Case Study: The Buffalo Bills

THE PROBLEM

The Buffalo Bills organization had to handle a large volume of paper files that were difficult to access, compile, and share with players and clinicians. According to the league’s collective bargaining agreement, a team must provide all medical requests by a player within six days. Frantic file cabinet searches were a common thing. Not to mention that some information was on carbon paper, which would disintegrate upon touching. Player contracts that laid out everything from practice days to public appearances were also kept in paper files that go back almost 50 years. Finding anything in that department was time-consuming and inefficient. Additionally, the Buffalo Bills administration struggled with a paper-based accounts payable process. Final signatures, required on all invoices, required daily shipments of paper invoices from Buffalo to Detroit.

THE SOLUTION

InStream, working with EMC distributor MetaSource LLC, took an in-depth look at the Buffalo Bills’ needs. This included everything from scanning private data from paper to digital documents, all the way to more effective and efficient billing practices. InStream’s experienced professionals studied the existing processes and created a custom solution of software and paperless processes based on ApplicationXtender. Since the organization wanted to avoid a large IT involvement, Metasource’s hosted AX software product was the perfect fit.

THE RESULTS

After implementation, 90% of the Bills’ record-keeping process is now paperless. Documents are digitized and work together through the AX software system. Along with increased efficiency and security, a key benefit to the entire organization is the ability to access information instantly. Specifically, medical staff has rapid access to player medical records immediately. When it comes to an in-game injury, these digital records are available on mobile tablets and allow for better care of the player and better long-term health outcomes. When the Buffalo Bills saw what technology could do with medical records, other departments realized they had similar pain points that could benefit from InStream’s joint services and software. Shone Gipson, the assistant athletic trainer, comments “It has made our life and the life of our team so much easier… it is a more efficient way to run our operation. Overall it’s been great for us.”

 

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