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^®.

After a little over a year in the county’s Department of Architecture and Engineering, Knotts is making it his personal mission to “bring the department into the twenty-first century” when it comes to document management. With 40 years' experience in the accounting, data processing and operations auditing fields, Knotts was well-prepared to identify which of the department's work processes needed improvement, as well as which solutions to implement to achieve results.

Knotts made replacing the cumbersome process of rummaging through drawers and unfolding oversized drawings, frequently 42 inches wide, a top priority. A growing staff and limited physical storage space were also big motivators.

“We did research with our IT guys and looked at many different digital document management systems. I was most impressed with Laserfiche. Initially, I liked that it looked very much like Windows® in its interface—that was going to make searches much easier for a staff with varying degrees of technological sophistication. That’s what really piqued my interest—ease of use.

“Our reseller was a former San Bernardino County employee, so he knew the county fairly well,” says Knotts. “When he and I started talking about the particulars of the software, it really seemed like a perfect fit. And when I looked at the price, I was completely sold. It was absolutely a dead giveaway compared to some of the other systems I looked at, so we knew that we wouldn’t have any difficulty getting the approvals we needed for funding.”

Knotts knows the ins and outs of transforming government work processes, having spent 20 years implementing improvements in the provincial government of British Columbia, Canada. Under Knotts' watch, the province implemented a rigorous records retention policy for all provincial documents. All the planning involved in creating the records retention policies and procedures helped him greatly in preparing San Bernardino County for its pilot Laserfiche implementation.

Once he purchased the product, Knotts soon realized that the department had to upgrade its servers to use it. Without missing a beat he delved into the overhaul, taking the opportunity to design the imaging system while the long-overdue upgrade took place. Every experience Knotts had with the Laserfiche community told him that the results would be well worth the effort.

“I went to the Laserfiche Institute Conference, and that was absolutely the best thing I’ve ever been to. With some help from Laserfiche staff, I signed up for the perfect classes; each one built on the previous session. I’ve been to a lot of conferences and I’ve never been to anything that comes close to it.

“It was excellent—right down to the lunch organized by industry. I talked to people who understand what I’m going through. Wherever we are, we do many of the same things. We’re all being killed by paper, and we can all learn from each other. I’ll definitely go back next year, and I’ll bring the staffer responsible for document management on a daily basis and helping our staff use the system.”

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What Knotts learned at the conference bolstered his belief that Laserfiche was the right choice. But he was eager to get a handle on the nuts and bolts of the software, so he installed Laserfiche on his laptop. Learning the product before full implementation has helped Knotts visualize how he wants the system set up. “I've been a systems manager for a long time," he says, "but my real 'bent' is assessing software to see if it’ll do what we need it to do, then getting it to do just that." Knotts and his colleagues are carefully developing policies to ensure smooth operations once the system is up and running.

“I’ve created a folder structure, I’ve done briefcases and I’ve played around a little with Snapshot™ when bringing in scanned documents,” says Knotts. “I’ve also looked at the security features to determine how we’re going to set that up. We’ll do a full day’s training for the person who will become the document management clerk. We’ve just done a PO with an organization to handle our back-file conversion. When that’s done, we’ll actively start using the system.

“I’m trying to make sure we have the  processes in place so we can seamlessly scan in new documents,” he continues. "In the end, I think that we’re going to be better off for taking our time on the front end. I'm really sold on this package—I believe that Laserfiche's uses for the county are limitless, and if I do it right, others will be much more willing and ready to look closely at its capabilities.”

With that in mind, Knotts has been considering the challenges that other departments might face. “There’s another department within the same building that probably has ten times as many pages as we do. At the Laserfiche Institute Conference, I met the director of public works for the City of Chula Vista, CA. I mentioned my concern about the number of pages we had and I wondered if the system could handle it. He laughed and said, ‘We’re well over a quarter of a million pages and I have absolutely no problem.’”

Knotts plans to enable his staff to access documents over the Web. But some staff have wondered how to view oversized documents without zooming or scrolling. Knotts has that covered: “I’m going to hook up a 42-inch plasma screen so they can look at the whole thing at once. We’ll have a large-format printer and a plotter attached to it so they can print whatever pages they want.

“Now, if someone wants a copy of a drawing, they go into this large room, go through a book to find it, pull it out of a drawer, then print it on an off-size printer—it’s a really inefficient, labor-  intensive and time-consuming process,” he adds. “My vision is that the system will make all of the staff more efficient by accessing documents on their PCs. We’ll reclaim about 2,000 square feet of storage space, which will accommodate a growing staff as the county expands its Capital Improvement Program.

“Our office often copies architectural drawings for other county offices, and manual searching and copying takes up about ten hours a week—time we can’t afford," he continues. "Laserfiche will help us dramatically reduce that time, and the time it takes people to travel from other offices. We’ll be able to move toward telecommuting, so that we can more efficiently manage our projects, no matter where they are."

Word of the department’s pilot program is already spreading throughout the county. Says Knotts, “I’ve spoken with a number of departments that are anxiously waiting for us to get this system up and running so that I can start showing their people what we are doing and what is possible. I know they’re going to be very impressed.”