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  Northeast Residence Uses Laserfiche to Cut Costs, Save Time, and Change Lives
Overview  Northeast Residence is a nonprofit organization that works to enrich the lives of developmentally disabled people and their families. By providing both long-term and respite care, as well as after-school programs, Northeast Residence helps provide independence, opportunity and happiness to those with special needs. Currently, Northeast Residence serves 170 different families in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro. But really, they serve the entire community. After all, when those who live with developmental disabilities are given the resources to make their own choices, to work, and to play, it improves the lives of everyone around them. “I love what I do,” says Corrine Schmidt, Administrator at Northeast Residence. Challenge What Corrine did not love, however, was the storage situation. Like many business, Northeast Residence struggles with limited space. “We were running out of room for filing cabinets,” Corrine remembers. “We were literally outgrowing our space.” In addition to that, the information that they did have was hard to get at. “Every time we wanted to look up information, we’d be shuffling through various drawers. It would take us several minutes.” And that was just the current information. Because of their space constraints, Northeast Residence had to store files that were more than a year old off-site. “We’d have maintenance run over to the other site, pick up the file boxes, and bring them back,” Corrine says. “Then we’d go through the information, have maintenance come back here, pick them up, and take them back to the other site.” If it sounds tedious, that’s because it was. Corrine notes, “We didn’t use our time wisely, and certainly that cost money.” Solution After noticing the file storage situation at Northeast Residence, their Solbrekk network engineer urged them to consider Laserfiche. “He talked about it being a much more efficient use of our time and space and something we might want to consider,” Corrine said. Corrine did her research. She had found Solbrekk through the recommendation of a trusted colleague, and so she asked around again, this time about Laserfiche. She heard only good things. “It really just seemed like the way to go,” she said. Solbrekk’s Laserfiche engineer helped Northeast Residence implement the new system. “He was there to support us through the entire process,” Corinne says. “When we had a glitch or weren’t sure how to use something, he was there to teach us, to work with us, and to make sure everything got off to a good start.” Benefits & Results Since switching to Laserfiche, space is no longer an issue for Northeast Residence, and the last-minute trips to the off-site storage unit are a thing of the past. “We save a ton of time. We can look up anything in just a matter of minutes – anything at all that we need. So it’s just very efficient,” Corinne comments. She’s appreciated the way that Solbrekk has helped them to transition into this new technology. “Solbrekk’s been amazing,” Corinne says. “I know if we have a problem, we can call them. They’re quick to respond to any emergency situations, and they’ve been very, very good to work with. I’d recommend them to anyone.” Laserfiche, for Corinne, has meant less stress and less scrambling. “We have 341 employees,” she says. “So if even a third of them are asking for information from the files – just think of the time savings.” “It’s worth the time,” Corrine says. “It’s worth the money. Go for it. It’s just that simple.” |
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