Commercial Real Estate Firm Automates Document-Centric Processes With Captaris Solutions

BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Captaris, Inc. (Nasdaq: CAPA), a leading provider of software products that automate document-centric processes, today announced that The Abbey Company has deployed Captaris RightFax(TM), Captaris Workflow and Captaris Alchemy for electronic document exchange, business process management and digital storage and retrieval, all of which are working in tandem to support the company’s commercial real estate operations. Read the full case study at http://www.captaris.com/case_studies

The Abbey Company, based in Long Beach, CA is a mid-size real estate investment and management firm that serves a client base of close to 1,200 tenants. With 11 field offices and 80 staff members, efficiency was elusive because of manual paper-based processes that relied on many fax machines, too much paper and more than 2,000 square feet of filing cabinets brimming with documents that provided audit trails for leases, insurance certificates, real estate acquisitions and legal reviews. While these manual processes slowed down productivity, they also heightened the risks associated with legal transactions, tenant acquisition and retention. “We wanted to break through the silos of each department so that our employees can make decisions using the majority of information for a property, tenant or vendor at their fingertips,” said Scott Janke, The Abbey Company’s director of Operations. “In the past property managers often didn’t have the full picture. They were lucky to make the right decisions with the wrong information.”

Working with iDocs Technologies and AuLogic Solutions Inc, The Abbey Company gained control over its paper processes by implementing Captaris solutions to reduce paper, create business process management workflows and comprehensive digital storage and retrieval. Today employees exchange, review and store critical business information — whether in faxes, emails or other media — right from their desktops. The corporate office and field locations use RightFax to send and receive faxed documents. Because the firm is still a hybrid analog/digital shop, it directs incoming faxes to public folders on Microsoft Exchange server for each department, thus using only a handful of analog lines. Employees are automatically notified when a fax arrives and can review, forward and even deposit faxes in Alchemy without leaving their desks. The system limits confidential information from sitting on fax machines and a history of fax delivery and receipt provides an audit trail for back-up and security. To send faxes, employees send files for transmission from any software application or directly from MFPs, recently standardized to Kyocera machines.

“Captaris has the best suite for electronic faxing, workflow and document management under one roof,” Janke added. Along with affordability, he cited ease of administration as a top characteristic of the Captaris solution. “As a medium sized business, we only have two people dedicated to the IT department. We can manage Captaris solutions with basic assistance and without a massive group of programmers to handle our infrastructure.”

The Abbey Company first implemented Captaris Workflow to manage Human Resources processes and is expanding it to manage insurance certifications and activities associated with the negotiation and execution of new and renewal leases. Each customized workflow routes documents and delivers task notifications according to pre-set guidelines. The workflows also support document version control and provide visibility into approval status.

Using Captaris solutions, The Abbey Company has significantly reduced the need for storage space and has eliminated close to 75 percent of its fax machines and the related costs of paper, supplies and maintenance. Property managers complete tasks and make decisions with the most up to date electronic and easily accessible information. Reliable information supports business interactions as well as risk management.

“Paper is now a byproduct, not a requirement,” Janke commented. “We now have the tools to reduce paper-based processing which has given our employees the ability to focus on their primary jobs — not spending time searching for pieces of paper.”

About Captaris Inc.

Captaris, Inc. is a leading provider of software products that automate business processes, manage documents electronically and provide efficient information delivery. The products of Captaris and its subsidiary Castelle, including Captaris RightFax, Captaris Workflow, Captaris Alchemy and the Castelle FaxPress line of products, are distributed through a global network of leading technology partners. We have customers in financial services, healthcare, government and many other industries, and our products are installed in all of the Fortune 100 and many Global 2000 companies. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Captaris was founded in 1982 and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol CAPA. For more information please visit http://www.captaris.com.

The following are registered trademarks and trademarks of Captaris:
Captaris, Alchemy, RightFax and Captaris Workflow. FaxPress is a trademark of Castelle. All other brand names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Captaris, Inc.

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