For the Samish Indian Nation, the process of digitizing documents has helped to increase the resilience of some of the nation’s important records, helping preserve both language and culture.
The city of Long Beachreleased a new, Laserfiche-powered tool to connect at-risk individuals with resources to keep them from becoming unnecessarily involved within the criminal justice system.
SITUATION
• Processes dependent on submission of physical documents
• Wider digital transformation initiated to facilitate service to citizens and minimize storage costs
RESULTS
• Digitized over 400,000 files since 2015
• Increased efficiency in back-office tasks by 30%
The Town of Paradise is a municipality located in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador near the capital city of St. John’s. Currently serving a population of around 23,000 residents, the town is also one of Atlantic Canada’s fastest growing municipalities with the youngest-aged population in Newfoundland and Labrador. To continue serving a growing population and meet the expectations of an increasingly younger generation of residents, the town has implemented Laserfiche technology to help drive efficiency and a more frictionless experience for residents.
Since implementing Laserfiche in 2015 to scan and manage civic files, the Town of Paradise has digitized over 400,000 files, establishing efficient scanning initiatives to continue supporting its electronic document management initiative. The physical space saved from document storage has allowed the town to hire more employees, which has subsequently expanded the scope and reach of services provided by a growing team.
To support its Laserfiche implementation and uncover additional solutions, the town partners with Ricoh, a Laserfiche solution provider. Beyond scanning, the town has worked with Ricoh to implement automated workflows and electronic forms to further optimize processes, improving the user experience for staff in and out of the office. These initiatives have helped to optimize costs, reduce processing times for key services, as well as improve responsiveness to residents. Using Laserfiche, the town has also been able to strengthen its continuity of services during major disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Building a Remote, Digital Workforce
The Town of Paradise recognized a need to revamp legacy processes such as enforcement issues and actions reporting and building inspections. The organization needed to streamline data capture, centralize content management and better track information as it moves through the organization.
The issues and actions reporting process, for instance, is used by the town’s municipal enforcement officers (MEOs) when investigating public and private property, as well as municipally licensed and permitted businesses and premises to ensure compliance with acts, bylaws and regulations. This legacy process was digital, but because information was previously hosted on an external database, MEOs could not update it when they were out in the field. Rather, MEOs had to travel back and forth between project sites and the main office for reporting and to submit forms.
The town developed a new form using Laserfiche, which enabled MEOs to use tablets in the field to provide live updates, which are recorded in the Laserfiche repository, eliminating the need for the external database. On top of a savings of $2,500 from eliminating the external database, the town achieved a 37% savings in processing time during the pilot run of the form.
The town also leverages the collected metadata for a high-level view of action history, open tasks and other metrics. This serves as an efficient way to delegate tasks digitally between management and employees while also improving and accelerating responsiveness to issues and actions requests.
“Since implementing Laserfiche, we have greater insight into on-site locations with recurring problems,” said Elizabeth Piercey, purchasing and risk manager at the Town of Paradise. “Staff can more effectively identify and address problems, saving on time and costs without revisiting the same location again.”
Building inspection forms have been similarly updated, making the process more transparent and eliminating paper forms. The Town of Paradise benefits from improved reporting standards and tracking for processes initiated by digital forms, which now enable employees to upload pictures, automate emails to stakeholders, as well as support legal compliance by providing a clear, digital record of actions taken by employees on each project. With inspections centralized in one location and accessible with a click of a button, inspectors can easily input the most commonly used notes and take pictures if required. Benefits also include:
- Accelerated building inspection process time
- Fewer errors
- Enhanced customer experience, including better and more immediate access to inspection slips
- Automatic updates to the town’s main civic files
- Easier job sharing in the event of an employee absence
“Laserfiche Forms has been a great tool for building inspections,” said Dawn Doody, administrative assistant at the Town of Paradise. “It saves time and is more efficient and user-friendly for the whole department.”
Since deploying Laserfiche Forms in 2020, the town has worked to improve the user experience and quality of forms submissions relating to issues and actions and building inspections so that management can develop a better understanding of both employee and resident needs.
Continuity During the Pandemic
In addition to the benefits of cost savings and increased efficiency, Laserfiche has enabled employees to minimize face-to-face contact in office or with residents, which was especially crucial during the pandemic. During major disruptions requiring remote work, the town was able to leverage Laserfiche to provide employees and citizens with continued service using pre-existing and newly developed digital processes.
