How Ramblers Worldwide Holidays Uses Laserfiche Forms and Laserfiche Workflow

Laserfiche Solution Contributed by: Richard Clowser, IT & Business Systems Manager, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays

Based out of the United Kingdom, Ramblers Worldwide Holidays has been organizing guided walking tours and holidays around the world for over 60 years. Most of their business processes are centered on documents. Here is how Laserfiche Forms and Laserfiche Workflow transformed its day-to-day operations.

Laserfiche Forms

Ramblers uses Laserfiche Forms to:
  • Coordinate a meeting time with the tour and clients who will not be travelling on the same flight as the group
  • Register tour leaders around the world for the annual Ramblers conference

Laserfiche Forms also drives Ramblers’ private group sale cycle from the conception phone call to providing a quote. This process works as follows:

1.  The private group manager captures the client’s requirements in a form
Information about private group tours is entered into a Laserfiche form

2.  Once the requirements are submitted, information must be obtained regarding travel, itinerary and available trip leaders to see if this trip is logistically feasible and generate trip costs. All of this information is entered into a different form by representatives from various departments. They can either indicate that they require more time to find pricing or information or supply the final information.
  • Each price quotation has to have a “Valid Until” date specified in the form. Laserfiche Workflow monitors this field and sends reminders when a quotation is about to expire.
  • A private group prospect can request an extension on any price quotes. The private group manager can approve or reject the extension.
Extensions are rejected or approved by filling out another Laserfiche form

3.  The final form is sent to the sales manager, who generates a final price quotation

Laserfiche Workflow generates reminder emails at each step to ensure that any completion or cancellations of the prospects will notify any departments and people involved. These include:
  • Sales and reservations
  • Product planning
  • Travel department
  • Tour leaders
  • Overseas departments

Laserfiche Workflow

Laserfiche Workflow is also used to automate 15 key business processes, which include:
  • Extending support to disaster recovery processes by replicating the critical documents to the Laserfiche cloud server when changes are made
  • Assisting departments in filing documents
  • Performing nightly statistical report runs that would otherwise exhaust system resources during working hours

Marketing research indicated that customers who booked a second holiday with us in the first six months after their first were more likely to become regular customers.

Laserfiche Workflow monitors the reservation database and identifies first-time clients who have just returned from a holiday. It then sends them a voucher for a second holiday, which is redeemable within six months. Laserfiche Workflow:
  • Runs a defined SQL query every night to identify returning clients
  • Checks that the tour they have just taken is not on any exception list (such as a private group tour)
  • Gathers data about the client from the database such as their current loyalty bonus points earned and points redeemed (if any)
  • Calculates a date six months from the day of return and stores it in a token
  • Identifies the parent company of the tour that the client has returned from
  • Checks to see if the client is a first time booker by counting the number of tours the customer signed up for in the database
  • Inserts the booking reference number into the database. This acts as the unique voucher number and is used when the customer redeems the voucher in the future
  • Creates a new document in the “Welcome Home Letter Voucher” folder and attaches a PDF form template to this document
  • Fills out this PDF form with the data collected in the first part of the process and also uses it to populate the document’s template
An example of a voucher with associated metadata

Here is what this workflow looks like:

Laserfiche Workflow moves the completed voucher into a special folder, where it awaits review by operations management. The supervisors check the voucher for accuracy and confirm that the client is new and is not found in the old reservations system. Once verified, they change the status field to “Approved,” which triggers a second workflow that sends an email to the client with the voucher included in the text as well as a PDF attachment. The final document is then stored in the processed folder.

When the client wants to redeem the voucher for £50 off their next holiday, the sales assistant checks that they have a valid voucher stored for future use, and moves it to the Redeemed folder.
Vouchers are saved in a special section of the repository

Benefits

Implementing Laserfiche at Ramblers Worldwide Holidays has resulted in the following benefits:
  • Laserfiche Forms makes it possible to directly populate external database systems without having to export a csv file or import the data manually
  • Projects can go live sooner than standard application development because Laserfiche Forms enables a fast response to changing requirements
  • Laserfiche Workflow has made Ramblers more efficient in handling day-to-day manual tasks related to data checking
  • The Laserfiche Workflow designer is so intuitive that an external business process analyst was able to create five workflows that managed the entire online sales support process after just half a day of training
  • Instead of hiring four additional employees to drive the secondary sales voucher initiative, Ramblers was able to automate the process with Laserfiche and have only one staff member handle approvals

Would you like to see how Laserfiche Forms and Laserfiche Workflow can automate processes within your organization? Get a free demo today.

