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Bush Brothers and Company is a family-owned corporation headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, established in 1908. While it’s best known for its Bush’s Best brand canned baked beans, it offers a variety of canned goods sold through retail food outlets and food service operators throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Although Bush Brothers and Company’s high-volume financial processes were almost all EDI-driven, its AP and AR departments were engulfed in paper. The company’s document-intensive quality control processes produced stacks of paper daily at its manufacturing plants. To meet internal and FDA retention mandates, the company stored no less than 90 banker boxes each year onsite before paying to store them for seven additional years offsite. Everything changed once the company found OnBase by Hyland.
Working with Naviant, an authorized OnBase solution provider, Bush Brothers chose OnBase to optimize accounting processes. OnBase also improved visibility across the enterprise, reducing operational costs, dispute resolution time and days sales outstanding (DSO).
More than 90% of receivables data arriving via EDI are uploaded through a COLD process. OnBase automatically associates the information, as well as any remaining supporting documentation that staff must scan in, with the correct order. When processing orders, staff instantly see the order in question as well as the associated bill of lading and packing slip.
The time saved looking for documents – equivalent to a two-day reduction in DSO – is now used for higher-value tasks like analysis, reporting and auditing.
“With OnBase, we’ve seen drastic DSO improvement – we save $200,000 annually,” said Jim Derrick, IS manager for Central Services-Applications at Bush Brothers. “Staff now spend more time on deduction audits and service. They focus on tasks that bring dividends.”
Supports company growth with fewer staff
By automating processes and storing documents electronically, Bush Brothers no longer needs to hire temporary staff for year-end audits, nor did it need to fill two vacated full-time positions, despite company growth. Combined, the reduction in staff saves Bush Brothers $150,000 annually.
Staff scan invoices and related documents into OnBase from corporate offices and manufacturing plants across the U.S. Using data from the company’s financial management system, Infor Infinium, OnBase automatically indexes the information, eliminating the need for staff to manually index each document.
Speeds exception processing: Before OnBase, employees had limited access to necessary documentation to resolve disputes and issues. Staff called the distribution warehouse and had to wait a week or more for needed documents to be found and delivered.
Now, OnBase gives staff instant information access to resolve disputes and issues within minutes – not a week.
Reduces labor costs: “Without OnBase, we would have to double our staff to do all that we do today,” Derrick said.
Improves compliance support: By storing information electronically, OnBase speeds audits of capital projects and FDA quality standards, allowing staff to focus on other initiatives.