For example, a Laserfiche solution automating the accounts payable workflow was initially developed and implemented prior to the pandemic, but has now been fully rolled out to all departments. As entire communities were disrupted, this workflow was vital to the on-time delivery of invoices and payment to vendors. It also allowed the accounting division to monitor outstanding items.
“To say the workflow functionality has improved our overall AP process is an understatement,” said Cathy Broydell, manager of finance at the Town of Paradise. “The development of an AP workflow has allowed invoices to electronically move through the approval process seamlessly and has improved collaboration between every employee who is involved with the AP process. Our AP team can now easily track where invoices are within the approval process and as a result are able to process payment for invoices in a more timely and efficient manner. Today, invoices can be easily retrieved by using customized search tools within Laserfiche, and we can confidently say that invoices will never go missing again.”
Similarly, the town developed a correspondence management workflow which routed scanned mail to the appropriate department or user without the need for in-person interaction. Scanned items are tagged with the relevant department and user information. This has supported staff and community health and safety, allowing staff to access mail while working remotely for long periods. Additionally, the correspondence management workflow has provided the Town of Paradise with greater insight into what areas to focus on based on the volume of different categories of mail.
“If we had entered into the pandemic with thousands of undigitized physical files in our office, we would have faced more significant challenges in business continuity,” recalled Piercey. “As staff worked remotely, Laserfiche provided a way for us to access crucial information in a centralized location at our fingertips. This enabled us to respond to residents more efficiently during a stressful period.”
The Town of Paradise now has 30 active workflows across departments and has continued using these solutions even after the most severe part the pandemic. This has resulted in a more comprehensive and functional digital work environment, better preparing the town to serve the new generation of residents, even during unpredictable circumstances. These initiatives have provided employees with confidence in their own digital transformation efforts, leading the town to continue identifying more areas to automate using Laserfiche.
Dismantling the Dysfunction: Reinforcing Trust, Confidence, and Accuracy in Records Management
Physical documents can easily get lost or destroyed without proper storage and tracking. This exposes your organization to expensive risks from inconsistent disposition, over-retention or poor auditing practices.
Furthermore, by law, organizations like yours are often required to retain physical records and make them accessible for on-demand retrieval. Securing and granting access to these items can be a time-consuming, burdensome process. This is especially true if you’ve inherited a disjointed legacy software system, or are still tracking files with Excel spreadsheets.
To help solve these problems, you can leverage solutions that provide management of physical documents while making those records available to search and view digitally. Combining physical tracking with digital integration allows you to locate documents easily while maintaining the integrity of the original items.
Laserfiche + Gimmal have worked together to integrate our existing digital and physical systems into one seamless solution. Join us on Thursday, November 9 at 10:00 AM PT | 1:00 PM ET to see how this integration works and how your peers have benefitted from streamlining this technology in their own organizations.
During this session, you will learn how to:
- Digitize and auto-classify in one single/centralized and unified system
- Improve access and response times when locating vital documents and data
- Simplify retention and disposition so that you can defensibly expunge unnecessary records
- Replicate lessons learned from real-world examples and success stories you can take back and apply to your own records management program
Please join us on demand:
SITUATION
In 2020, the Town of Prosper created a continuous process improvement program based on lean practices. As a part of this effort, the town aimed to eliminate paper-driven processes and manual tasks across various departments in order to meet the demands of the town’s growing population.
SOLUTION
The IT department began by replacing the paper applications for the town’s boards and commissions with a Laserfiche form. After experiencing Laserfiche’s ease of use, the department expanded with more electronic forms for the municipal court and the public works departments.
RESULTS
In addition to reduced opportunity for error and a streamlined staff experience, the time the public works department spends on the water equipment readings process has been cut by 75% or more. The department estimates it has saved more than 100 hours annually by re-engineering the process.
The Town of Prosper is a fast-growing suburb with small-town charm, located 30 miles north of Dallas at the crossroads of U.S. 380, Preston Road and the Dallas North Tollway in Collin and Denton Counties. Prosper sits on 27 square miles and is home to more than 35,430 people. A home-rule municipality, governed by a council-manager form of government, the town has full-time fire and police departments, including its own dispatch service. As the Town grows to its projected build-out population of 70,000 residents, Prosper’s vision is to remain a “Place Where Everyone Matters.”
Prosper is a town within Texas’s Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area that has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. With a projected build-out population of 70,000 — double its current population — the town’s IT department has had the foresight to prioritize increased efficiency, implementing processes and solutions that will help the town scale with growth and continue delivering high quality public services.
