COMPANY:
Towne Air Freight
South Bend, IN
OPERATION:
Air freight, LTL, and expedited “value-added” carrier
Steve Downey, IT director
Problem:
Paper was the problem. Towne Air Freight, a full-service parcel-delivery and cargo-hauling firm based in South Bend, IN, reached the point that its records storage spilled over into extra rented space at the South Bend Airport.
Each day, the firm's more than 4,500 shipments generated over 15,000 pieces of paper — that employees had to spend hours processing.
The paper explosion resulted in part from the company's growth over the past decade. From its Indiana base, Towne now boasts a network of 25 terminals.
“We needed a document-management solution that would allow us to quickly access our customer information and seamlessly integrate with our existing IBM ASA.400 platform,” says Towne Air's Steve Downey. “And we needed it fast and implemented correctly the first time around.”
Solution:
Downey reports Towne Air has implemented a turn-key document-imaging solution developed by Atlanta-based Comsquared Systems (www.comsquared.com).
The solution includes Comsquared's UNISearch suite, which allows Towne to automatically capture, index, store, distribute and access documents over their WAN and the Internet. This eliminated paper storage and retrieval.
Also within the Comsquared package is a print and mail feature to digitally automate and distribute billing, forms processing, bar code recognition, incoming and outgoing fax and a NETSearch module for delivering documents and reports over the worldwide web.
Towne Air initially purchased licenses for up to 50 of each of the concurrent network users and concurrent web users. Downey reports installation and training went “seamlessly with no perceived downtime.”
And what's more, Downey says the Comsquared solution has attained each of five goals described here:
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Although Towne Air continues to grow, the document-imaging system has let it eliminate 40 full-time positions for an annual payroll savings of nearly $1.2 million.
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In less than a year, Daily Sales Outstanding have dropped form 71 to 50 days, or close to 30%. The fleet's goal now is to get DSO under 50 days.
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Customer service is simplified and made faster by sending faxed copies of requested documents. And customer self-service on the web has jumped “geometrically.”
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Loss of paperwork has become “negligible.”
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Cost of invoicing has dropped from dollars to pennies per invoice.
“The Comsquared suite has given us a highly effective, completely integrated solution that gives us more time to concentrate on our customers,” Downey sums up. “As we move forward, we know this solution will grow with us and continue to answer to our bottom line.”
