Grocery Franchise Saves Money and Improves Onboarding with GlobalSearch® Document Management Software

The largest retailer owned supermarket cooperative in the United States, Wakefern Corporation continues to deliver over 60 years of uncompromising wholesale services to independent retailers of the Northeastern U.S. More than 220 ShopRite stores are located throughout New York, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland collectively employing about 50,000 personnel. Wakefern customizes its partnership as parent company to the Kenny Family ShopRites, the premier supermarket retailer of Delaware, to deliver an extensive mix of products, specialty options and innovative services.

The Kenny Family ShopRites of Delaware has recently opened their largest store to date, hiring over 200 employees as part of the supermarket franchise’s gradual expansion plan. By implementing Square 9’s GlobalSearch Enterprise Content Management Suite of solutions, The Kenny Family was able to streamline the paper-intensive processes to make their latest ShopRite opening their most efficient yet.

“We are using GlobalSearch primarily in our Human Resources and Accounting departments,” said Ben Simons, Information Technology Manager at The Kenny Family of ShopRites. “In fact, in Human Resources, we are on the verge of completely eliminating the use of paper. Storage is key. Previously we used basements and closet space to store documents; it wasn’t the most efficient thing. For us it’s about saving time so we can focus on our customers better and our Human Resources employees can concentrate on their departmental duties rather than wasting time searching for documents.”

Under strict document retention policies, the organization’s paper-intensive employee onboarding process caused the franchise to accumulate a cumbersome buildup of paper. “In the past, newly hired employees would come in for an orientation where they fill out a 20-page New Hire packet,” explained Simons. “Twenty pages for each of the 200 employees created a huge amount of wasted paper, plus too much time was spent filling them out and filing them away properly.” But after finding a solution in GlobalSearch, the ShopRites of Delaware has stored over 30,000 documents into their database while clearing out an entire basement formerly filled with boxes of files.

Since then, the co-op has created New Hire packets with Square 9’s GlobalForms digital eForms to further save on paper costs while simplifying packet completion and storage methods. “Once completed, the packets automatically route into GlobalSearch and index away, saving us from the storage and man hours of managing those records,” Simons continued. “Plus, Square 9 provides great support; when we needed them for last minute changes on our GlobalForms documents, they made it happen. It keeps an IT manager’s mind at ease by having things secure on the digital side.”

Abiding with record retention policies, the ShopRites of Delaware preserve everything Human Resources related from Employee Write-ups to Availability Records to Legal or Payroll information. Storing and organizing those files into GlobalSearch allowed the company to create many archives and sub-archives to help their Human Resources staff stay better organized and attentive to departmental-specific duties.

In regards to Accounting, the Delaware Family of ShopRite’s Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable subdivisions store their vendor invoices into GlobalSearch along with any Western Union related documents. “It’s convenient because when customers come in to a store, they have the ability to make their utility payments,” Simons clarified. “We’re all required to keep that type of information for lengths of time, so they are filed away into the GlobalSearch repository, which lets us clear up space we were previously using to shove receipts in boxes and storage closets for ten years.”

With GlobalSearch, the ShopRites of Delaware co-op has seen boosts in productivity through their Human Resources and Accounting departments, with an eventual roll-out plan to their Loss Prevention Department. Simons and his team are still applying GlobalSearch in phases, but also believe their Pharmacy department will greatly profit once the solution goes live. “Our pharmacies have a massive volume of records which must be kept for extended periods of time,” Simons described. “We have a storage room that’s filled with boxes that once scanned and indexed away will significantly improve search and retrieval efforts. It’s great because GlobalSearch is very customizable that it is unlimited in usage, plus the team at Square 9 is capable of creating and implementing almost any specific request, or they can give you an alternate solution which works just as well if not better.”

The 73,000 square-foot newly developed ShopRite building stands in Glasgow, Delaware and is expected to bring a new customer base to the Four Season Shopping Center and surrounding small businesses. Well-respected throughout the state, The Kenny Family ShopRites stay very involved with the Delaware community, by supporting local Delaware farms, sponsoring cancer walks and working with local groups such as the Boys & Girls Club. Their newest “green initiative” to save paper usage through document management solutions has brought even more positive attention to the supermarket franchise.

As the newest store location is thriving with business, Simons and the team at ShopRites of Delaware attribute a portion of their success to GlobalSearch. “I would definitely recommend GlobalSearch, especially because of its versatility,” Simons said. “It’s unique in how it can be totally customized to however the end user wants to make it. It can be as simple or as complex as needed but ultimately the end result is that it saves you time, it helps you stay organized, and it’s secure, digital storage.”