A Johannesburg-based engineering company digitally transformed occupational health and safety incident reports, helping with compliance, communication and changing how the mining industry does business.
The school district used Laserfiche to process payroll without any delays during Hurricane Harvey, when employees needed it most.
Dedicated to the care of children with autism, Learning ARTS shares data about patients with their parents and behavior specialists in real-time to enhance care and programming, thanks to Laserfiche.
Offering Laserfiche records management as a shared service increased efficiency and enhanced countywide collaboration.
A leading manufacturer and supplier of formwork and scaffolding systems, PERI streamlined operations and enhanced the customer experience through an online portal.
Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Julie Holcomb, City Clerk and Alan Karasin, Senior Network Administrator, City of Ithaca, NY
Located in central New York, the city of Ithaca is the county seat of Tompkins County and home to 30,000 residents. Each fall, nearly 30,000 students make their way to Ithaca’s Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins-Cortland Community College.
The city used to process marriage licenses using a proprietary software system that worked well for them at the time, but there was growing concerns regarding the future of software maintenance. As the system was reaching its end-of-life, the city decided to re-evaluate the process and use Laserfiche to streamline it with development assistance from their solution provider, General Code.
The new process starts when the couple applying for a marriage license arrives at the license office with their official documents. The customer service representative fills out a marriage license application form in Laserfiche Forms using the information provided by the couple. Once that form is filled out and submitted, Laserfiche Workflow creates a formatted PDF document with the information. The customer service rep prints out this document onto a paper form provided by the state. The couple reviews the printed form to make sure that all the information in it is correct. If any information is incorrect, the rep updates it in Forms and prints out another form. Once all the information is finalized, the rep approves it and the printed form is signed by everyone.
The submitted form is placed in a queue awaiting information from the actual marriage ceremony. The couple has 60 days to get married from the date that they pick up the marriage license. Once the couple is married, they bring or mail the form back into the office. The rep enters the marriage information into Laserfiche Forms.
Once that information is filled out and the form submitted, Workflow generates the marriage certificate which the rep prints out and mails to the couple. The rep then scans the original, signed marriage license form into the couple’s folder in Laserfiche.
If 90 days pass and the couple doesn’t return the certificate with the marriage information, the license expires and all documents are moved to the Expired folder in Laserfiche.
Many citizens come to the marriage licensing office to retrieve a certified copy of their marriage records. Since all marriage certification information is stored in Laserfiche, the customer service rep simply performs a field search using some of the person’s information to find the appropriate folder. The folder either contains the original certificate information, and a scanned copy of the original marriage license, or, for all older licenses, an empty document with just the metadata that contains the appropriate information.
Older records may require the rep to enter additional information from historical marriage books into the metadata fields to complete the record but once this is done initially, the task never needs to be repeated. If there is no actual certificate available, the rep launches a workflow that generates the certified transcript of the marriage record. The rep then prints this certificate on the appropriate form. This whole process takes just a few minutes.
Streamlining the marriage license process with Laserfiche has resulted in many benefits for the city of Ithaca. Unlike the old process, the new process can be launched from any computer with an internet connection, making it possible for people who are homebound or incarcerated to be able to apply for a marriage license. Marriage license transcripts are also much easier to retrieve since they are all stored in a central location and can be easily searched for vs. flipping through pages of older handwritten books.
Town and City Clerks in New York State now have an additional product they can consider when evaluating their licensing needs. As with many Laserfiche projects, these benefits are the “gift that keep on giving.” Future generations of municipal workers will become much more efficient and effective as they will no longer need to sort through old records in questionable condition and stored in less than optimal locations.
New Beginning Children’s Homes Transforms Foster Care Placement and Services
New Beginning Children’s Homes—an Arkansas-based nonprofit dedicated to providing long-term, family-style living to children in the foster care system—began a digital transformation initiative to expedite and better personalize services. Using Laserfiche to digitize and automate many of the manual, everyday tasks required in caring for children in the foster care system, the nonprofit reduced inefficiencies and communication delays across a child’s entire support team.
Powering Faster Placement with Electronic Forms
New Beginning first implemented Laserfiche to streamline its referral program. By using Laserfiche Forms to digitize the paperwork required for placement inquiries, New Beginning now enables Department of Health Services (DHS) caseworkers to submit a complete profile of a child’s background to the organization.
Automated workflows assist staff in quickly evaluating and matching children with the right foster environment. Both caseworkers and foster parents of new placements are instantly notified via email.
“By knowing a child’s background in advance and being able to prepare for their arrival, we are in a better spot to serve them,” says Joseph Rocko, Director of Residential and Community Services at New Beginning.
