Turn on the Power with Agile ECM

Robert Frost‘s heart-stirring poem, The Road Less Traveled, expresses the idea that the sometimes seemingly small choices we make in life can truly impact our experience of it. And his tome, in particular, helps us to see that following the path of the “crowds” is not necessarily the best direction to follow. This may be true in life, and definitely is in many instances, but it is a real gamble when you are talking about implementing a department- or enterprise-wide systems change. The risks of failed implementation, or that the system does not live up to its billing, are very real, and they can be very painful.

The City of Norfolk, VA, Department of Human Services faced this decision point with its document management system some years ago. The Human Services Department is tasked with meeting the needs of the city’s thousands of residents with various assistance programs, such as Medicaid, Child Protective Services, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Workforce Development. As one of the top 2 highest “in-demand” Human Services departments in the Commonwealth of Virginia, they have no shortage of paper and they have stringent program and procedural requirements. Recognizing the need to move to a paperless environment some years ago, they adopted a document management system, EZ Filer, which had been adopted by several other Human Services departments in the Commonwealth. Even though many other Norfolk City departments had very successful implementations of Laserfiche Enterprise Content Management, and the fact that EZ Filer was relatively unknown and unproven, the city selected EZ Filer. Over time, the limitations of the EZ Filer system became apparent to the Norfolk department, and workarounds were created to compensate for some of the key limitations of the system such as: limited storage space, limited search capability, very slow response times and no records management rules. The final decision to move to a more robust enterprise content management system came when the company who developed the EZ Filer document management system filed for bankruptcy. According to Bonnie Spence, Programmer Analyst for the city, “we are no longer able to upgrade or modify the system.”

Norfolk DHS chose UnityECM to partner with to solve their daunting problem. Besides the EZ filer trainwreck, Norfolk identified 9 other key reasons to commission UnityECM to completely overhaul their records management and document management processes and workflows, including: automated scanning and indexing into their system and a records management system that was compliant with the Library of Virginia, and which runs completely in the background with no end-user training curve or intervention. (Get all Top 10 Reasons here)

According to Mark J. Formella, IT Application Development Supervisor for Norfolk, “Successful implementations do not happen by accident or luck. Planning, communication, training, dedication and hard work are all keys to making LaserFiche work for DHS. Everyone who is involved with this project deserves a huge thank you…Change is never easy, but all of our staff who were accustomed to EZ-Filer, made the leap to make LaserFiche work. In the weeks and months to come, we will take advantage of additional LaserFiche tools and implement improvements which will make many tasks easier and faster to accomplish. We will also be bringing other units onboard, so they can too can manage their documentation electronically.”

So thus goes the story. Sometimes, even Robert Frost I’m sure would agree, that the best road is the one that is well-worn for a reason. For more information, contact UnityECM.com today at 888-400-9064.

The salesperson says that they can store your boxes in their facility for pennies per month.  The facility looks like Fort Knox – is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer, video surveillance (armed guards, with helicopters and dogs) and exceeds all fire and safety codes.

But then they pull out the five page contract with the “other” fees:  Set-up the account fee, pick up the boxes fee, “handle the box” fee (every transaction has this fee) close the account fee, a fee for the different levels of how they will bill you, (yes, they are charging you to bill you).  Then what happens if you need a file that you have stored with that company?  You guessed it…more fees: pull the file fee, scan a file fee, deliver the file (with 4-6 different escalating fee choices), return the original to the file fee, destroy the file fee (of course add the “handle the box fee” at each point here)  Now you know why the facility looks like Fort Knox, you are paying for it.  It’s kind of like once you give the box to them those files are held as hostages and if you ever wish to see them again you are going to have to pay.

Unity Scanning & Storage has a different approach.  We have a great “Fort Knox” facility (uhm… except the guards are not armed and there are no helicopters or dogs).  Yes, you are paying for it too, however, we set up a reasonable up front fee that takes into account that you will need some percentage of access to your files.   While within that percentage there are no extra fees, none, period.  This gives you a simple, no surprise, budgetable solution that can save you a significant amount of money.

A budgetable figure, with a safe, secure facility and no surprises?

Call our hostage files negotiation team at 888-400-9064 and we will make “IT easy” to break free! Or visit us at www.UnityScanningSystems.com .

We run into this on a day to day basis: “Rhonda,” a file clerk who is set in her ways and is hesitant to allow for time-saving techniques when it comes to the digitization of her records. When looking for her paper files, Rhonda is a pro. It may take her a while to do so, but she has honed the skills necessary to track down whatever documents she needs. So when it finally comes time to digitize her records, she wants them broken down in the same way she is accustomed to seeing them. When she has a physical folder with twenty sub-folders, she wants it produced the same way in her document management system.

This is a completely doable task. The problem is that it will take an exorbitant amount of time to accomplish it, causing unnecessary expense. The solution here is twofold: being smart about your indexes, and using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). When indexing a document, you will want to use the fewest amount possible without negatively affecting your ability to find your document. If a middle name is only going to be useful in one out of every hundred cases, don’t use it. Save money by reducing keystrokes, as the middle name can be verified by looking at your images.

