Illinois Volvo Dealer Says Canon's IDEAS Paperless Repair Order Technology Generating $100,000 a Year in Time Savings, Increased Productivity

MELVILLE, NY--Oct. 22, 2013: Canon Solutions America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., said today that according to Pat Hubert, General Manager of Fields Volvo of Northfield, IL, the dealership is saving nearly $10,000 a month by having eliminated the use of paper repair orders, which makes staff and technicians more productive.

She said this advantage accrues from a combination of labor savings and increased service technician productivity.

"Since we installed Canon's IDEAS paperless technology in service we've eliminated about $50,000 in labor cost a year to manage all our paper files for warranty and compliance," Hubert said.

Canon's Intelligent Dealer Electronic Archive System (IDEAS) is a powerful digital document management system that eliminates paper repair orders and supporting documents. Because of its efficiency, technicians are typically able to service more customers in a given week, increasing monthly revenue for the dealership.

"It also makes our techs more efficient – it took time to print up to 32 pages of paperwork for some repairs, and they now simply hit a button and that information is captured and stored in IDEAS," Hubert said.

"By eliminating paper ROs and supporting paperwork, that efficiency translates here to techs saving about 10 minutes per customer. As our 13 techs' typically serve three customers per day, they're generating another 30 minutes a day on the clock, which means the ability to service three additional customers each a week. At our average RO sale and labor rate, that's another $50,000 a year in additional labor sales," Hubert added.

Hubert played an instrumental role in bringing Canon's IDEAS into the store, which is also installed at Fields' adjacent BMW and Jeep-Chrysler-Dodge-RAM dealerships. She said the paperless concept, which saves trees and eliminates the waste of printers, inks, toner and storage, fit well into the Fields organization's environmentally conscious culture.

Fields Volvo is a LEED certified dealership, recognized for its energy efficiency, Volvo's first franchisee to attain the certification. The dealership captures rainwater for flushing toilets and irrigation purposes. It uses windmill and solar technologies. Interior and parking lot lights use LED lighting and motion detectors to conserve power.

"We liked how Canon's IDEAS fit into our culture here," Hubert said, "but what sold me was that as I watched technicians I had noticed how much paperwork they had to deal with to service a customer and I felt there had to be a better solution."

She pointed out that every vehicle serviced first undergoes a computer diagnostic, which generates a lot of paperwork itself. "The entire service process creates inspection reports, check-in sheets, ROs, customer RO copy, accounting RO and tech notes. Some customer service files per visit were from 10 to 30 pages of paper," Hubert said. "Now all that, save a few pages, goes right into IDEAS where it's filed by RO number so all related paperwork is where it should be and easily searched and found in seconds by IDEAS."

Prior to having Canon's IDEAS, the volume of service-oriented paperwork the dealership had to file and store required space in the shop and at an offsite facility as well. "Some of this paperwork has to be saved for 10 years," Hubert noted. "Plus, customer information that's not on printed paperwork is more secure for the customer and us."

Thanks to Canon's SAFE™ (Scanless Electronic Filing Engine) technology, dealers using Canon's IDEAS enjoy a simplified OEM warranty audit because the technology ensures that all related documents are filed, indexed and readily available when requested. IDEAS ensures that warranty documentation is automatically validated to ensure that all the information required by the OEM is present before a repair order is committed to the archive.

Canon's IDEAS is compatible with multiple dealer management and service drive systems and is a perfect fit for dealer and auto groups that have a mix of different business processing systems.

Dealers say IDEAS saves them money five ways:

Reduces OEM warranty chargeback costs: Using IDEAS, dealers have reduced warranty chargeback costs to less than 1 percent – a huge reduction. Improves productivity: Fewer paper documents being handled by technicians can save 30 to 50 minutes a day, improving tech productivity and service bay utilization. Reduces processing: Document printing, scanning, copying and handling are significantly reduced and in some cases eliminated, saving time and money to otherwise print and file paper documents. Improves security and compliance: Keeps sensitive customer financial information away from prying eyes. IDEAS helps auto dealerships comply with consumer protection laws. Reduces costs: IDEAS frees up staff once needed to file and search for misfiled or missing documents and frees up paper document storage space and budget for revenue-generating uses. Reduces or eliminates document destruction costs.