Document Management for Construction
Adapted from Square-9.com
Serving the natural gas industry since 2004, Gas Field Services in Rosedale, Virginia, specializes in well tending, site construction, pipelines, facility operations, water disposal and consulting. With construction crews spread out across four states, Gas Field Services is committed to providing top quality service at every project site.
Most Gas Field Services employees work in the field, without access to documents stored in the office. An inconvenience for remote workers, this led to a timely and inefficient back-and-forth of information. Even the fax machine was constantly backlogged! It became more important than ever for Gas Field Services to find a document management solution that was easy to use and capable of growing with the company as they continue to expand.
Beyond cutting down on paper, what the construction firm needed most was automated Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for streamlined data capture, and automatic categorization to keep remote employees organized and connected. After one brief yet informative phone call, Gas Field Services found their solution. GlobalSearch® Enterprise Content Management from Square 9, was the right fit for their needs.
Offering the capabilities they were looking for – and more – GlobalSearch not only brought their office up to date technologically, but the award-winning solution streamlined business processes within the Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable departments, improving the management and distribution of vehicle maintenance records. With KeyFree Indexing, a built-in OCR feature, a simple point and click on the check number and amount allows staff to immediately index all invoice information. They can then easily access indexed documents via a simple keyword search to match with bank reconciliations when necessary.
GlobalCapture®, Square 9’s document capture automation software, is also being used for payroll distribution as well as paper per diem checks. Outsourcing their payroll duties, GlobalCapture has helped Gas Field Services to set up an automated system for direct deposit. Normally it would take 4-6 hours to scan and email paystubs to all 120 employees, but now they are scanned through GlobalCapture by simply placing on a scanner where the OCR engine automatically extracts the data, validates the paystub owner, and emails the paystub directly to the employee. This took distribution of paystubs from a several-hour process to one press of a button, eliminating a weeks’ worth of work.
In addition, Square 9’s software solutions have enabled Gas Field Services to reach their goal of eliminating 40 file cabinets within a few months of implementation. Before GlobalCapture, Gas Field Services was going through two cases of paper per week. Now, instead of making paper copies for filing, they simply scan original documents into the electronic document management system, eliminating 12-15 hours’ worth of filing, while also cutting overall paper usage by 75%.
Gas Field Services is now using GlobalSearch every day and is extremely satisfied with their decision to take processes digital. Square 9’s solutions payed for itself within the first five months of implementation. But that’s not all! Gas Field Services plans to expand their use of Square 9’s solutions in the near future. Up next: integrating with Intuit’s QuickBooks® to combine bill creation and document capture into a highly efficient payable process.
For more information on Gas Field Services, please visit gasfieldsvc.com/.
Interview: Matt Rasnake, IT Director, Gas Field Services, Inc
Q. What business challenges led you to Square 9’s software solutions?
Matt Rasnake: The decision to go with Square 9 was an easy one. Because of the growing nature of our business and our construction crews spread out across four states, we started having remote employees that needed to be more connected than they were in the past. We hit a point where we weren’t as efficient with scanning, emailing, pulling files and faxing them to other states. We needed to organize our data into a central system that everyone, no matter where they were, had access to. Based on the criteria we were looking for, GlobalSearch and GlobalCapture were recommended and I didn’t second guess it.
Q. How have daily processes changed since implementing Square 9’s Solutions?
Rasnake: Because we are bigger than a small business but not quite large enough to be considered a medium-to-large size business, it’s hard to find a solution that fits us correctly. But GlobalSearch and GlobalCapture fit with our needs, allowing our organization to scan in and automatically file paperwork with the right employees. Even though a lot of our data is handwritten, OCR helps when scanning in Bills of Lading, Load Halls, and Construction Surveys for new roads. This is saving us on average five hours a week just on check stubs, and two hours a week on filing per diem checks. In addition, our mail goes through, it gets scanned into an inbox in GlobalSearch and then gets distributed out. That’s how the process works for everything now.
Q. In what ways has Square 9’s product suite improved business performance?
Rasnake: Everything has changed! Our goal was to go from a 45-file cabinet room to a room with five cabinets, and we easily succeeded that. Beforehand, we also had our Accounts Payable documents go to the CEO. Now he just opens his inbox, selects what bills need to be approved that day, marks them approved, drops them in to the folder for the Accountant, and she then completes the checks and files them away in the vendor files.
Also, everyone now has a scanner on their desk. Rather than making fifty trips up the hallway to the file room, employees file them away right from their desk. It has completely changed our entire business process through and through.
Q. Would you recommend Square 9’s solutions?
Rasnake: Absolutely! This was probably one of the easiest implementations I’ve ever done and in my opinion it’s one of the best document management systems on the market – I didn’t even bother to look at competitors. I’m running seven company’s worth of data out of GlobalSearch, and everything is in different databases and well organized. Even with 15 years of server support on my belt, Square 9’s solutions are so easy to use. They are truly phenomenal and we use them every day.