COBWEBB DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT helped streamline Goodridge Ltd’s global manufacturing operations.

THE BACKGROUND Founded in 1969, Goodridge has grown from a small unit in the Devon market town of Totnes, UK, to a global organisation, now manufacturing in ten facilities spread across nine countries. Goodridge manufactures and supplies fluid transfer assemblies, hose and fittings to world leading racing teams; competing in four wheel and two wheel categories. Goodridge supplies customers around the world with a unique combination of design, innovation, reliability and outstanding service. They are always looking for continuous improvement, accelerating their business and providing excellent customer service.

THE CHALLENGE Goodridge had been using a Windows based Output Management solution since 2016 and although the business had experienced some issues with the stability of the application, it was doing its job competently. This changed in 2019 when Goodridge moved System21 to the cloud and to a new datacenter in the US. Their Windows server remained in the UK and this new setup had a hugely negative impact on the performance of their Output Management application. It was now taking up to 5 minutes to output labels and some forms were taking more than an hour to print. Paul Butterworth, Goodridge Director of IT, needed to find a solution to this problem ASAP. After exploring a number of options, Goodridge was introduced to Cobwebb Communications via Infor. With many years experience in migrating customers from Windows based output management solutions, Cobwebb was able to quickly assess the requirements and present a clear route forward to Goodridge.

COBWEBB DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT is now used in seven of Goodridge’s sites running System21 internationally including the UK, US, Spain and France.

THE SOLUTION Goodridge implemented COBWEBB’S DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT software (CPPD) in 2019. Cobwebb software runs natively on the IBM i platform, so network latency was no longer a concern. Goodridge subscribed to licences for COBWEBB’S PRINT, EMAIL and DOCSTORE modules. COBWEBB PRINT - Enables output to printers including label and thermal printers COBWEBB EMAIL - Enables output to email utilising customers existing email / SMTP Server COBWEBB DOCSTORE - A digital archive where documents output via CPPD are automatically stored All documents processed via CPPD are automatically archived in Docstore with user access controlled via IBM i security. Authorised users can access archived business documents either via the web interface, or in context from within their ERP (using WorkSpace Extensions for System21 and Netlink or Powerlink for XA).

THE RESULT Cobwebb assisted Goodridge to consolidate and standardise their forms (invoices, PO’s, GRN’s etc.) reducing the number of templates in use by nearly 75%. Divisions now share templates and the data within the spool file informs CPPD which branding and company information to use for the output. This has hugely simplified forms management for Goodridge. Goodridge now has a reliable and responsive solution for output management used in multiple business units across the globe. As CPPD can manage document output and archiving for any application running on IBM i, Goodridge has been able to standardise on one solution for both System 21 and XA. Providing access to archived documents in context from within their ERP is improving customer satisfaction through quicker query resolution and supporting audit processes. The use of NetLink tools to “track” documents sent via email, is providing greater transparency throughout the process.

75% REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF TEMPLATES IN USE

THE NEXT STEP COBWEBB DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT is now used in seven sites running System21 internationally including the UK, US, Spain and France. Goodridge has also recently extended the use of CPPD to business units running Infor XA in Japan with further roll-outs planned for Italy and the Netherlands.

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