Motor retailer turns to Brother scanners to keep track of 500,000 documents every year
Vertu Motors
Vertu Motors, one of the largest motor retailers in the UK, needed to improve the audit
process for its Gap insurance products, which are heavily regulated by the Financial
Conduct Authority (FCA).
The group, which owns over 112 sales and aftersales outlets across the UK operating
predominantly under the Bristol Street Motors, Vertu, Farnell Land Rover and Macklin
Motors brand names, sold over 100,000 cars in the last financial year, creating almost
500,000 pieces of customer paperwork.
Simon Ward, IT Business Analyst at Vertu Motors, opted for Brother’s scanners to
improve the audit trail and boost productivity.
Pushing the boundaries
Simon commented: “We already had a rigorous process in place to make sure that
we were complying with FCA regulations but we wanted to make it better. Previously
all documents were signed hard copies kept in a customer’s fi le in the store room.
However, when it came to an audit, this was quite ineffi cient. We had to dig around
in the relevant deal fi le to locate a certain piece of paper. Not only was this manual
process time consuming, it was also open to user error, such as misfiling or
misplacing paperwork.
“Previously we had a flatbed scanner connected to the business manager’s
computer. But when he was busy it created a bottleneck and held up the sales team.
“We needed an adaptable and affordable system that could fi t in with our showroom
system. Brother’s ADS-2600W customizable network scanner was the perfect choice.
The Brother Solutions Interface (BSI) means that our internal system can talk to the
scanner, letting us know the type of form that has been scanned and whether it has
been stored. Brother’s technical team provided us with lots of support to ensure that
we could create a solution that pushes the boundaries.
“The new solution prints pre-filled forms with a unique barcode for the customer to
sign and answer the FCA questions. The form is fed into the scanner and then, using
the BSI interface, the system is able to automatically decide whether gap insurance
is suitable, helping to reduce user error. The forms are then stored electronically
against each customer and easily retrieved when we have an FCA audit.”
Tracking internal documents
Simon added: “We’ve now expanded the use of the scanners to include anything a
customer signs, such as order forms. The barcode means that everything is stored
electronically in the correct file and most importantly, easily accessible. We’re also
using the scanners to keep track of the monthly appraisals carried out by sales
managers in our branches across the UK.”