Case Study

Centric ECM Cloud Development Series #002

THATS ENTERTAINMENT: IMPLEMENTING ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT IN HIGH TURNOVER INDUSTRIES BY BUILDING EXECUTIVE SUPPORT FOR RECORDS MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES

Background, Pain Points & End Game Centrics client is an established entity in the Entertainment Industry, employing both permanent and seasonal employees, and who purchased the ECM Cloud Client in order to inject standardization and efficiency into their document management and workflow procedures. Centric provided the firm with consulting services ranging from assessment of existing document management technology to conversion services with a time frame of two weeks. Until recently, employees at this company managed their hard copy and electronic records by allowing each of their departments to create and manage their own filing systems. As the company grew in size, employees spent more and more of their time filing and retrieving their documents. In addition, as departments and company operations became more intertwined, their existing filing system failed to keep up, especially with electronic records. Their dependence on paper files resulted in endless duplication, increasing their costs and creating disorder. They were also finding it difficult to monitor access to sensitive documents. With Centrics direction, the firm sought to compliment their efforts to implement filing policies and procedures applicable to all of their departments, prepared for a one-system filing solution, and began using Centrics Enterprise Content Management system within a week. Obstacles to Implementation & Conversion The Entertainment Industry is rife with high employee turnover due to the uneven nature of the projectto-project oriented business. Personal or Administrative Assistants rarely stay in their positions for extended length of time. As a consequence of these turnover rates, the manner in which records are handled and organized is negatively impacted. Therefore, it is common to find a variety of different filing systems within small to midsized entertainment companies, especially since their records are usually decentralized. The strength of the personalities involved in decision making and the unorthodox work style prevalent in most of these offices generally diminishes executive support which affects both physical and electronic record keeping. Prior to Centric, the company had relied entirely upon a shared drive to maintain their vital documents. There were roughly 275,000 files on their document server and almost 30 GB of digital data. The files themselves were sorted in no particular matter across roughly 160 different folders. Unlike many of our conversions, it was clear that this level of disorganization dictated that the native data be culled and organized before importing it into the Centric ECM Cloud Client.

Centric Case Study #001: Copyright 2011, CENTRIC ECM. www.centricecm.com Toll Free 1-800-859-8641

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Case Study
Centric ECM Cloud Development Series #002
Preparation & First Steps Contrary to popular belief, many of the basics of addressing and eventually resolving the records management issues of any entertainment company are similar to many any other businesses. In order to establish and maintain an efficient electronic filing system companies must commit to: Creating or fine tuning current records management polices and best practices for their business. Identifying the employees responsible and accountable for managing the company records and making sure those individuals stay on top of the filing or supervise the system. Periodically reviewing policies in order to manage risks, comply with legislative and regulatory requirements and to ensure that day-to-day workflow is never interrupted on the account of lost information.

The company was also educated and instructed to follow the simple workflow procedures outlined in detail on our website and support forum which explain exactly how to deal with incoming mail, faxes, and working copies.

There is perhaps nothing more critical to a successful enterprise content management solution than having clear workflow rules that work with employees instead of against them. This includes setting a clear point of entry for physical documents into the electronic records while enforcing firm procedures to maintain a consistent taxonomy and naming standards once documents are absorbed into the system.

Centric Case Study #001: Copyright 2011, CENTRIC ECM. www.centricecm.com Toll Free 1-800-859-8641

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Case Study
Centric ECM Cloud Development Series #002
Results & Visible ROI Once our clients decision maker had notified company employees that it had finally committed to resolving its long standing paper problem, their IT consultant was directed to our website to purchase the appropriate number of monthly subscriptions, quickly set up users accounts and distribute a connection link. The total time necessary for setup lasted two hours. Individual PCs on the network required no extra software or hardware and automatic setup on client machines took 15-20 minutes for each user.
Yearly comparative costs below are based on the total cost of ownership over 3 years of licenses/service for 25 employees $30,000 $25,000 $20,000 $15,000 $10,000 $5,000 $0 $26,333 $21,833 $13,681

$13,500

Combined Source: AL MEZNY, INTERWOVEN V. NETDOCUMENTS V. WORLDOX: A REAL LIFE COST COMPARISON FOR A MIDSIZE LAW FIRM (CENTRIC INJECTED)

Employees have since reported that they are more confident that their documents are secure, finding it easier to locate and work on versions of selected documents and appreciate the portability that the ECM Cloud Client solution provides. The company does not encounter any downtime or technical issues and user adoption was relatively seamless. COST: The yearly cost for the ECM Cloud Client, for which the company was only charged subscription fees and no maintenance, totaled $4,500 for a fluctuating workforce of 27 employees.1 SAVINGS: At an average of $4/per ream of paper, using Centrics image management and workflow tools, in concert with best paperless practices, the company has reported using 3 fewer reams per day, for a yearly savings of almost $3000. The company has also eliminated a dedicated position which was once responsible for maintaining both paper and electronic records and has replaced it with a part-time position. The savings from this reduction in workforce is roughly $22,000 per year. The cost of lost documents or files is now being minimized by using the Centric solution, leading to further cost savings. On average, companies spend $75-120 in labor to find or replace one misfiled document. As this company reported that up to ten important documents were lost per month, resolving the issue has saved them $7500 to $12000 every year.* ROI BREAKDOWN: COST ($4500) MINUS - SAVINGS (BETWEEN $32,500 & $37000) EQUALS= AVG. YEARLY PROFIT/ROI of +/- $30,000

*Savings do not include additional savings from using less ink/toner and productivity gains as well as many electrical and maintenance costs that accompany an onsite server.

It should be noted that the chart above may not account for equally expensive SQL license fees, which can add anywhere from 5-25 thousand dollars or more to a purchase, a cost eliminated by Centrics free database alternative through Firebird.

Centric Case Study #001: Copyright 2011, CENTRIC ECM. www.centricecm.com Toll Free 1-800-859-8641

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