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Leesburg, Virginia Supports Community and Local Businesses with Laserfiche Cloud

The information technology department for Leesburg, the largest town in Virginia, has a mission to “exceed the Town of Leesburg’s residents’ and employees’ expectations in delivering accessible and reilable technology services — creating a greater good for the local community.” This mission has the department constantly looking ahead to the technology solutions that will allow for the highest standards of customer service, security and system reliability, even in times of change.

The need for greater adaptability led the town to move its enterprise content management (ECM) to Laserfiche Cloud. The cloud-based system has been an invaluable asset to Leesburg government staff as it allowed for flexibility during stay-at-home mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because it has enabled IT to quickly respond to all types of needs — from internal service requests to public-facing financial relief programs.

The town has been able to expand its digital capabilities beyond the limitations of self-hosted servers with Laserfiche Cloud. This flexible and scalable environment has enabled Leesburg to achieve business continuity while supporting both staff and the community, even as remote and hybrid work becomes more prevalent.

“Laserfiche has helped us to handle data collection digitally and be elastic while responding to major changes within our IT infrastructure as staff work from home,” said Jakub Jedrzejczak, Director of IT at Leesburg. “I’m so impressed by Laserfiche Cloud and its automated features and scalability.”

Automating processes in Laserfiche Cloud has helped Leesburg be more agile, while positioning the town for long-term success. Using Laserfiche’s electronic forms and business process automation capabilities, Leesburg reduced manual tasks under tight schedules and continues to improve the quality of service provided to the community. This has streamlined response times to citizens, businesses and other organizations while enhancing the overall digital experience and maintaining fairness and transparency

Solutions to Support Local Businesses, Nonprofits and Town Staff

“Access to documents was key for us,” Jedrzejczak said. “We had to streamline a lot of internal processes and external services that we offer to support to our community.”

Like many other localities, during the pandemic, Leesburg needed a solution to process $6 million in funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to support eligible businesses and nonprofit organizations.

“Distribution of relief packages is very time sensitive,” Jedrzejczak said. “Businesses and nonprofits can’t afford to wait months for government IT to develop an effective solution, or for us to implement a new system. The faster we can process data, the faster we can provide support to our community.”

Though the town already maintained detailed information on local businesses and nonprofit organizations, the primary challenge for the Leesburg IT department was authenticating existing data and determining eligibility. Laserfiche Cloud was implemented to streamline the authentication and cross-referencing processes based on existing data on thousands of local businesses and nonprofit organizations in the finance department database. Using this data, a dedicated form was set up with required fields relating to license information, employer identification number (EIN) and other conditions. If a business or nonprofit did not meet specific conditions — such as the revenue threshold or funding information — a pop-up notification would appear to indicate that the applicant is ineligible for CARES Act funding. Applications were sorted into separate folders within the Laserfiche repository based on whether they were accepted or not, which were concurrently monitored by town staff to ensure accuracy.

The metadata from the forms submissions helped the Leesburg team determine that over 330 businesses and over 20 nonprofits were eligible for funding. Not having to sort through data manually streamlined this process, reclaiming time for staff members to focus on citizen services at a time when the town needed them most.

The form helped with the quality of CARES Act submissions as well. Applications completed using the Laserfiche online form could not be submitted with incomplete or incorrect information, meaning that staff members did not have to spend time manually verifying missing details, business licenses and misspelled organization names.

“The more that we can guide residents with requests, the faster we can respond to their needs — often in minutes rather than days if the right information in the right format is submitted,” said Jedrzejczak.

The Digital Transformation Domino Effect

Amid changing budgets and uncertain economic conditions, governments must digitize and standardize public services. At the same time, it is also increasingly important for governments to respond to disruptions quickly, using flexible and scalable solutions that enable them to keep information secure. For these reasons, Leesburg is relying on the cloud for core technology systems including ERP, asset management and ECM.

“I can eliminate the need for maintenance, and have a scalable system that has a predictable cost, and I always inherit functionality — that is why we choose Laserfiche Cloud,” Jedrzejczak said. “I don’t have to worry about uptime. I don’t have to worry about the security. I know these two components are being addressed by the Laserfiche Cloud platform. I can focus on the development of the systems and focusing on user needs versus the back end maintenance.”

