SCHOTTENSTEIN ZOX AND DUNN

SZD Law Firm Saves Money with Office Workflow Solution from Meridian

 

The award-winning law firm of Schottenstein, Zox and Dunn (SZD), located in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati is home to over 100 attorneys serving the business community from small business to public companies. With expertise in many areas from corporate law, to intellectual property rights, litigation and trial law, SZD was named the "Best Law Firm" and "Best Litigation Firm" by Columbus C.E.O. magazine and has been honored as a "Best Place to Work" by Columbus Business First for the past five years. 

In an effort to partner with clients to manage legal fees, SZD decided to review office and document workflow processes for maximum efficiency and savings. The firm chose to work with Meridian Managed Technologies for an assessment and recommendations on their office workflow. 

Objective:

As typical with law firms, SZD had the challenge of dealing with volumes of paper files. A solution was needed to manage the paper volume more efficiently and to reduce costs while leveraging technology. 

“We wanted to lower our costs associated with our printing and copying equipment while adding functionality and increasing performance.  I also wanted to set up an imaging department so we could start scanning paper documents and divert them from long term storage in a warehouse,” explained Tim Eckenrode, Chief technology Officer, SZD. 

Solution:

“We really liked the terms and conditions model which will gave us a flexibility moving forward,” said Eckenrode. 

The team of technology and office workflow experts at Meridian Managed Technologies met with SZD and reviewed the firm’s office document workflow, how files were being printed, copied, stored and processed between people and departments.   

The solution recommended and implemented included:  

·        An on-site imaging center staffed by Meridian that allows the firm to complete scanning projects saving time, money and the inconvenience of sending them to an outside vendor. Meridian is converting old hardcopy files to electronic records to reduce storage and space costs. 

 ·        Fiery ScanStations that allow SZD to complete small scanning projects quickly and easily. 

·        Ricoh multi-function printers that allow fast and easy printing, copying, scanning and faxing and also provided better color control and the ability to do more economical printing in-house.  

Meridian works with each department to scan documents and organize them electronically, and then destroy the paper records. 

“The entire process with Meridian went smoothly and was seamless.  Their model was almost too good to believe. Other vendors are very structured and don’t provide much flexibility in terms and conditions. They helped us tailor a solution around our own business and it’s really worked out,” said Eckenrode. 

The Meridian team trained our service center and IT department on the new equipment as well as all of our end users.  Multiple convenience stations were set up for support staff to photo copy as needed. Meridian supplies the office equipment – which means less capital expenditure and cost savings for SZD.

The new document and office workflow solution is more effective and more efficient for SZD, and has also reduced costs. Additionally, the support staff is able to spend time in more valuable ways without the burden of handling large printing jobs. 

“ Meridian figured out a way to make it more efficient and cost effective with the electronic solutions. When we need documents now—the electronic documents enable us to retrieve them at our fingertips as opposed to waiting to have them pulled from storage. This allows us to provide better service to our clients,” said Eckenrode. 

“We also like working with Meridian , because if the business landscape or our business changes, our agreement with them is flexible and is allowed to change with our needs,” noted Eckenrode. 

SZD is saving money on storage costs, search time for files, and time printing large volumes of documents. 

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

HOMETOWN TEAM BACKED BY HOMETOWN MANAGED TECH EXPERTS 

Local sports franchise reduces monthly office operating costs by 20% through leveraging personnel and technology

Objective:

The objective was to increase functionality for workflow and document imaging processes while reducing overall cost. Meridian Managed Technologies built a managed services program – encompassing all the organization’s workflow and document imaging needs through one reliable source. The solution included managed print services, multifunction printers, fax servers, mailing solutions, technology services and enablers from four different vendors into one solution.

 

 

Challenge:  

 

 

As with any sports team or major arena, in addition to the goal of having a winning team is the importance of being a profitable business.  And with the challenging economy, even hockey team organizations are wise to ensure their business is running as efficiently as possible.
The business supporting the Columbus Blue Jackets has grown rapidly since the team’s inception in 2000. Behind the popular NHL team is a second team of marketing, sales, financial and operational professionals working to ensure a return on investment for owners.  They also work to ensure things are running smoothly behind the scenes.   

 

 

When the Blue Jackets took a look at maximizing efficiencies and reducing expenses, they looked to Meridian Managed Services to help evaluate their overall workflow and document imaging processes.  Prior to working with Meridian, the Director of Public Relations was spending as much as 2 hours making copies on game days.  The hosting team was also responsible for making copies of stat sheets between game periods.  Managing multiple vendors for a fleet of printing and copying equipment had also become a burden on staff.

Solution:

Jim Connolly, Director of Information Technology Columbus Blue Jackets/Nationwide Arena, says “Working with Meridian has allowed our office staff to focus on our core business needs. Meridian integrated into our office process and practices seamlessly and they work proactively to reduce our costs associated with our copy, print, and fax and mail services. We appreciate having Meridian as our partner and we’re getting the most from our technology investment while reducing costs.”  

 

The Columbus Blue Jackets had a decentralized environment with two different vendors for copiers and printers. The copiers and printers accounted for 34 devices with a volume of over 300,000 black & white pages and approximately 20,000 color pages. The equipment blend was composed of 19 printers, 5 fax machines, 1 color multifunction printer and 10 copiers. There were 11 analog fax lines with a fax server. The receptionist was sharing the role of preparing outgoing mail and distributing received mail.  

