National Records Management reduces costs & boosts customer service with ASI software
Vance Gehlbach, General Manager and co-founder of National Records Management (NRM), knew he needed to identify technologically sophisticated records center software. He also knew the right solution would also be easy to implement and use.
“Having started our business in 1990 and purchasing another records center in 2001, I think I’ve inherited and/or purchased most of the industry’s leading software programs,” says Vance. “It was important to me that we use one software program to manage our growing business and that our solution use technology to improve service, reduce operating costs and relieve our day-to-day headaches caused by our other software products.”
Embracing technology for savings & service
Enter Andrews Software, Inc. Its Windows-based records center software, Visual Corporate Keeper (VCK) provided ample features to address National Records Center’s requirements. Most notable for Vance was InfoKeeper, ASI’s client-side, cloud-based account management tool. With InfoKeeper, NRM reduced its administrative staff by half, effortlessly managing activity in a 300,000+ box records center. This is in sharp contrast to the software solution being used by the company acquired by NRM in 2001. Although the facility housed half the number of boxes, it required twice the staff to service the accounts.
Says Vance, “InfoKeeper is great. It allows my clients to have secure access and control of their boxes and files. My customers love it and are very loyal to my company because of it. It IS their information after all.”
Another component in reducing overhead and improving service levels for the company was the driver scanning functionality offered by Visual Corporate Keeper. Driver scanning tracks the location of boxes and files with barcode verification, from point-of-pickup or delivery and provides integrated receipt printing. Driver scanning also automates the billing process by automatically differentiating between new cartons and refile cartons, applying the appropriate service fees to the correct department. For NRM, this translated into automated processes for operations, saving time and money, as well as providing a complete audit trail of each activity occurring for the records center’s client accounts.
Client access & control
Vance further cites that access and control of information are two of the most significant differences in the philosophies of the industry’s RIM software providers.
“From my experience, ASI believes in giving my customers access and control of their information. InfoKeeper certainly proves it, Other software providers seem to adhere to the business model that requires the records center to perform every function on behalf of the client.”
Another important VCK feature was its flexible billing options. VCK not only provides the ability to execute traditional billing, i.e. printing invoices to a printer and mailing to clients. It also goes a step further and offers e-billing. E-billing automatically creates an email with a PDF attachment and delivers it directly to the customer. Currently, eighty percent of National Records Management clients receive their monthly invoices via e-billing, further reducing operational costs and time spent printing and mailing hardcopy invoices. Customers are also remitting payment more quickly with ebilling.
No Looking Back
With Andrews Software as its partner, National Records Center has lowered its operational costs by as much as fifty percent. Other business benefits include superior responsiveness to its customers and processes that are streamlined and efficient. Vance also appreciates ASI’s over-the-top commitment to customer service.
“ASI’s customer service goes way beyond the call of duty,” says Vance. “It is truly second to none. No matter the project or problem, they stick with it to support my requirements.”
Vance continued saying, “I’m not a techy guy, but I embrace the use of technology for my company. ASI software provides the most technologically innovative, customer-friendly platform in
the industry — and I’ve used most of the software products out there. Since becoming an ASI
user, we’ve never looked back.”