Hi-Temp Insulation, Inc. Accelerates Order-to-Ship Processes (and More) for Fast ROI with Fortra

The Order-to-Ship Slowdown

Customers place orders—and expect prompt communication and shipment of their products. But Hi-Temp’s order-to-ship processes were out of date.

Paperwork was created manually, using pre-printed forms and dot matrix printers. Then, it was routed by hand, slowing down the time it took to get the orders out the door. Documents were all-too-frequently misplaced along the way, which meant Hi-Temp had to route them all over again—from the beginning.

Once everything was approved, documents were filed in a filing cabinet. Unfortunately, they were prone to misfiling. If a customer called to check on the status of an order, it was a scramble to find the document in question—even if it was filed appropriately.

Hi-Temp needed to:

• Respond to customer needs faster
• Make their processes efficient
• Gain visibility over their documents

Fortra met their needs—and gave them so much more.

Manufacturing Made Easy with Document Management

Webdocs document management software and iForms electronic forms software laid the foundation for Hi-Temp’s project. Starting small—with vendor POs and pack slips—helped them set the rest of the project up for success—and expand to other documents and processes across the company.

Now they’re able to manufacture products and get them out the door more efficiently. The process for creating, approving, and distributing key manufacturing documents—like shipping packets—is automated. Documents are reviewed and approved electronically, expediting the shipping process. Any document stored in Webdocs can be quickly retrieved with a keyword search.

Hi-Temp’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system (Infor XA) is fully integrated with Webdocs. Employees can launch right into their documents—without leaving the ERP interface. Plus, the ERP is even configured with Webdocs to create and send customer documents automatically. Customers get their questions answered quickly, and customer service representatives save time.

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Today, every department at Hi-Temp uses Webdocs. Across the company, Hi-Temp now saves over 28,000 employee hours per year by managing their documents more efficiently. Check out how departments—like purchasing, accounts payable (AP), contracts and accounts receivable (AR), and human resources (HR)—benefit from Fortra document management software.

Purchasing’s Paper-Based Vendor PO Problem

Each vendor PO took at least five days for the purchasing department to process, on average. First, the POs were printed by the buyer, put in a manila envelope, and routed to the quality department—which could easily take a day or more. Then the quality department would read it, sign off on it, and send it back to the buyer—plus mail a copy to the vendor, give a copy to receiving, pass a copy on to accounting, and keep a copy in purchasing. Finally, each department had to file their copy within filing cabinets. 

Today, Webdocs takes care of routing vendor POs from quality assurance to quality control, and then saves them into the system—while sending approved POs back to the vendors. This entire process can now be accomplished in just minutes—instead of five days.

Choosing to automate vendor POs first—and then tackle other processes—helped Hi-Temp recognize ROI in under six months.

Accounts Payable Needed to Automate Their Processes

Accounts payable (AP) reports used to be created and stored in boxes on shelves—where they were difficult to find and reference. Vendor invoices were processed and paid manually—which took a lot of time when you factor in an average of 7,500 invoices per year. Plus, they used pre-printed checks that were tedious—and made re-printing a nightmare.

It’s a different story today. With Fortra products (including Artsyl’s InvoiceAction), Hi-Temp’s invoices are captured automatically—then processed and paid quickly. Reports are also captured into the system. There’s no need for pre-printed checks anymore—those are created electronically and can be re-printed in an instant. And any document is easy to find.

Most importantly, the AP department has embraced the software and ensured user adoption. They’ve even encouraged other departments to use the software, as well.

Contracts and Accounts Receivable’s Order Processing Struggles

Processing orders efficiently is the number one goal of Hi-Temp’s contracts and accounts receivable (AR) departments. So, it was a huge problem that their processes were weighed down by paper, pre-printed forms, and manual processes.

In the days before document management, every customer-facing document—from purchase orders to invoices—was on paper. Customer POs were faxed, emailed, and even sent to Hi-Temp via snail mail. Once received, they would be manually processed and distributed—by walking the POs to and from wherever they needed to go. It’s no surprise that these POs were often misfiled and easily misplaced between point A and point Z.

And that was just the first part of the process. Pack slips were created and routed manually—sometimes using pre-printed forms and dot matrix printers. All in all, it took far too long for the contracts department to process an order—and they had little-to-no visibility on where the order was in the fulfillment process.

Order Automation Changed Everything

Today, Hi-Temp processes orders fast and always knows where they are—thanks to order automation from Fortra.

No matter where a customer PO originates, it is saved digitally into the Webdocs document management system via scanning and digital capture. From there, Webdocs routes the POs automatically to the right people. The contracts department retains visibility over where exactly a PO is in the order fulfillment process. Plus, there’s always a copy available if it needs to be referenced. All it takes is quick keyword search and anyone can see PO history and current location.

Pack slips and customer invoices are all created digitally and automatically saved into the document management system. And any document can be easily pulled up to answer a customer query in an instant.

Human Resources Managed Paper

For Hi-Temp’s human resources (HR) department, managing people meant managing paper. Employees were onboarded and offboarded with paper forms. Employee reviews were routed by hand. Attendance reports were created and managed manually. Managers and supervisors needed access to employee documents—but it was difficult to control with paper files.

It was clear to Hi-Temp’s IT department that the HR team would benefit from Fortra document management software, too. But getting the HR department on board with the software was another story.

The HR team was hesitant. What if someone accessed private employee medical and personal information? Would they be able to protect employee information? Or would they just be setting themselves up for trouble in the long run?

Electronic Employee Files Help HR Focus on People

Hi-Temp’s IT department alleviated HR’s concerns over information security. With Fortra software, it was easy for IT to set up the right document security controls. The IT department ran a few tests and proved to HR that unauthorized employees wouldn’t be able to access private employee information.

HR gave the go-ahead. Today, HR documents—onboarding, offboarding, employee reviews, attendance reports, and more—are managed electronically within the document management system. Despite HR’s initial concerns, they’ve embraced electronic employee files.

Across the board, Hi-Temp employees have adopted the software at extraordinary rates. They don’t want to print or distribute paper anymore—they’d rather handle processes electronically. 

Fast Set-Up, Fast Results

Other vendors told Hi-Temp it would take weeks to get up and running. But with Fortra, they got a prototype of the software running on their systems in just 90 minutes. Once they saw Webdocs, they knew it was the right choice for them. The services experts at Fortra quickly made sure the system was just as easy as the prototype.

Being able to get started quickly, recognize ROI in under six months, and save 28,000+ employee hours annually made Document Management (RJS) products the right choice for Hi-Temp.