GUIDES – A Collaborative Approach to Community Support 

In January 2023, the City of Long Beach launched the Government User Integrated Diversion Enhancement System (GUIDES), a transformative mobile application designed to assist the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) and the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office (LBCP) in providing vital assistance to highly vulnerable populations. This innovative platform serves as an online information system powered by Laserfiche’s innovative document and records management software, enabling law enforcement and prosecutors to share data and access case information while connecting individuals in need to essential services. 

Project Overview 

The GUIDES app was conceived as a response to pressing social issues, particularly the dramatic rise in homelessness and associated challenges in Long Beach. The city declared an “Emergency on Homelessness” after witnessing a staggering 62% increase in homelessness between 2020 and 2022. By providing officers with immediate access to crucial information that is stored in the Laserfiche Repository, GUIDES empowers them to make informed decisions, diverting individuals away from the criminal justice system and toward necessary social services, like shelter housing, mental health treatment and drug rehabilitation. 

Doug Haubert, Long Beach City Prosecutor, emphasizes the importance of this initiative, “We partnered with Laserfiche to create GUIDES, the first police-prosecutor data sharing app, to give more resources to officers in the field. We need technology like this more than ever to help get people off the streets, and into social services.”  

Funding and Development 

The development of GUIDES was funded by the United States Department of Justice through the Innovative Prosecution Solutions Grant Program, with a total award of $360,000. Laserfiche, a Long Beach-based software company with deep ties to the community, worked closely with Haubert’s office to develop GUIDES and ensure it met the specific needs of local law enforcement and the community at large. 

Prior to the introduction of GUIDES, the LBPD had been leveraging Laserfiche technology since 2013 to improve access to information about court orders. As a trusted solution for document management and collaboration, Laserfiche supports the LBPD’s ability to centrally store information — such as PDFs, images and documents — apply appropriate metadata, and retrieve content while addressing necessary regulatory, security and privacy requirements. Building on this foundation, the Laserfiche-driven GUIDES app represents a significant advancement in the city’s approach to public safety. 

Key Features and Functionality 

The GUIDES app enables officers to quickly ascertain context about individuals they encounter in the field, enhancing their ability to provide appropriate assistance. The app provides real-time information regarding individuals’ probation status, stay-away court orders, and active warrants, streamlining the decision-making process for officers. For example, if an individual is already part of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) diversion program, officers can easily identify and reconnect them with their case managers, offering alternatives to arrest or incarceration. By facilitating this connection to social services, GUIDES helps to improve outcomes for individuals in need. 

Results and Impact 

The initial evaluation of the GUIDES initiative has yielded promising results. A survey of police respondents indicated that 75.6% are likely to use the app in the field, and 70% believe it will aid them in their duties. This positive reception highlights the potential for GUIDES to enhance law enforcement practices and improve outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness or mental health challenges. 

Long-term goals for the project include: 
  • Reduction in arrests and prosecutions due to having more options 
  • Increased referrals to social services 
  • Improved outcomes for individuals with social service needs 
  • Decrease in violent crime and recidivism rates 

By focusing on these objectives, GUIDES allows law enforcement agencies to concentrate their resources on cases that truly require traditional criminal justice interventions. 

Future Potential 

Looking ahead, there is significant potential for the GUIDES app to evolve and expand its capabilities. The app’s architecture is designed to incorporate additional features over time, allowing for the integration of further data types that can enhance its utility. The ultimate goal is to build a more interconnected ecosystem of government agencies and NGOs, fostering collaboration to address pressing community needs. 

As Haubert notes, “This project requires organizational commitment and a long-term vision. If we invest in the right resources, GUIDES can serve as a model for other communities grappling with similar challenges.” 

The GUIDES app exemplifies how innovative technology from Laserfiche can play a crucial role in modernizing public safety efforts and addressing complex social issues. By bridging the gap between law enforcement and social services, Laserfiche and the City of Long Beach are taking a proactive approach to support its most vulnerable residents. In a world where traditional methods often fall short, GUIDES represents a forward-thinking solution, demonstrating the power of collaboration and technology in fostering a more equitable society. 

Congratulations to the 2024 Laserfiche Solution Provider Award Winners

The IT channel has navigated tremendous change over the past year, from global events with large-scale socioeconomic impacts to the meteoric rise of generative AI. Laserfiche Solution Providers have demonstrated agility, resilience and innovation in the face of these changes, supporting customers with Laserfiche solutions that boost productivity, scale operations and deliver digital-first experiences.

