- Speeds and simplifies applicant processing

- Provides faster, more competitive placement and sharper credit control

- Pays for itself in less than a year

TokOpen Classroom - www.classroomteachers.co.uk - is a leading supply teacher agency. The company provides staff for over 100 schools in the London area. It receives and processes around 160 new teacher applicants a month and fills 1500 teaching days a week.

The agency has grown rapidly since its foundation in 2001, now employing 15 consultants and 8 support/admin/managerial staff and turning over more than £7.3 million a year. Recently, Classroom opened its first UK satellite office in Manchester. Overseas branches are in Pretoria and Melbourne.

Sharing the same London West End headquarters office in Regent Street, the firm's sister company Bentley Associates - www.bentleyassociates.co.uk - provides recruitment services in the professional and business sectors. Both organisations also share the same IT resources and systems - based on a PC network running Microsoft Office. The key application is an internally developed Access applicant and retained personnel database.

When looking for a workflow/DM system Classroom identified several key drivers

"We'd been running the business with paper and filing cabinets," says Operations Director Richard Gilbey. "While the Access database itself was easy enough to use, many of the documents in each file were not easily susceptible of electronic formatting. For example, photographs, National Insurance and P45 forms, visas, reference letters delete "and correspondence with the Criminal Records Bureau" to establish suitability for employment, as well as photocopies of a variety of other documents such as completed application questionnaires and teaching certificates."

"With up to 30 different documents per applicant file, and around 40 new applicants a week, that meant a lot of paper and a lot of filing cabinets. Files are accessed regularly and updated with new references whenever necessary, and trawling through them by 23 employees was laborious. Sometimes files were lost or returned with documents missing. This meant more time searching for paper."

A particular problem was that as we work a 6am to 6pm day in shifts, if someone on early shift had not returned a file then it would be unavailable to those on late. And because it was paper, only one person at a time could access a file".

"This meant that answering queries could be delayed and processing of an applicant slowed. Altogether, it was an unsatisfactory way of working. Especially as the technology to provide a more effective solution was available and affordable."

"Now, all information previously held on paper is available instantly - by any number of users simultaneously. Not only from individual office PCs but via the web wherever a consultant needs access. This could be at home, with a client or just on the move. Classroom and Bentley Associates multi-page registration questionnaire pack information is captured and automatically indexed - and all current, live files have been back-scanned so we have all active staff details on the system."

"Consultants no longer have to rummage through filing cabinets and there is a very significant increase in productivity through the time saving. Because of the indexing and search functionality, it is much easier to go straight to the information in a file that is needed. It also means that updating files is much quicker - and nothing gets lost or misplaced, or left on someone else's desk."

"Improved access means that we can be more competitive. For example, when we get an emergency call early in the morning for someone to replace a teacher off sick, the consultant can instantly call up details of a likely supply alternative instead of having to tell the school that they would call back. This means we have a better chance of placing our teacher before other agencies. It also means we can contact the proposed replacement teacher quicker to check their availability."

"Overall, it enables us to provide a more responsive and professional service. It has also enabled us to dramatically reduce what we had thought we might have to spend on additional office space to accommodate physical files. Now, we no longer need the extra office which would have cost us around £20,000 a year. (Bentley Associates and Manchester have no connection) Because Bentley Associates share the system with us, we no longer need to appoint a full time administration assistant in the newly opened Manchester office. These savings are more than the cost of the system itself. It will, literally, have paid for itself within a year."

"There have also been significant advantages gained in the financial department. For example, there is now data capture and manual indexing of all Classroom and Bentley Associates old and new sales invoice - running at the rate of around 500 a week. We now have made this fully automated. We're now considering the option to completely automate the process. The system also handles the capture and indexing of all payroll documentation."

"This has improved credit control and given us a tighter grip on outstandings," says Gilbey. "Now, whenever there is a query from a client, we can call up the relevant invoice and supporting documentation immediately. No more delays while we hunt for paperwork and no need to call back later."

"All in all, the system has had a very strong impact on the business. It has removed what now seems the almost medieval manual reliance on paper and filing cabinets and helps us focus more strongly on what we actually want to do."