Case Study: Universal Forest Products

Improving Multiple Business Processes In Multiple Sites

Universal Forest Products has improved the efficiency of numerous business processes in multiple sites across the United States and Canada by implementing an OnBase ECM system in several departments. A distributed capture model allows data to be collected onsite with minimal labor and shared across the enterprise.

Based in Grand Rapids, MI, Universal Forest Products (UFP) is a Fortune 1000 manufacturer and distributor of wood and wood-alternative products to retail/dealer, site-built construction, manufactured housing and industrial markets.

Situation

According to Scott Bravata, corporate controller at UFP, the company had been receiving requests for ECM (enterprise content management) technology for some time. “Considering our growth, it was more important to use our space for people, not cabinets,” remarks Bravata. However, the existing standalone systems couldn’t be scaled to meet enterprise needs. Though it was clear that UFP needed an enterprise system, the company was also conscious of its financial obligations to shareholders and sought to contain costs. “We looked at solutions that market themselves as enterprise class, but the entry price was too high and implementation time was too long,” says Bravata. The catalyst for purchasing a new ECM solution eventually originated in the Legal Department. Facing the increasing quantity of legal documents as a public company, UFP management realized it needed a way to maintain and easily retrieve data and documents that might be relevant to a case or issue and verify the history and revisions of a document to minimize risk.

The Solution

UFP was introduced to OnBase, ECM software developed by Hyland Software Inc., by existing business partner Business Strategy, Inc., an authorized OnBase solution provider. OnBase is enterprise-class software that combines document management and business process automation. “We looked at the competitors, but we wanted to start on a small scale,” comments Tiffany Bangma, business analyst at UFP. “Other imaging solutions we looked at couldn’t do that and still meet the needs of the whole company. By being able to implement OnBase one department at a time, it wasn’t overwhelming, and it was cost effective.” OnBase can handle thousands of users, terabytes of data and more than a million transactions a day on a single server. “We also wanted a partnership with someone we could hold to the same high standards as our own employees,” adds Bravata. “UFP has been pleased with the level of service offered by Hyland Software and our OnBase integration and support partner, Business Strategy, Inc.”

Legal Department Minimizes Risk, Improves Access

As planned, the Legal Department was the first to implement the OnBase solution for case management, contracts, personnel files related to employee complaints or suits and correspondence. Scanned images, e-mails and/or attachments and other documents are sent to the secure OnBase repository, where they can be organized according to organizational needs, cross-referenced with related documents and easily retrieved by users with appropriate rights. One of the primary requirements for legal staff was the ability to track document revisions. The OnBase EDM Services module enables users to review the history of a document, including information regarding who accessed it.

To track contract status, UFP’s Legal Department uses OnBase WorkView, which allows organizations to track and manage a wide range of business interactions whether they are case based, project based or process based. Workflow routs documents and notifications to appropriate employees in the Legal, Insurance and Credit departments according to UFP’s business rules. Not only has OnBase reduced the amount of space needed to store files, it has increased access to documents while maintaining the necessary security and control. When members of the legal staff travel, they can access OnBase via the Web. “OnBase has become a great time saving tool for us. Instead of having someone look up the file and call the customer back, I can discuss the issue with them while I look the documents up on the computer,” comments Ken Savage, staff counsel. In addition, incoming paper mail is scanned and e-mailed to traveling staffers. Even outside counsel can be provided with relevant documents via e-mail or case histories exported to CD.

Maintaining Payroll Files for employees in multiple Locations

The advantages of using OnBase in distributed environments were next realized in the Payroll Department. UFP operates four regional payroll groups to serve its employees at all the plants. Prior to implementing OnBase, documents would have to be pulled from files and faxed whenever there was an inquiry.

Business Strategy helped UFP create virtual payroll files. Now, Payroll Department employees scan personnel documents. Kofax Ascent software automatically indexes the documents that are then processed into OnBase using the OnBase Document Import Processor (DIP) module.

In addition to making documents more readily available, UFP’s OnBase system monitor file completeness and reduces the labor associated with auditing files. If critical documents, such as an I-9, W-2 or W-4, are missing, the OnBase Exception Reports module automatically generates a list of missing files. “In the past, we would have to send people out to individual operations, where they would spend days auditing files for completeness,” says Bravata. “This will save UFP thousands of dollars a year.”

