Process Automation Archives | Page 15 of 24

A Quick Shift to Remote Learning

When the COVID-19 outbreak hit the U.S., the team at Linn-Benton Community College sprang into action. To protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and community, the college had to get classes online and prepare faculty, staff and students to work, teach and learn remotely. Linn-Benton Community College, which works closely with Laserfiche solution provider CDI, previously used Laserfiche to automate more than 200 processes across campus, but this unprecedented challenge would put the organization’s digital operations to the test.

Using Laserfiche as a key tool for communication and collaboration, the IT team has been working tirelessly to ensure everyone has access to the information, systems and processes necessary to keep business moving at the college, and enable classes for the spring semester to begin remotely April 6.

“Our No. 1 priority is health and safety,” said Michael Quiner, CIO at Linn-Benton Community College. “I know it has been extremely difficult and stressful for everyone, but we can help to protect students, staff and faculty, by having people work from home, and having students learn from home. To be able to use technology to enable that — I think that’s pretty amazing.”

Enabling a Quick Shift to Remote Work and Learning

Linn-Benton Community College serves more than 10,000 students, with almost 600 faculty members, and over 300 staff members. As concerns around the COVID-19 outbreak grew, the college braced for unprecedented change.

“I don’t think anyone’s seen or experienced anything like this before,” said Quiner. “But I believe that the team we have at Linn-Benton Community College is very innovative, and we are used to leveraging technology to enable agility and flexibility.”

On March 19, Oregon Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order to immediately implement measures for significantly reducing in-person operations at Oregon colleges and universities. The order also advised colleges and universities to continue learning and teaching operations, but to shift to remote or online delivery.

The immediate challenge was communication. With staff and faculty working both on- and off-campus, and the situation changing by the day, the college needed to make sure everyone knew where everyone else was, and how to get in touch if needed. The college’s institutional research department quickly created an automated process in Laserfiche that emails everyone employed by Linn-Benton Community College each morning, prompting them to fill out a form to indicate where they were working that day and the best way to get in contact with them. “That information is automatically posted in a web portal so people know how to contact each other,” Quiner said.

Next, to quickly transition everyone to operate remotely, staff needed to request remote access to systems they typically use on campus. “This seems simple, but it’s a big workflow that involves staff who have to install software on people’s machines and staff to provision accounts, and more,” said Quiner. The college again used Laserfiche Forms to enable staff to make these requests digitally, and route them to the relevant parties.

“The main benefit of using Laserfiche has been that we’re able to quickly create an automated process, and have that process save all the necessary documentation, contain all the right information, and be seen by the right people so that we can get these activities done right the first time,” Quiner added.

At the same time the college was managing the enormous shift, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA or Act) was passed, requiring certain employers to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. From the passage of the act to the time when organizations were expected to comply was very short.

A cross-departmental team from human resources and IT quickly tackled the challenge and created a work process which has seven unique forms, six decision points, and 16 process tasks. This was made available to college employees inside of 48 hours.

“Laserfiche allows us to keep the college in compliance during a fast-moving situation while dealing with constantly shifting requirements, interruptions, and urgent priority requests,” Quiner added.

Additionally, Linn-Benton Community College modified an existing Laserfiche Form to track the equipment being loaned out to staff and faculty, and enable people to request other equipment they might need. “Before, we were just using this form for staff to request if they needed something new,” Quiner said. “We adapted the existing form so that we could track loaner equipment, and we can still see what additional or alternative support our staff needs.”

Accelerating Transformation

The rapidly changing COVID-19 situation continues to pose challenges for all organizations that are transitioning employees to work from home, and working to standardize and digitize business processes to enable business continuity.

“While this has been extremely difficult for everyone, Laserfiche is helping make an impossible task possible,” Quiner said of the experience.

And while student, staff and faculty health and safety remains the college’s top priority, Quiner explained that the organization’s digital transformation efforts will continue.

“Transformation is the idea that we can use technology tools to better leverage our staff’s time,” he said. “We’ve only started to transform. There are so many exciting things — for example, robotic process automation — that we’re dipping our toes into, that will take a lot of the repetitive work from our staff so we can concentrate on supporting each other and supporting our students.”

Future plans include automating time sheets, and employee onboarding and offboarding processes. Quiner is also interested in working with other community colleges in the region to share data and collaborate on processes, so that the larger community of educational organizations can build on each other’s success.

“We’re saving a huge amount of our staff’s time — and not just IT staff but college staff, too — by using business process automation, and moving documents to the right location using Laserfiche Forms,” said Quiner. “Tools like business process automation and RPA can help us get away from chasing down forms or responding to emails, and enable our staff and faculty can do what they were hired to do, which is to make better people, better families and better communities through education.”

