How can government agencies thoughtfully deploy and integrate tech systems with different tools and products to improve critical functions, from HR to voter management?
Three California organizations worked together to provide vital assistance to highly vulnerable populations through innovative technology.
When it comes to finding a platform that ensures records are managed properly, it can be difficult without a standard to go by. Fortunately, The United States Department of Defense (DoD) provides such a standard. In addition, the DoD offers a wide variety of documents and tools to evaluate the effectiveness of a records management solution or strategy.
Primarily used by the DoD itself to ensure it is managing records in accordance with specific laws, these standards and tools provide a robust framework for organizations to manage records thoughtfully and effectively. By using this framework, organizations can take a step beyond the universal electronic records management (ERM) requirements outlined by The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), that are used to support federal agencies in maintaining compliance with the Federal Records Act.
While an organization may not be required by law to follow DoD records management standards, effective records management can encourage more informed business decisions, a boon for any organization.
DoD 8180.01, or “Information Technology Planning for Electronic Records Management” is a tool for the Department of Defense to evaluate an electronic records management platform’s potential to comply with policies set out in DoD Instruction 5015.02, “DoD Records Management Program”.
Some of the key components of DoD 8180.01 include:
What is DoD 5015.02?
DoD Instruction 5015.02, or “DoD Records Management Program” is a document that outlines the policy and responsibilities of the DoD as they relate to records management across media. This is not to be confused with DoD 5015.02-STD, which was a tool used to evaluate whether a particular piece of electronic records management software could be used by an organization to maintain compliance with the policies and responsibilities outlined in DoD Instruction 5014.02.
DoD 8180.01 effectively replaces 5015.2-STD as a tool to evaluate electronic records management software, but does not replace DoD Instruction 5015.02 itself, with that document offering compliance guidelines for managing records in a wider range of media.
What is the DoD Records Strategy?
Published openly for the first time in 2023, the DoD Records Strategy defines goals and offers administrative guidance for the DoD as they relate to records management. This document provides a framework for managing records largely organized into three distinct objectives:
In addition to the above, the records strategy emphasizes more universal accountability for managing records outside of the records manager role. It also suggests having dedicated records specialists embedded in units across the organization, to work in tandem with subject matter experts that ideally would also gain some records management knowledge and capability.
DTM-22-001, or “DoD Standards for Records Management Capabilities in Programs Including Information Technology” works essentially as an addendum to the DoD Instruction 5015.02, to eventually be incorporated into the instruction at a later time.
These standards, focused on software, ultimately serve to enshrine in policy the ideas brought about by the newer strategy-based, non-policy documents such as DoD 8180.01 and the DoD Records Strategy.
The new policies require that:
With all the different tools and documents that the DoD has to offer records managers, let’s quickly go over the purpose of each once more:
Using these tools together can yield a robust and effective records management framework. As discussed earlier, many organizations are not required to manage records as strictly as the DoD.
However, with the emergence of new technologies and the reality that many organizations use a variety of applications and information for everyday business, even the DoD acknowledges that records management should be thought of as a functional discipline rather than the following of rules for the sake of them.
More than anything, developing a robust and effective records management strategy can save your organization time in classifying and storing information, encourage more informed decision making and allow staff across the enterprise to dedicate more resources to their core responsibilities.
Learn how one county in New York reduced the time to furnish records in response to FOIA requests by more than half.
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If you’re looking to expand your digital transformation beyond electronic records management, an enterprise content management system (ECM) may be the right fit for your organization. Learn more about the ECM market and top vendors by checking out the G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM):
Already considering Laserfiche as your records management solution? Take a look at the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, a hub for pre-built workflows and templates that customers can use to jumpstart processes necessary to meet all kinds of challenges, including regulatory needs, such as building permit applications and inspections. Whether you’re just getting started with records management or looking for new insights, be sure to check out our Ultimate Guide to Records Management to see how you can improve your information governance strategy.