Central Access to Invoices from remote Accounts Payable Sites

While the Legal Department may have been the catalyst for UFP’s OnBase installation, the biggest success to date may be in the Accounts Payable Department. Prior to implementing OnBase, whenever a document was requested or an audit required, the site at which those specific accounts payable files were received and stored would have to be called so the physical documents could be pulled and then faxed to the requestor.

UFP’s OnBase accounts payable solution puts the responsibility in the hands of the knowledge workers who collect and use these documents in their daily routines. When an invoice is received at one of the many sites that process accounts payable, the accounts payable clerk scans the invoice. Upon scanning, documents are captured using Ascent Capture via the Internet. Scanned batches are then sent to UFP’s main office where Kofax’s Ascent Capture Internet Server receives the batches centrally. Kofax Capture reads the barcode that has been applied, conducts a lookup into the accounts payable system and locates the transaction with the unique document number. Additional index values such as vendor, invoice number, purchase order number, dates and amounts are automatically retrieved from the line-of-business application and used to fully index the image with those values. The documents and index fields are imported into the centralized OnBase repository. Once in the system, employees at all UFP facilities have immediate access to their plant documents.

These scanning stations are tracked using a solution, UFP’s OnBase administrator, configured using OnBase WorkView. The asset tracking application provides a consolidated view of the hardware and software located at each site. It also provides a mechanism for tracking all issues and how they were resolved. As a result, IT staff can quickly identify recurring problems or other trends that affect productivity.

Lemon estimates that some branches are capturing as many as 200-300 invoices a day. Because of the integration with PSI, indexing accuracy is approximately 100%, compared to the 80% or less using an outsourcer. Documents are simultaneously available to multiple users throughout the enterprise the day they are received, and the risk of lost documents is greatly reduced.

To underscore the enhanced security of maintaining an electronic document repository, one of UFP’s Canadian facilities suffered a devastating fire just months after the OnBase implementation. Because it was no longer relying on paper documents, the accounts payable operation at that plant was back up in three or four days. A replacement workstation and scanner were set up and deployed, and the plant was back in production on the accounts payable side very quickly with no lost documents.

UFP’s OnBase investment continues to deliver returns by significantly reducing labor. Employees no longer have to answer as many calls for document requests, and copying and faxing costs are slashed. When an authorized employee needs a document critical to job performance, it is immediately available from virtually anywhere. If a document must be sent to someone without access to OnBase, it can be e-mailed directly from the OnBase repository.

The OnBase implementation has also reduced or eliminated the need for some planned purchases to accommodate growth. For example, the Payroll Department scrapped plans to purchase additional fireproof file cabinets. The Western Region Purchasing Office had anticipated a need to hire a full-time employee to handle payables, but the efficiencies realized through OnBase made it possible for this work to be performed by a part-time employee.

Improving processes also saves money in less obvious ways. For instance, Lemon points out that getting a handle on sales tax exemption forms helps UFP avoid unnecessary and costly penalties. The response from UFP’s employees has also been positive. “We wanted to put quality and responsibility in the hands of the users,” says Bravata. “We immediately received positive feedback on that, in large part because of the tremendous improvements in accuracy. People trust what they do themselves.”

When it comes to return on investment for a fiscally conscious company like UFP, OnBase has been deemed a success. “We quickly reached the minimum ROI to prove the concept and moved on from there,” says Bravata. “We knew it was a good business practice, and we needed it to keep up with demands for speed and consistency. The demand for this product inside UFP is amazing. Soft costs savings and efficiencies were bonuses.”

Benefits

  • Effectively scaled from departmental to enterprise.
  • Reduced labor required for document retrieval, customer service and auditing.
  • Supports secure enterprise-wide access to multiple users in multiple locations.
  • Provides tools that help maintain file completeness and integrity.
  • Assists in business continuity/disaster recovery strategies.
  • Increased indexing accuracy from approximately 80% to 100% over outsourced solution.
  • Offers functions such as redaction and security rights that protect privacy.
  • Reduces or eliminates need to ship documents between locations.
  • Critical corporate knowledge is held in a single repository and can be updated immediately.
  • Supports Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance and regulatory requirements.