How the Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide Emergency Assistance

Solution Contributed By: Jan Lawrence, Digital Process Manager; Jacob Hawk, Administration & Project Assistant; Jeannie McNeil, Enrollment Coordinator and Sierra Puckett, Archivist and Technical Assistant, Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians

The Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians based in Oregon has 1,269 members located around the country. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the tribe was awarded money from the federal government to provide emergency assistance to members. The confederated tribes used Laserfiche Forms to distribute $3 million worth of funds to tribal members quickly and efficiently. The tribe also used Forms to distribute computers to tribal members for use with school or telehealth appointments.

Emergency Assistance Process

The challenge faced by the confederated tribes was to create a process to disburse money from the federal government to provide financial assistance to every tribe member, on a short timeline. The tribes wanted to streamline communications throughout the process and mail out checks quickly. It was also necessary to make sure there were no duplicate applications.

“With this form we are able to distribute $3 million in funds. Laserfiche reporting is amazing. We ran reports daily and were able to catch duplicate applications early. This whole process was completely streamlined,” says Jan Lawrence, Digital Process Manager

The application was created in Laserfiche Forms. Members were able to fill out and submit the form from any computer or mobile device. If a member was unable to fill out the form electronically, they were still able to submit a paper form. A team member then transferred the information from the paper form into an electronic form.Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using Laserfiche Form

Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using Laserfiche Form

Once submitted, the form is sent to the membership enrollment coordinator for verification of tribal membership. The membership enrollment coordinator looks up the member in the membership database and checks the form information for accuracy.

Once the form information is verified, the form is sent to finance as a check request. This check request form has all irrelevant information excluded, and only includes the information that finance needs to cut the check. Once the check is cut and mailed, the process ends.

Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using Laserfiche Form

To keep track of how much money was disbursed, and how many members have been applying for services, the tribes ran reports on a regular schedule. These reports were exported into a spreadsheet and shared with relevant employees across the organization.

Computer Request Process

With distance learning and telehealth becoming a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, tribal members without computer access were at a disadvantage. To close the digital divide, the tribes created a program of disbursing computers to those who could not afford one. This computer request and disbursement process is similar to the emergency assistance process described in the previous section.

The process starts with the tribal member filling out an electronic request form. The requestor has the option of picking up the computer at one of a few locations or having it mailed.

Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using Laserfiche FormCoos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using Laserfiche Form

Once the form is submitted, the enrollment coordinator verifies the requestor’s tribal membership and program eligibility in the membership system. When the verification is completed, a notification is sent to the housing department. Department team members package and ship any computers that need to be mailed. If, at any point in the process, the requestor is deemed ineligible for the program, they are notified by email.

Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using Laserfiche Workflow

To keep track of how many computers were distributed, as well as which ones were to be picked up or mailed, the housing department ran regular reports. These reports were downloaded into a spreadsheet and shared with select individuals within the organization.

Coos Lower Umpqua Siuslaw Indians Provide COVID-19 Relief Using LaserficheWant to see how Laserfiche can help your organization streamline customer-facing business processes? Schedule a free demo.

How the City of Ithaca Streamlined the Marriage License Process

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.

Marriage License Applications Are Submitted Through Laserfiche Forms

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.
Information for the marriage license is obtained through a Laserfiche form
An example of a printed marriage license document

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.
Spreadsheet On Computer Screen. Analyst Employee Working

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.
The marriage license process in Laserfiche Forms

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.

Retrieving a Marriage Certificate Copy Is Quick and Easy

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.
Laserfiche Workflow uses the information from Laserfiche Forms to create a formatted PDF document

Benefits of Laserfiche

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.

Samish Indian Nation Automated Grant Approval with Laserfiche Forms

Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: JR Walters, IT Director, Samish Indian Nation

Headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, the Samish Indian Nation is governed by a seven member Tribal Council elected to oversee the tribe’s welfare and resources. Members are offered a wide variety of opportunities including housing assistance, elders’ services, healthcare and wellness, and cultural enrichment.

In order to help manage the various programs offered to the tribal members, the nation works with state and federal agencies to implement many grant funded activities. In addition to maintaining the economic welfare of the tribe, these grant deliverables help to protect the environment, and preserve natural and cultural resources.

