For Further Information: Francine Marlenée Public Relations Specialist Voice: (562) 988-1688, ext. 211 Fax: (562) 988-1886 E-mail: fmarlenee@laserfiche.com

One of the nation’s leading real estate development companies is saving significant time and money after revolutionizing the way it handles paperwork using a solution developed with Laserfiche.

Hillwood, a Perot company, is the developer of high-profile projects including AllianceTexas, AllianceCalifornia and Victory, and the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Like any major developer, Hillwood is faced with the challenge of managing hundreds of thousands of pages of sensitive legal documents quickly and efficiently. Although Hillwood boasted a remarkably organized paper filing system, it still took about 20 minutes to manually process an average 25-page document. With the new system, it takes about two minutes or less to process the same document.

“I wanted associates to have anytime and anywhere access to retrieve the critical information contained within these documents,” said Hillwood Records Manager Candy Shuster. Shuster approached James McDuff, a systems integration analyst at Perot Systems, to scope out the project. Perot Systems is a Fortune 1000 corporation that specializes in information technology solutions for clients like Hillwood.

“After looking at the existing paper-based filing system, it was obvious that it was difficult for them to get documents into the hands of appropriate parties fast enough,” said McDuff, who served as the project manager for the Laserfiche implementation at Hillwood. He carefully evaluated several document management systems, creating a matrix scorecard to visualize the cost and functionality of each system. The Hillwood project team ultimately chose Laserfiche based on its overall value and the fact that the system is modular and scalable, allowing companies like Hillwood to start with a relatively small installation and expand the system at their own pace.

“The scalability gave us the chance to get our feet wet while we got the system up and running. A lot of other solutions weren’t able to give us that option,” McDuff said. “The Laserfiche system is going to do nothing but grow.”

Another important consideration for the records department at Hillwood was maintaining the security of sensitive documents on the new system for years to come. Laserfiche’s proven track record with high-profile clients including the FBI and CIA gave Shuster the reassurance that the integrity of Hillwood’s documents would be protected for the long haul.

“Our goal was to find a tool that would complement our current records management processes, and at the same time position Hillwood to benefit from the latest technologies into the future,” Shuster said.

Getting the system up and running was a simple process. Hillwood staff members were trained on the software in small groups and over the phone. According to McDuff, Laserfiche’s use of the familiar Windows Explorer interface made it easy for Hillwood workers to catch on quickly, greatly minimizing any downtime caused by the training.

“For us, a big selling point was that there wasn’t a lot of change in the user environment to use the software,” McDuff said. “There was an overwhelming response from users within the company.”

Though it has been installed for just three months, the benefits of switching to Laserfiche are apparent. Rather than putting in a records request and waiting for the appropriate documents to be pulled and photocopied, qualified users can now access and search the entire Hillwood file repository directly from their desktops, saving time for everyone.

“Our associates using Laserfiche are very pleased with the accessibility of documents and information so quickly, knowing that eventually ‘all’ records will be indexed into Laserfiche, making everyone’s job easier and more efficient,” Shuster said. Laserfiche is already saving her about 50 hours per month, allowing the corporate records staff to focus on getting millions of pages of older “legacy” documents scanned into the system.

Hillwood’s use of Laserfiche to streamline operations mirrors a nationwide industry trend, as growing numbers of real estate development companies turn to document imaging to keep operating costs down and increase efficiency.

“Laserfiche has built a lot of inroads in development and construction. There certainly seems to be growing interest in the product within these industries,” said Cody Bettis, CEO of DocuNav Solutions, a Dallas-based Laserfiche reseller that handled the sale, installation and training of the Laserfiche system with Perot Systems and Hillwood. DocuNav has installed Laserfiche at dozens of organizations in a variety of industries ranging from financial services companies to local city governments. In recent years, DocuNav has been working with more clients in the real estate development industries, including one of the largest home developers in the country.

At Hillwood, Shuster has big plans to expand the Laserfiche system even further, which can be easily accomplished at a minimal cost thanks to the modular design of the software.

“At Hillwood we always strive to do our jobs with excellence and integrity. The Laserfiche product and its technology allow us to maintain that standard with more efficiency and effectiveness,” Shuster said.