Cal Water Turns on Productivity Tap with ImageNow

Shawnee, KS, July 11, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Perceptive Software, Inc., today announced that California Water Service Group (Cal Water), the second largest water utility in the U.S., selected ImageNow® integrated document management, imaging and workflow software to speed document retrieval, expedite accounting processes and support Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in the accounts payable (AP) and accounting departments.

When Cal Water centralized the AP functions for 24 sites located throughout California, the amount of checks, invoices and other financial documents increased, and so did the number of hours employees spent manually processing them. It became a challenge for Cal Water to complete accounting procedures on time, retrieve specific documents quickly and maintain the security of archived records.

Administrators searched for an electronic document management application that would increase efficiency and provide a direct link between staff members and the financial documents they need to complete daily tasks. After a thorough market analysis, Cal Water selected ImageNow.

"The ease of use and implementation of ImageNow put it above the nine other applications we evaluated," said Tony Drake, assistant controller. "Its reasonable cost and compatibility with any document or file format were also considerations."

Patented LearnMode™ technology will facilitate seamless integration between ImageNow and Cal Water’s PeopleSoft Enterprise system. Integration establishes a link between documents in ImageNow and records in PeopleSoft, allowing users to immediately retrieve checks, invoices and other supporting documents from their PeopleSoft screens.

"During the onsite demonstration, Perceptive Software integrated ImageNow with our PeopleSoft database in minutes, which amazed us," Drake said. "The link between ImageNow and PeopleSoft will allow our employees to retrieve any page of any document in seconds."

When evaluating document management products, Drake and his colleagues looked for a product that would deliver rapid return on investment. Proven project planning and installation methodologies contribute to timely, cost-effective ImageNow deployment. Hands-on implementation and training will empower Cal Water to manage their ImageNow solution independently, minimizing long-term ownership costs.

"It’s faster to implement ImageNow than comparable products and we plan to be up and running with it in just a few weeks," Drake said. "We want to expand ImageNow to other areas and Perceptive Software training will prepare us to do it ourselves."

Manually processing 20,000 invoices each month diverted Cal Water staff members away from other job responsibilities. ImageNow will allow employees to instantly access and distribute documents without touching hard copies.

"ImageNow will eliminate five hours of filing each week, and will also reduce photocopying and manual document retrieval," Drake said. "It will boost productivity by allowing employees to focus on other tasks."

When Cal Water relied on paper-based workflow, the slow movement of paperwork delayed accounting processes. Cal Water will use ImageNow workflow to automatically route documents between employees’ work queues, speeding approval processes and eliminating the risk of loss associated with hard copies.

ImageNow reporting features will enable Sarbanes-Oxley auditors to quickly view complete document histories for every document processed by Cal Water’s AP and accounting departments.

"ImageNow will be an important part of our Sarbanes-Oxley compliance initiative," Drake said. "It will help us show auditors that we have a defined approval process in place that all documents go through."

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) requires utility providers to retain documents for several years. Cal Water stores hard copies in hundreds of file cabinets, but will soon scan and import documents into ImageNow’s secure image repository. CPUC and other regulatory bodies recognize the validity of document images, eliminating the need for Cal Water to retain paper versions.
Replacing hard copies with ImageNow document images increases document security, as assignable user- and drawer-level privileges will allow administrators to limit document access.

"Out of all the products we looked at, ImageNow scored the highest for security features," Drake said. "Limiting user access to confidential documents will help us protect customer privacy and storing documents electronically will reduce storage costs."

Learn more about ImageNow at http://www.imagenow.com

To request product information, send an e-mail to info@imagenow.com

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