Before Laserfiche, approving grant applications was a time-consuming, manual process. The tribe’s departments are distributed between five sites and sending paper grant application packets through interoffice mail for internal review and approval was inefficient and costly. Occasionally, grant submission deadlines were barely met because paperwork got lost between sites, sat too long for approval, or was difficult to find and assemble into the grant application packet.

Laserfiche has completely digitized the grant approval process. New grants are submitted through Laserfiche Forms and managers are able to view and approve them from their mobile devices.

With Laserfiche, the time to process a grant has been reduced from one week to just one day.

“I’m absolutely in love with Forms and process automation. I see so much potential in how other departments could utilize it,” says JR Walters, IT Director.

Grant Application Approval Requests Are Submitted Through an Electronic Form

The process starts when an employee applying for a grant, fills out the grant application approval request form in Laserfiche Forms.

Employees fill out an electronic form to start the grant approval process

Once submitted, the grant application is routed to the department supervisor for approval. If the department supervisor approves it, the application is routed to the general manager, compliance officer and controller, for simultaneous review. Once approved by everyone, the grant application is put in front of the seven member tribal council for approval. Each of the approvers is notified of grants requiring their approval through email.

Email notifications keep grant application approvers notified of pending tasks

If any of the approvers reject the grant, the process ends and the submitter is notified by email. He or she then has the option of submitting a new application form.

Laserfiche Forms makes it easy to configure email notifications for rejected applications

Throughout the process, timers are attached to each approval task. In this way, if the form isn’t approved in a timely matter, the approver receives a follow up email reminder.

Submitted grant application review forms and supplemental information are stored in folders in the Laserfiche repository specific to the grant.

Grant applications are organized by grant name in the repository

The Process Was Designed with the Help of the Business Process Library

In order to simplify designing of this process, the tribal nation took advantage of the Business Process Library (BPL). The nation downloaded the Legal Document Review Forms template and modified it to suit the specific needs of the grant approval process. Some of these modifications included:

  • Adding additional reviewer tasks
  • Increasing the number of email notifications
  • Adding timers and reminder emails
  • Configuring the appropriate folders for saving the forms to the repository

“Before starting to design a process from scratch, I look to see if it has already been done in the Business Process Library. Since it is already done once, it is easy to duplicate. The BPL is a great resource,” says Walters.

The grant application approval process design

Processing Grant Applications Now Takes One Day Instead of One Week

Automating the grant application approval process with Laserfiche has resulted in the following benefits for Samish Tribal Nation:

  • Grant applications are now processed in one day instead of a week or longer
  • Managers can review from their mobile devices which leads to a faster turnaround time for grant approvals
  • Documents can be tracked quickly throughout their lifecycle and are never lost
  • Staff can process more grants in the same time period

How the City of Southlake, TX Automated Police Department Hiring

Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Veronica Lomas, Records Manager and Chris Chaillot, Talent Acquisition Partner, City of Southlake, TX

The City of Southlake, TX is a suburb of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex with a population of 30,000. Based on median household income, Southlake is one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.

One of the ways that Laserfiche is helping Southlake support its mission of delivering excellent customer service and governance to its citizens is by allowing the city to automate the police department hiring process.

Originally, candidates for the police department had to fill out a 28-page paper application packet. Candidates had to write N/A in each of the form fields that weren’t relevant to them, and because the application was so thorough, there were many fields to fill out. Once filled out, the application had to be either scanned in and emailed, or mailed back to the police department. It was difficult to track the application and all associated supplemental documents. In addition, the application contained a lot of sensitive information, such as social security numbers, which made security a challenge.

Each application had to be reviewed by the sergeant, and applications that passed the initial review were sent to HR to invite to testing. The time between receiving the application and approving it for an interview took anywhere from two weeks to a month.

In preparation for the applicant’s interview, a copy of the application was made for each member of the interview board. This entire process wasted a lot of paper.

Southlake used Laserfiche Forms to make the police department hiring process faster, more streamlined and efficient. As a result, the volume of new applicants has doubled. The department now has a larger pool of applicants to choose from, and can hire more qualified people. Since the time to process new applications has decreased to 90 minutes from 2-4 weeks, qualified applicants are offered a job much faster than before.

“We know we are always competing with the other departments for top-notch applicants and the person who gives the offer first wins. When we get to tell people that they can get hired within six weeks, we end up winning.” says Chris Chaillot, Talent Acquisition Partner.

