How AusHomes Embraced Scanning and Saved Money.

New Home Owners Digitally Set Up for Life

Building a new home is one of the biggest investments many will make. When choosing a builder, individuals seek a company that goes above and beyond.

AusHomes, builders of high-quality, cost-effective homes in South-East Queensland, have embraced digital scanning services to enhance customer service and meet legal requirements. The bonus? Significant cost savings.

Excellent Customer Service

“I get phone calls from people who I built a house for 20 years ago asking which roof tile was used during the build or to get help finding the sewage connection point,” says Brett Shepherd, CEO of AusHomes, which works exclusively in the domestic building market.

Answering these questions is all part of AusHomes' excellent customer service. When operating with paper archives, such requests would necessitate a trip to the rented storage facility to retrieve the correct archive box. Shepherd soon realized there must be a better way.

“We moved to digitising our build records,” says Shepherd. “Now, thanks to OCR recognition and astute naming of our digitally scanned files, questions from homeowners can be answered with a few clicks, all within the same phone call.”

Exceeding Legal Requirements

Houses are built to last far longer than a lifetime. Yet, legislation requires that records related to a build are retained for less than a decade.

Though AusHomes hands over all certificates and a detailed folder relating to the build at completion, many people lose these over time.

Though complaints about AusHomes’ work are rare, disputes do happen. The easily retrievable digital files are AusHomes' first line of defence when managing such instances. Without excellent records, any disputes can easily become a case of one word against another.

“For the protection of the company, we digitize all records, including photographs of the home, just before the handover of the keys.”

Another benefit of AusHomes' long-term view of record management is that their current practice is likely to align with any potential future changes in legislation. While other businesses may have to scramble to comply, AusHomes will likely continue business-as-usual practices.

Costs Dramatically Reduced

If you assume that going digital would be an added cost of business, think again.

The financial benefit of AusHomes’ long-term digital strategy is substantial. Over more than 20 years in business, during which they have built over 4,000 homes and apartments, the bulk of paper records was substantial and constantly growing.

“It used to cost $40,000 per year for rental of storage space just for records relating to new home builds,” says Shepherd. “The cost of the digital scanning services is a fraction of that, around $5,000 per year.” Add in the costs of folders, binders, dividers, and archive boxes for files that could be 2 inches thick and, according to Shepherd: “We’re talking about an aspect of our business that now costs less than a tenth of what it did previously.”

Shepherd summarises the advantages of building record file digitization: “It’s a highly efficient way of storing files that goes beyond current legal requirements, protects us in cases of dispute, and allows us to provide excellent customer service.”