New Beginning also used Laserfiche Forms to transform a 52-page intake packet that often used to arrive from DHS months after a child’s placement. Now, collecting the information electronically and automating the packet’s review process greatly reduces delays and manual data errors. These improvements enable New Beginning to facilitate rapid action, communication and service delivery among multiple agencies, caseworkers and foster families from the start.
“All of these things have helped to reduce the amount of time we’re spending emailing back and forth, making calls to and from the caseworkers, attempting to touch base with our foster homes to talk with them about the children we’re looking to place,” Rocko says. “Just about any process that took more than two phone calls to make, we made that into an automated process in Laserfiche in one click—simple edit, done.”
Powerful Service with Server-Less Cloud Systems
By implementing a Laserfiche cloud solution, New Beginning benefited from scalability. The organization also automated other critical forms-based processes, like employment applications and monthly summaries, to ensure quality care is provided throughout a child’s stay.
Previously, New Beginning’s staff and foster parents spent hours processing over 60 handwritten pages of weekly case notes. With digital forms, parents can now complete case notes in a matter of minutes, and administrators spend just 40 minutes each week filing case documentation. Laserfiche instantly sends new documentation to a child’s therapists, DHS works and attorneys, forming a complete, accessible and accurate snapshot of a child’s experience in foster care and insight into areas for immediate follow-up.
“By having Laserfiche implemented and having these pre-fillable forms for these families, we have found that 100 percent of the efforts that go into documentation have been reduced,” says Rocko. “Our families are able to turn that time and focus more on the family unit.”
Benefits
“The crazy thing about implementing Laserfiche was that we knew we could save time and be more efficient; however, we never realized the other cost savings that would come with it,” says Rocko. “Best of all though, our parents can now spend more time being a supportive family for the children that come into our care. Instead of hours pushing paperwork, they spend a fraction of the time with the electronic forms.”
Want to learn more about transforming case management with Laserfiche? Click here to get a personalized demo.
Oakwood University transformed student services by replacing its legacy document imaging system with Laserfiche to increase efficiency, reduce paper use and eliminate ineffective manual processes. By automating rudimentary processes with Laserfiche, the university has reclaimed staff and student time and redirected it toward student success.
Adopting a Culture of Automation on Campus
Oakwood University is a private, historically black university located in Huntsville, Alabama. The university, which services nearly 1,800 students, aims to provide the kind of education that will prepare students for the workplace. In order to achieve its mission, the university made it a priority to adopt a culture of automation to meet the expectations of today’s tech-savvy students.
“One of the strategic goals that the Oakwood University leadership team has been working toward is developing a culture of automation on campus,” says Oakwood University interim CIO Anthony Walker. “We are actively working to update manual, paper-driven processes. These updates will enable us to operate as efficiently as possible, ensuring the best possible experience for current and prospective students.”
In order to transform into a modern campus, Oakwood University assessed its technology and determined that it would need to replace a legacy document imaging system since it lacked the ability to automate processes. The university then turned to Laserfiche to improve efficiency, reduce paper use and eliminate ineffective manual processes.
Streamlining the Graduations Clearance Process
One of the first processes automated with Laserfiche was the graduation clearance process. Like many universities, in order to graduate from Oakwood, students need to obtain graduation clearance. This involves obtaining signatures from their advisor, the registrar and other university staff which previously took months. Students had to carry a paper form to multiple locations around campus to obtain all the necessary signatures. Students would have to start this process months in advance in order to graduate on time.
By redesigning the process using Laserfiche Forms instead of paper forms, Oakwood University reduced processing time from months to just a few weeks and increased transparency throughout the entire process. Additional benefits include:
Servicing Students at the Highest Level
Since adopting Laserfiche, Oakwood University has capitalized on an automated approach to student services.
“By leveraging process automation, the university has automated rudimentary tasks, allowing staff members to serve students in a quicker and more efficient manner,” Walker explains.
Some of the student-facing processes that have been enhanced through automation include:
“Oakwood University now has a holistic view of each student’s academic history, allowing professors to create a plan of action based on data if a student starts to fall behind,” says Walker. “This is a critical component in ensuring student success.”
In addition, Oakwood University also provides an opportunity for students to become gold certified in the Laserfiche technology. This training—that would typically cost thousands of dollars for future employers—give students a leg-up in the competitive job market, as well as higher paid work opportunities on campus to support the Laserfiche system.
“Not only is Laserfiche enabling us to provide personalized support and guidance for each individual student, but it’s also allowing us to help students achieve tangible, professional success,” says Walker. “Our mission is to prepare students for their professional future, and Laserfiche is helping us achieve this.”
Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Jeannine Stickle, Records Manager Clerk and Linda Manning, City Clerk, City of Aspen, CO
The City of Aspen, CO has roughly 6,200 registered voters. Regular elections are held every two years, and the voter turnout is usually about 40%, which equates to between 2,200-2,500 voters. The city has up to three vote centers that support six precincts. Voters can submit ballots in five different ways: by mail, drop-off at a vote center, by email, early or in-person.
Before implementing Laserfiche, the city faced many challenges in managing the voting process. For in-person voting, election judges had to search through printed registration lists to determine if a voter was at a correct vote center. New voters who registered at the county clerk’s office had to take a printed certificate to the vote center. Judges needed to call the county clerk to confirm that the voter was actually registered before letting him or her vote.
If a voter moved to a different precinct or changed his or her name, the election judge had to also call the county clerk to confirm these changes. The election judge had to verify the signatures on mail-in or drop-off ballots against a printed list.
According to Colorado state law, a voter can submit up to three ballots. Each successive ballot voids the previous one. Everything was kept track of in a hand-written poll book. In total, there were 12 hand-written logs used for various ballot processes. These logs were then re-entered into the master polling spreadsheet.
The whole process had a high potential for errors because paper was not able to display real-time updates to voter information. Since Aspen is a resort town with high residential turnover (20%+ annually and large number of second homeowners), the city experiences many changes to the voter lists.
All of these challenges led the city of Aspen to try to find an easier way to manage the elections. Laserfiche was the solution.
“There is a lack of software out there that does what we are doing with Laserfiche (for elections.)” – says Linda Manning, City Clerk.
Before any election, the county clerk sends images of voter signatures to the city clerk. The city clerk uploads these signatures into the Laserfiche repository and names each one according to the voter ID number, which is the unique identifier for every voter. Each signature image in the repository has a Voter Information template attached to it.
A list of all registered voters and their associated information is stored in an Excel spreadsheet by voter ID number. The city clerk runs a Laserfiche workflow that parses the spreadsheet, finds the associated signature image in the repository and updates its metadata with information from the spreadsheet.
If Workflow cannot find the appropriate signature image because the voter is new, it creates a placeholder document to which it adds the appropriate metadata. When the county clerk sends the appropriate signature image, the city clerk overwrites the placeholder image.
The image below shows the diagram of the workflow which parses the voter spreadsheet, finds the signature image and updates the image’s metadata with information from the spreadsheet.
Processing Mail-in BallotsIn Colorado, a voter has three chances to vote. To keep track of the number of times that each voter has voted, the city added fields into the Voter Information metadata template that correspond to three different ballots. Since every voter initially receives a ballot by mail, the city clerk does a mass update to the Ballot 1 Type and Issue Date fields to reflect the issuance of the ballot to the voters in the database at the time the first ballots are mailed.
Each mailed out ballot is identified by a unique barcode, which contains the voter ID number. The city clerk scans the barcode of any ballot that is returned and enters the ballot return method, date and ballot batch ID into a spreadsheet. A workflow parses this spreadsheet, finds the associated signature image in the repository and updates the appropriate metadata fields with information from the spreadsheet.
Election judges check the signature on the ballot against the stored signature image in the database. If the signatures don’t match up, the election judge moves the image to the For Review folder. The city clerk contacts each person in this folder and asks them to prove their identity in a different way.
In Colorado, new voters can register all the way up to and including on election day. New registered voters receive a certificate of registration, which they show to one of the election judges at the vote center. In order to record this voter’s information in Laserfiche, the election judge fills out the electronic Voter Registration form with information from the registration certificate. Some information, such as the city, is pre-populated to simplify filling out the form. Once the election judge submits the form, a copy is saved in a New Registrations folder in the repository.
When a person arrives at the vote center to vote, the election judge checks-in him or her by finding the voter’s signature image in Laserfiche.
The judge can quickly see if this person has already voted in this election by looking to see if Ballot 1, Ballot 2 and Ballot 3 fields have values in them.
The judge clicks on the button in the toolbar corresponding to the correct ballot number. If no ballot has been submitted so far, the judge clicks on Ballot 1. If there are values for Ballot 1 in the metadata already, the judge clicks on Ballot 2, etc. Clicking the button launches the corresponding Laserfiche form. For example, if the Ballot 2 button is clicked, the Ballot 2 Submission form is opened.
The judge fills out the voter ID number and all other information regarding this ballot. If the judge selects Polling as the ballot return method, the rest of the form fields are populated with the correct information.
Once the form is submitted, Laserfiche Workflow finds the voter’s signature image in Laserfiche and updates the metadata with ballot information. If the form submitted is for Ballot 2 or 3, Workflow invalidates the other ballots.
The image below shows the workflow that updates the voter’s signature image in Laserfiche with the appropriate ballot information.
