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Puffer-Sweiven

Puffer-Sweiven Case Study

Company

Puffer-Sweiven

Industry

Industrial

Location

Houston, TX

The Customer

Puffer-Sweiven, an industry leader in process and flow control, serves industries ranging from oil and gas to refining, petrochemicals, utilities, power, and pulp and paper. They also provide products and services to the engineering contractors who serve these industries. In June 2013, Puffer management was tasked to reduce costs while maintaining their internal customer satisfaction. With this goal in mind, they turned to their printing costs.

Solution

Increased accountability, quicker problem resolution and stakeholder relationship development achieved by switching to a single vendor.

Quarterly fleet management analyses allowed devices to be moved to meet fluctuating user demand.

Established print policy allowing very low-volume devices to be moved to meet new location needs, avoiding the need to spend capital.

The Challenge

At the time, decision-making for printers was handled at the departmental level. Over time, this caused several problems:

  • Because of overlap, the company was using too many devices spanning too many different equipment models. Their current devices were running at a very high cost per page.
  • The highest volume of color printing was done on the most expensive device.
  • Because Puffer was not utilizing a fleet management service, several of their devices were overused. This took a toll on their reliability and, in turn, the end user’s productivity.

In addition, Puffer employees did not want to “lose” their individual printers, feeling that losing that capability would negatively affect their productivity. Puffer was utilizing four office technology vendors to support the multiple machines, resulting in dozens of different invoices ever month.

The F4 Solution

By visiting each of their 10 facilities in Texas, Function4 plotted each device on floor plans and met with each department to better understand their document requirements. The result was an insight report detailing findings and a road map for improvement. Function4 provided a print rationalization plan that eliminated 25% of all printers by strategically placing workgroup multifunction devices (MFDs) in their respective departments. Software was installed on all MFDs allowing documents to be easily digitized in an editable format. Variance in supply types was also greatly reduced by standardizing printer models. Additionally, Function4 performed multiple on-site trainings, offered software solutions to proactively contain costs and produced collateral for Puffer employees regarding new processes and technologies.

The Results

Function4 built a customized content management system for AD Health using M-Files that was hosted and maintained it in the cloud. This custom configured application gave AD Health a centralized place for all their contracts and made it easy to manage them. Considerable time avoided when searching for contracts while eliminating mistakes related to missing important dates within contracts.

Function4 integrated M-Files, AD Health’s electronic medical records system, and their internal accounting system to allow many AR processes to be automated. It also allowed Function4 to create a portal so that customers could view their invoices. This ability created a much more efficient process that was even more accurate.

With all of AD Health’s customers and invoicing information in one place, it allowed them to take advantage of an electronic forms system. They were able to create many of their insurance forms using that information and an electronic forms application. These enhancements created additional ways to automate a process and allow continued growth of Advanced Diagnostics Health.