While town staff work with Laserfiche Solution Provider MCCi for complex projects, Leesburg is preemptively developing solutions in-house, including the electronic forms and digital processes related to the CARES Act. Laserfiche has empowered IT department staff to create a digital town hall where innovative solutions modernize citizen services. This has enabled staff to train new users on the platform based on specific needs and connect with the Laserfiche community to share best practices on ways to streamline business processes to increase efficiencies.

Today, most of the municipality’s departments are using Laserfiche. “We support internal processes, such as in our finance department, as well as external processes,” Jedrzejczak said. “Our town council uses Laserfiche to review documents; our utilities department uses it to gather information from residents, and we process a lot of forms and approvals through Laserfiche.”

Jedrzejczak added that most local governments today experience information overload — too many emails, and too much data to process.

“Information overload is a problem, but Laserfiche helps us with it. We can’t rely on in-person or paper-based communication to gather and process information anymore,” said Jedrzejczak. “There is so much that needs to be digitized — we just can’t have paper driving processes outside the office.”

The town has been in the process of creating a digital town hall to increase access to services even further. Leesburg is also working on integrations between Laserfiche and other core systems that will enable further automation and enhanced collaboration across the organization.

Looking ahead, Leesburg is building on its success by reimagining can continuing to modernize how it delivers services.

Want to gain more insights into modernizing service delivery? Read the Center for Digital Government report: “The Way Forward: Insights for Government Leaders on Modernizing Service Delivery” to understand why technology plays a critical role in generating cost savings, continuing operations and meeting growing constituent demands.

How the Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide Emergency Assistance

Solution Contributed By: Jan Lawrence, Digital Process Manager; Jacob Hawk, Administration & Project Assistant; Jeannie McNeil, Enrollment Coordinator and Sierra Puckett, Archivist and Technical Assistant, Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians

The Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians based in Oregon has 1,269 members located around the country. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tribe was awarded money from the federal government to provide emergency assistance to members. The confederated tribes used Laserfiche Forms to distribute $3 million worth of funds to tribal members quickly and efficiently. The tribe also used Forms to distribute computers to tribal members for use with school or telehealth appointments.

Emergency Assistance Process

The challenge faced by the confederated tribes was to create a process to disburse money from the federal government to provide financial assistance to every tribe member, on a short timeline. The tribes wanted to streamline communications throughout the process and mail out checks quickly. It was also necessary to make sure there were no duplicate applications.

“With this form we are able to distribute $3 million in funds. Laserfiche reporting is amazing. We ran reports daily and were able to catch duplicate applications early. This whole process was completely streamlined,” says Jan Lawrence, Digital Process Manager

The application was created in Laserfiche Forms. Members were able to fill out and submit the form from any computer or mobile device. If a member was unable to fill out the form electronically, they were still able to submit a paper form. A team member then transferred the information from the paper form into an electronic form.

Once submitted, the form is sent to the membership enrollment coordinator for verification of tribal membership. The membership enrollment coordinator looks up the member in the membership database and checks the form information for accuracy.

Once the form information is verified, the form is sent to finance as a check request. This check request form has all irrelevant information excluded, and only includes the information that finance needs to cut the check. Once the check is cut and mailed, the process ends.

To keep track of how much money was disbursed, and how many members have been applying for services, the tribes ran reports on a regular schedule. These reports were exported into a spreadsheet and shared with relevant employees across the organization.

Computer Request Process

With distance learning and telehealth becoming a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, tribal members without computer access were at a disadvantage. To close the digital divide, the tribes created a program of disbursing computers to those who could not afford one. This computer request and disbursement process is similar to the emergency assistance process described in the previous section.

The process starts with the tribal member filling out an electronic request form. The requestor has the option of picking up the computer at one of a few locations or having it mailed.

Once the form is submitted, the enrollment coordinator verifies the requestor’s tribal membership and program eligibility in the membership system. When the verification is completed, a notification is sent to the housing department. Department team members package and ship any computers that need to be mailed. If, at any point in the process, the requestor is deemed ineligible for the program, they are notified by email.

To keep track of how many computers were distributed, as well as which ones were to be picked up or mailed, the housing department ran regular reports. These reports were downloaded into a spreadsheet and shared with select individuals within the organization.

