Future Proof: Solution in store for sensitive documents

Storage business Kefron has been managing sensitive documents and data for more than 20 years. However, rapidly changing consumer needs led managing director Paul Kearns to the digital arena, with the company now offering online document management and invoice processing to its customers.

Established in 1989, the company employs 133 people and has an annual turnover of €10 million. The company provided self-storage initially, with members of the public using the firm to store garden furniture and household items.

“Businesses then began contacting us asking could they store items. For example, wine shops used it to store large quantities of wine. Before long, the businesses started looking for file storage,” says Kearns .

At any one time, the company could have upwards of 100,000 boxes of documents in storage for its 1,000 clients which include large multinationals and banks. Such security is costly with the need for 24-hour digital CCTV, monitored video surveillance and individually alarmed storage rooms.

“Businesses store day-to-day documents, contracts, invoices, deeds, wills and financial information. We have very tight security with heavy employee screenings and security protocols as to whom in an organisation can call in a document.”

Kefron had double-digit growth from the mid-1990s to 2006. However, the onset of the economic crisis and building downturn caused the company to rethink its offering, after customers began looking for price reductions and opting to store less.

Cost conscious
"There was an awful lot of price erosion following the property crash and banking collapse. Our phones didn't stop ringing from people looking for price reductions and threatening to move their business elsewhere," says Kearns.

“Then clients became very cost conscious and began putting less documents in for storage. We also started losing clients as businesses were going into liquidation and closing down.

“The recession made us look at our business quite hard and redefine ourselves.”

As a result the company started encouraging clients to go digital, making it cheaper for the client and for Kefron, as physical storage space was no longer needed.

“Clients are more cost conscious now and are destroying a lot more documents than in the past. We are trying to help businesses become less paper dependent.

“Digital documents are a big growth area as paper can often get lost off desks at work. By encouraging clients to go digital it is cheaper for them and us.”

As well as being cheaper to go digital, the company was also noticing a market trend towards the digital space, with technology driving consumer demands to be able to access information quickly and automate processes, while still remaining compliant with legislation.

Kearns says that by storing documents in the cloud customers can access them anytime.

He said the addition of the digital offering allows the company to now occupy a specific niche competitive edge in Ireland with no competitor being able to offer customers both components.

As part of consolidating its offering in the digital space and being able to offer customers the opportunity to digitise their entire businesses, the company also decided to supply an online accounts payable solution.

The technology, developed in partnership with UK-based software provider ReadSoft, reduces the time it takes to process an invoice, which Kearns says is very attractive to companies looking at ways to improve productivity.

Timely offering
"This solution has the ability to cut the cost of invoice processing by up to 67 per cent per invoice.

“This is an extremely timely offering for the Irish market in advance of new legislation on the EU payments directive.

“By automating accounts payable, the processing time will be speeded up, enabling businesses to pay invoices faster.”

Kearns attributes the current success of the business this innovation and providing a 24/7 service to customers.

“We’ve had clients phone on Stephen’s Day wanting documents and tapes as their servers were down. On a regular basis we will have clients call at 4am or 5am.”