TECHNOLOGY : FileNet, Pizza Hut Share Limelight for Automating System

FileNet Corp. has been getting into the pizza business--sort of.

The Costa Mesa manufacturer of document-processing systems and Pizza Hut Inc. have been recognized jointly as Imaging Industry Innovators of 1992 for their work in automating the pizza restaurant chain’s paperwork.

Pizza Hut installed a FileNet computerized document-processing system in its accounts payable department in 1991, thus becoming the first company in the restaurant industry to adopt a so-called imaging system.

Using FileNet technology to scan documents into computer data that can be manipulated and processed on a computer terminal, Pizza Hut was able to streamline the department’s flow of 125,000 documents a month. Besides reducing paper-storage costs, the system cut Pizza Hut’s customer-service response time from five days to 10 minutes.

The companies received the award at the Imaging Expo trade show in New York.

Pizza Hut, which has more than 8,500 restaurants worldwide, is based in Wichita, Kan., and is a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Inc.