Mattress Manufacturer Rests Easy
as Cash Flow Improves

By Kara Weston

National mattress manufacturer, Corsicana Bedding Inc., implemented DocuWare to manage proof of delivery documents. The results: lightning fast, secure, storage and access of information for a significant improvement in cash flow; a knowledge base available to all employees for a dramatic improvement in customer service; and automation of key business processes.

Company

Established in 1971, Corsicana Bedding Inc. is a national mattress manufacturer with three large production plants and two distribution centers across the country. The company employs over 450 people and distributes it’s product to over 4,000 retail centers nation wide.

Documents

Corsicana needed a better way to manage its documents and resultant cash flow. For each delivery, the company produces an invoice. The customer, upon receipt of delivery signs the invoice, which then act as a proof of delivery document. With over 350 deliveries a day, the company wanted to invest in a system to collect information from all locations and make it immediately available to the corporate office. The situation the company was facing was that information was taking too long to get back to the corporate accounting department so that customer account information could be updated and reconciled. In addition, until the information was received, responses to customer questions were delayed.

Work Process

In addition to manufacturing their product, Corsicana has its own fleet of drivers who deliver mattress to retail centers across the nation. The drivers are issued a paper invoice for each delivery on their truck. Upon delivery, the customer signs the invoice to accept the shipment and pays the driver. As a “Cash on Delivery” (COD) company, the driver’s hand written notes about items marked as short shipped or damaged are crucial to resolving payment issues. This document is Corsicana’s ‘proof of delivery’ and is the key document used in resolving payment disputes based on quantity and the condition of goods delivered. Drivers return the signed invoice and the payment check to the distribution center or plant where the delivery originated. The information is then packed up and mailed to corporate headquarters in Corsicana, Texas, for processing.

Business critical documentation was being shipped by multiple people from various locations. This presented a huge challenge for customer service personnel located at the corporate office, often making it extremely difficult to research and resolve disputes quickly. This in turn led to upset customers who simply wanted answers. Additionally, the accounting documents from the different locations were divided by account, among the accounting staff and then filed at each desk, making it difficult for anyone but a specific employee to assist a customer with a problem. Due to the volume of invoices, refiling was sometimes an issue and hindered the quick resolution of customer questions.

Solution Requirements

Corsicana wanted to invest in a document management system in order to quickly capture information from multiple locations and store it in one central, easy-to-access document pool. The company needed a system that would allow employees to quickly research and answer customer questions in order to improve customer relations. They also needed a solution that would enable the accounting department to automate the workflow and at the same time enable them to improve the collection process. Additionally, the solution needed to be available to any employee, provided they had the proper authorization, so that a company knowledge base was created that allowed information to be shared so that employees were empowered to assist and resolve questions.

Solution

Imagetek Office Systems, an Authorized DocuWare Partner, implemented the company’s DocuWare solution. Today, each location uses a Canon Image Runner scanner to scan and e-mail the signed customer invoices and other accounting information directly to the corporate office. The information is sent to a ‘watched’ folder on their server where using the invoice number as a matchcode, data is pulled from the company’s AS400 system to index the remaining fields by customer name, order number and date. All the accounting information is stored in an electronic file cabinet. This electronic file cabinet or document pool is available to all employees who have been given the rights to access this information. The DocuWare file cabinet is able to store any file type, whether it is incoming email, PC generated files, incoming faxes, scanned papers and even mainframe date. Once this information is in a central document pool, a single search can locate all the documents related to a business process. Corsicana now has all of the documents starting with the customer’s original purchase order, straight through to the signed invoice acting as the proof of delivery along with payment information all in one spot and available to its authorized employees. The images and index information from the electronic file cabinet is backed up to CD and stored offsite as part of their normal and routine security procedures.

Benefits in Detail

User Benefits
Thanks to DocuWare, everyday tasks are so much easier for the accounting staff. Files are in one location and easily available, improving productivity and job satisfaction.

Department Benefits

The company’s human assets can be redirected to other revenue generating activities since certain tasks, such as refiling, have been eliminated. Additionally, having one central document archive allows any authorized representative to answer a customer’s question because document retrieval can be instantly done from the desktop. The company is saving 3-5 minutes of retrieval time per request and eliminating the need to place a customer on hold or call them back after the information was located, greatly improving customer service and increasing productivity. The department has also seen a decrease in operating expenses by eliminating the mailing of paper documents and the staff time dedicated to periodically purging paper files. Employees are less stressed and enjoy greater job satisfaction which should lead to reduced turnover resulting in lower departmental cost savings for recruitment and training of personnel.

Corporate

DocuWare has enabled Corsicana to manage their critical business information to automate business processes and create a knowledge database available to empower all authorized employees. Customer service and accounting processes are now managed quickly and efficiently. By capturing all documentation in DocuWare, information flows quickly and has significantly enhanced Corsicana’s cash flow and bottom line.

“Our cash flow and customer service have greatly improved, but one of the most notable things DocuWare has done for us is give us complete control of our information. We can use our DocuWare database of invoices as a research tool to easily gather information for our marketing efforts. This was impossible to do with a paper-based system,” said Matt Jackson, Director of IT for Corsicana Bedding.

With the security of DocuWare managing their information; Corsicana Bedding can stay focused on its core objective, manufacturing quality mattresses.

Tasks

• Gain faster access to business critical information
• Speed the flow of information to the corporate archive
• Improve customer service

Benefits

• Improved cash flow
• One central electronic archive provides timely access to information
• Better customer service with decrease in document retrieval time

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Kara Weston is with DocuWare Corporation. She can be reached at 845-563-9045.

This Case Study was provided to TAWPI exclusively.

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