2 Streamlining the Business ofGovernment3Streamlining the Business of Government

The Challenge: Going Beyond “Do More with Less”

Work smarter, with tighter bud-gets and fewer people, but continue todeliver quality services to citizens andmaintain records. That mandate, whichthe National League of Cities callsdoing less with less,” is a key business

challenge facing government organiza-tions at all levels.1

More specifically, agencies mustcontinually look for ways to reducecosts and redundancies in busi-ness processes, documents and data, applications and systems. Yet thesesavings and efficiencies must sustainan organization’ s compliance withstandards for information security, personal privacy, records retention andprogram operations.

To address these challenges, gov-ernment IT departments are creatinginitiatives in three areas:1. Maximizing the efficiency and value

of every business process and ITinvestment.

2. Moving documents online forcurrent use, required retention, and preservation of historical andarchived paper records.

3. Supporting collaboration internallyand externally to deliver services atthe level of quality and responsive-ness expected by citizens.Our members must fulfill more

requests for public records, but withfewer staff and the need to reducepaperwork costs because of smallercity budgets,” says Ryan Draughn,

CIO for the North Carolina Leagueof Municipalities. ” This challenge isespecially difficult for large citieswith vast amounts of data and docu-ments that are spread across manydepartments.” 2

One way that forward- thinkinggovernment agencies are solving thesebusiness challenges is by implement-ing enterprise content managementECM) systems.

Conducting Businessthrough Collaborative, Document- Driven Processes

Although government paperwork isa common target of public and politi-cal complaint, documents are in factessential to a public agency’ s ability tooperate and deliver services. How-ever, ”paperwork” doesn’t always needactual paper. Electronic documents areincreasingly replacing paper docu-ments across the spectrum of gov-ernment functions and services (seeDocument- Driven Processes Provide

Value Across Government Agencies” sidebar).

Reduced costs for paper and docu-ment handling, easier access to storedinformation, online search capabilities, and automated archiving and reten-tion management are widely knownbenefits of electronic documents. Whatmay not be immediately evident is thepotential value to be gained from usingelectronic documents as the founda-tion for automating a governmentorganization’ s business processes.

A process- oriented ECM systemprovides the foundation for document-driven workflows. Additionally, it allowsgovernment employees to bettercollaborate internally — and govern-ment agencies to collaborate externallyto promote shared services. The ECMsystem and collaborative applicationsmanage relationships among docu-ments, records, processes and people.

For example, an automated casemanagement process for social servicesrecords begins when the employeescans an intake document or opensthe case using an online form. As theemployee works on the case, the appli-cation tracks progress, sends alerts forneeded actions and documentation,

Streamlining the Business of GovernmentHow Document- Driven Processes Produce Business Value for the Public Sector

Reduced costs for paperand document handling, easieraccess to stored information, online search capabilities, andautomated archiving and retentionmanagement are widely knownbenefits of electronic documents.

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StreamliningtheBusinessofGovernmentand notifies other users about neededapprovals. When the case is closed, theprocess can archive the file according todefined rules, which reduces confusion, saves processing time and improvescompliance with reporting and record-keeping standards.

For other types of public records, anECM system can automatically man-age document classification, retention,

archiving and disposal, while provid-ing user- friendly tools for tracking andauditing records management activities.

Today’s ECM systems provide a coretechnology for:

creating, scanning, storing, process-ing, searching and providing onlineaccess to public records and otherdocuments;reducing costs and providing

simpler and more flexible access;automating workflows and applica-tion processes, based on documentcontent, to allow more collaborationfor improved government opera-tions and service to citizens; andproviding transparency througheasier access to information andservices by citizens and otherstakeholders.

Here are some of the ways public enterprise departments can make effective use of electronic documents andcollaborative applications.

Clerk’s Office: Offer citizens online access to public documents and data, vital records, legal notices, and agendas andminutes for councils and commissions.

Development: Create efficient workflows from project documents, retain electronic archives of documentation for permitsand support easier access to GIS data.

