later for content within documents - and added to a SharePoint library or sent via email for further review and action.
"We are heavy SharePoint users and nothing else on the market measures up to PaperWorks software when it comes to working with paper and electronic documents in SharePoint environments," said Slaughter.
Filanc is also planning to utilize the merge capabilities of PaperWorks to combine scanned documents and files in other electronic formats, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, into a single PDF file - simplifying business processes that mix paper and electronic documents.
Filanc Construction Company is a construction firm that specializes in water and wastewater facilities, treatment plants, water reclamation facilities, solid waste recycling facilities, pump stations, reservoirs and hydroelectric generating facilities. It is headquartered in Escondido, Calif. and has an office in Phoenix, Ariz.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
SOURCE: Nuance