Document management powers purchasing operations for submarine contractor

Electric Boat Corporation (Groton, CT) is turning to document management to reduce a paper overload in its Purchasing Department.

Electric Boat manufactures submarines subcontracted by the federal government, and is one of Connecticut's leading employers with over 9,000 employees. The company's purchasing department handles 50,000 purchase orders annually, each averaging ten pages of paper. Supporting documentation including price quotes, vendor descriptions, certifications and terms and conditions of a purchase create another half-million pieces of paper.

To cut down on Electric Boat's paper piles, Electronic Boat enlisted the help of Westbrook Technologies and Northeast Micrographics.

Northeast Micrographics now converts purchase order and related information from paper files and tapes to CD-ROM. Electric Boat workers can view the images of related purchasing documents using Westbrook's Fortis document management system.

Brenda Wiltrout, Electronic Boat's Supervisor of Administration and Finance, said expansion of the system is now being considered based on inquiries from other departments