Finance: Process invoices and tax receipts electronically to reduce handling costs, capture early payment discounts oninvoices and gain additional days of earned interest on tax revenues. Protect current sources of state and federal fundingby proving compliance with program and records requirements. Automate contract renewals and purchasing processesfor reduced costs.

Fire and Emergency Services: Store and manage electronic records pertaining to permits and inspection reports.

Human Resources: Automate employment workflows such as tracking job applicants, maintaining personnel files andprocessing insurance claims.

Law Enforcement and Courts: Manage police reports and offender records electronically. Process electronic documentssubmitted for case hearings and publish court opinion and judgment documents online.

Public Health: Meet federal requirements for managing, storing and providing access to patients’ electronic medical records.

Public Works: Help field- based employees save time, increase productivity and improve service delivery by using mobiledevices to enter data, handle workflow tasks and access project documents. Manage electronic records and automatework activities for vehicle fleet management.

Records Management: Take advantage of records management processes to create online, off-site backups of documentsthat would be critical for disaster recovery, compliance or records requests across various public sector agencies anddepartments.

Document- Driven Processes Provide Value Across Government Agencies

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Assessing Your CurrentECM Solution

You may already be using a sys-tem for managing electronic records. If so, you’ll find value in assessing thestrengths and weaknesses of that solu-tion for moving your organization towarddocument- driven business processes.

For an ECM solution that is suitedto the new, streamlined governmentoperations model, essential capabili-ties are listed in Table 1.

Legacy ECM systems may havesignificant limitations for moving tocollaborative applications and docu-ment- driven processes, including:

few if any capabilities for managing

collaboration that involves pro-cesses instead of documents;lack of flexibility for automatingnew processes and modifying exist-ing processes to meet changingprogram or business requirements;complex, non- standardized userinterfaces that make it difficult, confusing and time- consuming toaccess data and retrieve documentsacross departments or functions; andlimited interoperability with othersystems, data types and processesthat hinders development of collab-orative applications, shared docu-ments and shared services.

Of course, an ECM solution alonecan’t move an organization to busi-ness- driven processes that substan-tially increase efficiencies and reducecosts. It’s also important to reviewlong- established assumptions forhow we do things.” Your users may

already be questioning some of theseassumptions based on their experiencewith other business and consumertechnologies.

How the Public Sector isUsing CollaborativeApplications

Public entities at the state, countyand municipal levels are already using

Table 1: Essential Capabilities for a Government ECM Solution

Document Processing Document Storage Application Development

Captures paper documents withdifferent formats and sizes as wellas electronic documents, emailsand audio/ video files

Automates document posting to anintranet or public website withoutHTML coding

Supports interoperability thatallows data updates in one systemto be automatically reflected inanother

Automates managerial tasks suchas approval routing and issueescalation

Audits user interactions at all steps

Manages digital archives foronline or offline storage andautomatically applies informationmanagement rules

Offers uniform data/ documentrepository, auditing andcompliance reporting functions

Provides standard andcustomizable security measuresfor documents, data, applications, departments and users

Supports full- text, image file andcustomizable search functions

Scales to serve large repositories, longer retention, and growth indocument and data volumes

Allows use of a universalrepository with customized accessfor each department

Acts as middleware for integratingwith business systems such asGIS, CRM and ERP as well as legacyECM systems

Supports independent applicationsand repeatable shared services

Allows development of applicationswith central control and localflexibility

Provides a flexible user interfacefor entering documents and dataand receiving updates on systemactivity

Supports mobile devices withsecure access for remotelyaccessing data, applications andworkflows

Enables document searches acrossthe ECM system and other onlinesources

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document- driven processes and ECM solu-tions in a variety of transformative ways.

Arkansas Supreme CourtWaiting weeks for court opinions to

be compiled and published in quarterlyprinted books is no longer acceptablein a society accustomed to immediateonline access to information. Recogniz-ing this shift in expectations amongthe public and attorneys it serves, theArkansas Supreme Court now uses anECM system to electronically publishopinions the day they are issued.

