Customer Success Story:
Paperless Technology Helps Non-Profit
Help their Community
DON Services
DON Services Inc. is a non-profit organization in western Pennsylvania that provides home and community-based services to people with disabilities, allowing them the freedom to stay in their homes rather than an institution. Each year they serve hundreds of adults, including veterans, who are typically living significantly below the federal poverty level, by providing them in-home attendants who assist with day-to-day activities such as cooking, cleaning, and personal hygiene. They also provide skilled nursing and home modi cation services. These valuable services provide the people served with a greatly increased quality of life and allow them to remain independent in their community.
This busy non-profit organization has over 700 employees and provides services to over 400 people. They were also completely paper-dependent—including rooms dedicated solely to housing thousands of paper files—until they implemented eFileCabinet.
Life Before Going Paperless
Justin Mastrantuoni, Director of Human Resources, describes the office before eFileCabinet: “We were fully paper. In the HR Department there was a room adjacent to the office that was completely filled with filing cabinets that were just stuffed with paperwork for all of our attendants and consumers. It was very difficult to navigate through it all.”
DON Services was about as “paper-heavy” as it gets. Each employee file had around 75 individual pieces of paper. Multiply that by 400 employees in an industry with high turnover, and you’ve got a paper nightmare. The Payroll and HR department processed over 900 W-2s in the last year alone. Managing the paperwork was extremely difficult. Employee tracking was done with paper spreadsheets. Corporate Controller, Corey Kendall CPA, CGMA, explains, “When payroll was finished, they’d bring HR back the paperwork and they’d have to spend hours just filing all the papers in paper folders. It was just very difficult. It really was.”
Justin and Corey recognized the need for a change and started researching document management systems. After watching an eFileCabinet demo, they were able to get a detailed vision of how it could revolutionize their workload.
They then thoughtfully designed their implementation. “This is something you have to carefully plan,” Corey says. “When you’re trying to file 7 years of paperwork and bring it into a system, you want to have a plan.”
“We scanned in everything,” continues Justin. “I had the HR department and their staff, on top of their day-to-day work, scanning in all of these files and putting them into eFileCabinet. It was a very collaborative effort, and it really went more seamlessly than you’d think with all of that paper. It really was a seamless process.”
They were able to get rid of 700 square feet of wall-to-wall filing cabinets. “We were actually able to eliminate every single paper file that was in that paper filing room,” says Justin. “And it’s all now done through eFileCabinet, which is now pretty much an essential function for everyday work.”
Audits—From Awful to Awesome
In the non-profit services industry, intense audits are a regular (and usually painful) occurrence. DON Services is frequently audited by various agencies, including the Department of Health and the Office of Long-Term Living. These audits usually lasted 3 to 5 days, with an auditor setting up camp in their file room. “We were always scrambling,” Justin says, “Because they give you a list of names and you’re trying to find the names…so you’re scrambling trying to find the proper folders, then you have to find exactly where the document is… It was very time-consuming and quite a mess.”
Then they implemented eFileCabinet. “We gave the auditors access to the files they needed, and they were gone within a day. They said the time savings for them was incredible. Being able to access that all on the computer, having it set up for them, they were blown away. They actually told us we should go around and get all the other providers to get on board and follow our model,” smiles Corey.
Justin agrees. “We’ve had audits where the auditors have come in and they’ve just been blown away with what we’ve been able to do. Before eFileCabinet, the auditor spent 3 days back in our filing room. He came back a couple of months ago, and he was in and out in a couple of hours.”
Not only have audits become pain-free, they’re now less frequent. “This year, they told us they aren’t coming back for at least two years,” says Corey. “It’s usually an every-year thing, but because our efficiencies and quality was so improved, they aren’t coming back for two years. So that’s great!”
A Lot of Bang for the Buck
“While comparing a number of paperless solutions, eFileCabinet stood out both for functionality and price. “It was cost effective compared to other systems. The quality was there, the features were there, but it was an affordable price,” explains Corey.
Justin agrees. “I would say it was maybe half the cost compared to some of the other systems, but still allows you to have all of the bells and whistles, which was really nice.”
Not to mention the cost effectiveness of actually utilizing the program. Instead of the intense paper processes they’d been using for years, everything became streamlined. “Just the efficiency of being able to go into eFileCabinet, search for a name, get what you need…I can’t even describe it,” says Corey. “Now we can use the workflow, and instead of passing around paper files, people go into eFileCabinet, see what needs to be done, and get it done right there at their computer and don’t have to mess around with all that paper.”
Justin agrees. “The workflow has been great, especially the alerts. Having alerts pop up as opposed to tracking things manually on spreadsheets—it’s just been incredible. When I finalize all of the new-hire paperwork and some signatures are required, it’s just so nice to pass those docs along electronically. There’s no printing, everything is seamless, even our application process. We have it all on the computer and we do the work right from there. It’s just been really, really great.”
Top Technology Equals Quality of Care
DON Services takes great pride in what they’re doing. They’re making a difference as they help hundreds of people in their community, and cutting-edge technology allows them to do the best job possible. “I would say the quality of care we offer is a really big thing, and with that comes the back office technology,” Corey says. “We’ve tried to position ourselves with the top level of technology, because that all flows into your quality of care. If you’re not efficient in your back office, then you can’t provide excellent quality of care.”
About eFileCabinet
eFileCabinet is a leading provider of electronic document management software for small to mid-sized businesses. With electronic sharing capabilities and paperless filing, you can cut out pounds of paper and save your business time and money. With features like eSignatures, optical character recognition, instant electronic sharing, and cloud-based file storage, eFileCabinet can bring your office into the paperless era.