Download The Ultimate Guide to Business Continuity Planning for tools and strategies to keep your business moving in times of uncertainty.

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eBook: The Process Automation Buyer’s Guide

Learn what process automation is, why organizations need it and how to procure the right software for your workplace.

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A clear definition of process automation and its benefits.
Process automation use cases with real-world examples.
Factors you should consider when shopping for solutions.
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Beachwalk Resort Puts Guests First by Streamlining Processes and Communications

At Beachwalk Resort, unit owners and guests come first. After opening in 2015, the four-star condo hotel in Hallandale Beach, Florida, quickly became a coveted destination, with a reputation for casual elegance and world-class service. Beachwalk Resort’s commitment to providing the best possible customer experience recently led its staff to assess key business processes. Today, the resort is using Laserfiche to automate and streamline key parts of its operations, easing compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) and enabling the organization to take a digital-first approach with owner relations and guest communications.

Transforming Contract Management

Beachwalk Resort is a 33-story property that operates like a luxury hotel, with many condo owners opting into a rental program to earn a percentage of sales when units are rented as hotel rooms.

“Hospitality is our business,” said Gery Amaya, director of front office and owner relations accounting at Beachwalk Resort. “We are constantly looking at ways to provide the best possible service to our owners and guests.”

The resort’s focus on customer service recently led to the reassessment of how owner relations and guest communications were being managed. “We wanted to make sure that everything was organized and searchable,” said Amaya. “Streamlined, responsive service is so important in our industry. We had permits, email communications and other information that we needed to be able to retrieve quickly, which wasn’t easy when we were saving documents on different computers or shared drives.”

Hotel staff also must manage guest credit card information, which adds another layer of complexity to communications.

“We do not send credit card or banking information through email in accordance with PCI guidelines,” Amaya said. “The guidelines allow you to send that information through fax if you have a secure server, but that’s not ideal when not everyone uses that form of communication, or you’re worried about a document being left in a fax machine somewhere.”

The resort recently rolled out a new way of doing rental distribution, requiring owners who wanted to participate in the rental program to sign a new contract. Beachwalk Resort seized the opportunity to use Laserfiche to automate the contract management process.

“We had to cancel the old contracts and execute a new rental management agreement (RMA) with the owners,” Amaya said. The RMA and all relevant information is now sent to the owner with a unique link, which allows the owner to complete the contract and upload any personal information — including banking and tax information — without having to send it through email or fax.

Once the owner submits the RMA, an automated workflow routes it to the relevant Beachwalk Resort employees for review and approval. Documents are also automatically routed to a standardize file structure, eliminating the manual filing that employees once had to do.

Reimagining this these contracts as a completely digital, automated process has reclaimed time for employees to focus on customer service rather than chasing paperwork. Additionally, compliance with PCI guidelines is no longer a burden on employees, since they are not charged with transmitting credit card or banking information.

The entire process is also more convenient for owners. “Some unit owners like to run a separate vacation home business, so it makes it a lot easier for them as well,” Amaya said. “Owners can pull up their contracts easily, and remotely as needed. Many of our unit owners are from South America, and they either don’t or prefer not to speak in English. We can easily translate forms and send different versions. It’s introduced a new level of convenience for everyone involved.”

“Digital transformation in the hospitality industry is incredibly human-focused,” said Nareg Halajian, president of Dynamic Document Services, the Laserfiche Solution Provider that implemented Laserfiche at Beachwalk Resort. “Beachwalk Resort demonstrates a deep understanding of customer needs by leveraging Laserfiche technology to empower employees to spend more time on what matters: creating an extraordinary experience for their owners and guests.”

Enhancing Experiences Across the Resort

Since the success of the RMA initiative, Beachwalk Resort has uncovered new efficiencies by automating forms-based processes throughout the organization. Using this forward-thinking, digital and automated approach, the resort is able to provide efficient, responsive and customer-centric service.

From the moment guests arrive, resort staff aims to create a memorable experience. Owners have specific rights — such as beach services or parking services — and ownership also comes with six authorized users. “If a staff member doesn’t know a guest for whatever reason — maybe the owner doesn’t come here often, or the staff member doesn’t know their family or friends — we used to have to go and find out who is on the authorized user list, which could take longer than we’d like,” Amaya said. “At the concierge, we can now go into Laserfiche as the guest is standing there, look up the contract and see that they are on the list. It’s not an inconvenience to them, and we are able to provide that elevated service that they expect when they arrive at a four-star resort.”

Beachwalk Resort has also significantly simplified its credit card dispute and chargeback process, minimizing the headache involved for all parties. “Credit card disputes are tricky and not fun for anyone,” Amaya said. “There can be a lot of money involved. We have about 10 days to answer any disputes on credit cards. All the information we need in order to respond to the dispute is stored in Laserfiche. It used to take a day or two to find and compile the information, and now it only takes about 10 to 15 minutes per case.”

