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DELIVERY NOTES
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A national managed print solutions provider is responsible for ensuring thousands of UK organisations enjoy a reliable service when it comes to print, copy and scan activities.
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An area identified within the business as needing streamlining was the process for outbound delivery notes.
Prior to implementing an automated solution, members of the order processing team would manually print delivery notes when required.
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The organisation has multiple warehouses geographically spread over the UK so it was important that the operator selected the correct output queue.
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It was also important that a copy of the delivery note is stored within their Microsoft SharePoint environment. To do this the delivery notes were scanned by each warehouse.
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Legacy software would receive the scanned file, read the delivery note and save it. Unfortunately, the reading of the delivery note numbers by the software was unreliable meaning that it was not always possible to retrieve a copy of the delivery notes when required.
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The final element was to input (daily) data regarding collection and deliveries to a web port which the couriers hosted. This meant entering the same data already in the ERP system and which is documented on the delivery notes.
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The high volumes and amount of manual processing, inevitably, led to costly errors and significant amounts of wasted staff time.
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A new solution was implemented where operators always print to a single workflow print queue.
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After that, PRISM Software automatically handles all the required processing. Key data is extracted and used to ensure that:
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Delivery notes are reliably printed to the correct location
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Details can be provided to the couriers through integration without re-keying
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A copy of the document is saved within Microsoft SharePoint
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The result is an accurate and reliable delivery note processing solution which vastly improves efficiency and saves significant resources.
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SOFTWARE DEPLOYED
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PRISM Capture
PRISM WorkPath Server
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Altman IM digital workflows are always customised to suit the way your organisation works. The various stages required and sequence vary from customer to customer. The outline below details the flow deployed in this particular project.
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PROCESS STEPS
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1. Input
Delivery notes are printed from their ERP System to a PRISM Workflow Input Print Queue.
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2. Data Extraction
PRISM Capture extracts the following data fields form the page:
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Delivery Note Number
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Order created by
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Printed date
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Reprint or not
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Stock location
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Delivery address
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Since the ERP system already has validation rules set on the field data this process is almost 100% accurate and does not require any human involvement after the workflow receives the printed delivery note. There are still, however, email notifications configured just in case any mandatory data is missing or incorrect.
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3. Outputs
Once processed the data and document pair are output in three different ways:
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CSV File. The extracted data is populated in a comma separated file (csv) file and output to folder. Third party software provided by the courier imports each new CSV file to their logistics system.
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Printer. The delivery note is printed to the local warehouse determined by the stock location data.
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SharePoint. A copy is named and filed within the company SharePoint folders for easy retrieval at a later date if required.
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DELIVERY NOTE PROCESS VARIATIONS
There are many similar implementations of delivery note processing solutions. A common requirement is to save to folder the delivery note file at time of printing. Then, when the signed delivery note is returned to the offices it is scanned and appended to the original.
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