Harrell's Fertilizer, Inc.

Harrell's Fertilizer is a worldwide producer and distributor of custom fertilizers for golf courses, sports turf, and the horticulture industry.

Problem

The sharing of documents throughout satellite offices was causing confusion and worse, slowing down operations.

Solution

The DocuVantage™ solution for Harrell's business needs is an integrated suite of Document and Workflow Management tools that allow for instant access to documents vital to business productivity across Harrell's wide area network.  The complete system includes Document Imaging, Workflow, WEB, Text Retrieval, Document Management and Control, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and COLD capabilities.

With the EDM system in place, Harrell's has rapidly improved turnaround time, eliminated duplicate invoicing, and created accountability for every team member that takes part in accounting processes.

Harrell's goal was to be the easiest company for their customers to do business with.  The implementation of the Document and Workflow Management tools greatly improved employee efficiency throughout the company which in turn allowed employees to better serve the customer.

"The ability to provide information more quickly coupled with the simplification of employee functions translates to happier employees, and faster, more accurate customer service," said Harrell's Director of Information Technology, Alex Barcia. 

Dave Wiggins, CTO of DocuVantage™, says his team "thrives on working with forward-thinking companies like Harrell's".  Harrell's experienced the efficiency gains firsthand of the technical team partnership their IT department formed with the DocuVantage™ team during the implementation, forging a working relationship that promises a stable environment as the application grows.

DocuVantage™ and Harrell's programming teams ensured a solid integration between the document management system and Microsoft Great Plains, Harrell's accounting software of choice. This eliminated the confusion and over-communication between headquarters and satellite offices when dealing with the identification and correct posting of payments and historical information of Harrell's Accounts Payables documents.

Additional improvements to Harrell's processes are in the design stages, including streamlining the Accounts Receivable Department as well as implementing an extranet for their suppliers and customers.  DocuVantage™ looks forward to assisting them as they continue to grow and is proud to be a part of their winning combination.

Technical Detail

This system integrates custom Visual Basic applications, Microsoft Great Plains, and the Document Management System and Workflow implemented by DocuVantage™.  Reporting is automated and distributed via email.  Platform is Windows 2000 Server; database server is running SQL Server 2000. 

Scope

Accessed by three offices in three different states, this solution provides the means necessary to centralize all Accounts Payable activities for Harrell's.  Disaster recovery and physical storage of original documents is managed by the solution as well.  Images and indexed data are backed up to CD, which is copied and shipped to other offices for safe keeping.