Owners and guests have noticed improvements in response times to inquiries. According to Amaya, the resort has received positive feedback from owners on how quickly they’re able to receive information back from staff.

“Laserfiche provided a solution that enables us to monitor everything. We know the information is automatically sent to where it needs to go; we know it’s not sitting in an inbox or a fax machine.”
—Gery Amaya, Drector of Front Office and Owner Relations Accounting at Beachwalk Resort

Building on Success

Amaya and the Beachwalk Resort team are now looking to automate and streamline additional processes to further the resort’s digital transformation. On the horizon is accounts payable. “The prospect of automating AP processes is exciting,” said Amaya. “All the content is already stored in Laserfiche, so we can’t wait to reinvent what we are doing with accounts payable.”

Using Laserfiche records management and business process automation, Beachwalk Resort is building the future of hospitality — a future with less tedious, manual tasks and more time to focus on customer relations and building better relationships.

“Almost every department is now using Laserfiche,” Amaya said. “It’s helped streamline our processes and communication. It’s really exceeded our expectations.”

Download The Ultimate Guide to Contract Management and learn more about saving your organization’s time and money, boosting productivity and creating a digital-first customer experience.

What is Digital Process Automation?

Digital process automation is a staple of operational success in the modern workplace. Forward-thinking businesses have prioritized automation technology in their digital transformation initiatives for its ability to increase efficiency, transparency and accuracy of information circulated throughout an organization.

Read on to learn what digital process automation is and why it’s an important component of the modern business landscape.

What is digital process automation?

Digital process automation (DPA) is a method of digitizing processes by eliminating manual steps and improving user experience for customers, vendors and staff. Like business process automation, DPA as a methodology is meant to accelerate workflows while decreasing human error. DPA is a core component of enterprise content management (ECM) software in that it supports the routing, modifying and storing of important data traveling in and out of an organization.

What is a digital process automation platform?

A digital process automation platform captures information from electronic forms and other sources to launch digital business processes. These platforms also enable users to customize digital business processes to automatically complete a variety of tasks within the scope of regular business processes, such as public records requests, travel and expense requests and job application reviews.

Most digital process automation solutions enable you to design these processes as a diagram using a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) interface. More advanced solutions offer extensive business process template libraries that are essentially plug-and-play. One example of this is the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace. Watch the below video to learn more about the Laserfiche Solution Marketplace.

Also be sure to check out the below infographic “Laserfiche 4 Steps to Innovation” to see how Laserfiche users can not only deploy solutions quickly, but get involved with a larger community of innovators.

Why is digital process automation important?

DPA software helps eliminate redundant busywork, freeing up time for staff to focus on strategic business priorities. A few immediate benefits of DPA software include:

Accelerate workflows

Users can revise, approve and complete document revisions faster with automated routing and task notifications. Users can also easily reassign tasks if someone is out of office.

Increase transparency

Custom business process reports enable process managers to measure success and eliminate workflow bottlenecks. Administrators can also get a clear picture of employee workloads with process monitoring dashboards.

Improve accessibility

Advanced DPA software solutions enable users to complete tasks from their phones as well as their desktops to keep processes moving, saving time and helping to reduce duplicate data entry by users in different locations.

What is the difference between DPA and RPA?

While both DPA and robotic process automation (RPA) technologies are designed to automate and streamline processes, they are different in one key way: how they integrate with outside applications. While a DPA will generally use a specialized API or native integration for a particular application, an RPA solution usually interacts with applications like a human would, using a user interface (UI). This makes the possibility for integrations almost endless for an RPA solution. Because RPA solutions can also be integrated into a DPA solution, to provide last-mile integrations with applications that lack traditional integration points, this means that RPA opens up the integration possibilities for DPA solutions as well.

Choosing the right DPA software solution

When selecting a DPA software solution for your business, it’s important to consider:

Scalability: Your DPA solution should be able to grow with your business.
Ease-of-use: A simple-to-learn system is key to business adoption. Be sure to look for a provider with substantial system support.
Integration capabilities: Your DPA solution should be able to complement existing systems within your digital ecosystem.
Innovative technology: If your DPA software provider isn’t prioritizing innovation, your business won’t be able to evolve at the rate it should be. Stay competitive with vendors that consistently improves upon its technology.

Riela Yachts: Superyachts on Their Digital Journey

For Riela Yachts Ltd — a company that provides cybersecurity, safety, technical, crew, fiduciary administration and emergency response services to superyachts — safety and quality service are top priorities. Using Laserfiche, the organization recently transformed the way that it manages information related to safety standards in order to make critical safety processes and procedures more efficient, effective and transparent. This digital transformation has supported crews in their ability to focus on their day-to-day jobs, and further enabled owners and their guests to fully enjoy their superyacht experience.

