County Government Archive

Law’s New Order

Laserfiche helps the Daviess County Prosecutor’s Office make room for efficiency

June 30th, 2009 by Melissa HenleyMelissa Henley is a Laserfiche staff member

daviess-countyThe Daviess County, IN, prosecutor’s office, located in the basement of the county courthouse, isn’t the biggest office to start with. But with files stacked from the floor to the ceiling, it was clear that the office, home to three prosecuting attorneys, desperately needed more room.

Thanks to Prosecuting Attorney G. Byron Overton, they’re getting it. Overton and his staff are working with Laserfiche reseller Nancy Mathes of Paper-Lite to scan and store files electronically in Laserfiche. “We’re not going paperless,” Overton says. “We’re going file-less.”
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Mighty IT

Eaton County’s Prosecuting Attorney had the inspiration to go digital, but his IT Director had the vision to choose Laserfiche

May 22nd, 2009 by Hobey EchlinHobey Echlin is a Laserfiche staff member

The Eaton County, MI’s Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has long been recognized for its visionary use of Laserfiche. What began in 2003 as a means of archiving closed cases has evolved into a department-wide embrace of technology that has eliminated file cabinets, saved significant time and an exponential amount of money. Perhaps most sustainably, Laserfiche has improved the way attorneys work. Lawyers summon case information – police reports, photographs, even video and audio archives of 911 calls – right in the courtroom from a digital briefcase. Plus, minimal staff is required to stay ahead of the continuous inflow of paper generated.

Behind this success has been the foresight and follow-through of Laserfiche Luminary Dr. Robert J. Sobie, the county’s Information Systems Director. For almost 15 years, Sobie has patiently championed the efficiency of the paperless workplace, department by department, process by process, all the way to the Prosecuting Attorney’s office and beyond.
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Dallas’ Northern Stars

Collin County, TX, shines a light on the power of pre-planning

April 6th, 2009 by Hobey EchlinHobey Echlin is a Laserfiche staff member

collin-county-logoSince implementing Laserfiche in 2007, Collin County, TX, home to the Dallas/Fort Worth area’s fastest-growing northeast suburbs, has enjoyed enterprise-wide success automating and integrating its business processes. But as Records Manager Margaret Anderson points out, it’s been as a direct result of equally enterprise-wide pre-planning working with the county’s myriad departments.

The County saw its population increase nearly 50%—from nearly 500,000 in 2000 to 725,000 by 2007—straining the county’s infrastructure. As Anderson puts it, “The exponential growth rate of our county is reflected in the increased demand for essential county services.” The governing body of the county, the Commissioners Court, then issued a strategic direction to improve efficiency and customer service. “This caused us to look at an enterprise solution to managing our records with emphasis on migrating to electronic records,” she explains. “We had to reduce our paper and microfilm records volume.”
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Third Time’s the Charm

Mohave County, AZ, discovers experience is the ticket to success for enterprise record management

December 9th, 2008 by Hobey EchlinHobey Echlin is a Laserfiche staff member

Mohave County Seal
For Mohave County, AZ, the third time was the charm for the county’s Records Manager to successfully implement Laserfiche enterprise-wide.

The dry-witted comedian Steven Wright once joked, “I’m so far ahead of my time, nobody’s there yet.” Mohave County Records Manager Chuck Chlarson can relate. He saw his two predecessors try without much success to implement an enterprise-wide records management system—despite a state mandate to do so—because of a lack of technical support and user buy-in. But as Chlarson has found, in Mohave County, being the third Records Manager is the ticket to success.
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Leading the Way Forward

Collin County, TX, prepares for the future with Laserfiche records management

November 20th, 2008 by Melissa HenleyMelissa Henley is a Laserfiche staff member

As one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, Collin County, TX, faced the challenge of managing an increasingly-large number of records generated by a growing population.

According to Records Manager Margaret Anderson, staff in the county’s courts had difficulty finding information, due to disparate systems implemented by each department. “We also had over 15,000 reels of microfilm and 18,450 boxes of paper stored throughout the county,” she says. “Files were everywhere and we couldn’t keep up with the demand. We had to ensure that staff did not unintentionally destroy records that needed to be retained, and we wanted to implement a case management system (CMS). But we also had to manage all the paper.

“Our first step was to select and implement a new case management system for the county court system,” Anderson continues. “The records management system (RMS) we chose needed to interface with this system and provide records management control for closed and disposed case files, as well as support documents.”
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Woods of Wisdom

Laserfiche helps Thurston County, WA, see the forest for the trees—and save more than a few along the way

November 11th, 2008 by Hobey EchlinHobey Echlin is a Laserfiche staff member

Running smarter sometimes means pacing yourself.

