Customer stories


Banc One

Banc One Cashes in on FileMaker for Tracking Projects

You've probably never wondered where all the brochures you see at your local bank come from, but for Lianne Rolfe, Manager of Operations and Technology for Banc One Corporation, brochures are her business.

"I work in the creative services group,” Rolfe said. "We're responsible for all the creative products of the corporation. All the brochures, merchandising, behind the teller signs — all the printed media and ads for the company.”

With about 1,500 affiliates in thirteen states, you can see how that can add up to a lot of brochures, pens and key chains. Whenever the corporation introduces a new project, Rolfe is responsible for overseeing the design bids, production, printing, and distribution of the new materials to every single branch.

"We use a FileMaker Pro Job Tracking System for all the creative jobs we have,” Rolfe said. "Before we had this system, everything was done by hand multiple times. If you were going to quote a job to three different printers, you wrote it up three times. Now, I can call up a job, fax out the quote, and see exactly what its status is instantaneously.”

One of the key features of her FileMaker Job Tracking System is its customizability, or what she calls the "Tinker Factor.” "I love being able to go in and make changes,” she said. "New reports can be generated in a matter of minutes. There is so much information within these databases that someone can ask me for something and I can put out a report in no time. It's usually my boss, too. He loves it to death. He's constantly flooring his upper management because he can produce this information in an hour, instead of weeks. It's pretty amazing.”

FileMaker Pro is a relational database application designed to help manage and share information in the real world. It's a fast and easy software system for create working databases on Macintosh, Windows 95, Windows NT, or Windows 3.1.

The initial version of the Job Tracking system was written with Cleveland Consulting, a database consulting and design group in Columbus, Ohio. However, when funding ran out, Rolfe was pleased to discover that making changes to the database was no big deal.

"It was pretty easy,” Rolfe said. "Even if I left the company, I really think that FileMaker Pro is user-friendly enough for the people in our group to go down and create the sheets and databases they need. Individual users really don't have to do anything but click buttons and enter data. All the forms and reports are done automatically with the click of a button.”

In addition to managing the flow of all the various creative pieces, Rolfe has found her FileMaker Job Tracking System invaluable in generating invoices, internal billings, cost-comparisons — even the monthly spreadsheet required by Banc One's accounting department.

"Our accounting department is very specific about how they want to receive information,” Rolfe explained. "We've tricked FileMaker Pro into doing columns. It's a massive database that really works, and the spreadsheet looks really cool.”

The savings to Banc One are concentrated in the areas of manpower and efficiency.

"It's obviously saved us a lot of time and money,” said Rolfe. "The employees spend half as much time on paperwork as they used to, because everything's automated. People are usually pretty amazed at how complete this process is. It takes a job from the beginning all the way to the end. There are no features left off. There is nothing the designers are doing outside the Job Tracking System. Everything's in here.”


Overview
  • Banc One Corporation chose a FileMaker Pro-based solution to track and manage the production of brochures, merchandising, ads and other print media. Thanks to FileMaker Pro's flexibity and ease of use, Banc One staff can easily make changes to the solution as needed.
Industry
  • Information Technology