Navigating Digital Transformation

Modern superyachts — commercially operated luxury yachts that are 24 meters or larger — have some of the most advanced technology onboard, including engineering and navigational equipment, plus sophisticated “toys” like tenders, helicopters, cars and fully-equipped cinemas. Dedicated to providing services that fully complement superyacht operations, Riela Yachts also leverages leading technology in order to provide a modern experience for those they serve.

Large luxury motor yacht under way sailing out at sea

The company used this tech-forward approach when developing a new solution for meeting the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, an international standard for seagoing vessels.

“It was shocking to understand that on the bridge of these vessels they were operating with huge amounts of paper,” said Christian Moore, technical officer at Riela Yachts.

Riela’s Safety Management System (SMS) is made up of standard operating procedures, contingency plans, operating manuals, reporting forms and more. Prior to using Laserfiche, this information was managed manually, on paper — employees had to print, scan and file documents related to the ISM Code. When updates were made, manuals had to be flown to vessels’ locations, which could be anywhere in the world. A single superyacht could use over 5,000 pages’ worth of forms and manuals each year. The paper and manual processes involved with updating them led to the possibility of ships having outdated versions onboard, and made audits extremely cumbersome.

Riela Yachts recognized an opportunity to digitize and streamline the updating of these manuals, enabling yachts to work smarter and crews to focus on day-to-day operations.

Riela Yachts set out to reduce the amount of paper being used onboard, decrease crews’ administration load as well as improve auditability, to support and simplify ISM Code compliance. By digitizing the manuals that were once made of thousands of pages of paper, Riela Yachts can now store them in an electronic repository. The company also automated the process of updating the manuals of all the superyachts it serves, so that once a change is made, all vessels receive the latest information within minutes.

“We wanted to achieve a fully paperless superyacht where possible and improve the time spent on the SMS for crew, so they can get back to their real job, which is ensuring the owner enjoys their asset to the fullest,” Moore said.

Using Laserfiche Forms, Riela also developed more than 30 electronic forms in the SMS that help individual crews streamline regular procedures. These forms include arrival and departure in port, accident reporting, and checklists for when the engine room goes unmanned.

Now, all information related to these critical safety procedures is collected digitally and automatically sent to Riela’s staff at headquarters in the Isle of Man, so it can be reviewed and stored in a central repository.

Smooth Sailing

Riela Yachts and their customers have saved significant time and money from working smarter and digitizing, centralizing and automating safety manuals and processes. Vessels have the most recent information at their fingertips, making compliance with the ISM Code much less of an administrative burden. Crews are freed from many of the previously required manual tasks and captains are able to audit completed tasks as needed by the ISM.

The company is now also using Laserfiche to digitize more forms including permits for work, standing orders as well as management minutes. Also currently in the works: moving to a mobile app version of the SMS, which will allow captains to access the system through a tablet.

Riela has also been able to recoup administration costs associated with the manual processes and gain new clients as positive reactions to the modern, digital SMS system experience have spread through the docks and shipyards.

“We are excited to for the future and even greater returns on investments as the company grows and expands,” Moore said. “The savings, returns and new business we have gained from introducing Laserfiche have been significant and, after just celebrating our one-year anniversary as a company, we see Laserfiche aiding our success over the years to come.”

Why You Should Use AI for Invoice Processing

Accounts payable (AP) has been an essential part of business for decades. However, today’s organizations have more expected of them in the digital age – vendors now often want payment almost instantly and at the same time completely without error.

To keep up with the changing demands thrust upon modern AP departments, many organizations have used automation software to streamline their processes. However, AP is an incredibly complex process that may still require some manual work.

One of the largest challenges for traditional AP automation is processing data from invoices when the format changes from document to document. Oftentimes organizations design custom solutions to solve this problem. Still, they may take months of setup before AP teams can see value.

However, technology is always evolving. New software can now harness the power of artificial intelligence to recognize not just one type of invoice, but virtually any invoice format sent its way. These new, cutting-edge tools are a boon to organizations looking for a more thoroughly automated AP process, freeing up staff to focus on strategic initiatives and new ideas instead of occupying themselves with busywork.

How AI Makes AP Better

Machine learning is a specific type of AI, used across a variety of industries, from healthcare, to government, technology and finance. The most common way for ML to work is to examine a large data set (say, for example, 1,000,000 photos of various animals) and then find patterns that result in a desired output (for example, which of those photos featured a dog.)