The Time between Application Receipt and Interview Approval Is Now 90 Minutes

New candidates for the police department fill out an electronic Laserfiche form. This form is dynamic and displays only the fields pertinent to the applicant, based on the information provided in the form. For example, if the applicant answers that they have served in the armed forces, they have to fill out different questions than an applicant who answers that they have not served.

If an applicant did not serve in the armed forces, they can simply move on to the next question

If the applicant served in the armed forces, they have to fill out more specific information before moving on to the next question

These questions are governed by over 80 field rules. In addition, the form has many questions set as required, so that only fully completed forms can be submitted.

Once the form is submitted, it is routed to the sergeant who is responsible for the base review of the application. The sergeant reads through the application to make sure that applicant did not select any of the questions in the Criminal Legal History that result in an automatic disqualification.

Certain questions on the form, if answered in a particular way, automatically disqualify the applicant

In order to help the sergeant with the review, Laserfiche Forms has different levels of priority configured for the review task based on which of the options in the Criminal Legal History section have been checked. The sergeant can easily see in his Inbox tasks that require Urgent attention, since they will be marked in red.

Setting a different priority level for applications based on options checked by the applicant streamlines application review

Once the applicant passes the initial review, he or she is automatically added to the candidate testing pool. As the candidate passes or fails each test, a member of the talent acquisition team enters the information into Forms for tracking and notifications.

The application goes down a different path depending on the test results.

  • If the candidate fails the written test, he or she is eligible for an immediate retest
  • If the candidate fails the oral board, he or she can retest one year later

The Forms process ends when the candidates pass both tests or fail one but don’t want to participate in the retest. Otherwise, the application is held within the Forms process until the retests are successful.

“Laserfiche Forms has transformed the way we process applications. Even when I am away from the office I receive an alert and have the ability to evaluate new applications from my phone or tablet. This incredibly efficient turnaround allows us to confirm candidates for our test dates sooner, and we start a dialogue with the candidate while the City of Southlake is still fresh on their mind. Strong first impressions and a positive candidate experience are key to retaining quality applicants, and the sooner those conversations can start the better!” says Sergeant Mike Dunn.

Out-of-the-Box Reporting Tools Help the City Stay Compliant with Regulations

Laserfiche Forms helps Southlake keep compliant with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) requirements by tracking all of the testing requirements and results. Authorized individuals can run reports within Forms and pull metrics for TCOLE compliance.

In addition, Forms reports allow the talent acquisition team to get an overall look at the applicants in various stages of the hiring process and how long each stage is taking.

The reporting tools in Laserfiche Forms make it easy to see how many applicants are in different stages of the hiring process

The dashboards in Laserfiche Forms show how long each stage of the hiring process is takingIf an applicant has a question about their application, a talent acquisition team member can quickly find the applicant’s entire application history in Laserfiche Forms.

Each step that the candidate’s application took as part of the hiring process is displayed in a centralized History tab

Benefits of Laserfiche

Automating the police department hiring process with Laserfiche Forms has resulted in the following benefits for the city of Southlake:

  • The volume of new applicants has doubled. As a result, the department has a larger pool of applicants to choose from and can hire more qualified people.
  • Since the time to process new applications has decreased to 90 minutes from 2-4 weeks, qualified applicants are offered a job much faster than before.

 
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How to Design your First Laserfiche Workflow

Laserfiche Solution Contributed by: Amy Johnson, Systems Administrator, Hanover County

As the Systems Administrator in the Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office, I designed and implemented the department’s workflows myself. (The IT department at Hanover County only provides support.) Here are some of my strategies for planning, designing and implementing your very first Laserfiche Workflow.

“I know it can seem scary, but you can do it!”

Before You Start Designing

1. Sit down and make a list of ideas of processes within your department or organization that you would like to automate. Remember to start simple.

“Sometimes the small workflow is as important as the big, flashy one.”

Our first workflow dealt with obtaining Statutory Assessment worksheets, routing them to managers for approval and then routing them to the records folders for storage and retention.
The workflow that is covered in this article

2. Determine the goal of your workflow. Your goal should be specific. In my case, it was, “I would like to eliminate redundant printing of Statutory Assessment worksheets.” Ask yourself if you are automating a process or trying to solve a problem.
  • If you see or experience an actual breakdown in the efficiency of the current process, then you should first solve the problem before automating the process.

