Product category:
Roofing
News Release from: Lakesmere
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 October 2007
Green alternative to paper archives
Union Square solves Lakesmere's space problem and enormous cost associated with handling and processing paper documents.
Lakesmere is used to the prospect of creating space, so the company had to think creatively when faced with the prospect of losing over half the building space that it had previously allocated to archiving paper files Legal requirements insist that some of Lakesmere's documentation has to be retained for up to 12 years, but the company estimated that it was costing between GBP300,000 and GBP400,000 a year to process paper-based documents
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 9 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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As a solution to this problem, Lakesmere turned to portal-based technology from Union Square Software.
Following a major refurbishment of the Lakesmere Winchester headquarters, and the creation of a new meeting room the company lost over half of the space that had previously been allocated to archiving paper files.
According to Geoff Dennis, Finance Director, the process of clearing out old paper files made the company think seriously about how it should save and store the huge amounts of documentation and drawings that arose from each of its building projects Lakesmere realised that every piece of paper has a finite life span the end of which could be determined - whether 12 years for legal reasons or straight off the photocopier into the bin.
"We also realised that there was an enormous cost associated with handling and processing paper documents, much of which could be eliminated if we held them electronically".
The sums were astonishing; Dennis and his team estimated that it cost between GBP300,000 and GBP400,000 a year to process these bits of paper.
"We looked at everything from the cost of opening the packet of paper to throwing it away in the bin at the end of its life and came up with some amazing calculations," says Dennis.
"Admittedly there is a cost attached to managing it electronically, but it is so much lower.".
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