Arkansas’ Supreme Court was thefirst in the country to make its officialopinions only available electronically,” says Daron Frederick, the court’s net-work administrator. ” We were also oneof the first courts to offer live webcastsof oral arguments. Once the opinionsare handed down, they are linked to thearchived arguments and made availableto the public through our ECM system.” 3

Collin County, TexasTaking an enterprise view, the

IT managers for Collin County havebeen focused on document manage-ment for nearly every department. Transitioning to electronic documentstorage has been essential for keep-ing up with surging population growthand demand for public services. Andusing a standard ECM system hasbeen essential for the county’s centralIT staff to deploy electronic documentsolutions for many county depart-ments and functions.

Today, the ECM solution man-ages access, storage and retention fordocuments ranging from tax and land

records in the County Clerk’s Officeto case records for the County Courtto training manuals for the Sheriff’ sDepartment. The county has reducedcosts for paper and storage facilities byusing the ECM system for both primaryand backup copies of each document. Yet paper and storage costs aren’t theonly factors to examine when calculat-ing the return of an ECM investment, says Caren Skipworth, CIO for CollinCounty. ” Our best payback is the fasterand easier information access. It’s alsovaluable to have audit capabilities thatgive us visibility and control over whatusers are doing with documents.”

Although elected officials mayrecognize these benefits, Skipworthnotes they may still have concernsabout making a complete transition toelectronic documents. ” Because ourelected officials make the decisionsabout which documents to keep forhow long, we work with them to showhow electronic document storage can

improve records access and retentionmanagement,” she says.

With many of the planned docu-ment management projects complete, the Collin County IT team is nowworking with departments to identifysuitable activities for originating docu-ments electronically. This effort willalso review workflows and processesfor potential improvement throughautomation. 4

North Carolina Leagueof Municipalities

Although not a government entityitself, the league is very much attunedto the business and paperwork chal-lenges of its more than 500 city andtown members. ”Our members knowthey need to reduce and avoid costswherever they can because of decliningpublic budgets,” says Ryan Draughn, CIO. ” They also need to work moreeffectively because they have fewerstaff. And they need to consider how

Collin County, Texas

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they could continue to operate if adisaster destroys their paper recordsor makes them inaccessible.”

The league uses an ECM systemto manage electronic claims docu-ments for the insurance pool it runs formembers. Claims are now completelypaperless and electronic documents areintegrated with the claims processingapplication. The insurance underwritingdepartment is also transitioning its 1.2million documents to electronic storageand management in the ECM system.5

Ramsey County, Minn. Invoice processing to support an

upgrade to the accounting system wasone of the first big implementationsfor the ECM solution used by RamseyCounty. Paper invoices are scannedand saved as electronic documents inthe ECM, which also accepts invoicessubmitted in PDF and other electronicforms. The invoices are routed auto-matically for electronic approvals ( theapprovals are done in the accountingsoftware, not ECM software), which

reduces processing costs and delays. Another key application is auto-

mated workflow processes andelectronic documents for managingchild protection cases in the CountyAttorney’ s Office. This applicationprovides secure mobile access to casedocuments for attorneys while theywork in court or at home, and improvedworkflow for all cases.

All of our employees are tryingto retrieve information more quickly, so now the departments are com-ing to our IT teams with requests forelectronic document projects,” saysToyia Arvin, EDMS Business Analyst forRamsey County.6

City of Riverside, Calif. Electronic documents are now the

standard operating procedure for River-side, Calif., employees. An ECM systemmanages documents in a variety ofdepartments, including the City Clerk, Human Resources, Finance, PublicWorks and Public Utilities. The RiversidePolice Department also uses ECM tomanage police reports, including inte-gration with a computer- aided dispatchsystem. ” The biggest benefit of ourECM system is having real- time, onlineaccess to documents, which meansemployees don’t spend as much timetrying to find materials,” says SteveReneker, City of Riverside CIO.

