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Nintex > Case Studies > Achieving Document Consistency and Visibility with Nintex at Applied Technical Services

Achieving Document Consistency and Visibility with Nintex at Applied Technical Services

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Aerospace
Automotive

Applicable Functions

Procurement
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Experimentation Automation
Inventory Management

Services

System Integration
Testing & Certification

The Challenge

Applied Technical Services (ATS), a leading testing, inspection and consulting engineering firm in North America, was facing a significant challenge in managing its data and information. With a year-over-year growth of 15-to-20 percent, more than 700 employees dispersed among 28 locations, and thousands of active projects, the company's information management approach was no longer serving its needs. Information storage had become fractured and inconsistent among departments, and the lack of clear, consistent process and data workflows were impeding operating efficiency. The firm also wanted to overhaul its legacy internal portal, building a home page for each department with document storage centralized within the system, and to create a customer portal.

About The Customer

Founded in 1967, Applied Technical Services (ATS) is one of the leading testing, inspection and consulting engineering firms in North America. Its corporate headquarters are in Marietta, GA, with 28 satellite offices predominately in the South and Northeast. Some 700 employees support the firm’s expert services in a variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, nuclear, and pulp and paper, among others. With year-over-year growth of 15-to-20 percent and thousands of active projects, ATS is a rapidly expanding company with a diverse range of services and a wide geographical footprint.

The Solution

To address these challenges, ATS worked with Abel Solutions to create a centralized repository for project, job, employee, and even prospect and client information, using SharePoint 2013 and the Nintex Platform. Nintex’s Advanced Workflows and Modern Forms played a pivotal role in achieving one of the organization’s biggest successes—dozens of automated workflows, with system triggers for new workflow creation based upon predefined events. ATS transitioned to a robust document creation, editing, and management system where workflows dramatically increase consistency of data storage and access to information. The solution also included a centralized, searchable, and filterable repository for job-related documents, automated workflows to create and track new records, automation of “processes within processes,” and workflow-based data management that ties all relevant materials to its relevant project based on a unique Project ID.

Operational Impact

The implementation of SharePoint 2013 and Nintex products has significantly improved ATS's operational efficiency. The new system has provided a more efficient, unified system to achieve document, form and data record standardization across the enterprise, including workflow automation for project, job, prospect and client records. The Nintex’s Advanced Workflows are tying everything together for the benefit of better project and equipment management. The company is currently in the process of rolling out the system to all departments, and in the interim, the vision for its use has grown exponentially. From an initial expectation of only a few Nintex workflows on top of SharePoint, the vision has grown to at least 100 workflows. This includes a workflow to track fixed assets, including those that need to be calibrated for accuracy, and another workflow for detailed parts searches.

Quantitative Benefit