Benefits of LaserficheLaserfiche has made the elections process at the city of Aspen much more streamlined and efficient.
“Since we have implemented the new system, we have become very efficient. Election judges take less time to process ballots, since the ballots are ready for processing much earlier,” says Linda.
Since all voter data is available in Laserfiche, the election judges don’t need to enter everything on a paper log, and then re-enter into the computer. Checking in voters at vote centers is much more efficient, since election judges don’t need to read through printed lists and make phone calls to other vote centers.
Auditing has also been streamlined since reconciling the number of ballots with the number of voters is easy and the data is accurate. The city does not have to fear that inconsistencies are discovered in the event of an external audit.
Watch the “Modernizing Vital Election Processes in the Digital Age” to learn how two forward-thinking government organizations are successfully leveraging technology to streamline the voter registration and election judge hiring process
The Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) digitally transformed its records management program, incorporating Laserfiche to digitize, centralize and manage the lifecycle of records. Since deploying Laserfiche, the agency has reclaimed significant time for its case workers while boosting its ranking with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the designation of “high performer”—an improvement that helps secure funding and enables the LACDA to provide more services and programs to more people.
The LACDA is a public agency responsible for providing LA County residents essential programs related to subsidized housing, community development, and affordable housing development and preservation. Serving the most populous county in the United States requires the LACDA to house decades’ worth of records related to hundreds of thousands of cases. These span a wide range, from groups applying for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) that provide resources to underserved areas, to people in need of Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers and residents of all ages applying for education and training in an effort to build better lives and better neighborhoods.
The LACDA previously stored records in filing cabinets and across various servers and systems. As the number of records grew, the agency identified the need to digitize and centralize them using a Laserfiche electronic records management solution. Laserfiche was also integrated with the LACDA’s property management software, Yardi, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, PeopleSoft, to eliminate the risk of duplicating information or work.
“Case managers don’t need to switch between applications to look up or copy information, they can view all the documents in one place,” says Rosa Chevarin, supervisor for Yardi/Laserfiche support. “They like the one-stop shop feel, and everything is streamlined in their natural workflow.”
Through this digital transformation, the agency made information more available, accessible and usable to authorized users.
“In an agency that manages more than 3,000 public and affordable housing units and assists more than 24,000 residents through a housing choice voucher program within the county, being able to pull up submitted information at a moment’s notice is vital,” says Doug Van Gelder, Manager of Information Technology at the LACDA.
This also enables the agency to:
The LACDA’s new solution exceeds the basic expectations of records management and incorporates automation. Laserfiche automatically files documents with standardized naming and folder structure. Additionally, when a record’s retention period has ended, relevant employees are notified to handle disposition.
“The need for services is always going to be great, and everyone is always going to be busy doing their jobs,” Van Gelder says. “Finding and pulling documents, and making sure records are taken care of in accordance to regulations is time consuming. The new system takes that tedious work away from the case managers, so they can focus on the people they serve.”
Since transforming its records management, the LACDA has gained the ability to automate additional business processes. Agency staff has automated the new employee onboarding process, which previously required a new associate to spend about half of their first day on the job filling out paperwork. The new Laserfiche solution enables the agency to send the new employee a link to all the necessary forms that can be completed before their start date.
“I want to be as digital as possible,” says Van Gelder, adding that there are also plans to rebuild the LACDA’s housing portal to allow people to apply for programs online. The workflow for processing those applications would also be automated using Laserfiche to facilitate quicker response times, better transparency into the process for both the staff and applicant, and less risk for error.
The agency’s newfound efficiencies have proven essential in a time when the LACDA’s programs and services are needed more than ever. The waiting list to receive Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers has about 44,000 people on it, while the agency’s staff is down to about half of what it was a decade ago due to the economic downturn and attrition. “The only way we’ve been able to provide the same level of service with half the staffing is through technology,” Van Gelder explains.
Additionally, over 70 percent of the LACDA’s funding comes from HUD, which regularly audits housing authorities to ensure funding is going toward serving people who need these critical programs and services.
“If a housing authority does not rank well, HUD could potentially take funding back and give it to another housing authority that proves it is helping more people and running more efficiently,” Van Gelder says.
Since the LACDA deployed its Laserfiche records management initiative, it has boosted its ranking and maintained its status as a high performer.
“The need is always going to be greater than the funding, but IT is one of the units within the organization that has the ability to provide productivity enhancements while bringing cost down,” Van Gelder says. “We’ve been able to serve more people with quality services and programming with half the staffing we used to have through these technology solutions.”
Leading public sector organizations use an electronic records management solution to increase efficiency and improve citizen services. To learn more, download the free white paper: “Streamlining the Business of Government.”
