Deep Thoughts with Richard Schoen

 Almost twenty years after the paperless office concept was born, many companies are still mired in printed paperwork. Orders and Invoices come in via mail and fax. Invoices, Statements, Bills of Lading, CAD Drawings and other documents are still printed and manually assembled in many cases to create shop floor paperwork and shipping documents. These processes still generate paper, but there are ways to gain tangible Return On Investment (ROI) from automating the assembly and processing of key business documents.

 Let’s look at a common scenario where automating the assembly and distribution of documents can streamline paper flow and greatly reduce manual labor and errors when assembling paperwork for the shop floor..

 Manufacturing Customer X has to generate shop floor paperwork to be sent to the shop floor with every custom order being processed for the day. Employees then manually mark up the documents and scan the completed paperwork. The customer doesn’t feel the environment is conducive to touch screen terminals, so they currently still generate paperwork. Since each order requires a generated system report, paired with a copy of an electronic CAD drawing and work instructions, the process is very laborious. Each night the system documents are printed. At 5 am each morning, someone from engineering picks up the stack of documents and manually prints the CAD drawing to go with each order. Then another clerical person prints the appropriate machine instruction documents and staples the entire paperwork package together. Each day there are over 1000 job packets generated based on the job scheduling system, so repeating this process manually wastes at least 9 hours per day since there are three people involved in the paperwork assembly process. Since the highly paid engineer holds the key to the CAD drawings, they are directly involved in the print and assembly process rather than spending their valuable time working on CAD drawings.

 Even though Customer X doesn’t want to go entirely paperless with their paperwork generation process, they can easily reduce or eliminate the 9 hours per day being spent manually assembling paperwork. Imagine a scenario where each night the 1000 system documents are generated in the evening. As soon as each system document is generated it identifies which CAD drawings need to be assembled and printed with the system document. Then the work instruction documents are called in and printed in sequence. Finally each document is auto-stapled by the printer so nobody needs to be involved in the assembly process unless the printer jams, runs out of paper or toner.

 This story is true however the customer names have been removed to protect the innocent. If you think your company could benefit from automated document assembly and automation technology, contact the experts at RJS to help you capture, manage, secure and distribute your important business documents

If your company spends considerable man-hours tracking orders between the time a product quote is requested and the actual product is shipped, RJS can assist you in streamlining your fulfillment process. This pain point is widespread in industries where products or services are customized – manufacturing for example. In some cases the order or quote request can get lost before it actually gets entered into the order entry system.
Let’s first look at a fairly common and flawed process and then explore a solution using WebForms, which web-enables order-to-fulfillment, eliminates redundant data entry and electronically routes between sales, engineering, accounting, order processing and shipping departments.

The current process may go something like this:

- An order is received by email, phone or fax for your product or service.

- In some instances, the product is mass-produced and can just be grabbed from the shelf and shipped. This particular order however, requires a quote for product customization.

- Because of this, the quote request needs to be routed from sales to the development or engineering team for a review to make sure they can fulfill the customer’s special order.

- Once engineering has determined they can configure or build the product to specifications, the accounting team needs to estimate the product cost, margins needed and the final pricing for the product.

- The order can finally get entered into the order entry system for processing, shipping and billing.

Because these steps are likely done via paper documents being passed around in a manila folder or a steady stream of “reply all” emails, the chance of errors or the quote request getting lost in translation is very high. Problems are often found in customer support prior to shipping or even worse, by the customers themselves. Not only are these mistakes completely avoidable, but companies can lose considerable profits and damage brand equity when employing imperfect order-to-fulfillment processes. Unfortunately, this scenario may sound all-too-familiar. Don’t worry, we can help!

A new streamlined process using WebForms might look like this:

- Customer goes to your website and fills out a new order or quote request, or simply calls a salesperson who takes their order.

- In either case, the order or quote information is immediately captured to a web-based form where it can be monitored and tracked until the order is completed.

- Once captured, the order form is electronically routed to various departments where they add their information to the all-encompassing form.

- Once it clears these steps, the quote or order can be entered or captured automatically into the order processing system and fulfilled.

By capturing the quote information at the beginning of the process and tracking it until the time the order is entered and shipped, we have averted the dreaded “you screwed up my order” call and have delivered the product correct to specifications and on time.

If you’re looking to improve your order-to-fulfillment process and want keep your customers happy, contact RJS to learn more about our WebForms product and how you can streamline your customer and vendor business processes.

I recently ran into an interesting requirement from a customer. Company X regularly sends letters to their clients looking for feedback on orders placed. Currently, their process works like this: the customer receives a feedback form; he or she fills out the form responses; and then the feedback is returned to Company X. Either the customer prints and scans the responses, sending a fax or email to Company X, or he or she mails back the printed version. Regardless, the process is an ineffecient way of capturing customer feedback. Finally, once a response document is received, the form responses are hand-entered into the database system by data entry clerks.

On the plus side, Company X sends the documents in PDF format which saves paper and speeds response time. However, PDF files do not contain a mechanism that allows customers to simply respond to questions and click a button to submit answers. Of course they could attempt to use fillable PDF files, but that still requires a manual step to print and email or fax a response.

When I saw the business requirements Company X was asking for, I immediately knew our WebForms product would be a perfect solution.

Here’s how I envision the process working: The customer changes their document generation process to utilize a web form document instead of a PDF file. A web form is simply an XML data file that gets published on the RJS WebForms Server. Once created, a unique dissolvable link is sent to the end-user so they can click on the link and enter their individualized responses on the web form. Once completed, they simply submit the feedback form back to Company X. That’s it. No printing, no scanning, no email replies, no faxing. Immediately upon submission, the RJS WebForms server interprets the form, updates the designated IBM i or SQL Server database with the responses and deletes or dissolves the unique web form as it’s no longer needed.