How D. L. Evans Bank Improved Customer Service with Laserfiche

Laserfiche Solution Contributed by: Tato Munoz, IT Director, D. L. Evans Bank

With over $1.2 billion in assets under management, D. L. Evans Bank is one of the leading banks in Idaho. However, before using an ECM system, the firm’s large customer base required using an excessive amount of paper that needed to be routed between multiple branches and the head office.

For example, if a customer reported a lost or stolen credit card in the past, he would have to fill out a paper form and submit it to the customer service representative. The representative then had to:

  • Create a service ticket in the BancVue CRM
  • Fax the form with the ticket number to the credit card department
  • Email the credit card department about the incoming ticket
  • Contact the customer once the credit card had been issued

Today, this process has been automated and made paperless with Laserfiche Workflow.

Current process

The paper form has been replaced with a fillable PDF. Now, when the customer reports a lost or stolen credit card, the customer service rep opens the PDF and enters the account number. The customer signs the form electronically and the form is saved in Laserfiche where it is processed by Laserfiche Workflow and routed to the appropriate departments for approval.

Laserfiche Workflow monitors this process, enters all pertinent information into the BancVue CRM and generates the corresponding email notifications.

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The blank lost/stolen credit card PDF form that is populated by Laserfiche Workflow

Once the form is saved in the repository, Laserfiche Workflow:

  • Populates the remaining fields in the form with information from the CRM.
  • Automatically creates the service ticket in the CRM.
  • Emails the branch operations executive assistant a link to the file in Laserfiche, so she can verify that all documentation is in order. She can then either accept or deny the application.
    • Accepted applications: An email is sent to the credit card department, which can either accept the application for processing or deny it. Denying the card triggers an email notification to the customer service representative and closes the ticket.
    • Denied applications: An email with an explanation is sent to the customer service representative, and the ticket is closed.

When the processing is complete, Laserfiche Workflow:

  • Automatically updates the service ticket in the CRM.
  • Routes the form to the finalized storage location in Laserfiche.

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Lost/stolen credit card documents are stored in the Bankcards folder by customer name.

  • Sends an email to the customer service representative with a link to the finalized document.
  • The customer service representative can then notify the customer.

Here is what this workflow looks like:

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Benefits of Laserfiche

Implementing Laserfiche at D.L. Evans has resulted in the following benefits:

  • Audit time has been reduced from six weeks to two weeks since all documents are available directly in Laserfiche.
  • Credit cards are issued in a much more timely manner, since information no longer needs to be faxed back and forth.
  • Customer service has improved because a customer service representative can quickly retrieve a document or copy of signature directly from Laserfiche, without having to get it faxed from a different office.

Would you like to see how Laserfiche helped other organizations improve customer service? Download a complimentary copy of Quicker Better Safer today.

Quicker Better Safer - Laserfiche ECM Software

How the City of Boca Raton Created a Paperless Accounts Payable Process

Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Ed Rolon, Information Technology Manager, Boca Raton, FL

All new technology projects at the City of Boca Raton, FL, follow an eight step implementation strategy. Here is how the City automated its accounts payable process with Laserfiche Forms and Laserfiche Workflow.

Lean project management

Boca Raton created a Boca Lean Steering Committee or the Lean Team to oversee all Laserfiche projects. The city uses the lean methodology for project management which is a customer‐centered approach that uses existing resources to identify areas for improvement by eliminating non‐value added activities. Members of the Lean Team represent different departments such as:
  • Financial services
  • Police
  • Utilities engineering
  • IT
  • Compliance

Before automating their first process, the Lean Team participated in a general training about lean process improvement that was led by the City.

1. Get a request

Potential projects are prioritized after they are received. The City tackles the most visible projects, such as the accounts payable automation process, first. These processes affect many staff members, so automation has the greatest impact in these areas. More employees are able to see a tangible benefit and therefore get on board with the project.

2. Hold a kick off meeting

Once the accounts payable process was selected, the Lean Team participated in a “Kaizen” event during which they looked for as many improvements to the accounts payable process as possible. Afterwards, the team held a kick-off meeting with various representatives from departments throughout the city to discuss the overall team goals of the project, the project charter and scope as well as identify stakeholders.

3. Go through a lean discovery process

This was the most time-intensive part of the accounts payable project. During this phase, the Lean Team mapped out the existing process on the wall with sticky notes. Every step, no matter how small, was included. Once the process was mapped out the team evaluated each step and asked if it was value added. Non-value added activities such as walking a file to someone’s office or obtaining three different signatures were identified as waste and discarded.

