PricewaterhouseCoopers
Paperless Business Process Case Study
PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the worlds leading professional service firms, helping organisations and governments assess and stragetically improve their performance.
Overview
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Along with a strong desire to move towards a paperless office for both environmental and economic reasons, PwC New Zealand were driven by the need to enhance and automate business processes. It makes sense that PwC would look to streamline their own processes, engaging OIA to plan and deploy iManage WorkSite.
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Previously PwC relied on its users to manually capture critical information and records, this left PwC open to risks associated with human error as well as losing productivity with users having to take time to capture and file records. The adoption of a document management system was considered vital; PwC needed a solution that met their requirements from a user standpoint and through the implementation phase.
The problem with Paper
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Business risks associated with manual document control
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Inefficient paper-shuffling between executive's offices.
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Audit process delays
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Outcome
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Document Management & Security significantly increased
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Centralised content and streamlined email filing, with emails stored with their attachment
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Minimised the likelihood of human error
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42.5% reduction in paper files
Mitigating Risk
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iManage WorkSite vastly improved risk management by introducing the four-eyes principle to audit trail review processes. Restructuring this process and locking it down securely using iManage Workite's inherent secure history ensures there's no manipulation of completion dates for PwC processes when handing documents encouraging users to handle incoming material to be reviewed in a timely manner, boosting productivity. Reviewer's behaviour improved accordingly.
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PwC experienced difficulties with a lack of access to emails sent by staff who had left or were unable to expeditiously produce emails in a complaint format at the request of others, impeding processes and ultimately business. The storage of emails in iManage WorkSite can be automated and improves the integrity of files, for PwC allowing increased efficiency of risk management reviews confirming verbal information exchanged and keeping a real-time record of electronic exchanges internally and externally to clients.
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Delivering Outcomes
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The implementation of iManage WorkSite has enabled PwC to dramatically improve productivity and has greatly impacted the use of paper filing. A staggered adoption of paperless processes has aided the decline in paper files created and stored within offsite file centers.
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With previous paper file numbers at 12,342 files, a short time after implementation this number has decreased by a substantial 42.4% to 7,100 files being created and retained. Paper file generation has also significantly declined, creating an unexpected benefit of this implementation.
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OIA worked tightly alongside PwC to develop a custom-built solution utilising iManage WorkSite. With their team of highly experienced and skilled consultants, OIA delivered an implementation that not only met expectations but exceeded them. PwC Tax Manager, Jaime Macleod accounted "The implementation across Tax was fast and on time. Roll out commenced February 2011 with users testing and was completed by May 2011. User feedback was really positive and on the whole, users have confirmed iManage WorkSite makes their working life easier". Fluid user uptake, thanks to excellent software and timely User Acceptance Training, has also helped the success of the PwC implementation.