“We had so much paper work floating around the office it was becoming unmanageable,” recalls Jonathan Merchant, IT/ISO Manager at Kallo Foods Ltd, “and the problem was compounded by sending paper between offices, and people taking work home.”
Kallo Foods Ltd sights are set on becoming the leading developer of organic and natural brands and products for the UK marketplace, and with increasing numbers of its brands appearing on the shelves of major UK stores, the paper problem was bound to increase.
“The solution,” continues Jonathan, “seemed obvious. Once we could map an ISO documented process to a computerised process, scanning any paper work as required, then we could ensure that the right people authorised the right work at the right time, and we would have an audit trail of every activity.”
With that goal in mind, Jonathan started to investigate Workflow systems and selected a short list of four software providers.
“All the prospective suppliers,” says Jonathan, “had some things they could not do. With Softology Document Management and the Softology Workflow System, what impressed was that the few functions they could not do at the time were rapidly incorporated into their system.”
“Consequently, we realised quite quickly that the Softology Workflow was the most flexible, and the price was right too.”
The first workflows implemented were ‘Promotion’ and ‘Pricing’.
Jonathan notes, “One of the first things that became apparent was that the large and complex promotion spreadsheet, which could take three weeks to process for a product promotion, could now be completed in three days, which was a very impressive early gain.”
“Moreover,” continues Jonathan, “as well as eliminating excess paperwork and dealing with the problem of lost documentation, staff in-trays reduced in volume considerably and we have all the audit information we need.”
With seven active workflows produced using Softology Workflow, Jonathan finds it so much simpler to map and maintain ISO processes using the Softology Workflow toolset and, having achieved his first objective, he decided to implement Softology’s Document Management System.
“It was a logical next step,” Jonathan remarks, “to scan the office filing and reduce the demand on office space for paper storage.”
As well as mapping Kallo Foods Ltd ISO processes, Jonathan has a clear road map for the future. “We have recently implemented SAP for accounting throughout the company, and the next step for us is to integrate both Softology Workflow and Document Management into the SAP system.”
This is made simpler for Jonathan as Softology’s API offers a non-invasive mechanism for integrating with third party accounting systems.
“The problems presented by handling large amounts of paper and MS Office Documents through our ISO processes were considerable, but we were able to bring them under control using Softology Workflow.”
Harking back to the selection process, Jonathan concludes, “Flexibility was the outstanding feature of Softology Workflow and crucially, it is that flexibility that gives us the ability to adapt in a challenging and constantly changing business environment.”
Choose Softology
"Flexibility was the outstanding feature of Softology Workflow"
"It is that flexibility that gives us the ability to adapt in a challenging and constantly changing business environment.”