During the discovery process, the steering Lean Team communicated with the rest of the city through monthly newsletters outlining the progress to help generate buy-in from stakeholders for eventual change.
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4. The new Accounts Payable process

Once the non-value added activities were eliminated, the new accounts payable process was designed in Microsoft Visio. Only value-added steps were included. Here is the new process the team designed:
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5. Design forms and workflows

Once the new accounts payable process was finalized, the workflow developers created workflows and vendor information request forms. The finalized process progresses as follows:
  • Before doing business with the City, a vendor must fill out an Additional Vendor Information form on the Boca Raton website.
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The form is automatically saved in Laserfiche, and Laserfiche Workflow sends an email to the vendor confirming the form submission. Another automatic email is sent to the accounts payable manager who is also notified of the new form submission.
  • Accounts payable staff verifies whether the company is incorporated and, if the verification is complete, the accounts payable manager generates a vendor record in the financial system, SunGard NaviLine.
  • The accounts payable manager opens the form’s metadata and populates the vendor number. She also selects “Completed” from the form status field.
    • If the state of incorporation validation is not successful due to incomplete information, the accounts payable manager enters the reason why the form is incomplete in the comments field and selects an “Incomplete” form status.
  • Laserfiche Workflow sends an automatic email to the vendor with one of two messages:
    • A vendor number and instructions on how to forward invoices to the City.
    • A notification that the form is incomplete and the reason why along with instructions for resubmittal.boca_raton4
  • The vendor sends an email with the invoice attached to a specific email address.
  • The email subject line identifies the vendor and purchase order number.
  • The accounts payable clerk drags and drops the email into the “Accounts PayableInvoicesValidation” folder in Laserfiche and enters the invoice number and amount into the corresponding template fields.
  • If the email subject includes a purchase order number, then Laserfiche Workflow performs a lookup into SunGard NaviLine to check if the purchase order is active.
    • If the purchase order is active, Laserfiche Workflow creates a folder with the vendor name under the “Assignment Vendor” folder based on the first letter of the vendor name.
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  • The accounts payable staff verifies that the goods and services have been received in SunGard.
    • If the department has entered the receiver, the accounts payable staff selects the “Pending Payment” document status from the Finance Document Status field.
    • If the staff member from the department hasn’t entered the receiver, then the accounts payable staff selects the “Sent to Department” status. This triggers an email to the staff member requesting the receiver to be entered into the system and routes the invoice to the “Sent to Department” folder.
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  • When the payment is issued, a copy of the check or electronic fund transfer notification is imported into Laserfiche with Laserfiche Quick Fields and Laserfiche Import Agent.
  • Laserfiche Workflow matches the payment with the invoice and moves both to a common folder in the record series area where it is organized by fiscal year and due date.
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  • City staff can search for invoices through the Laserfiche WebLink portal.
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6. Test

During the testing phase, the City had to redesign some parts of the workflow. For example, originally Laserfiche Workflow was sending an email to a vendor based on the information stored in the customer database. Not all vendors had an associated email address, so sometimes the email would not be sent. To remedy this issue, the workflow was redesigned to send the email to a central inbox from which the accounts payable manager routes it to the correct receiver.

7. Train users

To train users, the Lean Team held training sessions and developed a step-by-step guide to the new process that included detailed instructions and screenshots. This guide is available to everyone through the company’s Internet portal.

Here is sample a page from the guide:
boca_raton9

8. Launch

After training was complete, the City launched the process into production, making changes as needed.

Benefits of Laserfiche

Automating the Accounts Payable Division process with Laserfiche has resulted in the following benefits for Boca Raton:
  • Processing errors have been greatly reduced since purchase orders are now automatically looked up in SunGard NaviLine and matched with appropriate invoices.
  • The process is much faster since redundant (or non-value added) steps have been eliminated.
  • Customer satisfaction has increased tremendously since all vendor information is now submitted through a single, electronic form.
  • Lost invoices have been eliminated since the system tracks the invoice from the moment it is received through the approval process and onto the final payment.
  • All documents including checks and backups are now centrally located in the Laserfiche repository. Each department can check the stage of its payments in the same system.

Do you want to automate accounts payable within your organization? Get the free guide today.
5 Steps to Accounts Payable Automation

How the City of Greeley Automated License Renewals with Laserfiche

Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Mike Mesa, Application Support Specialist and Cheryl Aragon, Deputy City Clerk, City of Greeley, CO

The City of Greeley, CO, processes an average of 150 liquor license renewals per year. Previously, the City Clerk had to manually collect and collate feedback from multiple departments before mailing the application to the state of Colorado.

Here is how Laserfiche Workflow made the liquor license renewal process more efficient.

License renewal applications

As required by the State of Colorado, business owners fill out liquor license renewal applications on paper and deliver or mail them to the City Clerk’s office.

The Deputy City Clerk reviews the applications before scanning them into Laserfiche with Laserfiche Scanning. During this process, she also populates some of the metadata. The rest of the metadata will be populated at a later stage in the process.

