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Document Archiving Workflow Models

Paper-Based Workflow

In this version, all documents are printed and stored as physical items. This requires a heavy time investment for Service and Warranty claims personnel because they have to print and manage every document. There are costs associated with paper, toner, and printer downtime. Additionally, the documents must be stored, which costs money whether it's on site (by taking up valuable space that could be dedicated to revenue-producing activities) or off-site. Perhaps most important is the chance for human error and misplacement of documents. This can result in negative warranty audit results, and thus a high degree of warranty charge-backs.

Print & Scan Workflow

This model utilizes scanning technology to archive documents. However, everything is still being printed, so the costs associated with that continue. Plus additional costs are realized through hiring skilled personnel to do the scanning, as well as using a third party vendor to shred the documents once they have been scanned. Since you can't scan a document until an RO is closed, they must be securely stored until they are scanned. Documents that sit unsecured or manually travel throughout the dealership can result in either being misplaced, or worst still, become a high security risk with potential liability to your business.

Virtually Paperless – with IDEAS from Canon Solutions America

Printing is dramatically reduced, resulting in fewer documents that need to be managed by service personnel. Costs are controlled by greatly reducing the amount of printing, scanning and storage. Additionally, document retrieval for warranty audits is now a matter of minutes, not hours or days, resulting in more successful manufacturer and warranty audits and fewer charge-backs. This is the only document archiving model that actually frees up the service advisor's and technician's time – meaning more vehicles per day can be repaired, fewer loaner cars may be needed, customers are happier, service revenue opportunity increases and CSI scores can be significantly improved.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q I'm just a small dealership. Is IDEAS right for me?
• A Any size dealership can benefit from using the IDEAS solution.
  
  You can realize cost savings through the reduction of paper, toner, storage costs and the labor associated with maintaining a manufacturer warranty file. IDEAS also allows your technicians to focus on repairing cars instead of pushing paperwork, increasing the opportunity to increase gross service revenue by allowing more vehicles to be serviced using the same facilities and personnel. Having fewer lost documents can translate into better warranty audits and fewer warranty charge-backs.
• Q What other dealers have you implemented this type of solution for?
• A BMW, MINI and Honda.
• Q What can Canon IDEAS do for us?
• A IDEAS provides tremendous benefits to dealerships through productivity enhancements, cost savings and manufacturer/government regulatory compliance. You can automatically capture critical warranty information and vehicle diagnostic data for archiving. In addition, IDEAS can help you manage business processes across all departments of your organization. Combined with an imageRUNNER ADVANCE MFD or one of Canon's award-winning ScanFront imaging systems, you can capture deal jackets including all documentation associated with automobile purchases, and submit the scanned pages to an easily accessible but secure archive.
• Q I already have an archiving system from my DMS vendor. How does your product work compared to that?
• A Your DMS system only captures documents which are printed by the DMS system. Even then you must print the documents and keep them in a paper filing system which takes up a lot of space. The bulk of service documents you are required to keep are not produced by your DMS system. Our system captures service documents from many electronic sources without the need to print them; the only documents which have to be scanned are those which require authorization signatures. IDEAS eliminates the need to print and file the majority of documents, or manually scan huge volumes of service documents to an electronic archive.
• Q What do I do with my existing document archive? Can I put existing files into your archive?
• A Yes, you can put existing files into the IDEAS archive.
  • Paper files are assessed to determine what to enter in the IDEAS archive, based upon necessity and Federal regulations.
  • If you have an electronic archive, the existing files can be converted. Conversion needs will depend on what archive you are using today. Your existing vendor should provide you with your data in electronic format. Depending on the vendor and the format of the files, Canon will provide you with a cost for importing these records into the IDEAS system.
• Q My dealership would like to have an electronic archive but, we would have to hire someone to perform the document scanning and this might be expensive.
• A The real-time document capture feature of IDEAS reduces the number of documents which need to be manually scanned into the system. The bulk of the documents are automatically captured and indexed into IDEAS. The remaining documents are very few and are scanned as they are created, so additional staff is not required.