By learning to use OCR, finding documents can become even easier. OCR allows you to do full-text searches on any of your documents, allowing you to easily find the exact information you are looking for. It’s true that OCR isn’t 100% accurate when used on handwritten text or poor quality scans, but when used in conjunction with your indexes, there is no easier way to find your documents.

So if you know a Rhonda—or if you are a Rhonda—take the time to figure out what is most important in your search for documents. Cut out any superfluous data, and use your full-text search capabilities to your advantage. The transition isn’t always easy to make, but it will pay huge dividends in the end.

If you’re looking for help on finding the best indexing options for your documents, or if you’d like to learn more about how OCR works, feel free to contact us or check out our website.

Image by tjtrewin via Flickr

One of the most important parts of any document scanning job happens before the paper even enters the feeder tray.  Document preparation (or “prep”) is where the magic really happens.  The removal of staples, paperclips, rubber bands, as well as the unfolding of creases and dogears, is a time-saving task we perform on a daily basis in our Scanning Department.  Removing any metal from your documents is vital in keeping your scanner in good condition, and taking the time to separate each page after removing a staple will save you a lot of time (and torn pages) once the scanning process is started.

Know your documents!  Take the time to familiarize yourself with the documents you will be scanning.  Most forms and document types follow a predictable pattern.  For example, direct deposit forms usually have a voided check stapled in the middle of the page (where you might not be looking for those sneaky staples).  Once you know what you are working with, you will begin to anticipate potential problems and can take corrective action before the paper even gets to the scanner.

It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but taking the extra time to quickly flip through each page will pay off in the end.  Not only will the scanning process go much faster, but you will also save a lot of wear and tear on your scanner.  All it takes is one staple or paperclip going in the wrong way to completely trash a roller, glass, or belt.  When it comes to your documents, keep the Boy Scouts’ motto in mind – “Be Prepared!” For more information on document imaging or document scanning, visit us at UnityScanningSystems.com.

The Center for Digital Government and Digital Communities Magazine named the City of Norfolk, VA, the “Top Digital City in America” in 2009. The survey, which has been run for 9 years now, examines how municipalities incorporate information technology into operations which better serve citizens. Norfolk has been a long-time client of Unity Business Systems, and was one of the first adopters of the Laserfiche Document Management System in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“This year’s winners demonstrate how cities have faced economic challenges with creativity and innovation in the use of information technology,” said Cathilea Robinett, executive director for the Center for Digital Government.

Other Unity Business Systems local government clients that placed in the Top Ten (based upon their respective sizes) are: the City of Virginia Beach (6th with population over 250,000), the City of Alexandria (4th with population between 125k and 249k), the City of Hampton (8th with population between 125k and 249k).

For the complete article, please visit the Center for Digital Government or Unity Business Systems.

In December, 2008, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, launched Renew Virginia, a year-long series of legislative and administrative actions promoting renewable energy, creating green jobs, and encouraging preservation of the environment. A noble goal, indeed, and as many such initiatives are, typically more challenging to realize than decree. Environment preservation is on everyone’s mind today, and rightfully so. As we consider that the world is now home to over 6 Billion people, we must all be mindful of shared resources.

One of the key environmental areas that governmental agencies, in particular, can focus on is the reduction of paper in their processes. Over the past 10 years, many of these organizations have embraced the idea of moving away from paper, and have implemented document management systems, which allow paper to be stored in electronic format for ease of retrieval and sharing without the creation of additional paper. Many have even taken the additional step of ‘digitizing‘ or converting their older, historical paper and microfilm records to digital formats, and have been able to ‘recycle’ the vastly expensive space they were previously using to store these documents.

One of the most overlooked areas of significant improvement, however, is the point at which citizens actually interact or interface with these agencies. Currently, many of the Commonwealth’s municipalities have gaggles of necessary forms posted on their respective websites for citizens to find, print and complete on their own with no employee interaction. This is a step in the right direction, but somewhat limited in it’s efficiency and ‘green’ power. For instance, if I want to have a garage sale in my hometown of Chesapeake, I can go to the city website, pull up the permit form, fill in the required fields (all good so far…) but THEN, I have to print the form (waste of paper and ink), write a check (waste of expensive paper and ink), and either drive to the Commissioner of Revenue’s office (waste of gas and time) or mail it the the COR’s office (waste of envelope, stamp and post office gas and time). Once the Commissioner’s office receives my permit request and check, the paper form (which started out as an electronic document) now has to be digitized and entered into their document management system for approval and archiving. The check also has to be deposited (and someone must verify that it clears…) The inefficiencies are monumental!

Doesn’t it make much more sense to eliminate the waste that occurs between the original electronic form on the website and the completed electronic form and deposit in the Commissioner’s system? A cursory review of the City of Chesapeake‘s online forms page shows over 140 forms! How much paper, gasoline and manpower could be saved by eliminating the ‘waste’ in this process? Multiplied by the number of municipalities across the Commonwealth?

So, congratulations to many of the Virginia Governmental agencies that have adopted electronic content management systems…you are halfway there. You’ve ‘greened’ the back-end of your process. Let’s begin to focus on the front-end going forward, and a “Renewed Virginia” reality can be much closer for all of us. For more information on this idea, visit our website at http://www.unitysystems.biz