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Electronic document management helps Cornwall College greatly improve their efficiency and free up storage space
Date: 29/05/2008
Cornwall College is making use of document management and imaging software to change their processes and gain more office storage space while improving efficiency in invoice processing.
Using document management software from Version One, it will integrate with their in-house Distinction QL accounting system; this will eventually allow electronic storage of around 200,000 documents each year including invoices, certificates, statements and personnel records. The college’s senior finance members will also be able to electronically authorise purchase invoices and automatically capture and use the data from these invoices, which will reduce manual data entry.
The college is now spreading the process across ten more of their sites around Cornwall, Devon and Worcestershire. They explained how manual and inefficient paper-based tasks had been impacting on staff time and caused large inefficiencies. It also didn’t help that rooms were being used for storage of paper documents when they could be used for teaching or extra office space.
The college’s aim was to get rid of paper based invoice approvals which took a long time between communication and processing especially when it amounted to around 60,000 invoices per year. Now using the new scanning and approval software the approvers are able to accept, reject or query them within a matter of seconds which frees up time for more productive work while also reducing errors and administration costs.
A scanner is used to scan incoming documents which are then stored on to Version One’s software; these are then accessible via a web browser or searching through Distinction QL. The electronic archiving takes away the need to photocopy any invoices which helps office efficiency and the environment.
The next step for the college is to help storage of other document types such as academic certificates, and staff records such as driving licenses, passports, and medical information. The college has realised the significance in which document scanning and archiving has helped them in the long term.
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