Door Manufacturer Ends Paper Chase With Enterprise Content Management System

NABCO Entrances is a leader in the market for specialty doors, but mountains of paper documents blocked the company's path to growth and efficient operations. To solve the problem, NABCO implemented a KnowledgeLake solution that runs with its Microsoft SharePoint-based intranet. The result is that employees can find documents—including important archived files—faster than in the past. That makes it easier to do business and provide superior customer service. The company is also recovering valuable office real estate by eliminating the need for bulky filing cabinets and piles of bulging file folders.

NABCO Entrances manufacturers a wide range of doors, including automatic and manual sliding doors, swinging doors, activating devices for automated pedestrian doors, doors designed to withstand hurricane-force winds, and specialty doors. Based in Muskego, Wisconsin, NABCO distributes its products across North America.

The company's innovation in this specialty market has led to continual growth—and significant challenges with piles of paper-based documents, says Andrew Lisowski, Network Engineer for NABCO. "When I came to NABCO a couple of years ago, there was a serious paperwork problem," he says. "There was paper everywhere. Every desk seemed to have about nine stacks of paper that each stood two feet high. Aisles were filled with filing cabinets, and our archive area consisted of barely labeled boxes piled on top of boxes all the way to the ceiling."

But getting rid of the paper was not an option. The documents contained vital information such as past orders, records of quotes provided to customers, and data that had to be saved in the event of disputes.