Applications are scanned into the “Renewal Scan” folder. Here is what the folder structure looks like:

Laserfiche Workflow

As soon as an application is scanned into Laserfiche, Laserfiche Workflow:
  • Creates a new “Review” document in the form of a fillable PDF and populates it with information stored in the original application’s metadata. Reviewers can leave comments in this form.
  • Sends an email to the designated reviewer in the following five departments:
    • Fire and Building Inspection Department
    • Code Compliance Department
    • Community Development
    • Finance Office
    • Police Department

Here is what this workflow looks like:

Each department makes its comments in the “Review” document. Since the departments are all working from shortcuts, all changes are made in the same master document.
  • After they review the document, the departmental reviewers change the value of the corresponding metadata field to “Yes.”
  • After all five departments have reviewed the document, the Attorney’s Office is automatically notified.
  • The reviewer at the Attorney’s Office checks for legal compliance and makes his own comments in the “Review” document.

If at any point in the process a reviewer takes no action within two days, the reviewer receives a follow-up email. If no action is taken within five business days, an email is sent to both the primary department contact and his backup.

Once the Attorney’s Office has performed its review, the Deputy City Clerk is notified by email. She reviews the reviewers’ comments to make sure that they are clear and complete. Laserfiche Workflow then routes the application to the hearing officer, who has the final say on whether or not to issue the liquor license.

A hearing officer acts much like a judge, but only deals with cases involving administrative agencies. The hearing officer reviews and electronically signs the application. It is then routed back to the Deputy City Clerk, who also signs it electronically, prints it out and mails it to the state, which issues the license.

Here is the workflow that routes shortcuts of the application to the various departments for review:

Benefits of Laserfiche

Automating the liquor license renewal process with Laserfiche resulted in the following benefits:
  • Reviewing license renewal applications is much faster because email notifications remind users to finish tasks in a timely manner.
  • This workflow is so easy to configure that the city plans to apply this process to new license applications and transfer of ownership documents.
  • Any new documents related to a specific license application are automatically stored in the appropriate Laserfiche folder, making all license documents easy to find.

Learn how to map out your business process before automating it with this free guide.

How Breckenridge Grand Vacations Automated HR Onboarding with Laserfiche Forms

Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Irina Garner, HR Technician, Breckenridge Grand Vacations

Breckenridge Grand Vacations manages three timeshare resorts in Breckenridge, CO and is currently building a fourth one. With 400 employees and a 50% turnover rate, the hiring process used to involve a great deal of paper. Here is how Laserfiche Forms made onboarding new hires a quick and painless process.

Legacy process

After a prospective employee accepted a job offer at Breckenridge Grand Vacations, the hiring manager had to:
  • Fill out a lengthy new hire form in Microsoft Excel with all of the new hire’s personal data and salary information.
  • Submit a new helpdesk ticket to set the new employee up with all appropriate hardware and software, such as computer login and phone number.
  • Register the employee for new employee orientation.

Hiring managers generally performed these steps at different times, so the people who needed the information frequently didn’t receive it in a timely matter. The new hire form in particular had to be printed and driven around the organization’s eight different locations through interoffice mail to be signed. It was then delivered to HR, where an employee manually entered all of the new hire’s information into the HR system, only to find out that required information was missing or the form was not filled out correctly.

Here is what the old, cumbersome new hire form looked like:
breckenridge1

Current process

With the new process, the hiring manager simply fills out one Laserfiche form to perform all of the tasks listed above. Here is what this form looks like:
Improved HR onboarding form using Laserfiche Forms

This form is created to be as user-friendly as possible so that the hiring manager only enters a minimal amount of information. Some of the most useful features of this form include:
  • Drop-down fields that ensure the manager selects an answer that is appropriate to the question. For example, the Location field has a list of all of the available locations. The manager does not have to remember the proper spelling or name of a location.
  • Field rules that guarantee the manager only fills out information that is pertinent to the particular new hire. For example, the compensation structure fields only appear if the manager selects the commission pay type.
    Setting field rules for HR onboarding flow with Laserfiche forms
  • Database lookups that allow some of the information, such as the name of the hiring manager’s supervisor, to be prepopulated directly from the employee database. This ensures that the form is routed to the correct people for review.
  • Custom JavaScript applied to the Start Day field that ensures that the new employee starts work on the day of a new hire orientation (every Monday for English speakers and every Friday for Spanish-speakers). This eliminates the problem of a new hire starting on a Tuesday, and not attending the new hire orientation until the following Monday. Here is what this JavaScript looks like:
    Custom javascript for HR onboarding form
  • Read-only fields that ensure that some of the prepopulated data cannot be changed. For example, the three different approvers who need to review the form are automatically populated based on the employee ID of the submitter. Those fields are set as read-only so that the submitter cannot alter the chain of review.

