Local and State Government:
2007
How do you select the best electronic document management solution (EDMS) for your municipality?
...How do you design an implementation plan that meets each department's needs?
...How do you promote fast staff acceptance?
...How do you integrate the EDMS with other critical software applications?
...How do you leverage the EDMS to enhance service delivery...?
To find out all of this and more, please download the free Laserfiche White Paper, "How Information Technology Enhances Government Innovation."
Document Imaging & Management for Local Government
• Access mission-critical records on demand
• Simplify retention schedule management
• Streamline legislative processes
Universal Accessibility & Long-Term Records Preservation
Setting the standard in local government document imaging and management, our business automation products help thousands of government bodies meet the challenges of 21st-century public service.
Consider your growing workload. Responding to demands for instant access to public records. Keeping those records secure and accessible for the future. Maintaining archives of E-size maps and drawings, and providing fast, simultaneous access to engineers and emergency personnel. Preparing and distributing Council meeting agendas and minutes. Disaster recovery planning.
As you face these issues in the Clerk’s Office, in Public Works, in your Police and Fire Departments – throughout local government – what is the impact of paper and microforms-based records management on budget, productivity, disaster preparedness and quality of service to citizens and staff?
“We were about 20% automated when I began here. We had an antiquated retrieval system that took a very long time, nowhere near the level of service I wanted to give our citizens. With [business automated products], we are 99% automated,” Valerie Burrowes, City Clerk, Sacramento, CA.
Consider the Costs:
• Labor spent responding to public information requests
• Time-consuming document retrieval from records rooms & offsite storage
• Adhering to records retention schedules and ensuring timely destruction of expired records
• Compiling, approving and distributing agendas
• Preserving mission-critical public records over the long term
• Difficulty controlling access to and distribution of sensitive records
• The cumulative impact on your budget, productivity and quality of public service
Consider the Potential:
• Save time and labor with dynamic Web publishing
• Retrieve records instantly with Intelligent Search capabilities
• Simplify retention schedule management with portable volumes
• Streamline legislative management processes
• Guarantee future accessibility of public records with digital archiving
• Protect records integrity with comprehensive security measures
• The cumulative benefits of maximizing efficiency and improving service to your citizens
"I received a request yesterday from the state retirement board for all the payroll records on an employee who started here in 1977. We had to send a Clerk up to the attic. It was about two hours’ work. If we'd had it [in our digital records database], the Clerk could have tapped a few keys and handed it to me in less than a minute," Leonard Verrastro, Town Clerk, Mamaroneck, NY.
Automated Business Solutions at Work in Local Government
Local government agencies and departments use high-speed scanners to capture budgets, maps, employee records, the municipal code, police reports – documents of varying types and sizes – into single or multiple digital databases. You can also import text files and other electronic documents, including digital audio and video files, with automated import tools or simple drag-and-drop actions.
Comprehensive enterprise-level security safeguards your digital archive with individualized protective measures for specific departments. Original documents can be removed or destroyed. Digital backups can be stored safely off-site.
Authorized personnel then search and retrieve documents instantly with search capabilities. Users view, print and email documents from their desktops. Documents may also be archived to CD-ROM or dynamically posted to your intranet or the Internet without HTML coding.
Consider, for example, the costs of providing hardcopy maps and plans to engineers and public safety personnel:
• What are the physical storage costs for large-format maps and drawings?
• How much staff time is lost searching for documents in file rooms or offsite storage?
• How long must engineers and first-responders wait for mission-critical plans?
• What are the dangers to historical drawings from repetitive handling?
• What are the cumulative costs in terms of budget, staff hours and quality of public service?
Now consider fulfilling those demands with a document imaging and management solution:
• Scan historical maps and import AutoCAD files into a secure digital archive
• Index maps and drawings with customizable templates for precision retrieval
• Engineers gain instant access while reducing paper reproduction costs and alleviating the retrieval burden on Planning Department staff
• Field personnel access critical information immediately on-site from wireless-enabled laptops
“What I like most is that crews can start fixing problems immediately, without waiting for somebody to go to a remote office and look for documentation. Before Laserfiche, [locator] cards went missing, often just as they are needed to repair a major disaster such as a flood,” John Whelan, Supervisor, Works & Emergency Services Staff, Toronto, Canada.
More Efficient Document Management Business automation systems manage large numbers of documents – building plans, police reports, meeting minutes and digital video and audio files – efficiently and easily. It reduces or eliminates misfiling, costly reproduction and distribution methods and other paper problems that impede information sharing within and among departments.
Our easy-to-use document management capabilities directly address these problems in contemporary government departments:
• Manage document repositories from desktop workstations
• Maintain preferred procedures with customizable folders and index fields
• Index electronic, image-only documents such as maps and drawings with customizable templates
• Synchronize service bureau output and manage retention schedules with portable volumes
• Ensure long-term records preservation with digital archiving
• Reduce clerical labor and mistakes with automated OCR and indexing
• An intuitive interface cuts training time
• Department heads administer most system functions
• Wireless compatibility delivers crucial information to emergency first-responders
• Faster Information Retrieval
The search function of the system retrieves documents instantly, allowing departments to find and distribute information with unparalleled speed. With the flexibility of full-text and customizable index field searches, the system keeps documents accessible on demand to decision-makers.
• Access documents on demand with search capabilities
• Unlock your documents with full-text searches
• Combine searches to pinpoint relevant documents
• Streamlined Legislative Management
Labor-intensive planning of regular meetings for councils and other bodies impacts personnel in every department. Last-minute changes, gathering approvals and preparing minutes consume staff hours and result in massive paper handling and storage burdens. Our solutions automate agenda compilation and approval workflow for efficient agenda building, faster high-volume distribution and easier posting of agendas and supporting materials to the Web.
• Ease the agenda item compilation process with automatic notifications to contributors
• Faster agenda report approvals with automated document routing
• Reduce costs and relieve paper burden with efficient electronic distributions
• Improve public service with instant Web availability for citizens and the media
• Simplified minutes preparation and distribution
"Our document management system was working so well for City Hall, we decided to try it in the Police Department. It took half an hour to get [the system] working with the law enforcement CAD/RMS system. With a little creativity, you can tie [the system] into just about any records management system. Next up for us, the public will be able to access all [digital] documents relating to a property by accessing a map and clicking on a land parcel," Steve Senkle, Information Systems Manager, Claremont, CA.
An E-Government Solution: Dynamic Web Publishing
As more citizens demand instant access to public information, local government needs an efficient, cost-effective Internet solution. Our web publishing product is an e-government solution that provides a secure way to publish documents on an intranet or the Internet. Multiple departments, remote offices and the general public can search budget information, public safety guidelines and the municipal code without increasing your staff’s workload.
• Efficient Web publishing without HTML coding
• Improved staff and public access to information
• The digital archive remains secure; records management officials maintain complete access control
• Easy customization to match look and feel of existing Web sites
• Platform independence provides widespread access via standard Web browsers
Rapid Deployment & Simplified Technical Administration Scalability allows local governments to budget for departmental installations and then expand organization-wide, minimizing implementation risks. Support for multiple servers and databases allows administrators to configure separate databases for individual departments while maintaining a controlled overall information repository. Databases can reside in separate physical locations and can be protected with individualized security measures.
• Open architecture simplifies integration with standard municipal applications such as GIS and others used in Finance, Human Resources, Public Works and Public Safety
• Non-proprietary file storage formats maintain future accessibility
• Support for industry-standard Microsoft® SQL Server™ simplifies integration
• International solution provider network delivers local implementation, training and support services
• Platform independence provides widespread access via standard Web browsers
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Monday, September 08, 2008 
