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For over 30 years, S&D Kids department stores in New York City have been a reliable source for children’s clothing, baby items, and more. With merchandise from the best brand names and at the lowest prices, their commitment to offering top-quality products is only exceeded by their personalized customer service. S&D Kids can be found in four convenient locations in the city, with three in Brooklyn and one in Staten Island.
A motivating factor behind the philosophy of S&D Kids has been to accurately know the needs of their customers and ensure those needs are met in a timely manner. Accomplishing this requires strong relationships between the company and its suppliers. As the business has grown, so have the number of merchandise orders and associated invoices. Processing around 10,000 accounts-payable invoices each year, S&D Kids began to feel the pain of managing accounting in a large paper-based environment.
Speaking about the challenges of responding to vendor inquiries, IT Manager Abraham Heaney explains, “You can’t calculate the costs and the annoyance associated with searching through filing cabinets.”
Abraham began researching for a way to solve their problem and soon found that document management software would fit their requirements. After some more research on specific solutions, S&D Kids chose Content Central by Ademero.
Within a few months after the implementation, S&D Kids realized a priceless return on investment. Today personnel scan invoices into the browser-based document management system and index them with vendor names and invoice numbers. They can also attach virtual post notes on pages in digital documents to mimic their prior system. During common inquiries about these invoices, staff can now provide quick answers and routinely save between one and four minutes per call.
Reflecting on the problem of the past, Abraham says, “The fact that we no longer have to search for paper is invaluable. Every day Content Central proves its worth. It’s an integral part of our company.”
Excited about the success of the implementation for accounting, the retail chain seeks to become as paperless as possible. Along with invoices, S&D Kids uses Content Central to archive and manage purchase orders, return-merchandise documents, and shipping documents as well as corporate documents like end-of-year tax information. “I try to stay away from paper as much as possible, so anything I deem as important goes into Content Central,” explains Abraham.