Going back to the challenge of processing invoices, the machine learning solution to this problem works similarly. By examining a wide variety of invoices, the ML algorithm can be trained or instructed to recognize particular patterns, learn from them, and understand fundamentally what makes an invoice, an invoice.

With this knowledge, the ML algorithm, given a group of invoices where no two are formatted the same, would still be able to identify and extract data – such as invoice number, invoice date and vendor name – from each document in the set.

Benefits of using AI for Invoice Processing

Using process automation software with AI technology offers a wide variety of tangible benefits for your organization, such as:

Accurate information: Easily extract invoice information such as invoice date, PO number, invoice number and total due.

Realize ROI faster: Implement a faster AP solution that doesn’t require extra effort to recognize different invoice formats.

Boost productivity: Minimize error-prone data entry by automatically pushing invoice data to enterprise applications.

Protect against fraud: Identify invoice discrepancies early with automated data validation against previously approved POs.

Improve cash flow: Shorten payment cycles and avoid late fees by automating reminders and streamlining payment processing.

Go Beyond What Was Possible with AI

AI technology allows you to go beyond what was possible before with AP automation. Adding the ability to recognize different invoice formats to your workflows can enable your organization to be more agile, adaptive, and efficient when it comes to paying out to vendors.

Want to see for yourself how Laserfiche® can transform your AP department with AI? Test out this technology with our invoice examples or one of your own on our smart invoice capture page.

Coopesa’s Digital Transformation Takes Flight

The digital transformation of the aviation industry continues to create new ways for airline carriers, leasing companies and aircraft service organizations to compete.

While aviation has traditionally lagged behind other industries in digital innovation, Coopesa RL — a provider of service and skilled personnel to the aviation industry since 1963 — has prioritized investing in new technology to transform its business. Most recently, Coopesa used Laserfiche to digitize and automate its documentation processes, which has resulted in a reduction in employee hours spent on updating and tracking down paperwork, better oversight of documents and processes, and a boost in productivity. Additionally, the improvements have shortened the average time planes are grounded for service, enabling Coopesa to offer more value to clients.

“Every day, more and more airlines, competitors and suppliers are transitioning to a digital environment,” says Herbert Cabrera, IT director at Coopesa. “Additionally, many of our mechanics are millennials; they are very willing to work in a sophisticated digital ecosystem. We recognize the need to provide the tools that will empower them to be as effective and productive as possible.”

Safety and Compliance in the Cockpit

Based in Costa Rica, Coopesa offers major maintenance, inspections, modifications, upgrades, refurbishments and painting for the world’s aviation fleets and leasing companies. The company has three hangars, and plans to open a new facility that will accommodate additional offices, back shops and the service of even more narrow- and wide-body planes. As the company evolves its offerings, Coopesa has also embarked on a journey to digitally transform its business as well.

Coopesa’s IT team identified an opportunity to digitize the process of documentation, which is required for every task involved with aircraft repair and maintenance. Documentation enables the company to comply with numerous regulatory requirements from more than 13 aviation regulatory agencies in the region — plus requirements from clients’ countries. Traditionally very manual and paper-heavy, documentation for a single service could take up to three days.

Some of the challenges Coopesa faced as a result of manual, paper-heavy documentation processes included:

A lack of transparency and accountability, and an inability to assess the status of projects.
Significant amount of manual effort involved with finding, reviewing and approving documentation.
Limited ability to make informed business decisions about resource allocation and other strategic concerns.

The company sought a user-friendly, customizable solution that could help employees digitally and securely document service activities and purchases, as well as reduce the manual tasks involved with managing and updating documentation.

“In order to keep up with our growing clientele while continuing to honor our commitment to quality, safety and compliance with regulatory requirements, we turned to Laserfiche digital document management and business process automation,” Cabrera says. “Laserfiche helps us to meet one of our biggest challenges: complying with civil aviation control entities in each of our clients’ countries as well as our own.”

Laserfiche Takes Coopesa to New Heights

Using Laserfiche, Coopesa digitized critical documents related to services and automated many of the tasks related to reviewing, approving and updating documentation. The company also automated the process of material purchase documentation, which must be kept for two to five years for auditing, depending on material type and client requirements.

“Digitizing these processes allows us to avoid manual review of thousands of documents, and mitigated the risk of lost documents that previously had to be physically transferred between offices. We also have a full audit trail for all documents; everything is completely traceable. This digital experience puts us on par with the largest repair shops in the world.”

—Herbert Cabrera, IT director at Coopesa

The company has plans to integrate Laserfiche with other internal systems, to centralize information and enable employees to more easily locate certificates and other critical documents, no matter where they are stored. Another project on the horizon is the digitization of personnel files, which also require strict controls and security.

