Freeman

The challenge

As the world’s largest brand experience company, Freeman helps organizations connect with their customers by delivering seamless, innovative and immersive brand experiences. Through comprehensive solutions including strategy, creative, logistics, digital solutions and event technology, Freeman helps clients increase engagement and drive results.

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Freeman is a family owned global company with more than 90 locations worldwide and over 7,000 employees. Freeman produces more than 4,300 expositions annually and 12,500 other events worldwide. With an industry customer base so large, and to meet its own expectations for customer service levels, the company discovered it needed a better way to manage and share information. Freeman found its solution in Hyland's OnBase.

“We spent a lot of time managing a paper environment,” said Ruth Foster, Freeman's director of customer support processing service. “We knew there had to be a better way to use our resources. OnBase has made daily operations easier for our staff, who can now locate orders faster and more reliably, but it’s also improved our response times for our customers.” 

The solution

Working with authorized OnBase solutions provider Quest Associates, Inc., Freeman implemented OnBase in its exposition division across all of its locations over a one-year period. The solution immediately standardized the way the division managed orders in its customer support department for accounts receivable.

Orders can arrive to Freeman via different channels — from the show floor, through the company website, exhibitor app or by fax to any one of the company's exposition locations. Because of its manual, paper-based operation, locating hard copies of those orders could be difficult for staff to do quickly. With the transition to OnBase, Freeman now has one secure and centralized electronic repository that stores all the order information staff need. Now, no matter how an order arrives, staff have immediate access to that information.

Freeman further improved information access by integrating OnBase with SAP, its ERP system. Staff now access information stored in OnBase without having to exit SAP.

Through improved access to information, staff complete tasks and respond to customer inquiries faster — significantly decreasing turnaround times.

The difference

From order fulfillment to logistics and transportation to creating more centralized customer service, OnBase has improved Freeman’s daily operations, positively impacting its employees’ experiences and that of its customers.

Improves information sharing

“Any team can reference an order, no matter where they are located. Everyone has access to necessary information and can access the information in OnBase,” Foster said. “This allows us to improve our customer service across all of our business lines.”

Increases process visibility

Before OnBase, it was difficult to measure how well Freeman was performing against its service goals because the process was paper-based. Now, Freeman uses OnBase to set and track those established goals.

Elevates service levels

“Our customer service response times have improved so much since we implemented OnBase. We no longer have to contact someone else to find information. We all have access to it in OnBase, whether we’re at a show site or in an office,” said Sarah Maloof, Freeman's exhibitor services project manager.

Easily handles volume

“We can shift work among our different locations and work groups, which is great for us to manage our seasonal volume," said Tim Smithson, Freeman's IT project manager. “If it’s really busy in Las Vegas, we can shift workloads to other locations who aren’t seeing the same level of activity.”

Expedites processes

“With OnBase, Freeman’s credit and collections staff easily locate a customer’s full order history and any related background information required to process collections,” Foster said. “They’re now able to perform their jobs more effectively and efficiently.”

Ensures compliance

With its document retention and redaction capabilities, OnBase helps Freeman store sensitive financial information collected through its online customer payment system to meet different countries’ security and regulatory requirements.

Eliminates paper

Freeman makes a concerted effort to ensure its shows make a big impact on attendees while making little impact on the Earth. OnBase helps the company meet those green goals by eliminating paper.

“Back when we first implemented OnBase, we were using 100 reams of paper a day nationwide,” Smithson said. “We’ve grown exponentially since then, and have reduced our dependence on paper along the way.”