The right software makes enterprise content management simple
When your documents are just another data point, they’re not as valuable. Bring them to the surface with enterprise content management.
THE CLIENT
Our client specializes in pipe unloading, handling and installation for the oil and gas industry. Because they are the stewards of all joints from mill to right-of-way, they received constant calls asking for status updates and information. As the company grew, this system was no longer scalable.
THE PROBLEM
Entrance created a logistics support tool for the client that automatically tracks the status of millions of joints of pipe, providing customized inventory reports and creating a pipeline status history database. Not only does the software reduce time and effort spent on tracking pipe, it also provides accurate and timely data capture, as well as consistent documentation.
However, there were still many paper documents that our client needed to share with their customers. The current system only stored a few specific categories of documents, and did not allow for any ad-hoc metadata to be associated. They wanted every piece of paper to be digitalized, tagged, and easily findable from the customer portal. In addition, when the transfer of documents en masse from our client to their customers was necessary (for example, at project’s end), the application did not expose a method to do so.
THE SOLUTION
We integrated a tool called Laserfiche with the client’s customer portal that makes enterprise content management simple and easy. Laserfiche has OCR and cataloging capabilities that allow customers to search for keywords related to the document they need. Interfacing directly with the Laserfiche API, our customer portal solution now returns a list of documents that contain the searched-for keyword, sorted by relevance as gauged by the number of times the search term appears in each document.
Every document is tagged with associated meta-data, for example the heat number of a steel pipe or the mill at which it was manufactured. Customers can click on any of those tags, and the application will pull up a new tab with all the other documents that are tagged with the same metadata. This makes it extremely easy for clients to find all related documents.
The client can now also easily share documents with the customer in an interface that looks and acts similar to the customer portal through a re-branded version of the Laserfiche interface. Bringing these documents to the surface have made them more valuable, because it’s no longer necessary to dig for the right pieces of information. In addition to improving the customer experience, it makes managing sometimes complicated compliance and safety issues that much easier.
For more on how custom software has helped this client to improve the management of their assets, read this post…