As a part of this effort, IT has leveraged Laserfiche enterprise content management (ECM) in various departments as a channel for process modernization and efficiency. The town started by replacing the paper applications for the municipality’s boards and commissions with a Laserfiche form. After experiencing Laserfiche’s ease of use, the department expanded with more electronic forms for the municipal court and the public works departments.
“We’re utilizing Laserfiche for what it’s good at, which is routing information, filing it into a system that makes it easy to search, easy to retrieve and easy to maintain with retention guidelines,” said Leigh Johnson, director of information technology at the Town of Prosper. “Anywhere that we can get a department to start using it more we’re trying to do so.”
Johnson’s vision puts digitization and centralization at the forefront, reducing opportunity for human error while providing a streamlined staff and citizen experience when interacting with the town’s information. Laserfiche supports this vision, as the town continues to explore new ways to leverage Laserfiche’s robust records management, electronic forms and integration capabilities.
Supporting Town Services Through Process Modernization
The Town of Prosper recently implemented a continuous improvement program with the ultimate goal of maintaining a high quality of service to the town’s growing population. This initiative led the IT department to explore opportunities for new efficiencies within existing technologies and processes.
“From the moment I started digging into Laserfiche, I thought ‘This is really slick,’” Johnson said. “I learned about forms and workflow, and we decided at some point that we needed to be utilizing it more and get some training on it.”
The IT department tapped the town’s Laserfiche solution provider, MCCi, for support and training on the platform, which inspired new ideas and opened doors to more advanced solutions.
One of the first Laserfiche-driven process improvements was done in collaboration with the town secretary, who wanted to modernize the way people applied to be on one of the town’s boards or commissions. Like in many municipalities, Prosper’s application was previously done on paper and the process was entirely manual.
“Any place we can eliminate inefficient processes, whether they are paper or otherwise, is going to benefit us,” Johnson explained.
The new process allows applicants to fill out a digital Laserfiche form on the town’s website. Applicants attach their resumes; information is filed in Laserfiche and assigned a retention schedule, lessening the burden of managing paper records hidden in a filing cabinet.
When COVID-19 arrived, the IT department saw an increased need for digital forms to help decrease foot traffic to Town Hall. Building on their knowledge of Laserfiche forms, the team built several new forms, including:
- Hearing requests
- Attorney document submittals
- Jury summons response
“Laserfiche became our go-to, because it was existing platform and we knew how easy it was to build a form with minimal training,” Johnson added.
Expanding Digital Transformation Across Town Departments
After their experience with creating some helpful Laserfiche forms for the town secretary and municipal courts, the IT department was ready to take on a more complex challenge. The team identified a legacy process that the public works department used daily to collect readings from equipment (such as water meters) at public works facilities throughout the town.
Previously done using a stack of paper comprising a sheet for each facility, the process involves field workers who drive out to each site to take readings from the equipment and note the relevant numbers by hand.
“Employees would then go back to the office and transcribe the information into what I called a ‘dirty log,’ which is basically another piece of paper where numbers could be erased and redone, mustard or coffee could be spilled on it,” Johnson said. Numbers were then transferred into a “clean log,” which could be kept as record and shown to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) during audits. “There were so many opportunities for numbers to be input incorrectly, and it was very time consuming.”
With support from MCCi, the Town of Prosper IT team reimagined the process using Laserfiche, which made the readings available to supervisors back in the office in real time. The new process involves equipping field workers with tablets and enabling them to enter readings digitally into a Laserfiche form. The forms presented a list of facilities and, depending on which facility the field worker selected, the form would dynamically change fields for different types of readings. Field workers electronically sign the form, which would also automatically be geotagged with the location of the facility.
“The public works department wanted another way to verify that a person was at the facility, so that if there was ever any question about it, we would have that signature and geotag,” Johnson said.
Field workers then move onto the next facility and repeat the process. If a supervisor in the office notices an anomaly with any of the information entered, they can immediately notify the field worker to take another reading.
“Before, they have even gotten back to the office before a supervisor could notify them that something looked off, so we’re saving more time and fuel as well,” Johnson added. “As they submit the numbers, they are written to an SQL database. We also file the forms in Laserfiche by month. When TCEQ comes out to do the audit now, instead of having to look through a file folder, we’ve got all the forms filled out, timestamped, geo-tagged, signed, and we know we went out there and did readings as we’re required to do. It’s much more efficient, and it’s updated in real-time.”
In addition to supporting the auditing process, the new equipment readings form has reduced the opportunity for error by eliminating 75% of the legacy process’s manual data entry. Johnson also estimates that the new process saves at least two hours per week in manual transcription, all of which results in huge efficiency gains for the public works department.