Once the form is submitted, it goes through three different levels of approval (unless the first approver is one of the company’s executives, in which case the other two approval levels are bypassed.) The reviewer is notified by email of a new hire form to review and can view and approve/reject this form directly in Laserfiche Forms. Alternatively, the reviewer can reply directly to the email with either “approve” or “reject” in the email body. Either action will move the form along in the process. Here is what a sample email looks like:
Sample HR onboarding approval e-mail from Laserfiche Forms

If the reviewer doesn’t approve or reject the form in three days, he/she receives a reminder email. If at any point the form is rejected, an email is sent to the hiring manager and the process is terminated.

Once the form has been approved by all reviewers, the HR assistant is notified by email. Another email is sent to the IT helpdesk. The IT email notification contains all of the information the IT employee needs to set up the user in all systems.

Here is what the entire Laserfiche Forms business process looks like:
breckenridge6
Click image to view larger in new window.

Benefits of Laserfiche Forms

Automating the new hire process with Laserfiche Forms has resulted in the following benefits for Breckenridge Grand Vacations:
  • The HR and IT departments receive information that is always correct, complete and timely so that everything is ready before the new hire’s first day.
  • The forms can be built by an HR technician, who can also make changes without having to wait for assistance from the IT department.
  • Direct approval allows managers who travel between locations to approve new hire forms quickly from their email inbox without having to log into Laserfiche Forms.
  • Employee information is more secure—there is no longer the possibility of a form being lost on the way to another location or accidentally viewed by an unauthorized person.

You can learn more about paperless processes in HR by downloading the free guide to HR automation.


How the City of Mount Pearl Recruits New Employees with Laserfiche

Contributed by:Rick Dunphy, Information Technology Manager and Natalia Chebel, Records Officer, City of Mount Pearl

The City of Mount Pearl hires as many as 25 temporary employees during its peak season each year. The recruiting process used to be tedious and paper heavy, but Laserfiche Workflow has changed the way the city works.

Applications

Once a request to hire is submitted to Human Resources by the hiring manager, HR advertises the job either internally within the organization or externally, depending on the position. Normally there is an application deadline of one week for internal job postings and two weeks for external job postings.

The majority of applications are submitted by email while the rest are delivered either in person or by mail.

Previously, applications were kept in paper recruitment files that could contain as many as 500 pages. Now, they are either imported into Laserfiche through the Laserfiche Microsoft Outlook integration or scanned with Laserfiche Scanning.

During the importing or scanning process, the HR administrative assistant fills out the Recruitment Candidate and Recruitment Position templates.
mt_pearl_recruitment1

Once an application is saved in Laserfiche and the template is populated, Laserfiche Workflow moves it to a brand new candidate folder that it just created and synchronizes the metadata between the document and folder. Here is what this part of the workflow looks like:
mt_pearl_recruitment2
Click image to view larger in new window.

To help the hiring committee access the applications more conveniently, Laserfiche Workflow also creates a separate folder that contains only shortcuts to the application packages.

Laserfiche Workflow also sends an email confirmation to the candidate.
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Review

As soon as the system starts processing applications, the HR administrative assistant runs a business process that sends a notification to hiring committee members letting them know that they may start the review process.
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Click image to view larger in new window.

The notification email contains a shortcut to the Application Packages folder and a brief guide on how to leave comments on the applications with metadata and annotations.
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The day after the job posting closes, Laserfiche Workflow generates a list of applicants with their contact information, qualification notes and status (internal or external). This report is a PDF form that is filled out by Laserfiche Workflow based on the information contained in metadata fields.
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Here is what this section of the workflow looks like:
mt_pearl_recruitment7

At each step of the screening, members of the hiring committee make notes, either private or visible to other members. Private notes, useful for reminding the individual committee member about what he liked or disliked about a candidate, are made using sticky notes while public notes are made in the template fields directly.
mt_pearl_recruitment8
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Once all of the members of the hiring committee make a decision about a particular candidate, they change the Agreed-on Applicant Status field to either eligible or ineligible. Candidate folders marked as eligible are moved to the Eligible folder while candidate folders marked as ineligible are moved into the Ineligible folder.
mt_pearl_recruitment10

Here is the section of the workflow that moves the files:
mt_pearl_recruitment11

Throughout the process, Laserfiche Workflow generates acknowledgement letters to applicants at different stages of the recruitment process. For example, it creates and sends letters letting applicants know that they were identified as ineligible after a certain screening stage.

If several positions with the same title (i.e. lifeguard, summer student or laborer) are filled, Laserfiche Workflow also generates standard offer letters.