3. Do your research and take advantage of the multitude of resources available to all Laserfiche users:
  • The Building Laserfiche Workflows Certification course taught me how to approach planning, diagramming and designing my workflows.
  • The many white papers and training videos available on the Learn and Support Site provide specific details on various aspects of the workflow design process.
  • Your VAR is also an excellent resource. I put my VAR on speed dial and called them whenever I ran into problems or lost my confidence.

Diagram Your Process

Once you’ve determined the process and the goal and educated yourself on workflow design, it is time to actually diagram the process.
  1. Gather all of the stakeholders in one place and come up with a diagram of how the business process automation should look. When designing my first workflow, I invited the managers who are responsible for approving the Statutory Assessment worksheets as well as the division manager to join me. I drew out the whole process on a piece of paper and we discussed all of the detailed steps together, going into such specifics as how the manager would prefer to approve the worksheets (with a template field or a personal stamp).
  2. Remember that it is ok to change or revise current processes in order to make your workflows as efficient as possible. Sometimes you may think that the process works one way, but in reality, there are certain steps you may have skipped.

    “Time spent diagramming upfront will more than pay itself back later.”

  3. It is important that you do not skimp on the planning phase. The more you put into the actual design of the session, the better the end result. When constructing my workflows, I spend more time planning than actually designing.

Design the Workflow

Once you have finalized your actual diagram and gone through as many changes as necessary, it is time to start designing your actual workflow.

Laserfiche Workflow includes a multitude of pre-designed, user-friendly activities. Here are some things to keep in mind when designing your workflow:
  • You must have Workflow Designer actually installed on your computer or on the computer where you want to design the workflow.
  • It is a best practice to create a user account for Laserfiche Workflow in the Administration Console. This user will be the one performing all of the automated tasks when the workflows actually run.

One of the most important parts of designing workflows is specifying the starting rules—what conditions will invoke the workflow. When setting up your starting rules, make sure to follow these guidelines:
  • Exclude the Workflow user from being able to initiate workflows in order to prevent “runaway workflows” – workflows that that keep initiating themselves in an endless loop.
  • Make the entry type (document, folder, etc.) and path as specific as possible in order to prevent the workflow from starting when you do not want it to.
An example of Workflow starting rules

Remember, if you start designing and lose your confidence, just call your VAR for help. I actually hired my VAR to come and sit with me for the day while I designed my first workflow. Just having him there boosted my confidence.
  • Design as much as you want since you can always delete and start over.
  • Don’t be afraid to publish what you’ve designed. You must first publish the workflow before creating the starting rule.

The most important thing to remember is:

“Test and test again—even VARs need a few tries to get things working 100%.”

I had to test my first workflow at least 15 times before I got it to work exactly as I wanted. You can create sample documents and then run them through the workflow as you are designing it to make sure that the workflow functions as expected. It is much safer to test on sample documents than actual live data.

Now That You’ve Completed Your First Workflow

Unveil your first workflow to your users, as well as your boss. Make sure you don’t tell them that it wasn’t that hard to create.
  • Be prepared to revise this workflow as needed. Simply make the changes you want in the Laserfiche Workflow Designer and republish until you are fully satisfied. After my first workflow went live, I had to revise some of the email activities because, after seeing the actual process in action, we determined that they could be optimized.
  • Pat yourself on the back and move on to the next one! Come up with a list of processes you want to automate and tackle them one by one.


Best Practices in Records Management

Laserfiche Records Management Edition (RME) functions as an integral part of a well-designed records management program. It has easily configurable components that fit all of your organization’s business needs. Here are some tips and tricks for both Electronic records managers and administrators for ensuring a smooth RME implementation.

Records Manager

The role of a records manager is to manage the records of an organization according to a formal plan. One of the obstacles records managers face is that retention schedules may not provide explicit instructions. This gray area can be used to your advantage by allowing a bit of leeway when setting up cutoff instructions.

