Document imaging

[fburrows]

I am wondering if anyone is currently using document imaging for car deals and service warranty documentation. Are there any problems with manufacturers warranty audits or the IRS? Are the document indexed by optical scanning or some other techniques? I would appreciate any positive or negative experiences.

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Frank Burrows
Automotive Business Solutions
frank@autobusiness.org

[darrenfein]

We do scan service invoices (front and back). Even though we scan the back of a blank document. The most recent auditor suggested that we in some way document the repair order number on the back of the document as well just to ensure complete accuracy. I don't know if his thought process is excessive or not. Doesn't matter, our computer system wont print on the back of invoices and they're not numbered until printed...

[drew]

We used to scan when we had ADP. (We've unfortunately gone to R and R.) A big concern for us was that the actual person scanning the R.O. had really no clue about what the documents were, and therefore scanned only certain ones. That was later corrected, but as a previous warr. administrator, when you're reviewing all the documentaion for clues to some mystery, you want them all there. We also found that light copies or highlighted information would disappear. After we accumulated a certain amount of info, we'd have to call the main office to have someone switch hard disks if the R.O. we wanted to review was on a disk not currently in the hard drive. It's just not the same as a great filing system thats maintained and purged as necessary. It just seemed like there was alot of down time, and who has that kind of time these days?

[Rick Ruemenapp]

I work for the EDS Automotive Retail Group, when we introduced our Document Imaging application we contacted the IRS and most of the Automotive Manufacturers and questioned them on the use of a document imaging applications for the use of warranty documentation and contracts. All of the manufacturers and the government agreed that this method of keeping documentation was acceptable.

Since that time, the federal government has widely accepted the use of imaging applications to store and retrieve documents. Even to the point that they have passed legislation to treat imaged documents the same way they treat copies in the court of law.

Now, each state has rulings on how they handle copies. However, in general all the states treat copies and imaged documents as "Best Evidence" and are admissible in the court of law. This is that same whether it is a Car Deal, Repair Order or A/P check.

If you have any specific questions on what manufactures or how a particular state handles their documents, please feel free to contact me at Richard.Ruemenapp@EDS.com

Rick Ruemenapp
Product Planning
EDS Automotive Retail Group

[aksales]

howdy, This is Jason Wilhelm with Alaska Sales and Service, in Anchorage Alaska. Currently we are using the Document Manager Solution from EDS. We are currently having problems with the system, but are working with EDS and RVI on solutions(please see my post in the EDS Forum). I know on our setup we have someone scan front and back, and any additional documents that need to go with the repair order. The system pulls the RO # from a barcode on the scan, and merges into document manager. That night when we do a backup the system burns the scans to our IBM Optical Jukebox.

Jason Wilhelm
Alaska Sales and Service
MIS Department