Building firm goes electronic

Horbury Building Systems to improve efficiency and save storage space

Horbury Building Systems is to install document imaging technology to digitise its records.

This imaging technology from Version One will allow the building firm to electronically archive its incoming and outgoing documents and then destroy the originals.

The need for this advanced imaging technology is being driven by Horbury's recent office move. As the new office has a significantly smaller document storage area - 30m² rather than the previous 100m² - an appropriate solution to this storage problem was required.

Leigh Churchill, financial director at Horbury, says the current process of storing documents in lever arch files will be made redundant.

'Staff time spent on mundane tasks such as the photocopying and filing of documents will also be reduced, and we expect to improve both cash flow and our relations with suppliers due to the swift authorisation of purchase invoices,' she said.

Some 700 weekly timesheets and 400 monthly purchase invoices will be scanned-in and images of these documents will be automatically stored in a central electronic archive.

The originals will be destroyed, significantly reducing the size of storage space required. DbArchive will also be used to electronically store Horbury's outgoing documents such as payment certificates/sales invoices and further down the line, technical drawings and contracts.

Currently, every document requiring authorisation is manually passed from one contract manager to another for approval, which is slow and inefficient. As documents in the electronic archive will be accessible to all staff across the organisation, contract managers will be able to quickly retrieve and approve documents directly from the desktop.

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