SITUATION
• Legacy manual processes driven by paper forms were no longer keeping pace with Samish Indian Nation’s diverse services
• To ensure the health, wealth, education and security of tribal citizens, Samish need to create more sustainable, scalable ways to achieve its vision
RESULTS
• Grant approvals are 80% more efficient
• Digitally transforming processes and assigning substitute approvers eliminated delays caused when staff members are out of office
Samish Indian Nation is headquartered in Anacortes, Washington, but its members are spread throughout the world, from the U.S. to New Zealand. Diverse as its membership are its programs and services, which range from education assistance and cultural enrichment to natural resource management and infrastructure maintenance.
Historically, Samish heavily relied on legacy manual processes to deliver these services. In recent years, however, Samish’s leadership and IT department began seeking ways to modernize and create more sustainable, scalable ways to achieve its vision: to ensure the health, wealth, education and security of tribal citizens.
Laserfiche has become the go-to tool for automated solutions, enabling the Tribal Council to optimize long-standing processes — such as resolution approvals and grant applications — to streamline the experience for employees and council members, resulting in time and cost savings. Meanwhile, Laserfiche has strengthened organizational resilience, enabling Samish to quickly respond to changing member and council needs.
When JR Walters started as the IT director for Samish Indian Nation 10 years ago, the team immediately identified the need for a digital document management solution. Laserfiche provided this and more. Laserfiche’s records management capabilities and security tools supported the organization’s requirements. E-forms, workflow automation and integration capabilities opened up new possibilities for optimization.
The organization worked with Laserfiche solution provider CDI to implement a solution that would meet Samish’s needs — the first of which was a repository for resolutions. The formal channel for expressing tribal consensus on legislation or policy, resolutions are governing documents for Samish. Prior to Laserfiche, people could look up resolutions in a printed index, which didn’t give visibility into the resolution’s full content, resolutions that had been superseded by another one, or related or supporting documents.
From there, the team quickly saw new opportunities for automation. They created a Laserfiche workflow that streamlined the process for Samish’s chairman and secretary to sign off on resolutions. But things really took off after the launch of the automated grant application process — a complex yet critical operation that involves the distribution of materials between five sites for review and approval. The legacy process was entirely manual and time intensive. Today, it’s managed through a Laserfiche form and automated workflow which were created with the help of the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace.
“Before starting to design a process from scratch, I look to see if it has already been done in the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace,” Walters said. “It’s easy to duplicate. The Solution Marketplace is a great resource.”
While the legacy manual process took a week or longer, the new solution made it possible for Samish to process grant applications in a single day. Managers can review content from mobile devices, further accelerating approvals. Most importantly, the accelerated application process opens up more opportunity for grants to go toward maintaining the economic welfare of Samish as well as the protection of the environment, and preservation of natural and cultural resources.
The success of the solution created buzz around the organization for Laserfiche, leading to more optimization initiatives. Today, Laserfiche is synonymous with automated solutions.
“Laserfiche is our go-to system for solving problems,” said Walters.
Samish’s digital efforts have also strengthened organizational resilience and agility, which were put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic. Laserfiche proved critical when Samish needed a way to distribute financial assistance to members affected by the pandemic.
“Finance had a terrible time keeping track of the first relief payments that they sent out when COVID-19 started,” Walters said. “It was just night and day comparing it to how it went using Laserfiche.”
The team built a Laserfiche form that enabled members to register for assistance online. A Javascript integration with Smarty, an address validation tool, automatically completes address information for members. On the backend, an integration with MicroBilt validates ACH routing payment information.
“The whole user experience was quick and easy, and members are kept up to date with emails through the whole thing. There are a lot of automatic verifications happening, and there were hundreds of applications. There were still some manual validations, but staff were not overwhelmed by them as they would have been had we not created this solution.”
Sam Shinn, Systems Specialist, Samish Indian Nation
Similarly, a vaccine registration program was rolled out quickly using Laserfiche, which allowed Samish to partner with a nearby tribe so that the organizations could share resources.
“We don’t have the necessary support staff to administer all of those vaccinations,” Walters said. “That process would have been a nightmare to handle on paper; Samish health didn’t even try it. They came right to us, which was great.”
