Multinational chemical company Henkel has made significant savings
by outsourcing a large portion of its paper-based mailroom activity
to a service provider that handles it electronically.
Henkel, which manufactures brands such as Loctite, Pritt-stick and
Unibond, has been able to do away with paper-based financial
correspondence using an e-mail service from Virtual Mail Room
(VMR).
Henkel distributes 5,000 statements and dunning (account chasing)
letters a month using the service. It runs statements from its SAP
R/3 software once a month and transmits the data to VMR, which then
sends them out in fax form to customers.
Integration of the new system has been relatively
simple, with VMR software being added to Henkel's existing
enterprise resource planning systems.
Tony Murray-Jones, accounts manager at Henkel, said, "Our six
accounts clerks used to have to manually process 5,000 statements
and dunning notices a month. We have saved money by not having to
buy stationery, eliminating franking costs and not having to spend
time stuffing envelopes."
Previously, about two person-days a month were spent on these
tasks. Murray-Jones said the scheme has been so successful that the
company is looking to extend it to its other European operations.