We’re proud to recognize the 2024 Laserfiche Solution Provider Award winners, who have gone above and beyond, and demonstrated dedication to excellence in sales execution, customer acquisition and retention, and solution innovation.
Solution Provider Awards 2024

The Rookie of the Year is Cornerstone Engineering, Inc., an organization that was founded in 1979 as a civil engineering and land surveying company. Today, Cornerstone provides multi-discipline engineering and design services, lean project management tools, aerial drone and land surveying services, regulatory and permitting strategies, and consultant services. Cornerstone began selling Laserfiche in 2023 and is quickly becoming an emerging leader in the channel.

The Laserfiche Cloud Solution Provider of the Year is Ricoh USA. A trusted workplace solutions provider since 1962, Ricoh continues to embrace forward-thinking approaches to technology deployment. Most recently, Ricoh has supported organizations’ modernization efforts with Laserfiche Cloud, leveraging its professional services teams’ expertise in creating more optimized, secure, intelligent enterprises.

The Laserfiche Solution Provider Program empowers technology resellers to sell and deliver the Laserfiche platform, which is a recognized leader in enterprise content management (ECM) and content services platforms (CSP). For more information about the Laserfiche Solution Provider Program, visit laserfiche.com/solution-providers.

302? 404? Everything You Need to Know About Sarbanes-Oxley

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, commonly referred to as SOX, was designed with the goal of implementing accounting and disclosure requirements that increase transparency in corporate governance and financial reporting with a formalized system of internal checks and balances.

Effective in 2006, all publicly-traded companies in the United States, including all wholly-owned subsidiaries and all publicly-traded non-US companies doing in business in the US, are required to implement and report internal accounting controls to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for compliance under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In addition, certain provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley also apply to privately-held companies that are preparing for their initial public offering (IPO).

Formal penalties for non-compliance with SOX can include:
  • Fines
  • Removal from listings on public stock exchanges
  • Invalidation of Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance policies

CEOs and CFOs who willfully submit an incorrect certification to a SOX compliance audit can face fines of up to $5 million and up to 20 years in jail.

Each system that contributes to financial reports and disclosures must be monitored and tracked with audit trails in order to comply with SOX regulations. Under the SOX law, organizations must exercise tight control over financial reports and transactions, including document controls, disclosure methods and executives’ approval.

An effective Content Services Platform/Digital Document Management solution contains powerful organizational tools that elevate any organization’s compliance program with the ability to manage data with workflow automation, a complete audit trail, and security features.

There are two sections of the SOX Act which have clear implications for data management, audit trail reporting and security:

Section 302 Corporate Responsibility for Financial Reports:

This section relates to a company’s financial reporting. The act requires a company’s CEO and CFO to personally certify that all records are complete and accurate. Specifically, they must confirm that they accept personal responsibility for all internal controls and have reviewed these controls in the past 90 days.

Section 404 Management Assessment of Internal Controls:

This section states that annual disclosures and quarterly updates must be provided to shareholders and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It stipulates further requirements for the monitoring and maintenance of internal controls related to the company’s accounting and financials. It requires businesses to have an annual audit of these controls performed by an outside firm. This audit assesses the effectiveness of all internal controls and reports its findings back directly to the SEC.

Automating AP Processes Enables Compliance with SOX

Organizations are faced with regulations that require them to control information, retain it and make it accessible to external auditors. Three key areas that can help support standardized, secure, internal controls for business processes include; Digital document management, automated workflows and record retention solutions implemented to ensure compliance procedures are consistently followed and can be easily tracked and audited.

An effective Content Services Platform/Digital Document Management solution provides internal controls with clear visibility into the network with complete oversight and control of secure access to the network, applications, databases, and sensitive data. Automation of internal [AP] processes enforces standardized operating procedures that ensure data authenticity, integrity, compliance and retention. With a verifiable audit trail, staff can document every step to auditors and provide them with detailed reports that demonstrate changes made to information systems can be detected, corrections verified, and variances explained.

A centralized solution allows organizations to organize, and maintain records on these automated processes in a secure, dynamic environment. In addition, it eases the cost and burden of manually monitoring systems and provides enhanced reports to evaluate procedures and ensure consistent and repeatable activities and processes.

In addition to ensuring that your organization passes external compliance audits for Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and other industry-specific regulations, you can save time and resources by implementing document management best practices. An optimized digital document management solution can help your organization comply with SOX with monitored, logged and audited activities including; information access, login, network, user, account and database activity.