Want to see how Laserfiche can help your organization streamline customer-facing business processes? Schedule a free demo.

Laserfiche-Driven Digital Transformation Enables Township of King to Innovate Public Services

The Township of King, located in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada, implemented Laserfiche enterprise content management (ECM) to store and centralize content, making information more accessible across the organization. Since then, the township’s staff has leveraged the software for digital transformation initiatives that go beyond document management. The township now uses Laserfiche to modernize the government experience, where citizens can access public information and submit online service requests (i.e., permits and licenses) using Laserfiche electronic forms. The township’s staff has also integrated Laserfiche with other core technologies and automated key business processes in order to accelerate service delivery.

Centralizing Content Across Departments

Over the past several years, King has assessed its digital infrastructure with the goals of ensuring employees have access to necessary information, breaking down department siloes and improving efficiency. In 2018, the township built a new municipal center, prompting a large-scale initiative to digitize and centralize content that was previously stored in filing cabinets and banker boxes, and across individual and department network drives.

“We initially looked for a solution for electronic document and records management; we have been moving away from paper, and we wanted to have one central, streamlined filing system for all electronic documents,” said Manager of Legislative Services and Deputy Clerk Denny Timm. “We saw the opportunity and improvements that would be realized if we could increase department collaboration and information sharing.”

With the support of Ricoh Canada, one of the township’s workplace technology solution providers, King implemented Laserfiche as its central digital repository. Laserfiche allowed the township to reclaim time previously spent physically searching for information — which now is accessible at staff’s fingertips. Using Laserfiche, departments have transitioned off network drives, and content has been centralized while simultaneously strengthening the municipality’s information governance program.

“Implementing Laserfiche really allowed us to look at our filing methodology and filing structure from a corporate perspective,” Timm added. “It’s like building a house — you need to build a solid foundation, organize and plan what goes in the rooms, and assign the proper access to those rooms. With Laserfiche, we have one corporate folder structure as our foundation, filled with subfolders and documents, and appropriately assigned access privileges and controls. We now have greater integrity and confidence in our information management system. We know staff are accessing what they need to access, while elevating the protection of personal and confidential information.”

As King saw the benefits of digitizing and centralizing content, they began to learn more about taking their digital transformation to the next level by integrating Laserfiche with other core technologies and using Laserfiche’s electronic forms and business process automation capabilities.

“We saw that Laserfiche was more than just a place to put files,” said Timm. “That’s when we started to view tutorials, speak with our team at Ricoh, and understand that there’s way more capability within the system than we initially thought.”

Next-Level Digital Transformation: Electronic Forms and Process Automation

King’s document management project was a catalyst for the team to reimagine how they could now use the township’s digital information in its mission to deliver citizen services, maximize efficiency and ensure employees are well equipped to respond to customer’s needs. Laserfiche’s electronic forms and business process automation capabilities enabled King to increase access to information and public services. This mindset shift came just in time — before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the region.

“We were fortunate to have had departments adopt Laserfiche before COVID-19 arrived,” Timm said. “Staff have access to all the information they need in a central resource that they can securely access remotely. Departments also see the immediate savings in administrative work, no longer needing to file paper copies, and now being able to easily search and retrieve information.”

Now, the township is using Laserfiche to actively replace paper forms with electronic forms to make more public services available online — a key benefit during the pandemic. King recently launched a new website where constituents can access applications, permits and other essential items with an integrated payment system, including:

Building permit payments
Bulky item pickup and garbage bag tags
Pet and service animal licenses
Fire permits
Freedom of information requests
Marriage service payments
Road occupancy permits
Property information requests
Tax certificate requests
E-Billing registration for property and water bills
Temporary sign permits

In addition to increasing access to these forms, staff leveraged Laserfiche business process automation to automate information routing and approvals. Now, when a resident submits an electronic form through the township’s website, the information is automatically sent to the relevant departments and approving parties for review and approvals. By removing the dependence on manual routing, automated processes streamline the flow of information and expedite service delivery, whether employees are in-office or working remotely. Laserfiche’s process reporting and analytics also increase transparency and create opportunities for continuous process improvement.

“We are excited to see our public forms integrate with our repository, too,” said Timm. “Now, forms and information will be automatically filed in the right spot, and our approval process moves to the digital realm — we’re able to track and start looking at the analytics.”

