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Look familiar? It doesn't have to. All too often the ability to locate documents (hard copy and/or electronic) quickly and easily can be a very difficult task...
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Testimonial |
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Sean McRae
IT Director
"With the incredible volume of transactions running through this company, the workflow module was the most appealing part of the package," McRae said. "Now documents can flow smoothly through our internal processes and land at the closing company complete and on time." |
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The Tasks |
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 Create a central archive able to store all types of documents
Streamline work processes and eliminate the physical handling of paper
Provide access to information from branch offices
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Home > Products > Document Management Solutions > Real Estate
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Real estate giant, Prudential Northwest Properties is utilizing DocuWare to improve the closing process for their customers. By routing faxes, scanned images, e-mail messages and attachments into DocuWare the company has improved customer satisfaction along with employee productivity by eliminating the time, expense and hassle of courier services, hand delivery and faxing. Now, all documents feed through a smooth seamless workflow and land at the closing company complete and on time, resulting in high customer satisfaction, which is a huge competitive advantage for Prudential.
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| Solution Requirements |
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Documents
Prudential needed a better way to manage real estate documents. Each phase of a real estate process – from the initial listing, to a buyer’s offer, to the closing title search - are documented on paper, generating 50-150 page document packages. "With thousands of real estate transactions, we operate a very paper-heavy business," said Sean McRae, IT Director at Prudential Northwest Properties.
Previous Work Process
Like most traditional real estate companies, Prudential sales representatives would initiate the paperwork and send it to their central processing office. Managers at the central office would assemble the paper documents and route them through the organization using a combination of faxing, outside courier services, and employees making personally deliveries. Every piece of incoming and outgoing correspondence regarding a property, needed to be filed, including e-mail, which was printed and stored with the rest of the file information. With information coming from so many different sources, managing documents for a corporation consisting of more than 650 agents, and a large corporate staff spread out among 20 offices, was a daunting task that Prudential faced each and every day.
Solution Requirements
Prudential needed to implement an imaging system that could not only store digital images but also streamline operations and automate processes and paper flow. The company chose to implement DocuWare because of its flexibility, versatility and ability to integrate with Microsoft and other software products. Another important factor in the decision was DocuWare’s proven history with almost 20 years presence in the imaging market and a very large active customer base.
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| The Solution |
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Today, every time an agent lands a new deal; they simply create a new ‘folder’ in Outlook and drop all of the relevant documents into the file. With at least two multifunctional devices at each office, all paper documents are scanned, and the image is sent to the agent’s e-mail inbox utilizing the scanner’s scan-to-email feature. Incoming faxes are routed to employees via e-mail, using DocuWare. Once in the Outlook inbox, the attachments are moved into the appropriate folder. When all of the relevant documents for a sale are gathered, the agent simply moves the information into a monitored Outlook folder for indexing and storage. DocuWare monitors, or watches the named folder and automatically indexes e-mail messages and attachments by multiple fields; customer name, sales rep name, transaction number, subject line and status. To simplify indexing, each internal form is marked with a unique barcode. As documents are scanned via the MFP’s and dropped into the DocuWare folder, barcode recognition technology automatically categorizes and arranges the folder based on the form type, meaning agents do not have to be concerned about the order of the paperwork.
Business processes are further automated using electronic stamps to route documents for review and approval at the corporate office. Closing coordinators review the file to ensure it is complete, and then forward it to the closing department. At any stage of the process, the file can be rejected and sent back for corrections and additional documents to be added. When branch administrators log into DocuWare they can see a list of files that have been rejected. Agents can then be notified to complete the appropriate paperwork. After closing, the appropriate signed documents are added to the file and it is permanently archived.
Today, approximately 100 employees made up of office staff, branch managers and corporate employees, have direct read/write access to the files stored in DocuWare. Agents submit information via e-mail and have the security rights to log in from any Internet-enabled computer to view the documents related to their transactions through Microsoft Internet Explorer.
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User Benefits
On an individual level, storing documents electronically in a central archive provides employees the ability to monitor and reference documents at any point and time in the process. No longer are documents misplace or misfiled. DocuWare has increased employee morale and productivity by eliminating the wait time associated with moving documents through a manual process.
Department Benefits
On a department level, documents are now routed electronically through a predetermined workflow. When one department has completed a review, it is instantly transmitted to the next step in the process removing the time, expense and hassle of courier services, hand delivery and faxing.
"With the incredible volume of transactions running through this company, the workflow module was the most appealing part of the package," McRae said. "Now documents can flow smoothly through our internal processes and land at the closing company complete and on time."
Corporate Benefits
The bottom line is that the use of DocuWare makes for a smoother closing process. Automating the business processes and resultant paper flow allows transactions to be processed quicker, leading to faster closings and translating into a competitive advantage for the company. Managing and making the closing process easier for the customer creates goodwill. This goodwill manifests itself in repeat business. It is also a huge differentiator in a very competitive market. Cost savings resulting from eliminating courier expenses, along with increased productivity and staff savings, are other benefits that echo through the company.
Real-estate companies must meet strict state-mandated guidelines. They are audited by their franchisor and state agencies, who want to ensure all files are complete and in compliance with government regulations. With DocuWare, documentation is securely organized electronically reducing the risk of incomplete files. Additionally, auditors with Internet access can be issued a temporary password and complete their work remotely.
“Real-estate documentation must legally meet a lot of regulations. Managing this information correctly and accurately is a vital role we must perform on an ongoing basis. By investing in DocuWare and setting up our system to route information into our archive using e-mail, we’ve made the process simple for everyone, facilitated rapid user adoption and ensured the security and long term storage of our information.” said McRae.
DocuWare is a key component in assisting Prudential to meet their mission of providing their customers with simple, cost-effective real estate transactions and exceptional service.
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