A cutoff instruction determines when a record is eligible for cutoff (eligible to enter retention). There are seven different cutoff instructions in Laserfiche, but we will focus on the three most popular:

  • Time-based cutoff: When a retention schedule is triggered based on a time-based cycle period (such as monthly or weekly).
  • Event-based cutoff: When an event on the record (such as employee termination) triggers a retention schedule.
  • Time + Event-based cutoff: Triggered when an event occurs, but the records are only eligible for cutoff after a subsequent time-based cycle period. Basically, this cutoff collects all of the records for which retention was triggered by an event and gives them all the same starting date for future eligibility calculations.

It is a best practice to use either a Time-based or Time + Event-based cutoff. When it comes time for final disposition, all the records with the same cutoff eligibility date will be eligible for disposition on the same date, enabling you to process hundreds of records in one batch instead of one record at a time. Most regulations specify a minimum retention period, so keeping a record a few weeks longer in order to process it with other records should not be a problem.

Reuse instruction definitions

Many records management instruction definitions are similar. For example, there is usually a standardized archive location, general standard retention times for basic handling and so on. Creating generic cutoff, retention and disposition instructions allows you to reuse them across record types and keep the number of unique instructions to pick from to a minimum, making records management much more efficient.

For example, let’s use the following physical retention schedule for a university and convert it to RME.

Rm Best Practices Reuse Instruction

The easiest way to do this is to reuse some of the elements. The color-coded items are the ones that we can group together.

Color-Coded Items

From this we can create two different cutoff instructions:

  • Time-based: Academic Year.
  • Time + Event-based: An event + Academic Year.

We can also create three retention schedules:

  • 1 year, then destroy.
  • 6 years, then accession to “Academic Registry”.
  • 3 years, then destroy.

Laserfiche Administrator

The Laserfiche administrator’s role involves creating, configuring, securing and maintaining the enterprise content management system. Here are some suggestions to make this system easy to maintain, from a records perspective:

  • Determine which documents are records. Not every document is considered a record, so not every document needs to be stored in a records folder.
  • Organize your records series on a broad level, such as by department or by content type and year, and the records folders at a more specific level, such as by month or employee name.

Records Management

  • In addition to making your records retention easier to apply, organizing your records in this way imposes a limit on how many records can be stored in a particular folder. For example, there is a limited number of records that can be stored in the folder corresponding to the month of May in the year 2011. This will prevent your system from infinite growth, which could negatively affect performance.
  • Use Laserfiche Workflow to route your records to the correct storage location in the Laserfiche repository based on either the field values Laserfiche Quick Fields extracts from them or the field values a user manually enters during scanning. This alleviates users from having to remember where different types of documents are stored in Laserfiche. It also saves the records manager from having to manually store each document themselves. Simply configure Laserfiche Workflow to start when you update one of your metadata fields and it will automatically name and store your records for you.
  • Implement transparent records management (TRM). TRM allows records managers and general users to have their own repository views and still have access to the same content.

Records Management3

  • In the above screenshot the records manager’s folder structure is on the left and the user’s folder structure is on the right. The records manager’s folder structure is functional and allows him to store all of his records in a way that will maintain compliance with the published retention schedules and aid the administrator in setting up security. The user’s folder structure is more logical and provides an intuitive way to find content. In order to make TRM possible, Laserfiche Workflow automatically stores the original documents in the appropriate location in the overall records management structure while creating shortcuts in other folders that general users have access to.
  • Automatically create records management items, such as cutoff instructions and retention schedules, from an Excel spreadsheet with the Records Series Setup Utility.

If you’d like to learn more about records management best practices, download the free, complete guide to records management.

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How MW Industries Automated the Request for Quote (RFQ) Process with Laserfiche Forms

Laserfiche Solution Contributed By: Jason Pennell, Information Systems Manager, Economy Spring

MW Industries is headquartered in Chicago and is comprised of 21 divisions located throughout the US. The company is one of the world’s premier manufacturers of industrial springs, fasteners, machined parts and flat-stamped spring-related products that are used in the automotive and healthcare industries.

Economy Spring is based in Southington, CT and is one of the divisions of MW Industries. Economy Spring has been using Laserfiche for more than 15 years taking advantage of the powerful scan and retrieve functionality to store and share all incoming documents received by letter, fax or email.

