TELUS Leverages SAP ‘Backbone’ with Captaris RightFax Enterprise Fax
BACKGROUND
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU; www.telus.com) is the largest telecommunications company in western Canada and the second largest in the country. It provides a full range
of communications products and services for millions of Canadians at home, in their workplace and on the move. These services
include data, Internet Protocol, voice and wireless services.
With approximately 25,000 employees, TELUS maintains headquarters in British Columbia (BC) and offices in Alberta, Ontario
and Quebec.
THE CHALLENGE
Maintaining the second largest telecommunications company in the world’s second largest country is no small feat. It requires
consistent communication within the organization and with thousands of customers, suppliers and other contacts.
When TELUS acquired BCTel in the 1990s, it took on the complex task of merging the two companies and their respective personnel
and technology solutions. TELUS in Alberta had realized productivity gains using Captaris RightFax network faxing capabilities
to send numerous faxes on a daily basis to customers, suppliers, vendors, etc. Staff in BC employed a competing fax solution
to handle much of its fax load. With the merger, TELUS managers wanted to standardize all office locations and users on one
electronic document delivery platform that would also leverage other existing, business-critical solutions.
Specifically, TELUS planned to integrate with its SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, a solution from the world’s
largest inter-enterprise software company. SAP ERP systems integrate an organization from financials and human resources to
manufacturing and sales and distribution. This integration enables companies to optimize supply chains, strengthen customer
relationships and make more accurate management decisions.
According to Brian Barton, a systems analyst with TELUS, SAP is a comprehensive application that has virtually become “the
very backbone of TELUS.” He explains, “Along with other departments, all of our financial and human resources professionals
use SAP. We almost run the company exclusively on the solution.”
For TELUS, the SAP and RightFax servers were both housed in Alberta. But the main user group that needed access and faxing
was located in BC—namely, the financial department.
Sending purchase orders, invoices and other time-sensitive documents via fax is a daily task for employees in the financial
department. Thus TELUS felt standardizing the company on a fax server that could capture and deliver data from SAP would streamline
communication while increasing the speed with which information is exchanged.
At TELUS, fax communication alone amounts to several thousand faxes, as much as 12,000 outbound faxes per month and a similar—but
untracked—amount for inbound faxes.
Without a reliable, SAP-friendly enterprise solution, TELUS could face productivity and cost-efficiency challenges with a
fully manual process of handling inbound and outbound faxes. For instance, to send a fax, employees would have to print the
document and take it to the fax machine for transmittal. This busy work, not to mention the numerous standalone fax machines
across an organization, can add up to wasted time and expensive machine maintenance.
THE SOLUTION
Sometimes mergers are surprisingly easy. Such was the case for TELUS as it implemented Captaris RightFax and RightFax SAP
Connector.
RightFax provides high-volume e-document delivery via fax, email or the Internet. SAP Connector, a RightFax Universal Information
Exchange solution, offers TELUS a cost-effective, secure way to automate the exchange of information from SAP applications.
“There are many benefits to faxing via SAP and RightFax,” Barton said. “It has made TELUS employees more productive and efficient
in internal faxing and communication.”
He continued, “RightFax has been wonderful in certain areas, especially for employees using SAP. If the integrated solution
is ever unavailable for some reason, our SAP folks are at a loss.”
Although TELUS has not conducted specific productivity studies, Barton points to substantial time savings simply by comparing
RightFax with the pitfalls of manual faxing: “If you don’t have to get out of your chair to go to a fax machine,” Barton explained,
“you save the paper costs, travel time and you’re less likely to be distracted. For instance, you don’t see ‘Mary’ at the
fax machine and end up staying for a chat.”
Barton executed the integration of RightFax and SAP for TELUS with expertise from LANslide Integration Services, a Captaris
Gold Value Added Reseller based in BC. “We have an excellent relationship with LANslide,” Barton offered. “Our contacts there
are knowledgeable, very responsive and proactive about keeping us up-to-date with technical issues.”
While, due mainly to budgetary constraints, TELUS has focused RightFax use on internal communication and outbound faxing,
it plans to utilize the power of inbound faxing and business-to-business communication.
“With what I have seen from RightFax,” Barton said, “I would have to believe it enhances and streamlines business-to-business
communication and also positively affects the ‘bottom line’.”
With Barton’s direction, TELUS ran a limited pilot for inbound faxing with RightFax. Barton recounted, “RightFax worked great.”
Users were able to receive faxes within their email programs directly at their desktops. Unfortunately, during the pilot,
TELUS was hit by viruses that affected the fax server and other programs. While it would not have been difficult to reconfigure,
Barton said the company decided to hold off until related programs were upgraded and a resurgence of the slow economy appeared.
“We spend a fair dollar on standalone, manual fax machines,” Barton said. “Once in full use, RightFax should help us save
close to a quarter million annually. We look forward to those type of savings.”
With the help from RightFax and integrated solutions, TELUS also plans to reduce paper-heavy processes. When users need to
handle hard copy documents, Barton explained, they are accustomed to using manual fax machines. Since RightFax integrates
with imaging and scanning solutions, he said a paperless solution should be relatively simple. In fact, TELUS has already
worked up a solution that will be a priority when additional funds are available.
Even before imaging and scanning products are in place, Barton reports various TELUS employees—even those who are somewhat
reticent to try newer technologies—are realizing the efficiency of RightFax. He said: “When users go to the TELUS procurement
team with a request for a fax machine the procurement staff always come back and say, ‘Use RightFax.’.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Captaris is a leading provider of business information delivery solutions that integrate and automate the flow of messages,
data and documents. Captaris produces a suite of proven products and services, in partnership with leading enterprise software
companies, delivered through a global distribution network. Captaris has over 100,000 systems installed worldwide, with more
than 90 of the Fortune 100 using the company's award-winning products and services to reduce costs and increase the performance
of critical business information investments. For more information please contact us at: www.Captaris.com or 1.888.320.7778. Outside of the U.S. please call 1.520.320.7000.
ABOUT LANSLIDE
LANslide Integration Services (www.lanslide.com) specializes in technology solutions, which enable businesses to maximize productivity, minimize expenses and show a quick
return on their investment.
These solutions include Captaris RightFax, an enterprise fax and e-document delivery solution; PrintLogic, an intelligent
print stream redirection and distribution application and VoiceREACH, a service of Xpedite, which offers rapid, simultaneous
delivery of recorded voice messages to destinations around the world.
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