“For many years, the aviation maintenance industry was reluctant to adopt technological solutions, but now there is a new digital ecosystem,” says Cabrera. “Laserfiche has enabled us to not only participate but act as a leader in the digital transformation of the aviation industry.”

Offering First-Class Customer Experience

Coopesa’s Laserfiche initiatives have significantly reduced costs related to the printing, storage and transportation of paper documents. More importantly, the documentation process — which previously took up to three days — now only takes one to two hours. Clients automatically receive notifications immediately when they have corresponding tasks to complete.

“Streamlining this process is incredibly valuable,” says Cabrera. “We can shorten our turnaround time, while our clients can quickly schedule the return of their aircraft to operation. This has a positive effect on our revenue as well as the customer experience.”

The increase in transparency across the organization also allows for better planning. Staff are empowered with information regarding hangar space, technician and other resource availability to fulfill clients’ service and maintenance needs in the most efficient manner possible. Managers are also better able to measure performance and productivity by examining process data.

Another important benefit: Employees have reclaimed time from tedious, manual processes to be dedicated to more specialized tasks related to quality control and customer service.

“Our biggest satisfaction is seeing aircraft take off from our facilities, and operating safely and reliably,” adds Cabrera. “We will continue to invest in the technology solutions that enable us to be our clients’ partners in maintenance, and to meet their needs with high-value and competitive solutions for service.”

Learn more about why digital transformation is key to success in this white paper – download “Leading for Innovation and Growth: Five Strategies for Driving Digital Transformation.”

Merichem Increases Efficiency and Control in the Fast Changing Oil and Gas Industry

Merichem is a global company that serves the oil and gas industries with focused technology, and chemical and service solutions. Its proprietary impurity removal processes increase the quality of refinery products and oil and gas streams, and the company beneficially reuses spent caustics and other byproducts from oil and petrochemical plants around the world.

Merichem used Laserfiche to automate a number of approval processes, centralize information and improve information governance. The result has been a decrease in the burden on employees for meeting all of the requirements of ISO 9001, ASME and other documentation requirements, an increase in information accuracy and productivity, and faster turnaround times for customers—all critical improvements for an organization focused on operating safely and efficiently in a fast-changing, highly regulated industry.

“There has been a lot of change in the oil and gas industries,” said Amy Magee, project controls manager at Merichem. “It used to be that hiring a bunch of people wasn’t a big deal because the industry was making a lot of money. It’s never going to be the way it used to be—cost savings have become more important. Everyone in the industry is working to better understand how they are using money and how they are operating, so we can do things differently and more efficiently.”

Putting Quality and Safety First

With three U.S. offices and over 1000 treating units in refineries in 53 countries, Merichem must comply with a multitude of safety standards including those of the ISO, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and other organizations related to pressure vessels and refinery equipment.

“Quality and safety are extremely important to us,” said Amy Magee, project controls manager at Merichem. “We need to ensure our systems are built to the right standards. Data sheets are needed for equipment; drawings for construction; plus a lot of testing has to be done. And anyone who operates any of our equipment or the equipment we purchase needs to know what they are doing.”

The company initially needed a new centralized repository for documents, but Magee also realized that the company’s needs went beyond digital storage. “We need the ability to manage licenses with customers and give them access rights to individual folders,” she said, adding that employees previously had to manually track access to specific folders via spreadsheets or on Word documents. “We also have to track versions of documents, and when we disseminate information or updates, we need to know if and when documents are received and reviewed.”

Another essential component of Merichem’s operations, data books, were time intensive to compile, and were often still printed on paper and sent to customers. When a project was completed, employees had to compile anywhere from 10 to 20 books—with about 750,000 pages in each book—in a short time frame. PDFs were manually uploaded, and any time a change is made, it must be carefully tracked and sent to the customer as well. This resulted in increased overtime hours at the end of every project. “Data books were being printed, and employees had to manually mark up the individual copies,” Magee said. “They then had to scan the page back in, and there was no way to know if a customer had opened or looked at it. It was just a monotonous process. You had to check that you didn’t duplicate efforts. A lot had to be done to ensure the information was correct.

“Our cycles are very fast, and a lot of projects are fast-tracked,” Magee added. “Manual work was delaying our processes, and employees had to work overtime to get things done within our time frames.”

The company ultimately turned to Accelerated Information Systems, a Laserfiche Solution Provider, to implement a Laserfiche system that would enable access control, provide tracking capabilities and automate manual processes, including data book compilation.

“Safety is serious business at Merichem,” said Zaheer Master, president of Accelerated Information Systems. “With Laserfiche we’ve automated a critical but monotonous task, freeing employees to work on more important projects.”