Benefits of Laserfiche

Automating the recruitment process with Laserfiche has saved the City of Mount Pearl an estimated $30,000 CAD annually after the first year of implementation. In addition, the city was able to:
  • Optimize the screening process by allowing hiring committee members to work with electronic application packages, collaborate more efficiently by sharing notes on applicants, view applicants’ status in the competition and receive notifications of applications pending review.
  • Save time for the HR team by eliminating the need to print and assemble application files (which, in some cases, consisted of over 1,000 pages!).
  • Avoid the grief associated with maintaining physical records—filing, re-filing, running out of space, retrieving, preparing records for disposition, etc.
  • Standardize and speed up notifications and report generation.

You can learn more about paperless processes in HR by downloading the free guide to HR automation.
Ultimate Guide to HR Automation

How Kids Clinic Manages Patient Files with Laserfiche

Contributed by: Sarah Knibbs, Clinic Manager, Kids Clinic

Kids Clinic offers comprehensive consultations, evaluations and treatment for children with developmental, behavioral and psychiatric problems from birth through adulthood. From referral to the final consultation letter, the typical patient care process spans months and involves a number of consultations and tests. Here is how Kids Clinic was able to automate the whole process with Laserfiche.

Patient referral

Referrals to the clinic are received by fax. The clinic uses a virtual fax so that all incoming faxes are automatically stored on the server. The receptionist uploads the referrals from the server to the “To be scheduled” folder in Laserfiche. The Scheduling Manager creates the patient’s record in the clinic’s Jonoke EMR system and schedules the patient’s first appointment. When she is finished, she updates the status of the referral to “Pending Confirmation” and populates the Jonoke ID field. Since all patients are required to confirm the appointment, once they do so, the Scheduling Manager updates the status to “Pending Initial Appointment.”

Patient information is exported from Jonoke on a regular basis and stored in a network folder. From there, it is uploaded into a SQL database at regular intervals. A Laserfiche workflow performs a lookup into this SQL database based on the Jonoke ID to populate the remaining metadata fields.

Initial visit

During the patient’s initial visit the receptionist ensures that the policies and procedures form is signed (once per patient) and marks it as signed in Laserfiche. She then assigns the patient file to a psychometrist by changing the value of the Asignee field.

Laserfiche Workflow creates a shortcut to the patient’s file in the doctor’s personal folder in Laserfiche. Here is what this workflow looks like:

The psychometrist fills out the intake questionnaire in Laserfiche Forms. When the Jonoke ID is provided, a number of fields are pre-filled.

JavaScript is used to automatically calculate the age based on the birth date entered.

After seeing the psychometrist, the patient is assigned to a doctor. The doctor is able to view the patient’s records from his iPad with Laserfiche Mobile during the visit.

The doctor is also able to fill out a counseling form in Laserfiche Forms.

Much of the information is prepopulated from the database based on the Jonoke ID. Certain information, such as the patient’s BMI, is automatically calculated with JavaScript based on the content of the height and weight fields.

Once the form is submitted, Laserfiche Workflow picks it up and routes it to the patient’s folder in Laserfiche.

At the end of the visit, the doctor may order tests, provide additional questionnaires or provide feedback. He updates the file’s status accordingly. He also assigns the file to the next person responsible (such as another doctor, a psychometrist, etc.) using the Assignee field.

Laserfiche Workflow removes the existing shortcuts and creates new shortcuts in the assignee’s home folder and in the folder corresponding to the next step in the workflow.

Subsequent visits

The new assignee conducts the assigned tasks (performs and scores tests, sends letters for transcription, etc.) and updates the status and assignee field when they are complete. The task assignments may be exchanged between the doctor and other clinical personnel multiple times and in an ad hoc fashion.

The workflow is designed to accommodate this exchange by not constraining the sequence of stages. Additionally, there is a history field that tracks each stage that the patient file passes through, along with the name of the user who changed the status and the date/time of the change.

New paperwork

Whenever new patient paperwork is scanned into Laserfiche, the scanner operator populates the Jonoke ID field. Laserfiche Workflow does a lookup into the patient database to populate the remaining metadata.

The new document is then routed into the patient’s folder. If the Patient ID is missing, the document is routed to an Error folder and the workflow terminates. Here is what this workflow looks like:

Advantages of Laserfiche

Implementing Laserfiche has resulted in the following benefits for Kids Clinic:
  • Doctors, psychometrists and other clinical personnel see all patients assigned to them at a glance in their Laserfiche folders.
  • Administration can view all of the patients at a given stage in the workflow to identify bottlenecks and see how the clinic is performing against its benchmarks.
  • Wait times for services have been reduced because employees have more time to focus on the patients.
  • Data entry errors and effort have been reduced with the implementation of Laserfiche Forms. Many form fields are pre-populated with patient data and calculations (e.g. BMI from height and weight) are performed automatically.

