Business Info - Issue 140

01732 759725 37 magazine Founded in 1969, New Look has grown from a single store into an international, multichannel retail brand with a distinctive value-fashion offer in apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and teenage girls. The New Look Group has over 800 stores in 21 countries, including 650 in the UK. Each UK store used to keep its own employee documents in branch. This made it difficult to audit and reference employee documents for compliance purposes and to ensure that documents remained secure, so the decision was made to switch to a centralised HR document management system supplied by DCS, a Neopost company. Following a detailed analysis of New Look’s needs, DCS recommended a FileStore document management system deployed as a relational database that dynamically models the administrative organisation. The system is accessible by 60 HR team members and others in the distribution team, and includes both PC-generated and scanned documents. The first part of the project involved the back-scanning of 18,000 existing employee files into the FileStore electronic document management system, which DCS configured to meet New Look’s specific business requirements. Paper files were picked up from individual branches by New Look’s cash pickup partners and delivered to DCS Outsourced Services’ scanning bureau, where they were scanned and tagged with business information using Kofax Capture and Transformation Modules. Scanned hard copies were retained for four months before certified secure destruction. The day-forward scanning of files created after an agreed date was treated as a separate task. Because these new files were most likely to be updated, immediate access for HR staff was essential. In addition to the scanning of printed files, DCS set up an ad hoc bulk upload service, with its own desktop shortcut icon, which allows New Look HR staff to move other files or documents (not necessarily HR records) into an FTP transfer for DCS to pick up and add to FileStore. FileStore itself provides HR team members with a number of notable features, including: n Variable access rights to ensure employee data protection. n Reports to alert the HR team of documents that are missing or need updating. n A customisable interface. n The option to upload documents individually or in bulk via a desktop shortcut. n Over 140 document classifications for easy retrieval via a Google-like search. n The ability to add new classifications without changing the existing system. The solution gives the New Look HR team complete visibility of employee documents for all 650 UK stores, enabling them to deal with personnel enquiries much more quickly. At any time, authorised personnel can access HR data and documents for individual employees, stores, regions or the whole organisation, and make changes electronically. New Look HR staff are able to see who is sending in documents, and when, thus providing an invaluable view of branch stores’ use of the system; and, because FileStore has been configured as a dynamic and future-proof solution, DCS can easily add new stores or sub-divide regions, reallocating existing data appropriately. Lucy Entwistle, the New Look Global People, System & Process Manager, said: “FileStore fits perfectly and landed really well. DCS were adaptable, practical and responsive throughout. They fully bought into our comms and engagement plan, ultimately delivering the project on time and on budget. It is great to have the information we need accessible at our fingertips, and we can be safe and secure in knowing that we are fully compliant in maintaining our personnel files.” sensitive information from documents; and n Enhanced monitoring and reporting. Process automation In these ways, FileStore ECM has helped to remove bottlenecks in HR processes so that Neopost HR team members can respond to random and urgent information requests more quickly, boosting productivity and enhancing service levels. In addition, it provides an essential building block for greater automation of business processes, which for HR departments might include employee on-/off-boarding, absence/holiday requests, employee appraisals, discipline and training. It also supports the provision of self-service solutions that enable employees to carry out routine administrative processes themselves, which has the twin benefit of empowering employees and reducing the HR workload. The combination of FileStore EDM and FileStore BPM, also supplied by DCS, offers further productivity and compliance benefits by automating: n the collection of required documents from everyone involved in a workflow; n the capture and extraction of relevant information from scanned and digital documents, including CVs, forms, appraisal sheets, personal records and timesheets; n the routing of documents and information from the start to the end of a process; and n the monitoring of task progress, with automatic reminders and alerts to avoid delays. These capabilities have the potential to improve document workflow throughout an organisation. In addition to HR departments (see case study below), DCS provides solutions for accounts payable, sales order processing, digital mailroom, claims and case management and compliance. The inherent flexibility of its platform enables customers to automate processes in stages, at a rate that suits their business needs, with a choice of deployment models (e.g. on premise or in the cloud) and the option of outsourced scanning services. To find out more about how Neopost and DCS can help you improve the efficiency and compliance of your business processes, please visit Case study: https://campaigns.neopost.co.uk/hr-records/ BUSINESS BRIEFING