The system, which includes eCopy ScanStation OP, an eCopy document imaging and distribution system and Ricoh Co. multifunction copy machines for scanning, copying and printing documents, will help NJ Transit save time, money and paper by converting its paper-based system into an electronic system, said Richard Price, director of materials management at NJ Transit.

"We are like most major corporations -- we have the need to request materials and services on a continuing basis to support our rail, bus and light rail systems, and we generate quite a few of these things every year," Price said. "And prior to a year ago, we were doing everything via paper and sending those requisitions through the regular interoffice mail."

Before implementing the system from IKON Office Solutions Inc. and eCopy Inc., it could take days for requisitions and check requests to get to their destination, Price said. Creating an electronic requisition form using Microsoft Outlook allowed the agency to immediately track requisitions or check requests without risking the loss associated with paper documents, he said.

"We used MS Outlook and [first] we created an [electronic] requisition form," Price said. "But the problem we had was how do we get the paper documentation -- specifications and all the different types of proposals that are coming to us in different forms in paper -- how do we get those quickly into an electronic form so we can attach it to the electronic requisition and move it through the system?"

The agency decided to take advantage of the scanning ability of its Ricoh copy machines to scan the necessary documents into the appropriate corporate systems, Price said.