Today, the IT department is working on integrations to create even more connectivity and efficiencies. An integration between Laserfiche and the town’s enterprise permitting and licensing system, for example, will enable the planning department to streamline records management by auto-filing paperwork related to permitting and licensing into Laserfiche. The human resources department, too, has embraced a digital approach to managing content and exploring new solutions.
“We went from having just one form for the boards and commissions application to creating dozens,” Johnson said. “We are growing so fast — we have lots of new employees starting, which has been the trend in recent years. So we’re not slowing down; we can’t slow down. There’s so much growth. Residents are very engaged and they demand a lot. Laserfiche is an example of one of the ways we can use technology to scale our services.”
Manage content with built-in intelligence
Spend less time searching and sorting. Laserfiche helps you better manage unstructured data — like transcripts, meeting notes, audio files and more — using AI and automation to organize, route and manage documents with speed and accuracy.
Put your documents to work
AI-powered tools extract key data, identify document types, and generate instant summaries — helping you turn content into insights, not clutter.
“Laserfiche captures all the information we need from the documentation, making it easier for people to find what they’re looking for.”
— Gloria St. Denis, Records Management Consultant at Orano
— Gloria St. Denis, Records Management Consultant at Orano
Featured Success Story
Laserfiche Transforms Orano Operations with Records Management and Process Automation
Document and records management solutions
Records requests
Easily deliver records to citizens or customers with a secure link, and track when and how content is accessed.
Contract review
Instantly extract contract terms, clauses and more to speed up review and identify potential risk.
Accounts payable processing
Automatically route, approve, process and archive invoices to reduce errors and speed up payments.
Case management
Capture and securely share requested case data to speed response times and ensure compliance.
Our Difference
Why Laserfiche?
From analysts and customers
Gartner® named Laserfiche a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Document Management.
Laserfiche is a Customers’ Choice in the 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ ‘Voice of the Customer’: Document Management report.
Laserfiche named 2025 Emotional Footprint Champion by Info-Tech Research Group in the Enterprise Content Management – Enterprise category.
Highly rated by customers, with a 4.7 average star rating and #1 in the Document Management category on G2.
Named a Leader in the Nucleus Research CSC Technology Value Matrix™.
Featured Resource
eBook: the Document Management Buyer’s Guide
According to IDC, the amount of global data will balloon to over 200,000 exabytes by 2026. Learn how organizations can centralize growing volumes of data with a secure document management system.
Further Reading
Contact Us for Your ECM Needs
Whether you have product questions, support needs, or want to partner with us, we’re here to help you on your digital transformation journey. Fill out the form and a Laserfiche team member will be in touch as soon as possible.
Security Certifications and Compliance Frameworks
SOC 2 Type 2 Plus
This report details the controls for Laserfiche Cloud related to the criteria for the security, availability and confidentiality principles set forth in TSP section 100, 2017 Trust Services Criteria for Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy (AICPA, Trust Services Criteria). To view a copy of this report, please contact us.
ISO/IEC 27001:2022
Laserfiche has obtained the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification for its information security management system (ISMS) within the scope defined by its Statement of Applicability, covering its suite of SaaS and self-hosted enterprise content management and process automation applications.
HIPAA
Laserfiche’s SOC Type 2 Plus covers the security requirements set forth in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), provided within Title 45 Code of Federal Regulations Sections 164.308 – 312 (45 CFR Sections 164.308-312) (the Security Requirements).
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA
Laserfiche has published VPATs and ACRs available for all Laserfiche Cloud and self-hosted products. Alignment to the WCAG 2.2 Level AA standard is the basis of our approach to compliance with Section 508 and EN 301 549 requirements. See accessibility details…
DoD 5015.2
DoD 5015.2 details the Department of Defense’s baseline requirements for Records Management Applications (RMA), that facilitate adequate and appropriate basis for addressing the basic challenges of managing records in the automated environment that increasingly characterizes the creation and use of records. Laserfiche Cloud records management controls are based on our self-hosted Department of Defense 5015.2 version 3-certified electronic records management capabilities.
SEC Rule 17a-4
Laserfiche features support non-alterable record archival requirements such as WORM (write once, read many) used to address SEC Rule 17a-4 for broker dealers. Beyond financial services, Laserfiche’s controls can also be applied to support records management practices for electronically stored information (ESI) requiring prevention of any unauthorized alternations or deletions of digital records.
HECVAT
Laserfiche has completed the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) questionnaire. Contact us for more information.