That’s the lesson from 2008 Run Smarter Award winner Thurston County, WA. Until implementing Laserfiche in 2007, the rustic county, peppered as it is with forests and Puget Sound waters, was beset with what could best be described as information management logjams.

But in less than two years, Thurston County has evolved its use of Laserfiche from a pilot project handling backlog conversion to the backbone of a department-by-department phenomenon. In short, Thurston County has realized the very essence of what it means to Run Smarter.
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To Efficiency and Beyond

“I really anticipate that, within five years, Laserfiche will become as widely-used as e-mail.”

June 11th, 2008

gaston county, NCAs the winner of a 2007 InfoWorld 100 Award for IT innovation, Gaston County, NC, is a shining example of the way technology can help move government forward. So when it came time to implement a digital document management solution, it’s no surprise that CIO Brandon Jackson sought the system that could best promote broader-ranging citizen services. As part of the award-winning initiative, a rapidly-growing Laserfiche® system now provides solid technological support for Gaston County’s service mission. Full story »

Lubbock County, TX

May 27th, 2008

The voters in Lubbock County, Texas, didn’t have any voting nightmares to deal with this past election. They had Laserfiche to keep voting confusion at bay.

One of the largest issues concerns ineligible voters coming to the polls. To keep voting fair and above board, it’s imperative to keep track of who can vote and who cannot, especially in elections where the difference between winning and losing could come down to just a few votes. Full story »

Case Closed

Laserfiche helps the Kern County, CA, Superior Court manage its case files

May 23rd, 2008 by Melissa HenleyMelissa Henley is a Laserfiche staff member

The majority of legal cases in California begin in one of the state’s 58 superior courts. With facilities in more than 450 locations, the superior courts hear both civil and criminal cases, as well as family, probate and juvenile cases. The superior courts make up the largest part of California’s judicial system—which is itself the largest in the United States. Full story »

Tipping the Scales of Justice

Laserfiche helps the York County, PA, Clerk of Courts Office streamline operations

May 23rd, 2008 by Melissa HenleyMelissa Henley is a Laserfiche staff member

Thinking of a traditional courthouse records room might conjure up images of file cabinets overflowing with folders, but that’s not how it works in York County, PA, where staff have used technology to streamline the thousands of cases that pass through the court system each year. Full story »

Blue Chip Technology

Laserfiche helps Blue Earth County, MN, maximize the value of its IT investments

March 12th, 2008

Like many organizations, Blue Earth County, MN, implemented digital document management with a number of goals in mind, from streamlining business processes to promoting greater collaboration between staff members and departments. According to IT Manager Charlie Berg and Network Administrator Denise Grossmann, the county’s success in achieving these goals is primarily due to one factor—close cooperation between the county’s IT staff and the system’s users at each stage of the implementation process. Full story »

The Prosecution Rests

Laserfiche gives prosecuting attorneys a courtroom advantage

February 12th, 2008 by Melissa HenleyMelissa Henley is a Laserfiche staff member

Criminal trials are notorious for the excessive amounts of paperwork they generate. But in Eaton County, MI, prosecuting attorneys are going to court with laptops instead of briefcases full of paper files—an advantage that has led to better communication, easier pretrial conferences and quicker case resolutions. Full story »

Aloha, Efficiency!

Laserfiche helps a municipal attorney’s office perform under pressure

November 11th, 2007

The County of Hawaii’s Office of the Corporation Counsel serves as the legal representative of all the county’s officers and employees—a total of 2,300 clients. But with legal records dating back to 1905, and with a growing archive of legal briefs, motions, memos and letters to manage, the office struggled to keep track of its paper. Full story »

Such Great Heights

San Bernardino County, CA’s pilot document management program takes off

September 12th, 2007

It’s hard to imagine that anyone would gear his organization’s infrastructure toward a single product. But Charlie Knotts, Administrative Supervisor for San Bernardino County, California, has that much faith in Laserfiche®. Full story »

Shifting the Future Into High Gear

Chesterfield County, VA, takes the turn into digital records management

August 12th, 2007

With a history dating back to the 1600s and a growth rate of three percent a year, Chesterfield County, Virginia, has no shortage of records to manage. So with their Laserfiche® system working perfectly, why would they change it? To keep up with the ever-changing demands of managing information, of course. The challenge came in successfully migrating to Laserfiche Records Management Edition™ (RME). Full story »