Data Management with Workflow Automation
  • Replace manual processes and provide a documented audit trail for the flow of information and documents.
  • Track all activity with automated workflow functionality that enables you to electronically match and route invoices for approval, review and exceptions resolution and post to ERP system.
  • Capture, index and analyze all electronic data, including report data from print streams and items within workflows.
  • Enable robust search and retrieval of documents and transactions with multiple indexing capabilities.
  • Automate document capture, classification and coding to reduce input errors.
  • Ensure processes and procedures are followed and reports are available to perform self-auditing checks for internal compliance.
  • Support version control for documents which allows visibility into when and who accessed which files, and the actions taken.
  • Granular content-type and class-level access control with feature and function permissions.

Compliance and Record Retention
  • Automate life cycle management to process records and record folders according to a life cycle, through creation, retrieval, storage, hold status and final disposition with automatic email notification to an approver before deletion.
  • Create custom file and folder structure and configure retention rules specific to the organization and in full compliance with government or industry regulations to prevent inappropriate or premature file deletion.
  • Gives you instant, comprehensive visibility into your repository, workflows and record retention activity to quickly generate reports of records currently eligible for cutoff, transfer, and destruction dispositions, and vital record review or records on hold.
  • Simplify the audit process, centralize your documents, images, photos, emails, voice files, faxes, and other documents in a fully searchable repository, or point to their location in other applications for fast, easy retrieval.
  • Demonstrate controls that reflect standards set by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
  • Robust search and retrieval functionality — information is instantly available in search results.

Security and Audit Trail 
  • Role based access controls — defined access rights and permissions for individual users, groups and roles to information assets within the system and assignment of privileges, such as viewing, editing, printing and downloading, which restrict unauthorized activity.
  • Tracks information access, login, users, network, applications, database activity and access to sensitive data with reporting to perform self-auditing checks for internal compliance.
  • Security classification hierarchy with segregation of duties and reports showing who handled, routed, approved and processed transactions.
  • Unchangeable audit log — all key usage is recorded and unchangeable including logging and auditing of permission and security changes.
  • Preserve data in its purest form — access to historical data for audit and forensic requirements and evidentiary presentation.
  • Tracks unauthorized modifications of data and configurations — automatically flags altered database files so that internal and external auditors can be confident they are viewing accurate and complete information

Key Benefits of AP Automation
  • Mitigate Risk and Avoid Noncompliance Fines
  • Prevent Fraud
  • Improve Visibility, Efficiency and Profitability
  • Develop Accurate Financial Reporting
  • Comply with Applicable Federal, State, Local Laws and Business Rules
  • Access to Historical Data for Audit and Forensic Activities
  • Improved Decision Making
  • Leverage AP Staff Resources on Higher–value Activities
  • Reduce Cost of AP Processes and Compliance
  • Capture Available Early Pay Discounts
  • Automating Document Retention and Destruction
  • Reducing the Costs of Long-term Data Preservation
  • Eliminating the Costs of Offsite Storage
  • Lowering the Costs of In-house Storage

A holistic Content Services Platform with digital document management, automated workflows, record retention and security controls along with the alignment of people, processes, and policy controls, helps enable organizations to satisfy the requirements for sections 302 and 404 and meet SOX requirements.

By leveraging existing technology and tools, organizations can identify, assess, and report on the status and security of financial-related processes and information, and can provide auditors with tangible evidence of their information security initiatives.

With a verifiable audit trail, staff can then document every step to auditors or assessors and provide them with detailed reports that demonstrate changes made to information systems can be detected, corrections verified, and anomalies explained.

By implementing effective, comprehensive policies and procedures for establishing accountability and consistent data collection, retention, and reporting practices, your organization can mitigate risk and enhance compliance for SOX Sections 302 and 404 requirements and keep costs under control.

SOX Compliance Checklist

Download and use this interactive checklist to facilitate internal discussions and assess progress towards improving controls across your organization’s ecosystem.
Download our simple SOX compliance checklist.

Click here to view the complete H.R. 3763 Sarbanes – Oxley Act of 2002 / text.

4 Use Cases for Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Organizations going through digital transformation now have more opportunities than ever to further automate their business processes.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is one of these innovations you can use to build upon your existing automations and make them more efficient.

RPA allows staff to record themselves performing manual, repetitive tasks across application screens. The result is a software bot that can repeat the recorded actions, allowing your organization to bridge automation gaps between applications and processes where the use of software was previously infeasible. This is because RPA bots can communicate with systems code-free, solving issues where legacy or proprietary systems lack APIs or other back-end integrations. Thus, RPA can make staff more productive and give them time for work that focuses on business growth and connecting with customers.

Read on to see some specific examples of how robotic process automation can help your business increase efficiency.

