Replaces filing cabinets with Laserfiche ECM
Aspen Waste Systems’ Growing Company
Like Lakin, Aspen Waste Systems is also growing, from one plant in Minnesota to a Midwest regional waste management leader with offices in Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis and Des Moines. And like Lakin, Aspen also started out using its enterprise content management system largely as an electronic filing cabinet. But as the company grew so did its administrative overhead. Having multiple locations also meant multiple back-office operations all doing essentially the same functions, just for different segments of Aspen’s customer base. Aspen Vice President Thor Nelson wanted to consolidate those operations into one electronic system accessible from all three offices. He turned to enterprise content management experts Hemingway Solutions (formerly Solbrekk) of Minneapolis for help. He wanted to build a digital workflow to move hundreds of incoming invoices each month past the people responsible for getting the corresponding checks cut.”Everything at Aspen was entirely paper-based with big folders being passed around hand to hand,” Nelson says. “We wanted to make the approval process electronic so it didn’t matter where the approver was, they could access any records they needed, any time. We wanted Aspen’s AP to be location neutral.
So Hemingway Solutions worked with Nelson to map out the different points in Aspen’s invoice approval process, identifying areas prone to error and or delay along the way. Hemingway Solutions then installed a software system called Workflow now automatically routing documents past the designated individuals faster and with fewer mistakes. Along with reducing staffing and records storage and maintenance costs, the whole process helped Aspen’s AP department run a lot smoother.“Workflow forced us to think about the discipline we have in our approval process, and how to address the risk areas we had,” Nelson says. “Not only did we achieve the original goal of making the approvals electronic, there are fewer mistakes in those approvals. That wasn’t the primary goal when we started out on the project but in some ways it’s been just as important.”
Excerpt from an article written by Chris Wacker
In Waste Advantage Magazine
https://wasteadvantagemag.com/records-management-case-study-trashing-paper-improve-recycling/
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