NIST 800-53
Laserfiche security controls are aligned with NIST 800-53.
GovRamp Core Verified
Coming in Q3 2026
Contact us for more information.
CJIS Ready
Coming in Q3 2026
Contact us for more information.
AI Security and Governance
Laserfiche AI services are provided using AI models and services from OpenAI. For information on AI services in regions where OpenAI is not available, please contact us.
Regional data privacy requirements
Laserfiche AI addresses privacy and security standards of our current data center locations supporting GDPR (EU), CCPA/CPRA (USA), and PIPEDA (Canada) for low to moderate risk data. Our AI features are architected to support regional and industry-specific compliance needs, providing the same level of data sovereignty and protection you expect from Laserfiche Cloud.
For more information related to Laserfiche AI and data privacy, refer to the following:
- Laserfiche Privacy Notice
- OpenAI Security & Privacy
You own your data
- You retain ownership of inputs you provide. While Laserfiche owns the intellectual property rights to the outputs generated by our AI tools, we grant you a broad license to use those outputs for any of your organization’s internal business needs.
- Laserfiche does not use your organization’s data to train any internal or external AI models. Your data is used only as needed to deliver services and to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
Laserfiche AI user prompts
Laserfiche designs its AI features with safety and security as core principles. We manage prompting risks through two layers of protection:
- Prompt-less by design: Many Laserfiche AI features, such as Document Summarization, do not use user prompts, reducing risks associated with accidental or malicious prompting.
- Enterprise-grade safeguards: For features that do accept user input, like Smart Fields and Smart Chat, we employ industry-standard protections against prompt injection. These include input filtering, validation, and other controls that keep prompts and responses within defined, limited boundaries.
Content confidentiality
Your confidential content is not accessible to other customers or unauthorized third parties. Laserfiche distinguishes between two types of data:
- Your confidential content: Laserfiche does not sell your data. Documents, files, and inputs you upload to Laserfiche are your own content.
- Usage and system data: Like most cloud providers, Laserfiche collects limited, high-level usage data (such as feature adoption and system performance metrics) to operate and improve the platform. This data is de-identified and does not include the contents of your documents or AI prompts.
Data retention
- OpenAI may store the prompts you enter or the responses you receive temporarily for up to 30 days to provide services and identify abuse. After 30 days, API inputs and outputs are removed from their systems, unless they are legally required to retain them. For more details, please refer to the OpenAI Services Agreement.
Security Controls
Below are some of the security controls Laserfiche software includes. If you have questions about a particular security solution or control, please contact us directly.
Single sign-on
Laserfiche Cloud supports single sign-on with Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) and SAML authentication with identity providers such as Okta and Azure Active Directory.
Repository audit log
The Laserfiche Cloud repository audit log includes details of user actions, including viewing, modifying, creating and deleting documents, and similar operations on metadata and other repository objects.
Fine-grained access control
Administrators can use access rights to limit and control access to individual documents and objects. For example, security tags restrict access to documents on a document-by-document basis.
Intrusion detection
Laserfiche Cloud utilizes host-based intrusion detection systems to reduce the risk of data theft by individuals or organizations attempting to gain unauthorized access.
Access rights
Administrators can configure access rights and privileges to limit actions that users can perform across the repository based upon role assignments or group memberships.
AI governance
Laserfiche AI data is encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.2+). Laserfiche does not utilize any of your data to train internal or external AI models.
Password policies
Laserfiche Cloud supports industry-standard password controls, such as password minimum length, complexity and history.
Penetration testing
Laserfiche engages third-party vendors to conduct external penetration testing of the Laserfiche Cloud system.
Vulnerability scanning
Laserfiche performs a vulnerability scan of backend servers that run in the Laserfiche Cloud hosting environment.
Firewalls
Laserfiche Cloud’s firewall configuration settings are regularly reviewed based on industry standards.
Repository application auditing
Laserfiche Cloud supports auditing of both access and modification of objects in repositories.
“Laserfiche’s compliance tools in the cloud, and knowing that Laserfiche takes security very seriously have been important factors in our decision making.”
—Andrew McElrath, strategic project manager at Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures
—Andrew McElrath, strategic project manager at Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures
Featured Success Story
Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures Transitions Corporate Operations to Laserfiche Cloud
Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures (MLCV), created by the tribal government of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, manages the business affairs of the Band.
Laserfiche is committed to privacy.