In most cases, electronic documentproject deployment has only takena few months. The IT departmentallocates the cost of ECM user licensesand project support to the individualdepartments in a way that reflectsactual usage. 7

Table 2: Potential Investment Requirements for Migrating toDocument- Driven Business Functions

Investment Area Potential Investment Needs

ECM Solution

Computing andNetwork Technologies

Process Integration

Personal Training

Shared Services

A new or upgraded software systemfor creating, storing and managingelectronic documents

Additional document scanners, mobiledevices and data storage systems, especially when large volumes ofhistorical documents are newlyscanned for electronic archiving

Needs analysis and application design, development, testing and rollout tocreate automated workflows anddocument handling for each targetbusiness process

Online or in-person training resourcesfor employees, citizens and otherusers about accessing electronicdocuments and participating inautomated workflows

Realigning work functions that takeadvantage of the efficiencies andcost savings enabled by electronicdocuments and automated workflows

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Making the Transition toDocument- Driven Processes

Reaching the goal of more efficientprocesses for handling documents andimproving workflows will necessarily bea gradual transition. For a time, it maybe necessary to integrate with legacyECM systems while applications anddocuments are migrated to a new ECMsolution.

Capital and operational invest-ments that may be needed for thisnew way of working are shown in Table2. At first glance, these investmentscan seem daunting. They become lessso by planning a gradual implementa-tion and by considering the payback

of reduced costs and improvementsin how business is done by yourorganization.

Conclusion: Migrating toECM and Document- DrivenProcesses

For other public sector IT departments, Ramsey County’s Compliance and RecordsManager Rochelle Waldoch recommendsthe following practices for implementingelectronic documents and collaborativeprocesses:

Use a consultant to help identify thetypes of content management neededand potential applications and auto-mation projects.Evaluate the readiness of depart-ments and users for new ways ofworking and structuring information.Require that each department assignan employee to the project teamand confirm support among depart-ment managers before beginning theproject.Set realistic expectations for projecttimelines and deliverables.We also found it helpful to form a

cross- department governance committeeto help prioritize requests,” says Waldoch. Because high- level department manag-

ers serve on this committee, it’s easier to

reach agreement on funding decisions, resource allocations and which projectscan be developed as shared services.” 8

For the IT team, the following analysesand development practices can help todeliver timely and targeted ECM projects:

Identify ways to leverage legacycontent and systems until the migra-tion to a new ECM and processes iscomplete.Deploy applications from a functionalperspective to support repeatable pro-cesses across programs, offices anddepartments.Consider how to meet common regu-latory requirements on an enterpriselevel.Use a service- oriented architectureSOA) approach to integrate otherenterprise business systems withdocument- driven processes.Maintain central control of collabora-tive applications and process develop-ment while allowing department- levelflexibility for application access anddocument management.Together, all of these practices can

help realize the benefits of ECM andautomated, collaborative applicationswhile using the resources and busi-ness approach that are right for yourorganization.

1. Emerging Issues: Doing Less with Less, and Beyond, National League of Cities: http:// nlc.org/ news- center/ nations- cities- weekly/ articles/ 2011/december/ emerging- issues- doing- less- with- less- and- beyond

2. CDG interview with Ryan Draughn conducted on Feb. 28, 2012.3. CDG interview with Daron Frederick conducted on Feb. 27, 2012.4. CDG interview with Caren Skipworth conducted on Feb. 28, 2012.5. CDG interview with Ryan Draughn conducted on Feb. 28, 2012.6. CDG interview with Rochelle Waldoch and Toyia Arvin conducted on Feb. 29, 2012.7. CDG interview with Steve Reneker conducted on March 5, 2012.8. CDG interview with Rochelle Waldoch and Toyia Arvin conducted on Feb. 29, 2012.

1. http:// www. laserfiche. com/ SolutionExchange

Endnotes

Resources

We also found it helpfulto form a cross- departmentgovernance committee to helpprioritize requests. Because high-level department managers serveon this committee, it’s easierto reach agreement on fundingdecisions, resource allocations andwhich projects can be developed asshared services.”

RoCheLLe WALdoCh, CoMpLiANCe ANdReCoRdS MANAGeR, RAMSey CouNTy, MiNN.