The central repository and automated processes have also supported business continuity during COVID-19 and as the King team navigates the staff changes that all municipalities must manage.

“We have staff retiring, and that previously meant information and institutional knowledge would be lost,” said Supervisor of IT Business Systems Angelo Castillo. “Having everything in Laserfiche provides that single repository that everyone is familiar with. If we use Laserfiche for forms and processes, our staff will be comfortable using them.”

Building a Digital Future

Today, the township continues to build on its success by automating processes across all departments, with a clear vision toward creating a more modern experience for employees and the people they serve. The IT team has plans to further centralize content and processes by using Laserfiche where possible to replace niche software that individual departments may have acquired or are looking to acquire for specific processes. “Laserfiche doesn’t make digital transformation seem overly complicated because the tools are all there — we are equipped to easily automate processes without having to acquire and learn multiple small, specific pieces of software,” Callisto explained. “For example, we just successfully launched and leveraged Laserfiche forms and its business process capabilities to automate our entire Performance Development and Recognition Program (PDRP). By expanding our in-house knowledge of the system, we are beginning to build more complex and corporate wide implementations. These new electronic and automated processes streamline core critical corporate processes, making them easy and accessible to staff.”

The IT division is now aiming to create a self-service model. “The goal is to have each department build their own digital forms and publish them online,” Castillo said. “The subject-matter experts in the individual departments are going to know the processes the best, and with Laserfiche’s ease of use, we know staff are eager to build and implement!”

Into the future, the township plans to further leverage Laserfiche’s process dashboard to analyze information such as the number of permits, applications and licenses received, what time of year is the busiest, etc. “We’re really excited to dive into the data and analytics, and look at them in terms of usage and output,” Timm said. “It’s going to give us a whole new area that we haven’t explored before.”

For more insights into modernizing service delivery and to understand why technology plays a critical role in generating cost savings, continuing operations and meeting growing constituent demands, read the Center for Digital Government’s report: “The Way Forward: Insights for Government Leaders on Modernizing Service Delivery.”

What Is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology that enlists the help of bots, programs that can perform repetitive tasks directly from a user interface. Fast to deploy and easy to update, bots can be a powerful catalyst for system integrations. Bots can also help further business process automation initiatives.

Bots fill a special niche within a business process automation platform — where traditional automation methods would leave gaps in processes, bots can fill them in by working directly with the front ends of applications to simulate how a human would interact with the software.

Imagine a robot sitting in front of a computer looking at the same applications and performing the same keystrokes as a person would — while you hold the remote control that tells the robot when and how to work.

So, for example, in a process where you previously had to manually review a document, enter data or transfer information between systems, the robot fills in these gaps in what could be a more automated process. In addition, the bot by its nature will be more accurate and efficient than a human user.

Processes that are automated end-to-end, and more robust integrations for your systems mean more time for employees to concentrate on high-impact projects. Part of the beauty of robotic process automation technology is that it offers even non-technical employees the power to automate parts of their own workflows and gain the benefits that come from doing so.

The basics of RPA

Today’s organizations use a wide variety of business applications. When a legacy platform, web application, or in-house system lacks enterprise integration functionality, it’s likely that employees have to do manual work to keep information and content moving between systems as part of a business process. These manual steps in automated processes are sometimes called “automation gaps.”

RPA bots work directly from an application’s user interface, mimicking human actions, including logging in and out, copying and pasting data, opening emails and attachments and filling out forms. As they can act like a human, while still working with speed, efficiency and a lack of human intervention, these bots are particularly suited to fill automation gaps in business processes.

While this functionality may sound similar to screen-scraping or application macros, RPA has evolved beyond these solutions. For example, while macros follow a pre-determined script of fixed, linear commands, bots have the flexibility to learn over time and intuitively respond to changes in business processes. Also, in cases where you need multiple tools to run scripts for each business application, RPA can simplify the way users automate tasks by interacting with multiple applications at once.

The dynamic nature of robotic process automation makes it ideal for organizations that want to deploy integrations and automation solutions quickly in response to a need or a changing business climate.

The benefits of RPA

As a user-friendly and cost-effective tool, robotic process automation provides a number of advantages that are drawing interest from organizations across industries.

