How Spartan saves 3,300+ hours on essential document workflows

Challenge

Scaling a high standard of excellence

Spartan Controls earned its reputation as a leader in industrial automation by doing more than just deliver products — they deliver reliability, precision, and trust in every client interaction. For their document coordinator team, that means creating customized, accurate, and timely documentation packages for hundreds of projects each year.

But by 2017, their legacy document system — a custom-built internal tool — was becoming a bottleneck. Broken file links, unsupported software, and hours of manual formatting were limiting their ability to respond quickly to customer requests or scale with demand.

“If any customization was required, the system was limited, and we had to add it manually. It was a good system for what we needed at the time, but as customer expectations evolved, our system couldn’t keep up,” says Tara Congo, Team Lead, Document Coordinator at Spartan.

Every project brings a new set of specifications: unique cover pages, custom transmittals, specific metadata, and final databooks tailored to the project stage or shipment. With thousands of documents in motion and client expectations rising, Spartan needed a solution that could match their operational and customer service standards without slowing them down.

From the very first demo, Caroline Eastland, Coordinator Manager, says she felt the DocBoss team really understood Spartan’s specific business challenges and requirements.

“We looked at other options, but we never found an equal. The system that DocBoss created was exactly made for this industry and what we needed. They speak our language, and it’s clear they come from our world,” she says.

DocBoss gave Spartan the tools to accommodate more customer requests, without adding headcount. The team now generates document placeholders directly from tagged equipment, reducing the risk of missed items.

“Cover sheets, document indexes, databooks — just about any of the templates our customers require us to use — can be customized and uploaded, and then it can auto-populate much of that information. That automation was a game changer because our previous program had none of that capability,” Tara says.

The newfound ease, paired with built-in automation, improves Spartan’s ability to handle tens of thousands of documents a year. Many orders require client-specific customization, which Spartan can now provide without overwhelming the team. Additionally, with every document coordinator following the same templates and workflows, team members can easily step in to support one another as needed.

Another key differentiator is DocBoss’s sterling support. Both Caroline and Tara emphasized that the responsiveness and reliability of the DocBoss support team are integral to the platform’s effectiveness.

“DocBoss’s support is second to none — it’s spectacular. They’re always available and know exactly how to help. We’re not dealing with amateurs or some generic call center.”  

By automating document customization tasks and removing manual bottlenecks, Spartan has saved an estimated 3,300+ hours annually.

This efficiency has not only improved internal operations but also improved Spartan’s ability to deliver on highly specific client requests. Fewer document errors mean fewer rejections, better client satisfaction, and stronger long-term relationships.

“One particular customer required detailed tracking, along with customized cover sheets, document numbering, and databooks. Each one of those things would have added hours of manual work pre-DocBoss, especially tracking every revision. DocBoss was instrumental in helping me stay organized throughout that project,” Tara recalls.

Caroline also notes that with their old system, the inability to handle customization requests may have resulted in lost opportunity costs. But with DocBoss, the Spartan document control team spends less time formatting and more time delivering — ensuring that Spartan’s reputation for responsiveness and professionalism stays as strong as ever.

“With DocBoss, we’re able to say ‘yes’ more often than we have to say ‘no’ — we can accommodate requests easier than we could before,” Caroline says. “You want it on pink paper? You want it to smell like cotton candy? We can deliver.” She laughs.