Walters estimates that each person’s registration would have taken about a half hour of staff time, plus additional time to reschedule when necessary, which was all but eliminated with the automated Laserfiche process. The workflow also auto-prioritized those who needed to be vaccinated more quickly and automatically waitlisted some applicants, which also saved countless hours of staff time.
Also born of the pandemic was a new system to support online attendance for the Tribe’s annual general council meeting, enabling registration and tracking attendance, which is necessary to establish a quorum. Today, it endures as a way to facilitate hybrid in-person and online participation, better serving Samish’s many geographically dispersed members.
“The solution is built on integrations between four different applications: Laserfiche, Microsoft Teams, our enrollment database and Sitefinity.” Because Samish hosts meetings that are for members only, Walters explained, “We needed a solution that was open but secure.”
His team created a registration portal that allows members to register, which also verifies that the person was a confirmed tribal member against an enrollment database. Laserfiche Workflow conveniently emails the member a calendar object. People who are registered also receive another Laserfiche form to verify that they are who they claim to be; the member then receives instructions on how to set their computer up to be ready for the meeting.
“I don’t think we’ll ever go back to not having virtual events,” Walters said. “Those who couldn’t participate before — members in New Zealand, England, etc. — now have access. They might have to get up a little earlier or stay up later, but they can view the events on demand as well.”
Samish Indian Nation continues to expand on the digital innovations built on Laserfiche over the past decade. Samish has built e-forms and automated workflows for everything from simple staff ID badge and business card creation to more complex solutions for addressing the need for substitute approvers for processes when staff members are out of office.
“People go on vacation; people get sick; they take leaves of absence, things like that — and when they’re gone, other people will take over their responsibilities,” Walters explained. “This process enables users to assign those other people to processes, so that they can complete tasks during those absences.”
“The big thing that addressed was the lack of record when people reach out to IT about assigning other people tasks,” Shinn said. “Now, there’s a document that gets generated and stored in the repository from the user, saying that they designated a specific person to do certain tasks for a specific time period. It’s all automated so we don’t have to worry about anyone forgetting to communicate it to us.”
Laserfiche has become so embedded in staff workdays that the IT team has also created a Laserfiche Forms process to handle changes to Laserfiche processes. If a user needs changes to a business process, they can fill out a form that collects all the details needed to make that happen. “We’ll know exactly what process needs to change and what exactly needs to be done,” Shinn said. “The form gives convenient access for users. The process uses query parameters to populate the change request form, effectively creating templates for change requests.”
Continued optimization and more solutions are in the works, including a contract workflow, which will leverage an integration with DocuSign.
“As we’re looking at systems, one big thing we consider is how we can enhance it with Laserfiche,” Walters said. “We want to invest in things that work well with the Laserfiche platform, that can extend and work with it.”
At Laserfiche we’re always looking forward. We also know that governments and educational institutions are continuously searching for new ways to address their unique challenges.
That’s why in the new year, we asked one of our resident industry experts — Noel Loughrin, Senior Strategic Solutions Manager: Government and Education — to make predictions about what innovations and ideas that governments and educational institutions are going to prioritize in 2024.
Governments will improve operations by following best practices and embracing digitization:
Educational institutions will be empowered by AI-driven digital transformation:
Want to make an innovative start to 2024? Check out the following resources to learn how ECM can be your organization’s key to newfound efficiencies this year.
Schedule a personalized Laserfiche demo
A complete ECM solution like Laserfiche can help your organization dramatically improve the efficiency of its business processes. See first hand how Laserfiche can be your solution and schedule a demo.
Discover powerful solutions on the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace
Some of the more robust ECM systems, including Laserfiche, offer marketplaces for process templates that organizations in a variety of sectors, including government and education, can use to jumpstart digital transformation initiatives. To learn more about the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace, watch the video below:
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Check out this government sector whitepaper to gain insights on how state and local governments can best secure funding for workflow automation solutions and deploy them.
In addition, our education sector whitepaper can be a useful resource for educational institutions looking to maximize student success and improve the efficiency of their processes with enterprise content management.
Check out the G2 Grid® for Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
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Matt Killen, CIO of the City of Salem, describes the process of digitising 400 years of historical records and the value of making history accessible.
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.
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:
“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.
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.
