THE RESULTS
KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING.
SHARE THE KNOWLEDGE
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SUMMARY
Document Centre with DocuShare is working so
well that Ross Weatherby routinely fields
requests to make presentations about how
Algoma is using Xerox digital technology to
transform business. Document scanning, archiving, 
and sharing have leveraged Algoma’s expertise, 
providing an intelligent paper capture system
and a digital filing system. "We’ve even had the
Police Department over taking a look," Weatherby
laughs.
"The insurance industry overall is struggling to
use current technology, and Algoma has always
embraced it. Now we’re proving this is a solid
solution. Document Centre and DocuShare are
helping us to be much more effective,"
Weatherby explains. "Xerox’s total digital solution 
has revolutionized our business in the past
six months."
osus ossifragi agnascor rures.
Weatherby estimates that Algoma is saving up to $40,000 per year
in labor costs alone with Document Centre. "We documented that
we were spending one person year in time just searching our
paper files. We’re not doing that anymore," he laughs. "Now any
paper document that has lasting value is automatically scanned.
DocuShare then helps us easily search records and databases by
key words, customer names, and numbers. No more digging
around in file cabinets. I figure Document Centre paid for itself in
the first three months of operation in salary savings alone."
Customer teams at Algoma love the difference Document Centre
and DocuShare are making. "We’re making much better business
decisions because we’ve got better information," he says. "Better
business decisions mean fewer claims and greater profit."
But the greatest business result is more time for customer service,
according to Weatherby. "We went from spending a lot of time on
paper administration to spending a lot more time on our customers. 
That’s the real pay off for us." 
ALGOMA INSURANCE LIMITED –
TRANSFORMING BUSINESS WITH
XEROX DOCUMENT CENTRE AND
DOCUSHARE
THE INDUSTRY:
? Insurance
THE DEPARTMENTS:
? Personal
? Commercial
? Sales
? Administration
THE APPLICATION:
? Manage all documents – paper
and electronic – with a webbased 
digital "filing cabinet"
THE CHALLENGE:
? Make complex document
processes less paper intensive
THE SOLUTION:
? An affordable digital gateway – 
Document Centre 230ST with
Docushare
? Converts paper documents to
digital forms for easy knowledge 
capture and electronic distribution
THE RESULTS:
? Better business decisions; more
company profit
DOCUMENT CENTRE 230ST
CLIENT PROFILE
Algoma Insurance Brokers
Limited
You might not expect to find an insurance
industry leader in the reaches of northern
Ontario, Canada. But that’s where you’ll find
Algoma Insurance Brokers Limited.
Algoma’s staff of 41 handles a lot of documents 
– applications, payments, photographs, 
and claims – which guide its insurance 
decisions. For example, photos of a wood stove in a home give underwriters visual information about insurance risks,
including details about location, installation, and condition. Similarly, home inspection reports contain valuable information
about insured assets which must be tracked and filed. Add to that the industry updates that Algoma teams need to serve
their customers responsibly, and there is a paper stockpile that occupies over 2000 square feet of storage.
Algoma is motivated to transact the majority of its business electronically, and is using current networked technologies,
including full-time internet access. That’s what led Algoma’s President, James Horbatuk, and Technical Administrator, Ross
Weatherby, on a fact-finding mission: find out how new technology could help reduce costs, revolutionize business practices
and increase profits and customer satisfaction. 
"The insurance business is paper intensive," states Ross Weatherby, Technical
Administrator at Algoma. "We looked at how we were doing business, how
we managed customer files and other documents. We could spend up to 8
hours a day just locating and pulling paper documents from our storage files
for reference and claims. We were drowning in paper."
Algoma’s biggest challenge was managing it. 
The search for a better way of doing business started when Algoma began
using digital cameras to photograph customers’ insured assets, instead of
standard photography. Using digital photography, Algoma immediately discovered 
how valuable it was for customer teams to have quick electronic
access to those photos. Digital image files accessible from their desktops put
an end to frustrating, time-consuming physical searches to locate paper photos 
to support business decisions or claims.
As the one responsible for bringing new technical business solutions to the
company, Weatherby was well aware of the possibilities. "We saw the potential 
of electronic storage, access, and retrieval for our business," says
Weatherby. "We just needed to find the right software and hardware to
make it gel – a digital filing solution that would easily integrate with our
needs and our network." 
THE CHALLENGE
THE SOLUTION
Ross Weatherby ”
Technical Administrator
Algoma Insurance Brokers Limited
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
“
“ 
We knew
we needed to transition
from our time-consuming, 
expensive paperbased 
methods to a new,
easy-to-use electronic
system.
THE RESULTS
? Quick desktop scanning,
printing, faxing, copying,
searching, and filing
improve work processes
? Reduced document 
storage space requirements
? Less time on document
management; more time
on customer service
When we saw what
Document Centre could
do for our business – at
an extremely reasonable
cost – we knew it was
just the solution we’d
been looking for. The
competitors’ offerings
couldn’t even come
close to Xerox.”
When Weatherby attended a Xerox seminar about Document Centre and
DocuShare, an easy-to-use digital filing solution for workgroups, he knew he
was on the right track. "When I saw the demonstration, it just clicked for me,"
he remembers. "I saw how easily we could use DocuShare to store and share
information in electronic customer files, including our digital photos." 
Then Weatherby saw Document Centre 230ST scanning functions, and he
knew he had the answer to his other problem – managing paper. "With
Document Centre scanning, we can easily convert that paper flow into digital
files that can be stored, shared, and accessed by everyone," Weatherby
reports.
He recounts evaluating competitors’ offerings. "We were looking at high end
document management systems that were $50,000 to $100,000 to license 40
seats," he says. "The DocuShare feature and price – under $10,000 (CDN) for
50 seats – made it a very worthwhile investment."
Along with functional and costs benefits, Document Centre 230ST provided
Algoma superior copy, print, and fax functions, all in one device and easily
accessed from users’ workstations. "Document Centre makes scanning so
easy, any one can do it, and DocuShare makes it painless for users to save
documents and perform powerful searches to find exactly what they need in
a customer’s file. It’s a powerful combination for us," Weatherby notes. This
solution turned their office into an efficient knowledge-sharing center. 
Ross Weatherby
Technical Administrator
Algoma Insurance Brokers Limited
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada