AnyDoc Software, a leading provider of automated document, data capture, and classification solutions, announced their client, The Johnson Smith Company, one of the nation's oldest mail order catalog businesses, has won the 2012 AIIM Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Award in the medium company category.

Johnson Smith selected OCR for AnyDoc® through systems integrator CPT Intelligent Technologies, Inc. to streamline the processing of thousands of mail order forms and accompanying payment checks they receive annually.

"We're delighted for Johnson Smith to be selected as the AIIM Best Practice Award winner because our solution is resulting in better service for our customers and streamlined processes for our internal team," said Ellen Pullman, IT Manager for Johnson Smith. "With order turnaround reduced down to only 1 day, and quicker access to order information, we have streamlined merchandise restocking and minimized backorders, in addition to cutting costs."

The Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Award presented by AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management, recognizes excellence in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) field. The term "Best Practices" denotes a standard of excellence that has been achieved within an organization and refers to a process or implementation that can be quantified, adapted, and repeated.

Paper mail orders generate forty percent of Johnson Smith's catalog business. The company leverages OCR for AnyDoc to lift the handwritten data from the order forms and validate it against the retailer's business rules for fast and accurate order fulfillment. Using OCR for AnyDoc, the catalog giant drastically reduced processing costs, achieving a return on investment (ROI) in just 6.4 months, and will net more than $1.5 million in total savings in the first 5 years.

"Johnson Smith is an exemplary case-in-point of the impact the right solution can have on a company's bottom line and improved business processes," said Brian Ashforth, President of CPT Intelligent Technologies. "This award, selected by AIIM member votes, attests the benefits of a technology solution."

Beyond the expected process automation benefits, Johnson Smith soon realized hidden savings due to unforeseen benefits not originally projected. This included reductions in the cost of filing and retrieving orders, training new hires for order entry, outsourcing, and reduced errors in order entry—which results in less packages being returned and reshipped. Further, by entering orders faster, they are able to more quickly restock products and thus have less backordered items. Items can be shipped in a single package and save costs on additional shipments, boxes, labor, and customer service calls. These additional cost savings were so high that an ROI was achieved in just 6.4 months, nearly 10 months sooner than the originally forecasted 16 months.

The AIIM Best Practices Award was presented at The San Francisco City Club during AIIM's Annual Awards Celebration on Wednesday, March 21.

About AnyDoc Software
AnyDoc Software has been developing award-winning document, data capture, and classification solutions since 1989. Any paper or electronic form or document including invoices, remittances, and checks can be automatically processed with full data capture without the need for manual keying. For additional information, please visit www.AnyDocSoftware.com.