Snap-on Success Story

PaperWise powers Snap-on SecureCorp: the right tools to create efficiency, reduce waste, and provide better service

Snap-on Incorporated was founded in 1920 when two men, Joseph Johnson and William Seidemann, founded Snap-on Wrench Company, a business that forged the concept of interchangeable sockets and wrench handles. The strategy behind the company's success was the vision to bring products directly to customers, allowing the opportunity for product demonstration and an explanation of benefits. Today Snap-on Wrench Company has evolved into Snap-on Incorporated, a multi-billion dollar, S&P 500 company. Based out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the company operates in more than 130 countries and has a franchise network of more than 4,000 franchisees. Offering an array of products, Snap-on franchisees continue the tradition of bringing items such as hand and power tools, tool storage, diagnostics software, information and management systems, and shop equipment straight to their customers using patented walk-in vans loaded with merchandise.

Starting with the Subsidiary

Within the Snap-on corporate umbrella lays Snap-on SecureCorp, Inc., the insurance subsidiary of Snap-on. IT Manager Mike Silver said, "Our mission is to provide one stop shopping for all of the franchisee's business and personal insurance needs; our goal is to provide assistance in protecting their business so they can focus on growing their business."

In order to provide better, more efficient service to their customers, SecureCorp utilizes PaperWise as a tool to provide complete access to all of the franchisee's insurance documents, as well as other significant data and forms to Customer Service Representatives (CSR) assisting customers. Records ranging from franchisee paperwork (starts, terminations, personal data changes) and insurance applications to any insurance forms, paperwork, or documentation connected to a franchisee, including emails, phone calls, and voicemails are stored electronically, making them easily accessible. All of this information is then tied back to Snap-on's management system, Applied System's TAM.

Advantageous Integration

Where SecureCorp's agency management system was lacking robust electronic document management, PaperWise provided advanced capabilities providing more efficiency than they had with their current system alone. The integration with TAM undeniably accelerated SecureCorp's ability to offer better service, providing a way to organize documents so they were easily accessible. According to Silver, "PaperWise allowed [Snap-on] to have all documents available with a hotkey. If a franchisee were to call and say he has an issue or needs to go over a policy, all the CSR has to do is bring up the information in TAM. In the event the CSR needs more information, everything related to an individual policy or pertaining to the franchisee is accessible through PaperWise using simple hot keys."

The capability to fully track the history of paperwork offered a great deal of relief as well. Though TAM itself was not fully conducive to tracking complete history changes of a policy, SecureCorp could finally maintain a detailed history record with PaperWise. "If we have the paperwork for everything that has ever happened to a franchisee, we have it at any time because it is all in PaperWise," explained Silver, "If ever we need to piece anything back together all we have to do is look it up in our PaperWise System."

Reaping Benefits

The process of back scanning all of the existing files occurred over the course of about 5 months. With the help of PaperWise, SecureCorp was able to scan everything into their system, simplifying the CSR's job as they were able to do everything electronically. "We literally have almost no filing cabinets in our department anymore, with the exception of a few miscellaneous items," explained Silver, "It's just a part of life now; we don't keep files."

With PaperWise everything was centralized; instead of lost paperwork or emails, everything could be found in one place. The risk of errors and omissions was virtually eradicated. Silver claimed, "We've never lost anything in the PaperWise system."

Moving everything from paper to electronic form did more than just simplify daily duties. Overhead costs were reduced through the elimination of 64 lateral file cabinets and an abundance of offsite storage, while processes were more streamlined through the elimination of steps no longer necessary.

Real-Time Certificates

Among the cost and time efficiency gains acquired, PaperWise enabled SecureCorp to provide real-time certificates. Snap-on has a joint venture with CIT Financial called Snap-on Credit, where the tools, franchisee's van and business are financed. When a franchisee leases a van through Snap-on Credit, certificates of insurance plus all other information for the franchisee, the make and model of their van, etc. are required so all the work for the account could be done up front. The manufacturer of the van, in addition to other branches throughout the country, needed certificates of insurance as well. Information was extremely decentralized, making the development of a process to obtain vehicle information, store vehicle information, and create/obtain certificates of extreme importance. SecureCorp was able to centralize using WebWise. With this application certificates were readily available to all the necessary entities. As certificates were created for policies, they were automatically sent into WebWise, and the appropriate person(s) were automatically e-mailed, informing them of the location and availability of the certificate.

"We were able to post franchisee commercial auto certificates to our business partners, including our credit arm and the company that builds the vans," explained Silver. The certificates were created in Applied then attached and indexed into their local PaperWise system. Upon being sent into PaperWise, the information was then sent via the Internet to WebWise with all the indexing necessary for vendors to attain current and historical certificates whenever they needed them. "Everything was accessible using just a couple of hot keys," said Silver. The success of this project led to the use of PaperWise in other facets of Snap-on.

Expanding the Arm

Positive results on the insurance side of the business gave reason to expand the use of PaperWise in other areas. Snap-on's legal department began to use PaperWise to store legal files for franchisee litigation while the Corporate Risk Department utilized the system to store all information pertaining to product liability litigation and claims for any of their programs. Plans to further implement to other areas were put in motion. Since integrating PaperWise with the existing system had proven quite simple, implementing cross departmentally was deemed a realistic goal.

Several departments have been considered for implementation such as accounts payable where a huge room is full of filing cabinets in addition to offsite storage. Plans for the accounting department have been considered as well. One project already completed is for signature authority, the process of verifying the dollar amount employees are allowed to sign for and spend without pre-approval based on their title. One major future project may be an integration with the employee expense reporting system (ERS). The goal of the integration would be to create a system of collecting receipts so all expenses received can go straight into PaperWise, simplifying the tracking and organizing of expenses.

A Corporate Standard

Today Snap-on continues to use PaperWise in many areas, constantly evaluating where further implementation can take place. Silver explained, "People enjoy working with PaperWise because we never have problems with it. It's fast enough, it works well, it doesn't go down, and even if there are issues, PaperWise has really good support. We've never had a problem." As PaperWise continues to release new, updated versions of the Suite with improved functionality and innovative features, Snap-on will continue to gain as they grow their system. The future, it seems, holds a healthy partnership for both.