Does this scenario sound familiar? If you are trying to improve two way communications with your customers while reducing or eliminating data entry bottlenecks, contact us to see how WebForms can help streamline your customer and vendor business processes.

Burnsville, MN – RJS Software Systems (http://www.rjssoftware.com), a premier provider of document management lifecycle software and services, is pleased to announce the hiring of Kurt Wachtendorf as the company’s new Director of Solutions.

Wachtendorf brings more than 19 years of experience designing and implementing “paperless” solutions to his new role. Working at IBM, and most recently serving as the Director of Sales and Chief Solution Architect for Quadrant Software, Wachtendorf developed an outstanding reputation as a leading Certified Document Imaging Architect (CDIA+) in the ECM industry.

“Kurt brings RJS a level of expertise and integrity in the ECM industry that is second to none,” said RJS President and CTO Richard Schoen. “He will be critical to helping our customers understand the benefits and ROI of automating Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and other business processes.”

Wachtendorf’s duties will include working with the RJS sales team to provide document management and workflow design solutions to customers during the sales and implementation process. Kurt will also host a series of regional workshops in 2011 on how companies can go paperless to streamline operations.

“Kurt’s experience in understanding business processes, and expertise in matching those business requirements to our products will ensure our customers receive the highest quality of service and attention,” said Mike Bergstrom, V.P of Sales and Marketing.

About RJS Software Systems
RJS provides software solutions that help manage the entire lifecycle of a company’s businesses information. From front-end data capture and forms creation to managing, storing and distributing information electronically, RJS provides solutions that help businesses improve productivity, save money and make better decisions. For more information about RJS Software, visit http://www.rjssoftware.com.

Media Contact:
Joel Sawyer
RJS Software Systems
952-736-5836
joel@rjssoftware.com

Having the most precise data in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t get it into the hands of those who need it. That’s why we created RPG2SQL integrator.

Imagine gaining more insight into your company’s performance by generating multi-page spreadsheet reports that contain month-end numbers with negative numbers highlighted in red.  Think of how much more informed you’d be if you could create daily sales summary spreadsheets that were automatically updated each night.  RPG2SQL Integrator accomplishes this by automatically updating MS Excel spreadsheets with data directly pulled from RPG programs.

RJS Software’s RPG2SQL Integrator provides the ability to read and write to SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL and other database formats.  The recently added integration with MS Excel helps your business get even more functionality from an already robust product.

RPG2SQL reads and writes directly to Excel spreadsheets so no data gets missed, and you have the full power of Excel available to your RPG application developers. Contact RJS to schedule a web demo and learn more about the ROI you can achieve by better communicating your key business indicators via RPG2SQL and MS Excel.

When companies experience growth and generate more revenue, they also tend to generate more paperwork. As the number of invoices, proofs of delivery, shop floor data packets, shipping documents and insurance policies generated increases, so does the amount of time it takes to assemble those documents and send them to your customers.

Imagine completing an order and having all the required shipping and certification documentation, such as Material Safety Data Sheets, automatically printed along with a packing list to hand to the truck driver at your loading dock. Or, perhaps, you’re an insurance company that wants to assemble related policy documents into a single document that can be printed and archived without scanning.

RJS Software’s Document Assembly solution provides this functionality and delivers instant ROI by allowing your employees to spend more time helping customers instead of manually assembling packets of paper.

Contact us to see how we can help you achieve fast ROI.

Well I am not personally a huge Twitter fan, but my wife told me that I could use Twitter as sort of a mini-blog where I could share short (140 char) items with anyone who would be crazy enough to follow me.  I don’t plan to use it as a play-by-play site like some folks do, but I will post short web URL link tips and techniques related to Windows, iSeries and other business items I find to be relevent. Besides who would really want to know what I’m doing all the time. Here’s my Twitter link http://www.twitter.com/richardschoen

I just returned from the COMMON 2009 conference in Reno and the main thing I learned from listening to IBM at the opening conference is that they no longer consider the iSeries more than just an OS running on a Power systems box. Why is this a significant event ? Well, we’re starting to see a small although very real shift from some customers towards selecting ERP and other business systems that run on platforms that don’t include OS/400.

While RJS will always remain committed to the native iSeries platform we want to make sure our customers know that even if they do select another platform, our document imaging, electronic forms, workflow and report delivery products are all very capable products running in an iSeries or Multiplatform environment as well. Hopefully for those of you committed to the iSeries, you will be on the platform a long time, but if Windows or some other platform is in your future, feel free to give us a call and we can discuss how your information delivery investment is protected by continuing to choose RJS as your valued information delivery provider.

Well, on August 1st, after a year of planning and team effort, we finally moved from our old building into a brand new 15,000 square foot state of the art facility that will be our new corporate headquarters. After more than ten years in our old building, we had effectively carved up the building into several different working areas that didn’t allow our teams to work as effectively together as we continue to grow the company. We went from having one conference room in the old building to six conference rooms in the new facililty. This will allow us to stage more onsite customer events as well as perform more demo and training sessions at the same time.  Every area from sales to support has more room to grow as we continue to expand. Take a look at the following link for some of the pictures from the move. We’ll post some final shots once all is completed. RJS corporate headquarters pictures.

We are doing an event with Joe Pluta in Chicago in September. Joe is going to take a day and provide a hands on experience with EGL and RDI to create web applications and I will be covering the .Net side of the fence for System i.  Joe and I have opposing angles on which languages are best for iSeries developers to modernize with, but this event will give you a chance to spend a day with each of the technologies and choose for yourself. Check out the following link for more info and we hope to see you in Chicago in September.  Java/.Net Faceoff Registration.