Derby-based Derwent Living Housing Association provides affordable living for a variety of lifestyles. The combination of 11,000 properties, increasing tenant numbers and a wide range of suppliers meant that existing manual processes were under strain. Derwent Living also faced a number of other practical issues like dwindling off-site storage and higher staff workloads. This was set against the inevitable background of a cost-control requirement.
Conservatively, Derwent’s finance department spent at least 30 minutes a day locating invoices for approval – an annual time loss of 12 ½ weeks looking for invoices, a cost of £26,000.
After a review of its key business systems, Derwent Living identified document management as a priority. The systems review pinpointed the need for instant access, secure storage documents and automation of an increasing number of manual processes.
Derwent Living selected Invu Document Management with Invu Workflow. Its scope and simple integration, notably with with QLX were seen as winning features. Following implementation, all documents are stored within Invu Document Management including invoices, training guides, release notes and employee timesheets. The benefits have been outstanding.
The Finance department has capitalised by implementing an automated invoice approval process. Richard Cookson, Head of Accounting and ICT explains, “Our finance department knows exactly where an invoice is in the chain and it’s now impossible for anyone to pass invoices above their authority. This saves time and we can be sure that during the audit process finance regulations will be adhered to.”
Richard has identified key operational, service level, compliance and security improvements, “We are no longer apprehensive of loss of organisational intelligence. Even in the event of a disaster we know our documents are protected.”
Plans for the future include increasing the licence numbers to ensure all staff have access to the software. The additional workflows is also under consideration for expense forms, overtime forms, new starter forms and house completion paperwork e.g. energy efficiency rating documents, gas certificates etc. Richard summarised “By incorporating these workflows, all documents will be available instantly via Invu.
No more searching through thousands of documents. This has certainly been a huge step forward for use – it’s hard to imagine how we dealt with a paper system.”
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