How MultiMed Automated Medical Billing with Laserfiche

Contributed by: Stan Hardter, Director of Technical Operations and Bruce Green, Technical Specialist, MultiMed

MultiMed provides medical billing services to a large number of ambulance companies within the state of New York. Here is how Laserfiche simplified and automated the entire ambulance billing process.

Capture and processing

The most important piece of documentation that MultiMed deals with is the pre-hospital care report (PCR), which outlines every medical procedure that has been performed on the patient before he arrives at the hospital. Whenever an ambulance responds to a 911 call and transports a patient to a hospital, the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who staff the ambulance must fill out a PCR.

Each ambulance uses a different vendor for its PCRs. There are approximately nine different PCR formats ranging from printed forms that must be filled out by hand to electronic forms filled out on an onboard computer or tablet.

PCRs are sent to MultiMed by mail, fax, or electronically. Reports that arrive by mail are scanned into a network drive with Laserfiche Quick Fields.
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Laserfiche Import Agent monitors this network drive for any new incoming files and imports them into a centralized intake folder in the Laserfiche repository.
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From there, Laserfiche Workflow routes the PCR to the appropriate client folder.

Laserfiche Workflow also automatically populates the remaining metadata such as patient name, social security number, date of service, profit center and incident number from the RescueNet patient billing system database.
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MultiMed employs medical coders. Each coder is responsible for coding PCRs for a certain number of clients. The coder monitors his clients’ folders for new PCRs and uses the open PCR to code a specific file in RescueNet. Occasionally, if there is a large volume of claims from a particular client, a coder may be asked to monitor different folders.

Once the coder is finished coding the file in RescueNet, he changes the status of the document in Laserfiche to “Archive.” Laserfiche Workflow then moves the claim to an archive folder.

Laserfiche WebLink

MultiMed provides reports to clients such as the number of claims that got paid or denied. Every client has specific requirements as to the content and frequency of these reports. A product similar to Crystal Reports is used to generate these custom reports and makes them available to the clients through a custom Laserfiche WebLink portal. Clients log into the WebLink portal via a VPN connection.
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Advantages of Laserfiche

Implementing Laserfiche at MultiMed has resulted in the following benefits:
  • Data entry errors have been reduced because the majority of metadata can be automatically populated with information from the RescueNet billing system.
  • Clients can view the reports that they need, whenever they need them directly through the Laserfiche WebLink portal.
  • Documents can be quickly retrieved with Laserfiche Search.

Ensure Correct Medical Insurance Claims with Laserfiche

Contributed by: Stan Hardter, Director of Technical Operations and Bruce Green, Technical Specialist, MultiMed

MultiMed provides medical billing services to a large number of ambulance companies within the state of New York. Laserfiche is used to manage the entire medical insurance claim lifecycle. Here is how Laserfiche Workflow helps MultiMed track the electronic data interchange of claims to insurance carriers.

Electronic data interchange

At 2:00 am every morning, claims are sent electronically to insurance carriers in batches via electronic data interchange (EDI). The batch file is essentially a text file broken into pieces with delimiters containing hundreds or even thousands of claims.

ANSI 5010 standards—a new version of the standards for HIPAA-covered electronic transactions that include claims, remittance advice, and requests and responses for eligibility—dictate that the insurance carrier is supposed to acknowledge batches they’ve received by sending specific acknowledgment files back to the sender. This acknowledgment arrives in the form of a 999 files—another delimited text file that notifies the medical billing company if the batch of claims that was just sent over was accepted or rejected.

For accepted batches, a 277 file which notifies the medical billing company what individual claims in the batch file have been accepted or rejected is also sent.

Rejections, at either the batch or claim level, are very important to detect and remediate. If there is one small problem in one claim in a batch of 100 claims, the entire batch may be rejected, even though the batch file contains 99 acceptable claims.

Processing 999 files

Laserfiche Workflow is used to ensure that if there is a problem with the 999 file, the rejected individual claims are identified and the correct employees are notified so that the issue is resolved quickly.
Every time a 999 file is sent by the insurance carrier, it is printed into Laserfiche with Laserfiche Snapshot. The person printing the claim fills out certain document metadata including:
  • Batch ID Number
  • Insurance Carrier Name
  • Whether the batch was accepted or rejected.

Laserfiche Workflow then checks to see if the batch was accepted or rejected.
  • If accepted, the file is renamed to include the date, batch ID number and file type and moved into the archive folders.
  • If rejected, a sticky note is added indicating the insurance carrier and batch ID number. The file is routed to a reviewer’s work folder and an email is sent to the reviewer letting him know that a rejected batch needs attention.

Another workflow checks to ensure that the batch ID number in the template matches the carrier that the batch was sent to. This is done with a lookup in the RescueNet billing software SQL database. To make sure that the workflow does not terminate if the SQL query encounters an error, the Query Data activity is placed within a Try Catch activity.