Control, Automate, Transform

Today, Merichem uses Laserfiche for document management; Laserfiche provides granular security control so that individual employees are no longer tasked with tracking access to information. Project assistants previously spent on average 750 hours—about half of the hours charged to a typical project—uploading and transmitting documents to multiple outside parties. Today, they have reduced that by about one-third, or 250 hours.

The centralized system also allows employees enhanced search capabilities, saving additional time finding information. “One of the biggest complaints we had about the previous software we were using was that you had to know the exact name of what you were searching for,” Magee said. “Being able to use Laserfiche and do partial or fuzzy searches, and search through OCR and metadata has been huge for us.”

Beyond improving the management of information, Merichem used Laserfiche to automate the process of data book compilation. Today, employees simply need to follow a naming convention for files and an automated workflow compiles the data book in 30 minutes to two hours—a process that used to take a full week.

“I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that Laserfiche makes our employees’ lives easier. It’s had a positive impact inside and outside of my department, across the rest of the organization. It helps all of our employees and alleviates stress related to deadlines, and we are able to expedite the turnaround time for preparing and submitting data books to customers. The end of a project is always a stressful time period, but it’s much easier now since very little manual work has to be done. We don’t have that rush at the end, where everyone’s putting in overtime hours.”

—Amy Magee, Project Controls Manager at Merichem

Continued Improvements, New Efficiencies

Merichem continues to explore new uses for Laserfiche and increase efficiency across the organization. Next, the company has plans to implement Laserfiche for specifications review, another time-intensive and paper-driven process. Magee explained that employees will also use Laserfiche in shipping and receiving, allowing employees to use tablets to take pictures of materials before they are shipped, so that they can upload them to the Laserfiche mobile app. This will assist employees in ensuring the company has records of the exact condition of items before they leave the premises, helping to fulfill requirements of ISO 9001.

Magee encourages her team members to obtain Laserfiche Certification and get involved with process improvement. “Laserfiche has helped in a lot of aspects,” Magee added. “It’s helped to keep everyone on track, and now as we are overseeing and facilitating work, we are able to make sure that people have the tools they need to get important information to customers in a timely manner.”

How Cowlitz County Automated the Property Value Appeal Process

Solution Provided By: Chelsey Hulsey Pedersen, Laserfiche Specialist, Cowlitz County

Cowlitz County, WA has a population of over 102,000 residents and approximately 60,000 parcels of land – both residential and commercial. Each property is either physically inspected or statistically reviewed by an appraiser every year to determine its property value for taxation purposes. Once the value is finalized, the Assessor’s Office sends the taxpayer a Notice of Value which initiates a 30-day appeal period.

If the property owner disagrees with the assessed value, he or she can submit an appeal during this time. Some of these appeals are resolved without a hearing, though sometimes the appellant must plead their case to the county board of equalization. Whatever the outcome, the process has many intermediary steps, which used to be manual and paper driven. All petitions and their associated attachments were submitted on paper. The assessor’s office would make a copy for their paper files. Even though the documents were stored in petition folders in Laserfiche, the assessor’s office still preferred to keep paper versions.

The county transformed this process using Laserfiche Forms and Workflow.

The New Process is Managed Using Laserfiche Forms

The appellant submits the property value petition through an electronic form. This petition form is divided into six sections. Each section asks for a different piece of information.

Before the letting the appellant fill out the petition, the form ensures eligibility.

The appellant can only submit one petition per parcel, per assessment year. There is a lookup configured in the form that checks the parcel number against the database to make sure that it is valid and that there are no other petitions on file for it for the current year.

A database lookup in the form validates the parcel.

The appellant must specify whether to receive all communication regarding this petition electronically or physically. Appellants who elect to receive electronic communications will receive all notices through automatically generated emails. Applicants who elect to receive physical communications will receive a letter that is printed and mailed by either the clerk of the board or the chief appraiser. Over half of applicants opt for electronic communications.

The appellant fills out contact information, including how he or she wants to receive communications throughout the process.

The assessor’s property value is populated from the database based on the parcel number. The appellant must include the property value that he or she thinks is correct.

The appellant provides estimated property values.

The appellant must also specify a valid reason for the appeal. Some valid reasons include problems/damages with the property that weren’t apparent during the assessment, external economic forces such as a change to the neighborhood containing the property, etc.

The appellant must provide specific evidence that the property value needs to be changed.

The petition includes a section for additional property information that is optional to fill out.

Before submitting the petition, the appellant must upload a copy of the notice of valuation, which was already provided by the assessor. The petitioner may also use a custom link to access a copy of the notice if needed.

The final step in the petition is uploading a copy of the notice of valuation.

Sometimes, an appellant prefers to submit a petition in person. The clerk then fills out the Laserfiche form on behalf of the applicant and scans in any supplemental documents.

