|
TOKOPEN
WORKFLOW TRACKS THE CONTRACTS AT DANKA UK
Danka
UK - www.danka.com - is
a leading independent provider of enterprise imaging systems
and services. Worldwide, Danka employs over 8,000 staff. The
company has a strong focus on solutions for document management,
workflow, copying and printing, and is a reseller for Tokairo's
document management system TokOpen.
With over 24,000 machines installed and more than 15,000
lease, rental and service contracts, the company is signing
between 250 and 300 new contracts every month. Approving,
tracking, managing and accessing these to answer customer
queries had traditionally been handled by a manual, paper-based
process. This was laborious, slow and outdated. It also presented
problems in satisfying mandatory financial compliance regulations
and increasingly came to be seen as a brake on the business.
Now, the company has solved the problems by installing
Tokairo's TokOpen workflow and document solution for its contracts
department. Plans are also in hand to roll the system out
across the whole enterprise.
|
Key
drivers
"Approving and managing contracts is a complex
operation involving over 10 basic steps. Additional
people can be involved in the process, depending
on individual contracts." says Danka UK Commercial
Operations Manager, Mark Brooks. "Formerly,
this was entirely manual although we had been
using TokOpen for basic archiving."
"But the actual process of getting director
authorisation for a contract, putting it through
the various stages, ensuring that information
was passed to relevant members of staff and extracting
details for input to different files and databases
was extremely time-consuming"
|
|
|
|
|
|
"It meant delving into cupboards and filing cabinets,
photocopying and faxing, and there was always a risk
that documents could be lost or mis-filed. During the
lifecycle of a contract there are numerous occasions
when staff need to access and refer to it at short notice
when, for example, a customer has a query. Responding
meant physically digging out the paperwork and that
usually involved having to call the customer back".
"There was also the need to demonstrate compliance
with financial regulations including, for example, the
provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act - www.sarbanes-oxley.com
- and running an audit on piles of paper was not the
best way," says Brooks.
While Danka's business grew, the volume of contracts
increased and with increasing regulation of financial
transactions, the need to be able to access information
quickly and easily became more and more pressing. A
trigger for automating the process came when the company
established a centralised operation and set up a separate
contracts department.
"As a supplier of document management and workflow
solutions to a wide range of customers, we were well
aware of the technologies available and decided the
time had come to embrace them more comprehensively ourselves".
|
 |
|
Key
reasons why Danka UK selected TokOpen
"In addition to supplying TokOpen to customers,
we had been using elements of it ourselves for
some time and were familiar with its capabilities,
for example, in archiving. We liked its rugged
structure, familiar look-and-feel, reliability,
straightforward implementation and user-friendliness,"
says Brooks".
"Its ability to provide full access to remote
users on the move via its Web module meant that
we would be able to achieve contract authorisations
off-site, provide other directors with instant
details of new contracts - and allow local service
managers to be aware of business being signed
in their respective areas".
"This was important because it would allow
them to get a better picture of new business being
signed and help to ensure that we achieved required
performance on the varying levels of service provision.
These days, improving and maintaining customer
satisfaction has become increasingly important
and we felt that TokOpen's workflow functionality
would provide a stable and scalable platform to
achieve this," says Brooks.
"We also wanted a workflow solution that
would fit easily with our VALE management information
system and be able to support information flow
between the two. We were satisfied that TokOpen
would be able to accomplish this".
|
|
|
|
|
|
How TokOpen helped
The contract process is complicated. First, it has
to be checked to ensure the correct product and part
number has been selected, cost-per-click rates are checked,
depending on paper volumes, the product has to be located
and service level provision confirmed. The product has
to be located and authorising signatures applied with
the number of these depending on sale value. Specialist
contracts are also checked. These can have pre-set prices
for public sector customers such as schools or Ministry
of Defence.
When all these verifications have been performed, the
contract is submitted to a director for approval. At
this stage, some annotations might have been added to
the document and a director may query, reject or approve
the deal.
Then comes contract definition where final data is
input using the VALE MIS. Next is the audit stage where
the contract is reviewed for compliance with the Sarbanes
Oxley Act. The contract is then sent to the customer
for approval and also goes to Danka's sales order processing
desk.
There, the VALE system is used to input more information,
such as product configuration. Finally, the equipment
is ordered, contract sent to customer for final approval,
customer despatch date confirmed and nearest Danka engineer
notified of install date. When the product is installed,
the engineer updates VALE and the bill is issued to
the customer.
"TokOpen has automated all this," says Brooks.
"The result is a dramatic reduction in time taken
to complete the contract processes, documents are no
longer mis-filed or lost and information retrieval is
faster and easier".
"We now have complete confidence in being able
to satisfy all requirements of the Sarbanes Oxley Act,
for which TokOpen is now successfully supporting full
audits. Everyone who needs to be is now always in the
loop and can see the process progressing. The Web access
facility means those whose input is required but who
are offsite can now respond just as quickly as if they
were in the office".
"TokOpen has helped us raise awareness of SLA
response times and obligations, improve reporting in
terms of both speed and accuracy, and boost productivity.
Using it has helped us significantly increase our workload
as the business grows without employing additional staff.
In fact, I'd estimate that it has effectively given
us another person at no extra cost".
"Overall it has had a beneficial effect on our
business culture; we can provide a sharper, quicker
and more responsive service to customers. For example,
users have two screens - one for TokOpen and the other
for the VALE MIS. Any customer query or internal transaction
request can now be handled and responded to immediately.
A hot key on VALE enables the user to interrogate TokOpen
and bring up all information on any contract straight
away".
"Essentially, it has given us a firmer grip on
the business, enabling managers and directors to take
a much more comprehensive view of what is actually happening
with both current and pending activity. Since it went
live, we have identified further likely productivity
gains through increased use of the system's functionality.
Our plan is to roll TokOpen out across the entire enterprise".
|
|