IT: Provisioning New Users

Many IT departments spend more time than they might like setting up user accounts for new employees or application-specific profiles for current employees. This kind of work ties up highly skilled talent doing manual, repetitive tasks. In addition, some systems don’t include the functionality to run back-end automation scripts.

For example, an IT department may already have a mostly automated system in place for new user account provisions – a user submits a request for an account on a particular system, and once the system administrator approves the request, the account is manually created. This means that in order for the process to continue and send an automated email to confirm setup, the administrator has to manually configure the new user’s security permissions.

To design a more complete automated solution, IT can create an RPA bot to perform the administrator’s actions during this configuration step, so that in the future, the only manual work IT has to do for this type of request is to approve it.

HR: Onboarding New Employees

Most organizations use more than one software system to get their work done. For example, many recruiting teams use specialized HR automation tools to process employment applications. However, once an employee is hired, their information might need to be entered into an entirely different system. If the systems involved lack APIs or opportunities for back-end integrations, staff may need to perform this transfer of the new hire’s information manually, taking up their valuable time and bandwidth.

Using RPA, HR staff could record themselves as they perform manual transfers from their recruiting platform to their payroll system. Using these recordings, a software bot could automate this data transfer each time a new employee is hired so the recruiting team can focus more on procuring talent instead of administrative busywork.

AP: Invoice Processing

Even if an organization’s accounts payable (AP) department has the right software to scan, store and gather metadata from invoices, it might be completely different from the software used to process the information presented on the invoice.

For example, if an AP department wanted to upload information from its incoming invoices to a legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, but scans and stores invoices in a separate enterprise content management (ECM) system, they likely have to enter data between platforms manually for each individual invoice.

To allow for faster AP processing, staff can record this data entry process once, and then deploy a bot to automate it, streamlining the entire business process, from the initial invoice scan, to data extraction and finally entry into the ERP system. This new process can speed up AP department operations, enabling them to be more efficient and keep better track of spending.

Sales and Marketing: Collecting Leads

Collecting leads is an essential part of today’s sales process. Marketing and sales teams will regularly update or create new entries for potential leads with a CRM system with information gathered from outside sources. Although some CRM platforms offer their own built-in data uploader tools, legacy systems may require users to enter each new lead’s information manually, decreasing the time staff has for other tasks and increasing the chance for error.

Take, for example, a firm that regularly goes to popular industry conferences to gather potential leads. Before using robotic process automation technology, they may have had to enter each prospective customer’s manually into their CRM system. With RPA, users can program software to enter this data from their spreadsheets the same way a staff member would, likely faster and with a higher level of accuracy. This way, staff can focus more on engaging with sales leads instead of inputting their information.

Increase Your Organization’s Efficiency

RPA’s ability to automate manual data entry and bridge automation gaps between systems enables more complete automations, so your organization can be more efficient, productive and focused on the customer.

Best Practices for Laserfiche Configuration

Installing and configuring Laserfiche in an enterprise environment can seem complex and intimidating. With some thorough pre-planning and configuration, installation of your Laserfiche system will be smooth and problem-free.

What are the different components of Laserfiche architecture?

Laserfiche Server

The Laserfiche server is the key relay station. It acts like a traffic cop, transferring requests from the client applications to the database server and back to the client.

Laserfiche Full Text Search Service (LFFTS)

This contains all of the searchable text. There is one LFFTS catalog per repository.

Laserfiche SQL Database

Can be:

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2,SQL Express, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2016
  • Oracle 10g, Oracle 11g or Oracle 12c

Best Practices:

  • It is recommended that you install the Laserfiche Server, SQL Database, LFFTS and each Laserfiche Application Server on separate machines.

What should I consider when allocating storage?

Volume Storage

Keep the following statistic in mind to help you allocate storage:

75 GB = 1 Million Standard Images (black and white, Type IV TIFF, 8.5” by 11” in size, scanned in at 300 DPI)

The amount of storage space required could be increased or decreased slightly depending on how much metadata is associated with the images.

SQL Database Storage

Since this is where all of your metadata and file locations are stored, allocate 10-15% of what you allocate for your total volume storage. Depending on how you manage you SQL logs, you will also need to allocate another 5-10% for those.

Best practice: Allocate enough storage for sufficient system growth.

What are the installation prerequisites?

Most software is installed as part of the Laserfiche installation. Other components, such as MSMQ, IIS, ASP.NET and .NET need to be configured prior to the installation. A complete list of the installation prerequisites is located here.

How do I prepare for the installation?