Economy Spring processes around 700 requests for quotes (RFQs) each year. This process was inefficient and processing a quote took up to a week or longer at times. Employees had to wait for hours before receiving paperwork through interoffice mail or delivery. Information needed for a quote was gathered haphazardly over many days. The customer service representative (CSR) and engineers spent a significant amount of time walking to pick up, deliver and find paperwork. Economy Spring needed to reduce quote time and lower labor costs. Also, quotes generated faster had a greater likelihood of being selected as the winning bid.

Thus, management directed Economy Spring’s IT department to design and implement a solution that would automate the RFQ process and provide flexibility for streamlining additional business processes down the line. Thus two years ago, after working with the VAR, Economy Spring expanded its use of Laserfiche to include Forms because it has both the power and flexibility to meet its current needs and address future projects.

Automating the RFQ process with Laserfiche Forms reduced the quote processing time to just one to two days. Economy Spring plans to reduce that time to under 24 hours with future enhancements to the process.

Legacy Process

Before Laserfiche, a CSR entered all RFQs received via email into the Infor VISUAL manufacturing ERP system. The email and attached drawings were printed and delivered by interoffice mail to the engineering department for quoting. Each engineer would arbitrarily take one of the packets to quote. Often, the engineer needed information from one or more floor departments to help prepare the quote.

The engineer would walk the packet to the floor department who reviewed it and added the required information before walking it back to him. The engineer would repeat this process until all information was collected and compiled. Finally, the engineer would create a quote in the ERP system and place the packet back into interoffice mail for delivery to the CSR. The CSR then notified the customer of the new quote via email and filed the packet into a filing cabinet.

Current Process

Laserfiche Forms transformed this manual, paper heavy process into a fully automated, paperless process.

95% of RFQs still arrive via email. The CSR enters the RFQ into the ERP system and generates a quote number. He enters that quote number into a Laserfiche form which auto populates the customer information and part numbers to be quoted from the ERP system. The CSR drags any supplemental documents such as email correspondence or drawings into the form before submitting it.

The quote package is saved in the repository in a dynamically generated folder structure. An email notification is automatically sent to the team of engineers about a new RFQ awaiting their review.

One of the engineers takes ownership of the quote by selecting his name in the form. If he has all the information needed to provide the quote, he can do so immediately. Otherwise, he selects one or more floor departments (up to eight) that can provide more information to help with the quote. Depending on his selection, Laserfiche Forms dynamically displays the required form data, providing each worker with just the information that he needs to fill out.

Laserfiche Forms issues a simultaneous request to all of the specified departments to provide the requested information. Sometimes, a service cannot be performed in-house and must be performed by an off-site vendor. If that is the case, the engineer selects which department will contact the outside vendor to get pricing – either Engineering or Purchasing.

The floor departments review the engineer’s request in Laserfiche Forms and add all of the requested information.

The forms are then routed back to the engineer, who can either ask for more information and send back the form, decide that this part is a no quote, or provide a quote. The engineer and floor departments can go back and forth as many times as needed, with all comments tracked in the form.

Once the engineer has all the information needed to provide the quote, he creates it in the ERP system and signifies completion by filing out the “quote created date” field in another form.

Once a quote is created, the CSR is notified instantly by email. If a quote is over a certain dollar value, it is first reviewed by management. Otherwise, it goes directly to the CSR. The CSR reviews the quote and notifies the customer.

At any time during the process, the engineer can decide that the part is a no quote, which means that it is not something that the organization can manufacture. If that is the case, the CSR is notified by email and can in turn, notify the customer.

Benefits

Automating the RFQ process in Laserfiche Forms resulted in the following benefits for Economy Spring and MW Industries:
  • The win rate for every RFQ has increased from five to six percent to 13-15% since the company that quotes first has a larger chance of winning the bid.
  • The time to generate a quote has decreased from over one week down to one to two days.
  • All information pertaining to a quote can be viewed by anyone at any time. No time is lost searching or walking to find and gather information.

Since this project, Economy has partnered with OneSource Document Solutions to implement additional business process improvements by using Laserfiche Quick Fields, Workflow and Connector that have resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in savings.

Laserfiche use at Economy Spring has increased and the software is now used by most of the 180 employees. As a result of this successful initiative at their Economy Spring division, MW industries has been starting to deploy Laserfiche throughout its 20 other divisions nationwide.

According to Jason Pennell “Laserfiche is as critical to Economy Spring as its ERP product.”

 

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:
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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