Cape Town-based clothing retailers Topics and Truworths, part of the Wooltru group, are set to save thousands of rand each month with the commissioning of MGX`s digital archive and retrieval service for their credit application division.
Where the bulk of applications were previously archived to microfiche and retrieved from an offsite storage depot on request, all new applications are digitised and available directly from each company`s CD-ROM volumes. Topics risk manager Greg Oliver says that up to 10 000 copies a month are requested from the stores` collections operation.
"It previously meant having to retrieve our records from an offsite centre, photocopy the relevant documents and refile the original application," says Oliver. "This was both time consuming and costly, not only in capital, but also in labour."
Wooltru microfiche supplier MGX suggested the process be moved to a digital system that would be easier, cheaper and faster to maintain.
"MGX collects our applications and scans them at its Cape Town bureau," adds Oliver. "The documents are then returned to our offices together with an indexed CD-ROM, which further saves us from having to sort our cards alphabetically."
Oliver calculates the cost of document processing has come down from R6.80 per document using the older analogue system, to 50c using the digital service.
"That`s a saving of R6 per document and up to R60 000 per month depending on volumes," he says. "Our clients have further seen application request times sliced from a week to under 24 hours."
Truworths legal services supervisor Hilda Theron adds that archiving to CD has had a notable impact on the company`s physical storage needs, reducing them significantly as more documents are scanned to CD rather than filed on paper.
"Our client base covers 17 CD-ROMs, which gives you an indication of the magnitude of our records," she says. "It has also made administration that much easier, since documents indexed on CD can be retrieved and processed far quicker than before."
Truworths also archives its transaction history data, previously on microfiche, to CD-ROM, extending the benefits of full-text indexing that enables staff to quickly retrieve cheque values and receipt numbers from the company database.
"This is especially helpful in tracking fraud, where speed of processing is imperative to bring offenders to book," says Theron. "We can even check for authenticity while in conversation with applicants on the phone."
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