The business benefits of RPA include:

Low technical barriers: Programming skills are not necessary to configure a bot. Non-technical staff can use a process recorder feature to teach the bot how to perform a previously manual step in an automated business process, and integrate the bot-based automation into a larger automated workflow using a drag-and-drop process designer or similar tool.
Increased accuracy: Like many tools available as part of a process automation suite, bots are extremely accurate and consistent – they are much less prone to making mistakes or typos than a human worker. This can apply to common processes such as setting up or removing user accounts, copying information from one system to another, onboarding and off-boarding employees or populating forms based on information from another system.
Meet regulatory compliance standards: Bots only follow the instructions they have been configured to follow and provide an audit trail history for each step. The controlled nature of bots makes robotic process automation well suited for organizations that want to automate their business processes end-to-end while still meeting strict compliance standards.
No interruption of work: Bots can work tirelessly work around the clock, autonomously without requiring employees to re-activate them, allowing a more flexible schedule for business processes.
Existing systems remain in place: Unlike traditional integrations that may require extensive developer resources, RPA doesn’t require any changes to the systems you already use every day to be included as part of your automated business processes. Bots work directly from a user interface, just as a person would. This makes robotic process automation especially useful for integrating legacy systems, where APIs may not be immediately available, or in situations where organizations do not have the time or employee resources to develop custom code-based integrations.
Improved employee morale and employee experience: By utilizing robotic process automation as part of their automation tooklkit, organizations can open up further opportunities for employees to dedicate more of their time and talent to other work. While bots fill out forms, enter data and look up information from websites, employees can focus on high-impact projects that further drive growth.
Increased productivity: Process cycle times are more efficient and can be completed at a faster speed compared to manual processes.

What processes are suited for RPA?

Robotic process automation is a versatile, scalable technology that can be applied throughout the enterprise in a variety of industries. Top candidates for optimization with RPA are typically:

Consistent and routine
High volume
Prone to human error
Limited in requiring a person to make a decision
Manual data entry

In many cases, RPA can bring immediate value to core business processes including:

Payroll
Employee status changes
New hire recruitment and onboarding
Accounts receivable and accounts payable
Invoice processing
Inventory management
Report creation
CRM data updates
Software installations
Data migration
Vendor onboarding

For example, if a wealth management firm needs to update CRM data with contact details from a spreadsheet, RPA can record the actions that need to be replicated, map fields between the two interfaces and automate this repeatable task, saving hours of employees’ valuable time.

A virtual business assistant

We may think of RPA in the context of organization-wide processes, but it can be applied as a personal productivity tool as well. Employees will be able to identify many opportunities for robotic process automation in their daily work where bots can assist.

With RPA, employees are empowered to automate their more routine daily tasks, regardless of technical expertise. This low barrier to entry enables employees across the enterprise to benefit from RPA, even if there isn’t a resource-intensive, organization-wide deployment.

Furthermore, since all bots can be monitored and audited over a centralized server, IT would still be able to manage bots in use, while promoting flexibility in the organization for employees to deploy their own custom solutions.

Having a bot as a de-facto virtual business assistant can help employees offload time-consuming, routine tasks in favor of high-impact projects and elevating the customer experience.

Bridging integration gaps with RPA

One of the immediate benefits of robotic process automation is its ability to integrate systems where gaps previously existed. Enterprises that rely on legacy systems or third-party, external sites for everyday operations but currently do not have the resources or the means to integrate them using other methods can deploy bots to do so. Fast to deploy and easy to update, syncing data and processes without human intervention. Bots enable organizations to quickly deploy integrations that sync data and processes without human intervention, filling in gaps between systems for more complete, end-to-end automation solutions.

RPA and digital transformation

RPA can be an important tool in solving automation challenges and pushing organizations to grow into digital workplaces. However, it is just one part of an organization’s digital transformation toolkit.

Going beyond automating everyday repetitive tasks, RPA combined with traditional content services and business process management technologies can help organizations further maximize their potential as they make the most of their of automation strategies.

Robotic process automation is an ideal technology for reducing costs and increasing productivity. Whether optimizing end-to-end automation initiatives or enabling employees to be more efficient in handling projects, RPA is a powerful addition to any business process automation platform.

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