An Post Commerce Business Solutions Implements OPEX® Scanning Technology, Achieving a 33% Increase in Efficiency

Implementing the OPEX® FalconV+® intelligent document scanner allows An Post Commerce Business Solutions to offer more services and stay competitive.

The Background

An Post Commerce Business Solutions is a mid-size business process outsourcing (BPO) company that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of An Post, Ireland’s postal service. The company provides archival, mailroom, storage, and scanning services for An Post and its customers, including payroll-type forms, pensions, insurance services, human resources, and revenue. Around 80% of its volume consists primarily of archive folders stored in boxes, while the other 20% consists of sensitive documents sealed in plastic packets. The plastic packets consist of A3 size pages containing around 200 sensitive documents.

The Challenge

Before implementing its new scanning solution from OPEX®, An Post Commerce Business Solutions required four employees to manually sort documents into trays. The pre-sorted documents were scanned with tabletop scanners and manually indexed and categorized. Each file needed to be separated using patch sheets, making the process even more tedious. As the company’s volumes began to skyrocket with the addition of more scanning projects, An Post Commerce Business Solutions’ existing process made it difficult to stay ahead of demand.

Key Challenges

Archive And Mail Volumes Have Increased With The Addition Of New Projects

Manual Sorting And Scanning Made It Difficult To Keep Up With The Volume

Original Process Was Slow And Required Many Additional Staff Members

The Solution

While researching a new solution for their scanning process, An Post Commerce Business Solutions discovered OPEX through the company’s website. Soon after, it implemented the FalconV+® intelligent document scanner powered by OPEX CertainScan® software. OPEX’s Professional Services team provided pre-sales demos, workflow solutions, and admin training, allowing An Post Commerce Business Solutions to maximise the value of the OPEX scanner.

With the FalconV+ scanner, one operator can sit or stand while prepping and scanning documents from the folder, without the archives going through multiple people and locations first. CertainScan allows documents to be easily indexed and categorized with the touch of a button. The software allows for custom file output to various platforms. Messy, fragile work can easily run through the scanner automatically without multi-feeds and with minimal jams. On average, a scanning operator working a seven-hour shift can scan 800 pages per hour. 

Implementing the FalconV+ scanner increased An Post Commerce Business Solutions’ throughput and provided a 33% gain in efficiency while retaining the same number of staff. When taking on a major project for a key An Post customer, the FalconV+ scanner and CertainScan software were able to automatically detect four types of documents and sort them based on barcodes and credit card details, if present. For the 20% of its volume consisting of incoming mail stored in plastic packets, An Post Commerce Business Solutions could open the packet, easily run the contents right through the scanner, and convert it to a multi-page PDF with minimal prep. The packet contents are then sorted into the output bins on the FalconV+ scanner. Previously, An Post Commerce Business Solutions could scan 130 sensitive documents per hour, which increased to 250 per hour with the OPEX scanner. 

“Digitizing the work for this project was really easy with the Falcon V+ scanner. We can take documents right from the folder and put them through the scanner.”

– John Scanlan, 

IT & Innovation Manager, An Post Commerce – Business Solutions

Key Results

800

Pages Scanned Per Hour On Average During A Seven-Hour Shift

33%

Increase In Efficiency For Scanning Archives

+2.4M

Pages Scanned With The FalconV+ Scanners (As of 2024)

The Future

With its new OPEX solution, An Post Commerce Business Solutions can provide its parent company with a best-in-class scan and archive solution. This solution adequately meets the needs of the large semi-state enterprise, while allowing it to stay competitive and bid for more projects without worrying about increasing staff costs. Employees enjoy working with the FalconV+ scanner and using CertainScan software to process archives and records easily, making it an ideal solution to use for future projects. As of 2024, An Post Commerce Business Solutions implemented a second FalconV+ scanner, having scanned over 2.4 million pages.

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Download the AnPost Case Study PDF