DM Jan-Feb 2021

CASE STUDY: DIRECT LINE GROUP Dm
"WITH THE OPERATIONS NO LONGER OPEN, THERE WOULD POTENTIALLY BE AROUND 4,000 ITEMS OF POST
ARRIVING EACH DAY VIA ROYAL MAIL THAT COULD NOT BE PROCESSED AND ULTIMATELY NOT AVAILABLE TO
STAFF. THE SOLUTION TO THE CHALLENGE WAS TO SET UP AN EMERGENCY DIGITAL MAILROOM THROUGH
WHICH PHYSICAL MAIL ITEMS COULD BE RE-ROUTED, DIGITISED AND THEN MADE AVAILABLE AND PROCESSED
BY STAFF WORKING FROM HOME."
Through a combination of innovative
technology and deep industry
knowledge, EDM Group provides
highly customised solutions that help
organisations automate and streamline
business processes and workflows.
As a key supplier to both the private
and public sectors, EDM is deemed by
the government to be providing
essential services, so was able to
continue operating during the crisis
with Covid-secure measures in place.
EDM was able to get the emergency
digital mailroom up and running
within a week. Initially, mail was
collected by EDM's in-house transport
division and taken to their scanning
and mailroom operations based in
Wolverhampton. Within two weeks all
of the organisation’s mail was being
redirected to EDM through a Royal
Mail PO box re-routing service.
This mail is delivered to the scanning
facility before 9am with the aim that
all circa 4,000 mail items are opened,
prepared and scanned by experienced
EDM staff before being uploaded into
EDMonline - the company's proprietary
hosted document management
platform - by 5pm the same day. As
each item is scanned, the digital
images are immediately uploaded into
EDMonline and made available to the
client's remote working staff.
It is also important to note that each
of the individually scanned mail items
are encrypted as part of the process to
ensure full compliance with data
protection and information security
protocols. During the mail sortation
and scanning process 'cherished items'
such as cheques, passports and birth
certificates are also scanned but the
physical original items are then logged
and securely packaged for return to
the client on a daily basis. The final
part of the process is that all the
original mail items are boxed up and
relocated to one of EDM's off-site
document management facilities for
their secure storage and retention.
IMMEDIATE, COMPLIANT RESULTS
"When the Covid-19 pandemic
emerged, we urgently implemented a
home working strategy to adhere to
government guidelines and to ensure
the safety of our people," says Andy
Payne, Head of Logistics at Direct Line
Group. "With thousands of mail items
being received into our offices across
the country it was imperative we found
a way to make physical mail available
to staff at home to keep the business
moving. We approached EDM with this
challenge and within one week they
had implemented an emergency
mailroom solution, and inbound
correspondence was available to staff
electronically the same day it was
received. We were very impressed with
the speed of implementation and the
management of the project
considering no company was immune
to the effects of the recent pandemic."
The emergency digital mailroom
service provided by EDM delivered an
immediate solution to Direct Line
Group's home working strategy in
compliance with Government advice
and directives, and also ensured that
important customer and business
correspondence continued to be
processed, ensuring staff could
continue in their roles and the business
was functioning as fully as it could
under difficult circumstances for all.
https://www.edmgroup.com/speak-toan-emergency-digital-mailroomspecialist
www.document-manager.com
January/February 2021
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