Henry Boot - DDCOS

The client

Henry Boot was established 125 years ago. They are one of the UK’s leading and long-standing property investment, development, land development and construction companies. They operate through an expanding network of regional offices in the UK, with qualified and experienced staff and they are proud of their long established reputation in a very specialised market.

The challenge

The Human Resources department had all of their personnel files in paper format, stored on site, taking up a considerable amount of space. Due to organisational growth, Henry Boot needed more space made available for offices, and so they looked at digitising these files to free up the storage space. DDC OS was recommended to them via an associate, and we worked with them to come up with a workable solution.

I am delighted with the swift and cost-effective service offered by DDC OS. From initial project plan through to delivery of the scanned files back to my company for storage on our own database; nothing has been too much trouble. I would highly recommend DDC OS as a digital document management partner.

The solution

Henry Boot supplied DDC OS with a manifest of the files that they held, and using this, DDC OS provided an on-site packing service, securely transferring the files over to our Worksop offices. The files were then prepared, scanned, and indexed in-line with the client’s specification.

Each file was scanned and then using OCR, the files were made into searchable PDFs. This meant that once the files were uploaded into the file hosting system, they could be found by searching any of the searchable fields.

All the files were for current employees, and as such, there were standard documents that were required to be in each file. The digitisation process provided a check to ensure that all elements of the personnel file were there, and if they were indeed missing or had been misplaced, then this information as fed back to Henry Boot, allowing them to rectify the situation before it became any kind of an issue. Added to this, some elements of personnel files are subject to retention periods, and with digital files, dates can be set in the system which will then trigger the files to be removed or updated, keeping Henry Boot compliant.

Working to a manifest also meant that DDC OS could provide a scan-on-demand service; Henry Boot could request that any file be prioritised in the digitisation process, which would allow them access within 24 hours if they required it. This meant the client could carry on their business with minimal impact until the work was complete.

The benefits

As a result of digitising the files and the paper files being moved offsite, office space was made free to be used for the growing number of staff that the company was employing.
Each digital file is now available to view on-demand, remotely if required, and the files are more secure and no longer open to deterioration.
The files have varying data retention periods due to the legislation involved in the industry, which can be easily maintained with an online system. This helps them prevent compliance issues.

Summary

Turning their paper files into digital files created a vastly improved working practice for Henry Boot. Their files are now more easily accessible and more secure, and the space that was previously used for storing files can now be used for other more valuable activities

Their files are now more easily accessible and more secure, and the space that was previously used for storing files can now be used for other more valuable activities.