Largest Land Management Company in California Goes Digital, Mobile With IBM Software

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Tejon Ranch, the largest land management company in California, is using IBM software to drive more successful case outcomes and digitize and mobilize its records management. Tejon will save $4 million through reduced paper and operating costs while meeting new compliance regulations.

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The company plans to offer a mobile application that enables iPad users to take advantage of key content and case management capabilities remotely for contracts management, insurance verification, and bond management. With so much land to traverse, Tejon employees need a mobile solution when they are off-site to access key information and collaborate across the organization.

Tejon Ranch, located at the southern end of California's Central Valley, is one of the oldest ranches in the state and the largest private landholding in California. Measuring 270,000 square acres, it's one-third the area of Rhode Island and about the size of the city of Los Angeles. The company is involved in land planning, real estate development, commercial sales and leasing, and income portfolio management.

"With IBM software to centrally manage information and drive case management, we now get a holistic view across our business that connects all departments to trusted content they need to serve customers more efficiently. We're doing three times as much with our systems now as we did previously, but we've only added two staff members to the IT team," said Richard Daley, Director of Information Management at Tejon Ranch. "We predict a three-year ROI of $4 million using IBM, but as for the value in terms of transforming the way we do business, that's beyond calculation."

At Tejon, business is conducted using contracts with their outside contractors and vendors on a variety of projects. A contract and its associated documents comprise a case file that follows the business transaction. When a deal is closed, the documents must be retained or disposed of in accordance with strict regulations. The company is legally required to inspect that each supplier and contractor has a current insurance certificate. With thousands of suppliers, this was a time consuming and labor intensive process. As a public company, Tejon also has to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA and is subject to audits by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tejon also has access to millions of dollars per year they can access through bonds for general use improvements and additional building projects. Being able to easily track what's been spent, maintain all supporting documents for those activities, and determine the best opportunity to exercise future bonds is key to keeping Tejon's business growing.

Previously, Tejon had only a manual, paper-based records management system to manage its growth and ensure regulatory compliance. As a result, its businesses were operating as separate, siloed entities. Employees used paper for their work processes and stored this information in boxes, folders and notebooks. If an employee was out sick or on vacation, for example, the process broke down until that employee returned.

With IBM's case management capabilities, Tejon can now maneuver contracts through the office more easily to make sure insurance certificates are updated and pro-actively notify its workers, including more than 5,000 consultants, when their insurance needs to be updated or reissued. Dynamic tasks can be set to ensure insurance verification is obtained or appropriate action is taken. IBM's case management capabilities also allow Tejon to quickly react to access bonds for general use improvements and additional building projects. Management can easily track what's been spent, maintain all supporting documents for those activities, and be ready to take advantage of the best opportunity to exercise future bonds

This news is part of IBM's overall strategy to deliver advanced case management solutions that unify information, processes and people within many industries to handle their critical business caseloads more effectively.

In the latest release of IBM Case Manager, IBM has provided extensive integration to information across an organization to integrate people, process and information into a single view of the business. Business analysts and case workers now have enhanced case design capabilities, shortening time to value. Organizations can also capitalize on established business process management facilities and share tasks with IBM Business Process Manager, giving clients visibility into key business operations to model, automate, monitor and adjust plans instantly.

Using IBM software, Tejon also has an electronic records management solution that can manage the diverse and dispersed records that exist in various formats across the company. Employees can access digitized content whenever they want it in the format they need. They can also work together on a case with access to all the information they need at any point in the process. Tejon has a single solution to manage records regardless of format and ensure that compliance objectives are met.

Tejon is looking ahead to extend the use of software for collaboration, business rules, advanced analytics, and social software to work smarter. The company's long-term goal is to build its IBM solution out to the 5,000 remote consultants and vendors it works with on a daily basis, providing a way for  consultants and vendors to directly contribute content to the Tejon solution and collaborate with the Tejon team.

Richard Daley from Tejon Ranch is showing the solution at IBM's Information OnDemand event October 23-26 at booth 821-10.

For more information on IBM ECM solutions, see http://www.ibm.com/software/data/content-management or Twitter:  twitter.com/IBM_ECM

Media Contacts:
Steve Milmore
IBM Media Relations
978-399-7347
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM

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