After submission, this petition is routed to the clerk of the board for review. The clerk reviews the petition to make sure that there is enough evidence provided for the petition to be considered compliant. At this step, the clerk can contact the appellant to clarify or update any information. If the petition is compliant, the clerk assigns a unique petition number.

The clerk of the board reviews the petition to make sure that is compliant.

If the appellant elected to receive information electronically, he or she receives a confirmation email once the clerk has completed her task. If the appellant elected to receive information via physical mail, Workflow generates a letter that the clerk prints and mails.

The email and letter contain the petition number as well as the access key that the appellant can use to look up documentation related to the petition in the future.

Appellants receive a confirmation email or letter once their petition has been accepted.

The petition is then routed to the chief appraiser inside the assessor’s office, who reviews the petition and selects the appraiser most qualified to handle this case.

The chief appraiser assigns an appraiser to handle the petition.

The petition is routed to the assigned appraiser and the appellant is either sent an email or letter letting them know the appraiser’s contact information.

The appraiser has two options:

Compromise on a new property value (if there is sufficient evidence to support a change).
Take the appeal to a hearing before the board of equalization to argue for maintaining the original value.

If the appraiser selects the first option, then he or she is prompted to fill out the value change fields within their user task which will be used to generate a document called a stipulation. If the appraiser selects the second option, he or she drafts a response document and uploads it within their user task. These documents must be reviewed and approved by the chief appraiser before being sent to the appellant.

The appraiser fills out a form to generate a stipulation.

Stipulations are signed by the chief appraiser and appellant, either electronically or by hand depending on the communications method selected by the appellant earlier in the process.

Below is the full Laserfiche Forms process diagram for the property value appeal process.

Appellants Can Access Documentation through a Custom Dashboard

The county developed an innovative way of sharing documents with appellants throughout the process. Every time a document is generated it is saved in the repository. Laserfiche Workflow creates the entry, generates a Laserfiche WebLink URL and stores this URL in a database table along with all the other information about the petition.

Laserfiche Workflow creates a WebLink URL for the document and stores it into the database alongside other information about the petition.

If the appellant wants to access documents related to a particular petition, he or she opens the petition dashboard. This dashboard is a Laserfiche form with the submit button hidden unless the appellant is performing an action, such as uploading evidence, submitting a withdrawal, etc.

The appellant enters the petition number and access key provided in the initial confirmation letter. Forms performs a lookup into the database and fills specific hidden fields with the document’s URL. The documents are opened in WebLink through an iFrame embedded in the form.

Appellants can access documents related to a petition through a dashboard.

“By storing the URL in the database with the other petition information, we can provide access to one or multiple documents which will always be up to date. If there are revisions to a document, we override the URL in the database,” says Laserfiche specialist, Chelsey Hulsey Pedersen.

Documents are loaded from WebLink displayed in an embedded iFrame.

The Clerk of the Board Schedules Hearings

If the petition is not stipulated or withdrawn, the clerk of the board will schedule a hearing. The clerk opens up a hearing dashboard, which is basically an electronic form that contains a table filled with information from a look up into the database containing all of the petitions. The clerk can quickly see which petitions are active, stipulated or withdrawn, and can then schedule the hearings directly though this dashboard.

The clerk of the board can see information about all petitions that are active, stipulated or withdrawn in a central dashboard.

After the hearing is over, the clerk of the board uses Forms to populate a board order. He or she selects all attendees, types out the board findings and determination, and submits.

An electronic form helps the clerk generate a board order.

The board order is generated with data from the electronic form.

Workflow automatically generates a board order document in Microsoft Word, which the appellant can access through the online portal.

The board can make one of three decisions:

Sustain the assessor’s property value.
Overrule the assessor’s property value.
Approve a new property value provided by the assessor.

All documentation related to every petition is stored in the appropriate folder in the repository.

All petitions and related documents are stored in individual folders in the repository by year.

Benefits of Laserfiche

Automating the property tax assessment appeal process with Laserfiche has resulted in many benefits.

It used to take the clerk 15-20 minutes per petition to scan it in, enter the metadata and create a physical file in the cabinet. If there was a problem with the petition, it would take anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple weeks to resolve it. Now, with the online form it takes two minutes to process the petition. If the appellant submits the petition on paper, it takes up to 10 minutes to enter the data into the electronic form and scan in the attachments. Since the form has many required fields, petitions are submitted with fewer errors that need correcting.
The clerk used to take from an hour to 90 minutes to schedule one day’s worth of hearings using a separate spreadsheet. There are usually three or four hearing days, based on the number of petitions. It takes 15 minutes to schedule a full day’s worth of hearings now with the new dashboard.
Processing a stipulation in person took about 25 minutes and by mail from five days to two weeks. Now, the process is automated and can take as little as 10 minutes from start to finish.

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