Norwood Promotional Products Implementing Integrated Captaris RightFax
October 02 2008 - 11:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
FoIP solution to centralize, automate order processing BELLEVUE,
Wash., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Captaris, Inc.
(NASDAQ:CAPA), a leading provider of software products that
automate document-centric processes today announced Norwood
Promotional Products, a supplier of imprinted promotional products
and long-time Captaris(R) RightFax(R) user, is now extending
integrated Fax over IP functionality across its U.S. locations for
consolidated and automated management of business orders. "We chose
RightFax Fax over IP for its multi-vendor support for third party
applications and ease of administration," said Larry Chisholm, IT
Operations Manager for Norwood. "RightFax integrates more
effectively than other solutions ... and -- for initial
installation -- it honestly took me about two hours to get Fax over
IP set up and ready to go." Founded in 1989, Norwood employs more
than 2,500 personnel in locations across the U.S., Canada and
China. It markets close to 4,300 promotional products, ranging from
calendars and pens, to golf gear and Koozie(R) soda can insulators.
Since each Norwood location handles different products, "at any
time, one site is always on a busy season," Chisholm noted. Each
site manages product fulfillment via email and fax, amounting to
more than 100,000 faxed pages per year of orders and order
clarifications, including communication to verify logo placement or
other details. Previously, Norwood sites also used a variety of
faxing methods. "Norwood is a conglomeration of companies due to
several acquisitions," said Mel Hirtzel, Director of IT Operations
for Norwood. "As a result, every site had its own faxing system;
but, several -- including the headquarters in Indianapolis -- used
RightFax." Users rely on RightFax Least Cost Routing and
integration with Microsoft Exchange for sending and receiving faxes
directly from their Outlook inboxes. When Norwood investigated
migrating from frame- to MPLS- (multi-protocol label switching)
based services, managers recognized the opportunity to consolidate
and simplify network and equipment management by leveraging IP
communications. The company developed a business integration
project to direct all incoming orders to the largest data center
via one toll-free fax number. The new process calls for orders to
be received regionally and routed via VoIP gateways to the
centralized RightFax Fax over IP server in a data center in San
Antonio, where Kofax back office document capture software extracts
data via OCR to drop into Norwood's Oracle PeopleSoft ERP solution.
"The integration will help us consolidate services and lower costs
by not having dedicated faxing boards and systems at every single
site," Chisholm said. While other FoIP providers lack back-end
network integration options, RightFax leads the industry in
certified, time-tested integration with VoIP, MFP, email, ERP and
other enterprise applications. Combined with enhanced features,
RightFax provides an on-ramp to the latest IP technologies and
strategies. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the location where Norwood began
implementation, experienced a flood resulting in 10 feet of water
in the building. While the disaster delayed the project, past
performance and extensive testing for RightFax in an IP environment
support projected advantages and benefits. Flexibility RightFax
supports direct connection via the T.38 FoIP standard to VoIP
solutions and gateways. Norwood will leverage its MPLS network to
route calls through a Cisco 3845 router, configured with an H.323
gateway for faxing. Compared to previous processes, Chisholm noted,
"We realized there was a lot of flexibility available using
RightFax Fax over IP, and that made the project decision for us."
Consolidation RightFax integrations and functionality support
Norwood's company strategy for consolidating services with IP and
virtualized technologies. RightFax supports VMWare installation and
enabled the company to eliminate a number of fax machines. "Virtual
machines are such a big component of the project for disaster
recovery," Chisholm said. "When we conducted FoIP testing, we did a
v-motion (migrating a machine from one server to another) and took
a look at the faxes: they didn't skip a beat." For added
redundancy, RightFax supports Microsoft clustering and collectives
via Captaris Shared Services. Norwood can also administer fax
communications from a central location, locally or remotely.
Collaboration Like many organizations, Norwood relies on several
enterprise applications for working across multiple locations.
RightFax Fax over IP provides the most enhanced features and
integrations for automated, real-time collaboration. Although
installation is fresh, Norwood is using Microsoft(R) Office
SharePoint(R) Server to facilitate collaboration. The RightFax(R)
Connector for Microsoft(R) Office SharePoint(R) Server 2007,
available from Captaris, enables SharePoint users to automatically
import and populate configured SharePoint libraries with documents
sent from MFPs, scanners and fax. Norwood projects substantial
cost-savings and service enhancements resulting from centralized,
automated processing of orders. "We expect to cut down on hiring of
temporary full time workers," Hirtzel said. "And, the initiative
will help us return orders to customers more quickly ...
productivity all comes back to customer satisfaction and providing
a positive experience." Norwood is implementing the integrated
RightFax solution with help from Dynamic Solutions Group, a
Minnesota-based service provider specializing in fax automation.
About Captaris, Inc. Captaris, Inc. is a leading provider of
software products that automate document-centric business
processes. Captaris specializes in document capture, recognition,
routing, workflow and delivery. Captaris integrated solutions
provide interoperability with leading line of business applications
and technology platforms. Captaris products include RightFax,
Captaris Workflow, Alchemy, FaxPress, DOKuStar, RecoStar, and
Single Click Entry which are distributed through a global network
of leading technology partners. Captaris customers include the
entire Fortune 100 and the majority of Global 2000 companies.
Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Captaris was founded in 1982
and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol
CAPA. http://www.captaris.com/. (C)2008 All rights reserved. No
part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted,
transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any
language in any form by any means without the written permission of
Captaris. The following are registered trademarks and trademarks of
Captaris Inc. and its subsidiaries: Captaris, the Captaris logo,
Alchemy(R), Captaris WorkflowTM, RightDocsTM, RightFax(R),
RightFlowTM and RightStarTM in the US and/or other jurisdictions.
FaxPressTM is a registered trademark of Castelle. RecoStar,
DOKuStar, DOKuStar Capture Suite, Single Click Entry, and Invoice
CENTER are registered trademarks and trademarks of Captaris
Document Technologies GmbH. All other brand names and trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. DATASOURCE: Captaris,
Inc. CONTACT: Tim Dubes of Captaris, Inc., +1-425-638-4039, Web
site: http://www.captaris.com/
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