The
San Francisco Chronicle is looking to expand the use of document management
software it now relies on to oversee circulation and finance records.
The
newspaper (daily, 518,812; Sunday, 538,586) is evaluating whether or not to
deploy the app, Alchemy, developed by Information Management Research Inc., to
its mailroom and distribution departments, said Demauriae McCoy, finance systems
support specialist.
The
goal: to replace paper invoices with electronic documents that could be more
efficiently retrieved and managed.
The
Chronicle began using Alchemy in the late 1990s.
“We
were drowning in paper,” McCoy said.
The
daily initially used Alchemy to digitize its advertising invoices, then followed
that by computerizing payroll and finance records. The application allowed
Chronicle business staffers to find invoices with a single keystroke instead of
rifling through file cabinets to search through paper copies, McCoy said.
The
Chronicle now uses Alchemy to track all of its financial, advertising and
circulation records, including those it inherited when it blended operations
with the San Francisco Examiner in 2000. More than 100 users access the app from
Chronicle offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Union City.
IMR
said Alchemy is capable of managing millions of documents and supports all major
file, image and graphic formats. The most recent upgrade of the app, released in
July, added security and file review capabilities. IMR also introduced a Web
services feature that’s aimed at making it easier for users to distribute
content online.
The
app is priced at about $30,000, which includes the Web access capability.