Our commitment
At Laserfiche, we have embraced a culture of privacy, which includes embedding privacy-by-design in our engineering efforts, and have implemented controls and policies throughout our organization. Laserfiche is a B2B company based in California. The State of California has passed strict, broad privacy regulation through the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) while the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) leads the European Union’s privacy efforts. Many other countries, states and territories have implemented privacy regulations as well. Laserfiche endeavors to continually adapt and adhere to ever-evolving regulations that apply to its business.
Operational privacy
Operationally, we strive to keep our stakeholders’ data secure and retain only information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so, like providing you with a service you have requested, or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements.
Privacy training
At Laserfiche, all employees are required to complete annual privacy training which covers applicable privacy regulations and data handling best practices.
Laserfiche documentation
In addition to what we communicate in our Privacy Notice, our Cloud Subscription Agreement with accompanying Data Processing Addendum specific to the Laserfiche Cloud platform addresses data privacy regulations including GDPR, CCPA and PIPEDA.
International transfers
For personal data transferred from the United Kingdom, the European Union and Switzerland, we provide appropriate safeguards per the Data Privacy Framework. To learn more, visit the “International Transfers” section of the Privacy Notice.
Information we collect
We collect information that you provide directly to us only for legitimate business purposes. For example, when you manage your user profile, participate in interactive features (such as the Contact Us page), request newsletters or other marketing communications, request customer support, enter login information, or otherwise communicate with us. To learn more visit the “Information We Collect” section of the Privacy Notice.
You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you. To learn more, visit the “How Laserfiche Uses and Shares the Information We Collect” section of the Privacy Notice.
To read our complete Privacy Notice, visit our Privacy Notice page.
Contact Us for Your ECM Needs
Whether you have product questions, support needs, or want to partner with us, we’re here to help you on your digital transformation journey. Fill out the form and a Laserfiche team member will be in touch as soon as possible.
The Pennyrile Area Development District is a public planning and development organization in Kentucky that collaborates with local leaders and agencies to develop and promote programs that improve the overall quality of life for Pennyrile region residents. As a part of its mission, the Pennyrile ADD also provides critical rapid response such as hazard mitigation, care and meal services to seniors, as well as grant distribution for community projects including playgrounds and senior centers.
After COVID-19 work-from-home mandates ended, the organization continued with a hybrid work model. “In order to keep our staff and to gain new valuable employees, we have to continue to offer remote work; it’s a new culture now,” said Pennyrile ADD Chief Financial Officer Alisha Sutton. “We are hybrid, so we typically work two days a week remotely and do three days in the office.”
To enable staff to continue to serve the community at a high level, however, the organization needed to transform its business processes. “We decided that if we were going to have remote staff, a lot had to be automated,” Sutton added. “If employees were at home, they needed access to their work and processes as well.”
Beginning with purchase orders and invoice processing, Pennyrile ADD implemented Laserfiche Cloud to digitize and automate workflows that give staff what they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. The organization continues to automate more administrative processes, and has since reduced the time it spends on some processes by up to 50%, saving some staff a week’s worth of time per month.
Accelerating Purchase Orders and Invoices in the Cloud
When Pennyrile ADD began seeking better ways to improve collaboration and efficiency with its new hybrid work model, staff created their own proprietary system for purchase orders to eliminate the previously paper-driven, manual process.
“We found very quickly that it wasn’t working well for everyone — we couldn’t see where information was supposed to be as it was moved from one folder to another,” Sutton said. “It was going to be too difficult to create this digital system on our own.”
The team reached out to Laserfiche solution provider Modified Logic seeking a platform to support their digitization efforts and decided to implement a Laserfiche Cloud solution. “There wasn’t much discussion on whether to use a cloud or on-premises system,” Sutton explained. “We knew we wanted to use Laserfiche Cloud because of the access to capabilities, and to be able to use it anywhere that we were located without the added maintenance and security considerations.”
In collaboration with Modified Logic, Pennyrile ADD built a Laserfiche workflow to digitally capture purchase orders and automate their approvals. This eliminated manual routing that was previously done by an administrative assistant, who is now able to work on other administrative projects allowing the accounting staff to focus more on compliance with federal and state grant regulations.
Following their success with the purchase order process, the staff moved on to invoices, which follow a similar workflow. Many of Pennyrile ADD’s invoices represent goods and services for veterans and Medicaid beneficiaries, meaning they include personally identifiable information (PII) that requires Pennyrile ADD to adhere to HIPAA data protection standards.
“A big reason why we chose Laserfiche was that we do collect and store data that falls under HIPAA. Using Laserfiche, with its access controls and credentials, we don’t have to email the information or worry about it moving around our network.”
