Ease Growing Pains With OCR

Used with permission from Integrated Solutions magazine

Document imaging and OCR (optical character recognition) helped $1.8 billion Fastenal maintain growth by increasing the document processing productivity of its accounting department 60%.

Whether it's in terms of revenue, profit, customer base, or geographic presence, most companies strive to grow. However, just like anything else, growth must be properly managed in order to have a positive impact on your business. Grow too quickly, and your organization may find itself unable to cope with increased capital costs or ill-equipped to properly service its customers. This is exactly the scenario Fastenal wanted to avoid. Fastenal is a $1.8 billion distributor of industrial and construction supplies, including fasteners (e.g. screws, nuts, bolts), safety supplies, and welding equipment and tools. The company operates more than 2,000 stores throughout the United States and has been consistently growing at a rate of more than 20% a year since 2000. The company wanted to sustain its domestic and global expansion without adding human resources to its centralized AP (accounts payable) and AR (accounts receivable) departments. Of particular concern was Fastenal's ability to quickly and efficiently process customer remittances and vendor invoices.