Hyland Software's Document Management Blog

The White House on Records Management: ‘We Can’t Wait’

// November 29th, 2011 // No Comments » // Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Affordable Housing, Back Office, Document Management, Enterprise content management, Federal Government, Finance & Administration, Government, Health & Human Services, Human Resources, Justice & Public Safety, Public Works, State and Local Government // Terri Jones

“Records management can’t wait,” President Barack Obama told the federal government agencies yesterday, via presidential memorandum. It’s likely the federal government could learn a lot from state and local government agencies who have already embraced records management. Maybe you can, too.

The president hopes to transform federal agencies and create more transparency. How this will happen is captured in a White House blog post titled “We Can’t Wait: Bringing Records Management into the Twenty-First Century.”

It is a great post, but I believe it’s possible many readers will overlook a small – but important – phrase:

“…The [Records Management] Directive will focus on maintaining accountability to the American public through documenting agency actions; increasing efficiency (and thus reducing costs); and switching, where feasible, from paper-based records to electronic records.”

In those few words highlighted above, the enterprise content management (ECM) community rejoices. Why? Because ECM is a valuable tool for government, and it is an investment that should be made at every level of government, even in this time of severe budget reductions.

You see, the flexibility of a good ECM solution means the solution can become a tool for many government departments and initiatives. Understanding this, thousands of cities and counties across the country have already embraced electronic records and ECM, and have used the solution to meet a number of needs. We can see the result:

• Reduced costs. From eliminating paper and file cabinets to the costs of storing and moving files.
• Reclaiming staff time. No more searching for files, no lost documents, no filing, printing or photocopying.
• Speeding up government. Workflow automation shaves days off of processes; physical paper files replaced with electronic allow more staff to simultaneously access information.
• Connecting documents and data. Easy information retrieval helps make the transition from paper files to electronic records easy and intuitive for users, and requires little or no staff training.

At the same time, the ECM investment lays the foundation for meeting transparency and open government initiatives, while realizing all of the lowered costs and efficiency government organizations need to survive. So, access to records can take place through a website or a kiosk or a computer station at an office, improving constituent service while reducing the staff time needed to fill requests.

The good news for federal agencies is that they need look no farther than the counties and cities who have invested in an ECM solution. Other counties and cities who are considering an ECM solution can similarly find ideas and proven value thanks to the examples of their peers.

Current government ECM users show that creating transparency is just one of the benefits of moving to electronic records. So, while federal agencies may make this transition to meet a presidential memorandum on Open Government, their efforts could end up improving government operations, reducing costs and reclaiming staff time for the important work they do. The proof is in the results of cities and counties who have already moved to include ECM as one of their IT tools.

Four ways government can put “Housing First” by handling compliance with ECM

// September 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Affordable Housing, Government // Terri Jones

One thing that government tries to do is fix things that are not being taken care of by the private sector. You’ll find this happening quite often in the affordable housing department.

Perfect example: The flip side of our last decade’s real estate boom was that entire segments of the population could not afford housing. In my department in Arizona, we struggled to fund housing across a wide spectrum of income levels and situations – from emergency housing for the homeless to housing for veterans with disabilities to rental housing for working families who just couldn’t afford Arizona’s rising house prices. To do this, we had to mix funding from sources as diverse as IRS tax credits, HUD and state funds from a Housing Trust Fund.

It’s always been understood that to put “Housing First” – AKA develop affordable housing - you must mix money from many sources. But, no one ever thought about the amount of documentation and compliance issues that this created for hard-working housing agency staff.

It was exactly this complex environment that got me thinking about how our agency could manage it with greater efficiency and ease. There must be a better way!

And there was. You could call this complex compliance issue my document management and workflow “aha moment.” To continue to get these critical funds, the department has to remain in compliance with the rules of all your funders (true of any government agency, regardless of mission). But try remaining in compliance when you are reducing staff at the same time!

Here’s four ways that I used these tools to empower the staff at the agency.

1. Enforcing the program’s rules

First, workflows can make sure the housing program’s rules are taken care of in a way that a physical paper files never could. They ensure that required documentation has been received, and even can identify when documents are missing. If an environmental review is not in the electronic file, the funds request can’t move forward, and a notification e-mail to the project manager is automatically sent.

2. Replacing paper with electronic forms

Workflows are anchored by an amazing thing called electronic forms. They can do some cool things like preliminary tests for eligibility, checking data or starting a process. With electronic forms and a website, customers can apply for programs online and check the status of their project or application online, saving calls to your office while enhancing your customer service.

3. Focusing workers on making decisions – not paper-pushing

The nice thing about workflow is that it removes some of the mundane workload from housing staff. This leaves them more time for higher value tasks like developing housing projects for people with disabilities or the chronically homeless. Using a workflow option is almost like adding more staff!

4. Cutting the paper in the name of information access

While the project management options from a workflow deployment are huge, reducing the burden of the physical paper storage should not be ignored. My department assisted first-time homebuyers, which meant that our files resembled banks – and came with a 30-plus years records retention plan. So, the more successful we were at helping families, the bigger our file storage problem became.

Luckily, we could send files offsite to state archives, but this removed convenient access to files and this made folks at the agency very unhappy. Enter document management and, suddenly, all files could be accessed regardless of where the paper is stored. This is a huge help to housing agencies that have such long compliance periods, but that also need to regularly access files.

So, “Housing First” policies are still important, but now for very different reasons. My concern remains that this important work not be hindered by the compliance difficulties and paper storage requirements of running these agencies. Document management and workflow automation can help. And, when you invest in these technologies, you are helping two important groups of people: those who need safe, decent and affordable housing, and the dedicated folks who work to accomplish this need every day.

ECM software prevents a government paper avalanche

// May 11th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Affordable Housing, Government // Terri Jones

Recently, Mike Bilardo talked about microfilm driving government agencies to embrace enterprise content management (ECM) software. Of course, the difficulties of converting paper to microfilm, using microfilm and, ultimately, storing it is a big incentive to embrace government software, such as ECM.

But so is the paper! 

Paper is a problem in all government agencies, from health and human services to justice and public safety. But one in particular that’s been top of mind for me is the housing finance authority.

Why is paper such an issue for this agency? Just ask the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA). They take on projects that include both single-family homes and multi-family housing. And with each project or loan, more paper documents were produced – to the tune of several 300-page files. 

But these documents aren’t static. Staff conducts multiple reviews of them over decades. Because of these regular reviews, the documents needed to be kept in close proximity which, at the pace of CHFA’s projects, was consuming 1,000 square feet at their site. 

Then there was the issue of retention – 60 years to be exact. That much paper – which grew exponentially with each loan or project –  produced a real avalanche…of paper! It slowed down the staff, created unnecessary costs and made it difficult for CHFA to provide good customer service. 

That’s enough about the problems; let’s look at the solutions!

Today, CHFA finds itself safe from future paper avalanches. They have moved eight departments to an ECM software suite with more departments in progress. Plus, they have reduced the time to retrieve their project files from 12 minutes to 10 seconds or less! 

This makes their staff three times more productive. And that 1,000 square feet of storage has been repurposed at a considerable savings to CHFA. Even better, audits that used to take days, now take hours and there are no longer worries about losing documents. 

Using an ECM product has removed the “danger” of a paper avalanche and improved CHFA’s productivity in the process. Now that’s real return on investment.