Laserfiche Workflow also verifies that the total number of claims reported in the template fields matches the number in the RescueNet billing software SQL database. This is done with the help of a Token Calculator activity, which calculates the total of accepted and rejected claims reported in the template.

Processing 277 files

For accepted batches of claims, the insurance carrier sends a 277 file listing the individual claims that have been accepted or rejected. Laserfiche Workflow helps make sure that any rejected claim is corrected by the responsible person.

The EDI processor prints the 277 file into Laserfiche with Laserfiche Snapshot. The processor fills out the template fields corresponding to the number of accepted and the number of rejected claims. In addition, if there are rejected claims, he sets the status to “Review.”

277 files that contain rejected claims are routed to a claims specialist for review and correction.
  • Laserfiche Workflow checks to see if the number of rejected claims is greater than zero and if the status of the file had accidentally been set to “Done.” Such a file has the status changed automatically to “Review” and a sticky note with EDI processor instructions added. Laserfiche Workflow also generates an email notification to the EDI processor notifying him of the mistake.
  • Once the EDI processor corrects the error, the file is routed to a claims specialist.

Benefits of Laserfiche

Streamlining the claims management process with Laserfiche has resulted in the following advantages for MultiMed:
  • Files can be found quickly using the Field search in Laserfiche Search. If an insurance carrier claims that they never received a batch, a quick search on the batch ID pulls up the 999 file and a claims specialist can quickly see when it was sent to the carrier and whether it was accepted or rejected.
  • Laserfiche Workflow allows claims specialists to correct issues with rejected batches on the same day as they are identified.

How the City of Lakewood Created a Digital Archive Group

Contributed by: Greg Buchanan, Records Analyst, Lakewood, CO

The city of Lakewood, CO, comprises a multitude of departments and divisions, each with its own daily concerns, interests and ways of using Laserfiche. In order to maintain consistency within the Laserfiche repositories and provide a place to express concerns and ideas, the city implemented a digital archive group (DAG).

What is the DAG?

The DAG at the city of Lakewood serves to:

  • Discuss and gather feedback on any new Laserfiche projects as well as existing projects.
  • Obtain buy-in from upper management for new Laserfiche projects.
  • Agree on city-wide Laserfiche standards such as a uniform naming convention and repository file structure.
  • Answer any Laserfiche-related questions posed by new city personnel or existing city employees who use Laserfiche daily.
  • Advise any other organizations or cities that would like to implement or expand their implementation of Laserfiche.

The DAG is comprised of all the Laserfiche administrators within the city. Anyone who has administrative rights to even one folder within the repository is automatically a member of the group. Some departmental heads and managers are also members of the DAG, even if they are not Laserfiche administrators.

The DAG aims to meet once a month. If there are not enough topics to discuss that month, the meeting may be cancelled. The chair of the DAG decides whether the meeting will go on as planned, and if so, creates an agenda that is emailed to all DAG members before the meeting. Members can choose to attend, based on how pertinent they find the topics of discussion.

Why should an organization implement a DAG?

Implementing a DAG at the city of Lakewood has resulted in the following benefits:

  • The DAG helped expand Laserfiche to other departments within the city because listening to current Laserfiche users gave others ideas on how they too could benefit from Laserfiche.
  • The city of Lakewood maintains organized repositories with a uniform folder structure and naming convention, which enables everyone to easily find documents.
  • Since a variety of people from different divisions take part in DAG meetings, it is easy to generate new ideas to put into practice. For example, the idea of using Laserfiche to manage the city planning department’s active case files in addition to archiving closed cases was first brought up at a DAG meeting.

Advice for implementing a DAG

Here are some key things to think about when implementing a DAG within any organization:

  • Make sure to have regular meetings, but only if there are topics to be discussed. If there is a meeting just for the sake of having a meeting, members may be discouraged from coming back.
  • Representation is very important. Make sure that all departments and divisions are represented at the DAG. It is crucial that the people who attend have the power and knowledge to implement changes within Laserfiche. If they cannot make changes themselves, they should be able to direct others to make them.
  • Make sure to let upper management know about the DAG’s existence. The city of Lakewood did a presentation to both the management team and the city council about the DAG and its purpose.
  • Encourage the VAR to attend DAG meetings. This helps the VAR stay on top of Laserfiche projects within the organization and allows the VAR to help the organization attain its Laserfiche initiatives and goals.
  • If a group cannot come to a conclusion or compromise during one meeting, postpone the discussion so that people have time to think about the opposite views.
  • Provide snacks and beverages during the meeting. The city provides a unique array of snacks, fruit and beverages at each DAG meeting as an additional way to drive attendance.