Principal Global Investors
Principal Global Investors (PGI), an entity of Principal Financial Group, manages more than $159 billion in assets and is the fifth largest financial institution managing 401(k) assets. Manual storage in a business that manages large quantities of correspondence, mortgage documents, servicing agreements, electronic documents and other financial documents makes storing and accessing information very difficult. In order to manage, process and ensure security of the documents, and do so in an organized fashion, seemed like an immense task.
Along with those tasks, PGI wanted to reduce the amount of paper it used and retained. PGI was unsure of document retention requirements for its business documents but wanted to determine and then follow those guidelines. Storing documents in a safe and secure location was a necessity. PGI wanted its documents to be scanned as quickly as possible to ensure that even if a physical copy was lost an electronic copy was available.
PGI needed a solution that was easily accessible to users and intuitive to learn. Many documents are searched for every minute company-wide and a manual process made that complicated. PGI required a system that could support its demands.
“To start, PGI enlisted the help of an outside consulting group to narrow down our imaging company choices. We then brought in a small selection of these companies to provide demos of their products. We evaluated each company based on our usage requirements and cost of product. We found Hyland Software to be very helpful and felt they offered a great solution that was reasonably priced and fit our needs. We decided the benefits and functionality were of great value, so we selected OnBase as our imaging solution,” says Laura Johnson, Senior Business Analyst, PGI. Developed by Hyland Software Inc., OnBase is an integrated suite of enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions, including core capabilities in document imaging, workflow, electronic document management, COLD/ERM and records management.
By collaborating and creating so many business critical documents, PGI scans an average of 12,000 documents into OnBase each day. The majority of PGI documents are scanned in using centralized scanning in the home office. All the departments send hard copies along with a coversheet which include barcodes and indexing information via interoffice delivery. Most indexing is also done in the same location; however, they do have a few areas that still provide their own indexing once the document is scanned. Remote offices making use of Disconnected Scanning and some documents are uploaded via the Web Client. “Many users are currently uploading electronic versions of documents they used to print and have scanned. This is a much more efficient method,” Randy Porter, PGI’s OnBase administrator adds.
In a company of this magnitude, the discovery phase of the implementation is essential. New indexing strategies for each department were planned in great detail before the system was configured. In many instances during configuration, PGI mirrored how documents were stored when their processes were manual. This way the processes are still familiar to the users but now are done electronically.
All of the PGI departments use OnBase including Commercial Mortgage, Commercial Equities, Fixed Income, Sales and Marketing and number of smaller departments. More than 80% of OnBase resources are used to support the Commercial Real Estate divisions of PGI and have been since 1999. PGI mainly uses the system for document retrieval and retention. Recently, PGI implemented OnBase on the Web, thus allowing access from anywhere via a standard Web browser.
Because users were initially anxious and a large number of employees were being introduced to OnBase, training was a necessity. “When we initially rolled out OnBase, we conducted a number of user training classes. Now, as needed, we will conduct new feature classes when new releases or major processes are rolled out.
Training is always provided to new hires or new departments as they come on board with OnBase. The general feedback is that OnBase is very intuitive and easy to learn,” states Porter. After adapting to the new technology and completing training, the users at PGI enjoy the ease of their daily tasks. “After implementation, the users found it very helpful and useful to process their daily duties. It allows us to respond much quicker to client requests due to our immediate access to stored images and our ability to e-mail those images if needed,” Porter explains.
“OnBase has been defined by our organization as a business-critical application. This important status is driving our current disaster recovery plan. We have also developed an OnBase Steering Group that helps drive initiatives throughout multiple departments,” Porter explains. “OnBase is a great time-saving application for accessing documents. Generally, productivity increases on a daily basis. I receive lots of positive feedback from my users and upper management.”
It is essential that PGI’s more than 475 users at the home office in Des Moines, Iowa, and a number of other locations throughout the United States and other countries, have the capability to access information from anywhere over a secure network. The OnBase Web Server provides users with secure, Web-based access to enterprise data, documents and real-time interactions with business processes from anywhere and at anytime. The OnBase Web Server can improve the ways that organizations do business with public customers, extranet partners and remote employees. The collaboration between users has increased efficiency by allowing the sharing of information of the same documents simultaneously.
To date, the number of documents in the repository totals more than 22 million files and 1.2 million documents. Having all of these documents in one centralized location has made PGI's processes compliant in the company’s many business environments. Since PGI’s initial implementation in 1999, one terabyte of information has been stored on PGI’s file server.
Since the initial implementation, PGI has added four additional components of the OnBase solution: bar coding, CD Publishing, optical character recognition (OCR) technology with Kofax Image Products VRS (Virtual ReScan) and EDM Services. “We are currently in the process of purchasing the Disconnected Scanning and Integration for Microsoft Outlook® modules,” says Porter.
Disconnected Scanning is convenient for geographically remote locations to scan and index documents without having a connection to the OnBase database. Integration for Outlook allows the user to view documents, store e-mail messages and attachments and participate in Workflow within OnBase through the familiar Outlook interface. “Following these purchases, we will be looking at dynamic retention combined with Workflow for automating many processes within Principal Global Investors,” Porter explains. “Hyland Software has been a great company to partner with since day one. We will be expanding our infrastructure for future growth expectations. Customer Service and Technical Support are excellent,” Porter says.
“OnBase is continuing to grow in our organization at a great pace. We are adding new departments on almost a weekly basis. OnBase has met all of our expectations and beyond. It has proven to be a very reliable application and support from Hyland Software has been excellent,” Porter states.
- Initial cost savings after implementation of $165,000
- Quick storage of and access to documents
- Provides the capability for users to securely share documents
- Compliant in many of the company’s business entities
- Provides users with secure, Web-based access to enterprise data, documents and real-time interactions with business processes from anywhere and at anytime
- Böwe Bell & Howell 8000 Plus, 8080 D and Spectrum document scanners
- HP ScanJet 6500 Flatbed document scanner
- Colortrac 380Gx - E-size large format scanner
- Eastman Kodak Co. 4500–series document scanner
- HP Survey Printer DesignJet 1050C
- Kofax Image Product, Inc. Virtual ReScan® (VRS) image processing software and Adrenaline® 3.65 Image Controls