Case Study - Synergy Housing Ltd
Weymouth Hires Cave Tab to do the Housework03/06/2002 10:00
Synergy Housing Group (formerly Weymouth & Portland Housing Housing Ltd) was established to take over the ownership and management of the Weymouth and Portland Council's housing from 20th March 2000. The Company is a non-profit making organisation dedicated to the provision of a high quality housing service at an affordable rent for local people.
Moving House
As part of the ongoing development of services Synergy moved to new, purpose built premises in May 2002. This provided an opportunity to overhaul existing administrative practices and put in place systems responsive to client requirements. One element of this was the replacement of the conventional hard-copy filing system, a legacy of local authority control, with a state of the art Eelctronic Document Management System. The chosen software system was Alchemy, one of the world's best selling EDMS solutions, and the supplier Cave Tab, the UK's leading Document Management experts. Key criteria in assessing suppliers and the EDMS available were:
· Proven track record in Document Management.
· A one-stop shop for all aspects of EDMS.
· Reduce the reliance on paper documentation/save space in new offices.
· Streamline work processes.
· The chosen system must be user friendly.
· Integrate with existing software.
· Be for available for use following the move into the new building.
Build Better Housing
Synergy opted for a single Alchemy Build and 50-user Alchemy Search incorporating the Scan2 module software bundle. This gives them the ability to scan incoming correspondence and migrate in-house documents directly to Alchemy. All staff within the organisation have the ability to search and view documents simultaneously. The historic paperwork, 'the back file', was sent to Cave Tab's Northampton bureau for scanning. Working in close consultation with Synergy, Cave Tab indexed all documents to specific, pre-agreed criteria. This meant that the scanned documents could then be transferred directly into Alchemy and a live system created within hours.
Synergy Housing management software is called IBS Open House. Alchemy is fully integrated with Open House. Synergy staff working within Open House can now click on an Alchemy icon and this will take them directly and seamlessly to the relevant archive folder within Alchemy. This means, for example, that client telephone queries can be dealt with instantly without the need to retrieve paperwork or call back later with the relevant information. Tenant files, Maintenance files and Financial records, historically three seperate filing systems are now instantly available.
The short term objectives of reducing the paperwork in circulation by digitally converting existing hard copy files, have been achieved. this means that valuable floor space in the new building is for people not paper.
The inclusion of Alchemy Build means that ongoing problems of adding to the 'paper mountain' have been tackled. While not completely paper-less, Synergy has become a 'less-paper' organisation.
An Open House Policy
The integration of IBS Open House means that working practices are in the course of being radically and permanently changed. The organisation can now focus on delivering a better service to their clients.
Alchemy's ability to develop and evolve through expansion and integration with other software means that Synergy are not tied in to one mode of working. Working practices are flexible and can be changed quickly and easily to reflect the needs of clients.
Turning Paper into Gold
Alchemy is one of the best selling EDMS software packages in the world, with over 5,000 user sites. It's eas of use and scalability mean that it is ideal for organisations beginning to address EDM. Alchemy is Open Database Compatible (ODBC), which means that development and integration with other software packages, particularly workflow, is quick and easy.
This gives organisations the ability to address both the short-term problems of large volumes of paper and the medium or long-term issues of harnessing technology to address and improve working practices.
The training overhead for Alchemy is very low and end-users can normally learn the basics of search and retrieval within an hour. System administrators do not need to be IT experts and the basics of system administration including the ability to design and build new databases can be learnt in a day. Cave Tab offer a wide variety of training aimed at the different requirements within an organisation.
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