Cardiff & Vale College

The Finance Department at Cardiff & Vale College was looking for a system to speed up the processing of supplier invoices. The Human Resources Department required a better way of storing past job applicants’ C.V.’s to save space and to give faster access. Following the success of File Stream Document Management in Finance and Human Resources, the Estates Management Department have now started using it for filing all documentation concerning College premises.

Cardiff & Vale College is Cardiff ‘s largest further education college, spread over 5 sites with 800 courses and 13,000 students ranging from 16 to 64 in age. The college offers a wide range of business services to employers, such as apprenticeships and tailored training.

The Problem

The Finance Department was stamping suppliers’ invoices on receipt and sending them using the College’s internal mail to department managers for sign off. Delays were then occurring before these were signed and returned. Much time was being wasted by Finance Department being chased by suppliers for payment and chasing managers to sign off the invoices.

The Human Resources Department often receives over 100 applicants’ CVs for each vacancy. They need to keep unsuccessful applicants’ CVs for future vacancies. The storage space required for the ever increasing number of CVs was becoming unsustainable and it was becoming increasingly difficult to find appropriate applicants for new vacancies from these stored CVs.

The Solution

Suppliers’ invoices are scanned into File Stream Document Management using Panasonic KVS2048C scanners. Once indexed a message is sent in File Stream Document Management to the appropriate manager instructing them to authorise the invoice for payment.

At any time the Accounts staff can quickly search for a queried invoice, see its status, answer suppliers’ queries and chase managers for quick decisions. Invoices are now not lost in the system, Accounts staff time is saved and delays are minimised.
All unsuccessful applicants’ CVs are now filed in the system to make finding suitable applicants for a new vacancy almost instant and eliminating the requirement for physical filing cabinets.

The college has a 90 user system including web access.

The Benefits

The Head of IT considers the following as the main benefits of installing File Stream Document Management:-

• Considerable space has been saved because fewer filing cabinets are required.
• Accounts staff can respond to suppliers’ payment queries instantly, reducing time spent chasing managers for payment authorisation and reducing suppliers’ frustration.
• Human Resources staff can now search instantly through all past applicant CVs and ensure that a new vacancy is quickly filled with the most appropriate candidate.
• Paper records that were previously vulnerable to fire, flood or other disaster are now electronically backed up and safe from physical loss.