— Alisha Sutton, Pennyrile ADD Chief Financial Officer
Continuing a Journey of Digital Transformation
After automating the purchase order and invoice processes, Pennyrile ADD continued to seek out other areas for increased efficiency. This led the staff to take on automating travel and leave requests, a previously manual process that has been made into a more intuitive and transparent digital workflow.
“We have several staff across different locations, and a lot of times they were routing forms through the mail,” Sutton said. “From the employee perspective, Laserfiche makes these requests a lot easier.”
Next, the organization tackled credit card tracking, a process that was previously managed by Pennyrile ADD’s accounting clerk who used to wait until the end of each month to gather everyone’s receipts and reconcile expenses. Using a Laserfiche Form, staff can input credit card usage as it happens, eliminating the burden for everyone involved and cutting the process time by 50%. Additionally, the Laserfiche workflow cross-checks reports from Pennyrile ADD’s accounting software and notifies staff if any amounts don’t balance out.
In addition to reclaiming staff time by eliminating manual work, Pennyrile ADD has sped up approvals on these administrative processes by giving managers access to Laserfiche on laptops and mobile devices when they are traveling. “They can access Laserfiche on an iPad or on their phone, which is a time saver for us because we’re not waiting on documentation,” Sutton said. “We’re getting things approved and moving processes along on a daily basis; before, sometimes we’d have to wait weeks.”
With the processes that the organization has automated using Laserfiche, Pennyrile ADD has saved an estimated week’s worth of time for two full-time employees per month.
Pennyrile ADD continues to ride the momentum of its automation initiatives, next looking at an integration with its accounting system, new processes for conference room reservation and board travel requests, as well as potentially using Laserfiche for fiscal agents to collect information and make disbursements.
There is no shortage of work for Pennyrile ADD, which has now taken on the responsibility of moving the Pennyrile region beyond the pandemic by providing essential community and economic development, senior and independent living and workforce services.
“In our meetings, we will talk about different problems, and usually I will say, ‘Hey, Laserfiche can help with this.’ Digitization and automation is part of our culture now.”
— Alisha Sutton, Pennyrile ADD Chief Financial Officer
To learn more about how Laserfiche drives digital transformation, schedule a consultation today.
Located in south central British Columbia, Westbank First Nation (WFN) is one of eight Okanagan Nation communities representing a portion of the Syilx traditional territories that have inhabited the valley for thousands of years. Today, the First Nation government comprises about 200 staff members who serve a population of 10,000 residents spread across four reserves. In an effort to address silos between departments and reorganize physical documentation in storage, WFN sought to digitize and inventory its existing paper records. After exploring options with its digital workplace solutions provider Ricoh Canada, WFN selected Laserfiche as its electronic records management (ECM) system. Since implementing Laserfiche more than a decade ago, WFN has expanded its digital transformation efforts, introducing Laserfiche Workflow and Forms to automate business processes, and utilizing metadata to improve reporting and turnaround times.
“We grew so fast as an organization, identifying many processes that we could streamline along the way,” said Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation. “Laserfiche has provided us with an opportunity to assess our processes and improve the organization holistically.”
Laserfiche is now used for numerous internal processes across departments, streamlining approvals and records management through automated document routing. In addition to time savings, benefits have also included investigating the ability to support COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, and the flexibility to continue addressing community health and safety through incident reporting.
Establishing a Digital Foundation
WFN manages over 4,400 properties, which requires intensive property tax documentation processes. From early on, WFN recognized the need for a more efficient records management system. A majority of its vital records management and property tax documents relied on off-site filing, resulting in substantial fuel surcharges to store and retrieve boxes. Seeing an opportunity to improve compliance, transparency and efficiency, WFN explored ways to digitally transform the way the organization managed these documents.
Today, the organization uses Laserfiche to process all documents related to each property tax folio digitally, and automatically store them in a centralized location, eliminating lost files. The system enables metadata to be attached to each document, making them easily searchable. The process now requires less paper, which originally required five floor-to-ceiling shelves containing over 4,000 folders to store. Now, there are only a few small folders for processing documents that either need to be scanned weekly or mailed out to residents, helping to improve responsiveness to members. As the organization grew, file storage rooms were converted into functional workspace.
“The repository grew from managing meeting minutes and policies into managing working documents and case files. We really experienced an organization-wide transformation — department by department.”
— Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation
Increasing Administrative Efficiency and Elevating the Employee Experience
Following the success digitizing its document management process, the organization recognized that internal requests — such as employee change notifications and staff reports — could also be digitized and automated to reclaim time for employees who were manually managing files being passed between departments.