Make sure you address each of the following in your planning:

  • Make sure you know where you will be installing each product.
  • Make sure that you have the username and password for each server.
  • Make sure that you have the proper permissions for each of these users.
  • Identify whether or not it is possible to download the software from the Support Site. If not, download the up-to-date software and hotfixes onto a flash drive ahead of time.
  • Make sure your licenses are valid before you begin the installation.
    • Rio installations should have LFDS properly configured
  • Know where the installation guides are and follow them if this is your first Laserfiche installation. Even if you are a pro, it’s good to know where they are so that you can reference them.

Here is a sample Configuration Summary Sheet that you can use to organize your Laserfiche configuration information.

What about licensing and activation?

If you are using Laserfiche Rio, you will receive a single master license for the Directory Server, through which you will generate all licenses required for individual products.

If you are using Laserfiche Avante, you will receive an activation key for each product you are installing; which one you receive depends on the specific product’s installation process. Activation keys and license files can be downloaded from the Support Site.

Make sure that all of your required ports are open. Below is a full list. If necessary, all of these ports are configurable.

If your SQL Server is located on a separate box from the Laserfiche Server you will need to enable TCP Protocol. The default port is 1433 for the SQL Server.

How should I test my installation?

In addition to configuring a production environment, you may want to consider building a development or test environment, where you can test your installation before releasing it into production.

Pros:

  • Develop solutions and refine their functionality.
  • Test your solutions in an isolated environment before going live.

Cons:

  • More virtual environments are needed for a test environment. This means more storage space, hardware, management resources and system downtime.

Thinking about implementing Laserfiche in your organization? Request a free demo here!

Streamlining Services: How Process Automation Can Empower Local Government

Citizens expect efficient and responsive services from their local government. But with limited resources and ever-growing demands, many municipalities struggle to keep up. This is where process automation comes in – a game-changer for modernizing government operations.

What is Process Automation?

Process automation leverages technology to automate repetitive, manual tasks. Think data entry, permit applications, scheduling appointments, and more. Instead of employees getting bogged down in paperwork, automation frees them to focus on higher-level tasks and citizen interaction.

Benefits for Local Governments:

Enhanced Efficiency: Automated processes streamline workflows, reducing processing times and freeing up staff time. Imagine permit applications automatically routed for approval or public inquiries answered by chatbots – that’s automation in action!

Improved Accuracy: Manual data entry is prone to errors. Automation eliminates this risk, leading to more accurate data and better decision-making.
Increased Transparency: Automated workflows often involve online portals which provide citizens with real-time updates on the status of their requests. This fosters trust and transparency.

Reduced Costs: By streamlining processes and minimizing errors, automation can lead to significant cost savings for local governments.

Empowered Employees: Freeing up staff from routine tasks allows them to focus on more strategic initiatives and provide better service to citizens.
Examples of Automation in Action:

Permitting: Online portals allow citizens to submit and track permit applications electronically, simplifying the process for everyone.

License Renewals: Automated reminders and online renewal options make the process smoother for both citizens and government staff.
Public Records Requests: Automated systems can streamline the process of requesting and fulfilling public records requests.

Citizen Service Requests: Chatbots or virtual assistants can answer frequently asked questions and route more complex inquiries to the appropriate staff member.

The Power of Local Expertise:

While automation solutions offer tremendous benefits, navigating the landscape can be overwhelming. This is where partnering with a local solution provider with government expertise becomes invaluable. Here’s why:

Understanding Your Needs: Local providers understand the unique challenges faced by government agencies in your region. They can tailor automation solutions to your specific workflows and compliance requirements.

Government Knowledge: They possess in-depth knowledge of government regulations and best practices, ensuring your automation efforts align with legal and security protocols.

Seamless Integration: Local providers can seamlessly integrate new automation systems with your existing government IT infrastructure, minimizing disruption and ensuring a smooth transition.

Ongoing Support: They offer ongoing support and training to your staff, ensuring they can effectively utilize the new automated systems.
Getting Started with Process Automation:

Local governments don’t need to overhaul their entire system overnight. Here are some steps to get started:

Pilot Program: Start with a small-scale pilot program to test the effectiveness of automation in your chosen area.
Training and Support: Provide proper training to staff on how to use the new automated systems. Partner with your local solution provider for comprehensive training and ongoing support.

Process automation isn’t about replacing public servants – it’s about empowering them. By automating the mundane and partnering with a local expert, local governments can free up their talented workforce to focus on what matters most: serving their citizens effectively.

Identify Repetitive Tasks: Begin by pinpointing areas where employees spend a significant amount of time on repetitive, manual tasks.
Evaluate Automation Tools: Research different workflow automation software options that fit your specific needs and budget. Consider partnering with a local solution provider at this stage to gain valuable insights.