 

Meridian conducted a study to map out and analyze the departmental printing environment and understand flow of mail through the Arena. In addition, the team took time to understand their fax environment.  

 

Medium to large copying and printing were migrated to a copy center staffed by Meridian .  This migration accounted for 80% of the total volume which reduced the overall operating cost and gives Blue Jackets employees additional time to focus on their core job assignments without spending time preparing print and copy jobs. The center is tasked with processing and distributing all shipping and mail. It was designed to handle the current in-house needs as well as support the growing volume of needs and additional services by bringing more outsourced printing in house. The center will utilize a production multifunction printer and a production color multifunction printer.  

 

Meridian developed a solution to reduce the Blue Jackets’ equipment device count from 34 to 8 convenience multifunction printers, 3 desktop multifunction printers and 5 redeployed printers. Overall, the Blue Jackets were able to eliminate 18 of their highest cost printers.  40,000 monochromatic prints and 1,200 color prints were migrated to multifunction printers eliminating the Blue Jackets need to print once and copy many. 10,000 monochromatic prints are distributed to 5 personal and convenience printers. The remaining 40,000 mono prints and 1,200 color prints were migrated to convenience multifunction printers. All employees gained access to scanning and printing.  

 

A fax server was added to eliminate unnecessary phone lines and long distance charges. This service gives the Blue Jackets the ability to send and receive faxes through their desktops. The fax server is being maintained and serviced seamlessly by Meridian ’s technology services.  

 

Through the course of the study, Meridian discovered that the Blue Jackets could reduce the cost of their current postage meter while increasing their weighing capabilities by partnering with Meridian .  

 

Scanning stations were added for easier distribution of electronic documents. Blue Jackets included scanning stations to help facilitate scanned documents for OCR and document retention. Software licenses were included for the legal department to enhance electronic document production through security, editing and annotating.  

 

By entering into a service model program, the Blue Jackets eliminated the need for leasing hardware.  By leveraging personnel and technology, the Columbus Blue Jackets reduced their monthly costs by 20% while adding more user friendly technology allowing additional time for focusing on core business. 

UNION HOSPITAL

Leading Ohio Hospital Uses Content Management to Meet Federal Government E-records Plan & Retrieves Patient Information 15 times Faster

Objective:

In May, President Bush set the goal for every American to have an electronic medical record - instead of the traditional manila folder - within the next 10 years. Recent news coverage has supported this proclamation and the government's upcoming plan to jumpstart this goal. These articles mention technology's potential of cutting the nation's $1.6 trillion-a-year health care bill by at least 10%. The mere 13% of the nation's healthcare institutions who have electronic records are proof that technology improves care, workflow and even finances.

Solution:

A shining example of a healthcare institution in sync with this national objective is Union Hospital of Dover, Ohio. With an approach to better managing patient records for over 6,212 admissions, 248,647 outpatient visits and 38,198 emergency room visits, Union Hospital has been turning traditional files into electronic medical records and caring for patients with even greater efficiency by using document management software since 1996.

Armed with the content management system, the departments of Registration, Administration, Cardiology, Radiology, Medical Records, the Sleep Disorder Center and Emergency Room not only create and store electronic patient records but access the records 15 times faster, reducing patient wait time while complying with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations.

Marian Hillyer, special projects manager, notes the time savings the Medical Records department incurs, "Previously stored on microfilm, files in the Medical Records department used to take off-shift nurse coordinators 10-15 minutes to retrieve. Now, stored in a content management system, these same files are accessed within a minute right from their desktops," she says.

The content management system is integrated with a Medical Records application.. When users enter new documents into the system, Update Assistant – an electronic content management option - automatically adds the new information. The Registration department finds the interface extremely helpful when checking in returning patients. When dealing with sick patients, checking them in as soon as possible is critical. And because the system is password-protected, Union Hospital's content management system ensures adherence with HIPAA's privacy regulations.

By adding the option to their content management system - which is LAN based - Union Hospital's reach of the document management software to a Web browser interface is extended enabling users to easily access the documents stored in their content management databases - anytime, anywhere. Users can search, import, edit, annotate and delete documents right inside their browsers. Collaborative computing is easy. Network Administrator Freda Young explains how the departments' systems "talk" to each other. "Our Keane AS400 mainframe system houses all patient registration information entered by the Registration department. This information is fed into the content management system making updated records immediately available to the Medical Records department." This electronic updating makes for less paper, again keeping patient information private.

The Registration department uses Content management to retain inpatient and outpatient care. The need to manually enter has been eliminated increasing accuracy and saving up to three hours per day, allowing staff to tend to other responsibilities.

Medical records are not the only type of documents stored in the hospital's content management system. EKGs, patient histories including physicals, patient charts, sleep studies, faxed physician registration forms, vendor contracts and medical staff applications help make up the total of over 1.4 million documents.

Hillyer says the latest department to add their records to a content management system is Human Resources. "All terminated employee records will now be accessible, and we plan on adding most HR records in the future" says Hillyer. In addition, the BioMed department is planning to electronically convert their preventative maintenance reports.

Having earned a place among the 13% nationwide healthcare institutions using electronic medical records, Union Hospital is well positioned for the first phase of the U.S. government's plan to establish a national health information infrastructure. Helping to make this possible, is the content management software solution. Accessing medical records and other patient information quickly and easily while adhering to HIPAA regulations, Union Hospital is also set to continue with its mission of providing quality care to its patients.