Harfield tableware
Document Management Case StudyBrief Overview
Harfield Tableware specialise in manufacturing and selling high-quality polycarbonate tableware to a number of sectors across the UK, such as to hospitals, schools, care homes, and hotels.
Like so many organisations post-pandemic, as they returned to the more ‘normal’ work routines Harfield saw an opportunity to improve flexibility for their team, while improving their delivery processes. They just couldn’t find the solution. They wanted to give their sales and administration team the option to switch to a hybrid role. The issue was the ordering process.
The Challenge
At the time, orders were printed out onto the warehouse floor as ‘Picking Notes’, filled out by the warehouse operatives and walked upstairs to the sales and admin team who then dispatched the order. This manual process meant that the sales and administration team needed to be on-location at all times. The task was to find a digital solution to simplify that process and remove some of the manual elements, allowing those on their sales and administration team, whose role allowed, the option to move to a hybrid role.
Harfield’s Financial Director, Jo Cooper, contacted their IT people, as well as a number of external IT companies to find a way. Each of them said the same thing: They couldn’t find a way of simplifying the ordering processes that would give the team enough flexibility to work from home.
The Solution
Fortunately, she had heard the name ‘Woodbank’, and after finding out that our offices were local, decided to give us a call. After explaining her situation, she received a very quick response: We have the solution. Josh Kinder, our Account Manager for the Stockport and Greater Manchester region, and, our in-house technical manager, worked alongside Jo and her team during a short trail period, integrating the new document management system ‘Filestar’.
The system enabled Harfield to scan and send accurate, readable documents to the cloud, securely, eliminating the need for the warehouse operatives to carry the documents back and forth.
The Result
As soon as the system was in place, the benefits were clear. Harfield’s sales and administration team knew immediately that they had solved the problem. With Filestar, their documents can be scanned accurately and accessed from any approved digital device. This means that Harfield can now access and process their sales and billing online, giving their sales and administration staff the flexibility to work effectively and remotely, also saving the warehouse operatives the extra legwork. Higher productivity and happier employees.
“I can’t believe Woodbank solved the problem so quickly. The new system has been fantastic from day one. There was no settle-in period; As soon as it went onto the system and the admin team were using it, they knew it was right. Biggest benefit for us is definitely the time-saving. It has improved all-round efficiency, and it gives accurate documents straight back to us.
It’s also nice to be working with a local firm. Josh and Mark are very knowledgeable, and it never felt like they were selling me a product, it was always about fixing the problem.”
– Jo Cooper (Finance Director)