“We really needed a way to improve monitoring and transparency to streamline these submissions,” said Rota.
WFN implemented Laserfiche Forms, which can be edited digitally without being passed between departments for amendment and approval. This system has been fully adopted and integrated across the organization, including the finance department, legal department and HR. Notably, finalized employee change notification requests are automatically filed in Laserfiche via an automated Laserfiche Workflow, with a notification sent to the payroll team for review and approval. This fully digital process has increased efficiency, as well as boosted employee satisfaction as requests are resolved more rapidly.
Additionally, the request portal is hosted using Laserfiche Forms, which can be easily modified and updated with newly available resources. This has supported the dissemination of information throughout WFN, creating a self-service portal for employees, who now have the independence to navigate forms, pending requests and their associated documents.
“Being able to access everything in one central location has empowered staff to become more independent Laserfiche users.”
— Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation
Prioritizing Employee Health and Safety
In addition to creating a long-term digital culture, Laserfiche has provided WFN with a high-level view of working conditions for its employees, improving health and safety when it matters most. If an incident occurs on-site, employees can complete a dedicated Laserfiche form which is automatically forwarded to WFN’s occupational health and safety advisor, while notifying the director of the submission. The system generates a corrective action task, prompting a discussion about the cause of the individual incident and preventative measures. In addition to metadata based on the location and department of the incident, WFN can leverage advanced reporting tools to identify health and safety trends and make more informed, data-driven decisions to improve conditions for specific locations.
This system also helps support compliance requirements — in terms of policy development, WFN submits annual reports to regional and national governing entities in Canada. Now, staff can extract relevant information from incident responses and complete these forms more quickly and accurately. Additionally, during the early stages of the pandemic, WFN also used Laserfiche to support contact tracing efforts, developing a dedicated form for staff entering the premises in order to comply with British Columbia’s health reporting requirements, eliminating the need for Health and Safety specific software.
Understanding Organizational Priorities
By using Laserfiche to establish replicable solutions that can be applied to a variety of processes, WFN has optimized its resources while enabling employees to be more independent and less reliant on paper files. Documents can be retrieved in seconds, allowing staff to work far more efficiently and take more ownership over core processes. Achieving such substantial savings in time and resources has translated to reduced operational costs and headcount allocations, allowing the organization to run more efficiently.
In terms of future digital transformation plans, WFN is working to digitize and streamline accounts payable using Laserfiche Forms and process automation. The organization is also exploring Laserfiche Cloud as a storage solution moving forward.
“We are able to go from the troubleshooting and testing phase to launching new processes so rapidly because we have so much at our fingertips with Laserfiche. It’s easy for us to mobilize efforts and prioritize our workload the right way.”
— Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation
To learn more about how Laserfiche drives digital transformation, schedule a consultation today.
The City of Santa Monica, California, leverages Laserfiche to provide better services at a lower cost and with lower friction to constituents.
Transcript
Santa Monica is a city of 8.3 square miles. 93,000 residents and about 1800 staff members. We’re a full service city. We have our own utilities, our police, fire traffic, even our federal airport. First, we got a great beach and we have a lot of technology, a very complex environment with probably over 300 applications that we utilize. So I came to the city about five years ago.
Laserfiche was already in our environment. I saw an Opportunity to leverage tools like Laserfiche more extensively to help digitize our environment. And the game changer for us was when Laserfiche came to us and talks about an integration with DocuSign. And so we implemented that. One of the big benefits is that it’s in sustainability.
We no longer use as much paper as it. And in the past three and a half years, we estimated you’d saved over 180000 hours staff time. That integration when the pandemic hit, we had to quickly and become a virtual workplace. We had made the city workforce completely mobile with technology. We had created a user experience that was the same whether you were virtually working or face to face on site.
And we had done all this not because we were anticipating a pandemic We did it because we wanted to enable flexibility and Work-Life Balance for our staff. What we were able to do very quickly was to pivot and have 80% of our staff teleworking with all the tools they needed in 36 hours. Part of that was we had workflows already in place which utilized these Most people don’t think of government as being frictionless.
This matter of fact, most people consider the government a main source of friction But why does it have to be that way? Can we see a way to provide better services at a lower friction, at a lower cost to our constituents? If we can use the same tools that any other organization uses, it’s just thinking about things different.
I see Laserfiche as one of our key platforms that we can leverage and simplify our environment, but also give us greater capability within one system to do more. I’m Joseph Cevetello, and I’m using Laserfiche to empower the people of Santa Monica.