Federal Express Chooses OPTIX® Document Management System

Flint Hill, VA - December 11, 1995 - Blueridge Technologies, "The Internet Document Management Company," announced that the Air Operations Department of Federal Express Corporation ("FedEx") has installed an OPTIX Document Management System. The system is used to store, retrieve, and manage engineering and maintenance records for the company's fleet of more than 500 aircraft. By far the world's largest express transportation company, FedEx is also the world's largest all cargo airline.

According to Fred Hummel, Manager of Aircraft Engineering Support at FedEx, "We're probably no different from any other airline. Complying with FAA record storage requirements means you're going to accumulate a massive number of documents. We have an existing backlog of several million documents, including about 700,000 aperture cards."

FedEx chose OPTIX to help them manage this mountain of paperwork. As Hummel explains "When you have that many documents, you're going to face tremendous storage, coordination, and routing problems. With OPTIX, we're able to route our documents much more efficiently, while at the same time reducing our dependence on storage space."

As many as 165 FedEx employees at the Memphis headquarters have access to records archived on the OPTIX system. That number is growing rapidly as other departments are placed online. Engineers stationed in Los Angeles can also access the system, retrieving records in seconds by means of a dial-in connection. Because FedEx serves more than 200 countries, and more than 325 airports, remote access is a valuable capability of the new system.

OPTIX is already beginning to have a positive impact, according to Roger Hutchinson, Manager of Aircraft Records at FedEx. Like the time he received an urgent phone call from some technicians at Charles DeGaul airport in Paris. "They'd replaced an oxygen tank on one of our planes, and in the process misplaced the serviceable tag. Without that tag, the plane wouldn't be allowed to fly." Hutchinson says he logged onto OPTIX, pulled up a copy of the plane's serviceable tag, and faxed a copy to Paris. The entire process took only minutes. In less than an hour the plane was returning to Memphis. "Without OPTIX," Hutchinson says, "that plane could easily have been grounded. Because we provide committed delivery services, that could have resulted in some very serious problems."

Another feature Hutchinson likes about OPTIX is its ease of use. "We hired several temporary personnel to scan our backlog of documents into the system. Because OPTIX is easy to learn we weren't forced to bring in temporaries with 'computer programming' skills. After only a day of training, we turned them loose. They've been off and running ever since."

Perhaps the most valuable feature of OPTIX is speed, says Hummel. "Quick response is our business. With OPTIX, we're able to respond to situations in minutes rather than hours."

Founded in 1988, Blueridge Technologies is one of the industry's oldest and most respected providers of electronic document management systems (EDMS). Long the leading industrial-strength document imaging and workflow system for Apple Macintosh computers, in 1994 OPTIX became the first electronic document management system to offer workflow, document imaging, document control, COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk), and natural language text retrieval for both Windows and Macintosh workstations. Via the new OPTIX WEB interface, OPTIX also supports popular Web browsers, including Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer from Microsoft, Mosaic, and all the client platforms these products support, including Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX workstations. An online demo of OPTIX WEB is available at http://www.optixweb.com. Blueridge Technologies is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Metters Industries.

OPTIX systems begin in the range of $40,000 and include server software, client software for both Macintosh and Windows, installation, training, and support.