ECM Software for Distribution

To manage critical documents more quickly and easily while simultaneously streamlining its business operations, Bozzuto’s Inc., an award-winning regional wholesale distributor of food and household products, adopted GlobalSearch. By converting from a cumbersome paper-based system to an advanced Electronic Content Management solution, Bozzuto’s reinforced its enviable position in the marketplace and enhanced its bottom-line performance.

“Our biggest challenge had been filing and retrieving the paper documents we need to function,” said Suzanne Cerreta, lead Accounts Receivable Coordinator for Bozzuto’s. “GlobalSearch was adaptable to our needs and extremely easy to learn and use. It eliminated the costly problem of misfiled, misplaced and lost documents, and greatly reduced the amount of space we had to devote to document storage. Not only has GlobalSearch expedited document filing and retrieval greatly, it serves as a central repository for our documents. Now, people in different departments across the company have direct access to the documents they need and can find them quickly, without depending on others. Every day, someone is saying, ‘I love GlobalSearch!’”

“Our improved efficiency with GlobalSearch is saving us a great deal of time,” said Barbara Palen, Accounts Receivable Supervisor, “and this translates directly into cost savings. We estimate that we are saving tens of thousands of dollars annually in labor costs associated with filing and retrieving vital documents and in other areas, and this means that GlobalSearch is paying for itself over time.”

Based in Cheshire, Connecticut, Bozzuto’s serves retail customers throughout New England, as well as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; its diverse customer base ranges from large grocery store chains such as Big Y and IGA to local grocery and specialty stores. “We are a ‘total services’ company,” Cerreta said. “In addition to supplying our customers’ product needs, we also offer them an array of business services including advertising and marketing support and payroll and tax services.” The company was established in 1945 and is currently headed by Chairman, President and CEO Michael A. Bozzuto. “We are family-owned,” Palen said, “and provide a very high level of personal service. Nearly all of our customers know our owners personally and can get in touch with us at any time of the day or night.”

The documents Bozzuto’s needs to manage its accounts include customer statements, which are weekly summaries of customers’ account activity; delivery tickets, which serve as proofs of delivery; and credit memos, which document and authorize returns—all generated by the Accounts Receivable (AR) Department. Delivery tickets and credit memos are carried by Bozzuto’s drivers, signed by customers and then returned. More than 500 delivery tickets are generated daily, and more than 700 statements are produced each week.

Prior to implementing GlobalSearch, these and other vital paper records had to be filed manually, and large amounts of the employees’ time was required to file the documents—and then retrieve them when needed. Documents resided in filing cabinets in the office for six months and then had to be moved to a back room. After one year, they had to be moved again, this time to a warehouse one-quarter of a mile away where they languished under “less than ideal” conditions.

Today, documents are scanned into GlobalSearch using a simple desktop scanner and indexed immediately. “GlobalSearch was configured specifically for our requirements,” Cerreta explained. “Being able to use separate GlobalSearch Inboxes for each type of document and index those documents according to the criteria we specified was one reason GlobalSearch was such a good fit for us.” Customer statements now reside in GlobalSearch and only one copy needs to be printed and mailed to customers. Hundreds of daily delivery tickets and credit memos are scanned immediately; originals are retained only temporarily and then discarded. Nine filing cabinets were eliminated and more will follow.

Cerreta and Palen estimate that the AR clerical team is saving 25 hours each week using GlobalSearch and the AR supervisory staff is saving another 10 hours weekly, or well over $20,000 in labor costs annually for one department alone. This does not include the savings in printing equipment, ink and paper from greatly reduced printing requirements. Nor does it include cost savings from greater efficiencies in the Customer Service, Retail Service and Transportation departments, all of which are actively using GlobalSearch.

GlobalSearch is paying other dividends as well. “GlobalSearch helps us to provide better and faster service for our customers,” Cerreta said. “Now when a customer calls our Customer Service Department, the information they need is right at their fingertips.” “Using GlobalSearch ensures we can find documents whenever we need them,” Palen added. “This is critical when bank auditors or state tax authorities request records that may be six months old or older.”

“Everyone here who uses GlobalSearch really loves it and I would definitely recommend this outstanding solution,” Cerreta said. “GlobalSearch will not disappoint you—it is such a great tool to have!”