How Process Automation Increases Credit Union Member Satisfaction

SITUATION

• Capturing, routing and storing member information was manual and lacked consistency
• Operations needed to scale at a pace that aligned with the credit union’s growth trajectory
• The credit union sought a platform for automation that would integrate with existing tech stack

RESULTS

• All staff now use Laserfiche regularly in a variety of key processes
• Saved hundreds of hours each month
• Alleviated the burden of mergers as the credit union grows

“We address people’s needs and solve problems — it’s what credit unions do,” said Matthew Tingey, senior applications specialist at American United Federal Credit Union (FCU).

The philosophy has powered American United FCU since 1952, driving the organization’s growth to serve more than 26,000 people today. And along with that growth has come transformation, to create a single source of truth for records, integrate core technology systems and enable easier self-service for members.

“I was originally asking questions like, ‘Can I automate this? Can I batch process these things? Where can I take the annoying parts out of this process?’” said Tingey. “But it’s never good enough to solve my own problem. I need to solve problems for everyone in the organization. That’s where Laserfiche came in.”

The credit union now uses Laserfiche as its repository for member information, and the main workflow engine for automated processes across the organization, including finance, member relations, money movement and more, saving hundreds of hours each month and alleviating the burden of mergers as the organization continues to grow.

Centralizing and Standardizing Records Management

Like many growing organizations, American United FCU had information — including member documents, HR employee records, financial records and more — incoming from a multitude of channels, being handled in a variety of ways. Tingey, a dedicated credit union professional who has worked in every department across the organization, recognized a need to standardize archival of documents. At the same time, he saw an opportunity to automate information capture.  

The credit union began using Laserfiche process automation to automate records management activities, routing documents to where they needed to be stored within the repository, with the needed metadata, no matter the source.

“We’ve processed multiple millions of documents through there,” said Tingey. “Employees just need to click, and it gets to where it needs to go.”

American United FCU, supported by Laserfiche solution provider Millennial Vision (MVi), has built out a Laserfiche program that also supports the organization’s total quality management initiative, which aims to improve processes with an eye toward growth and profitability.

“These tools help us do things more efficiently, bridge the gap between some of our other software tools, and let our teams work in better collaboration. They really solve a lot of problems.”

With the initial solution in place, it was time to connect other systems to eliminate human error and make the repetitive tasks around document capture and storage even easier.

“From there, I wanted Laserfiche to talk back to our core [account system] to verify the information being captured,” Tingey said. “Now, it’s not just member documents that we’re processing through the system but applications, loan documents, and other daily work. The process has expanded and grown. It’s the single source of truth, and really the backbone of our process automation.”

Connecting the Dots: Automating Processes Across the Organization

In addition to having Laserfiche verify information from the organization’s core, CUProdigy, the credit union has a number of integrations that support a more seamless everyday work experience for employees.

“We’ve also built a large database of information that we want to track and report on in Microsoft Power BI, and Laserfiche plays a big role in that,” Tingey said, adding that he keeps track of data issues — caused by activities like an employee leaving the organization, for example — through daily reports. “Laserfiche is a big part of managing the data that is used to create those Power BI reports.”

Similarly, Tingey has transformed the way that the organization validates data, identifying potential issues through Forms processes (started by Laserfiche Workflow) that trigger when an issue occurs. These items were previously actively tracked by an employee on a continual basis; today, no one needs to remember to review the reports since processes are triggered in Forms when issues occur — plus, instructions are integrated into the form so that less training and individual knowledge is required to address them.

“More recently, we’ve added some API integrations with the core to this process,” Tingey explained. “We pull information out of CUProdigy to use in Laserfiche Workflow and Forms via database queries. Notes can be pushed back to accounts with a click of a button in a form. A couple of the items that instructed the user to fix an issue can now be resolved automatically via the API without human intervention. These data validations and the automation around them have allowed our QA to be more efficient, effective and consistent.”

One game-changing integration for the credit union was between Laserfiche and DocuSign, which allowed Tingey to automate a common activity for credit unions: member information changes. The legacy process was manually driven and admittedly not very employee- or member-friendly.

The organization has enhanced the overall experience for employees and members by embedding the entire process into Laserfiche Forms:
  • An employee pulls up the member information change form, which auto-populates the member’s information.
  • The employee identifies what needs to be changed.
  • If the member is in-branch, the member uses the signature pad.
  • If the member is not in-branch, Laserfiche interacts with the DocuSign API by sending information from Laserfiche Forms to DocuSign, and then to the member for signature.
  • The employee attaches the signed document to the form and submits it in Laserfiche Forms.
  • Laserfiche automatically routes the information to the relevant teams for review, approval, and task completion.

Similarly, the credit union’s wire transfer process has benefited from Laserfiche Forms and an integration with DocuSign.

“In terms of solutions, I borrow from myself,” Tingey said, explaining that he’s often able to build on successes by taking a process and repurposing it by making tweaks to forms or steps.

The legacy wire transfer process, which involved many manual activities performed by employees, left members and auditors with little visibility into the required steps. The new Laserfiche process, however, gives the credit union the ability to provide helpful context to the member about what they are signing and the wire disclosure via the DocuSign integration.

“Once complete, employees only need to click a button to attach it to the form, and processing of the wire in our core is done via API, with minimal tasks required by the employee,” Tingey said. The form is automatically routed to the necessary employees for review and processing, and all supporting documentation is archived in the Laserfiche repository with standard naming conventions and metadata.

Up to 25 hours saved per month on wire transfer process aloneThe new wire transfer process saves up to 25 hours of staff processing time per month, while also reducing opportunities for human error and increasing staff satisfaction.

“We’ve taken all the annoying little parts out of the process, like downloading a PDF, uploading it to DocuSign, marking fields on it, manually sending it to the member, downloading it again, etc.” said Tingey. “Another benefit is that when the member is prompted for signature, information will pop up to tell them exactly what they’re doing. It will let them know we’re doing a change of information process and here’s that we’re changing, or a wire transfer and here’s our wire disclosure. So instead of just signing something because they’re being asked to sign something, members feel more informed and taken care of.”

Transforming the Member Experience

Since the initial implementation of Laserfiche for process automation, American United FCU has had a lot of success automating back-office activities as well as some member processes that employees handle. Going beyond the back office to positively impact the member experience has always been the ultimate goal, however.

“These automated processes are all increasing member satisfaction,” Tingey said. “Whether our members are in-branch or doing things remotely, they are saving time and don’t have to wait for a teller to manually find all the documents they need to get things done.”

Today, Tingey is focused on transforming the member experience with the launch of a new website, which will feature enhanced self-service features powered by Laserfiche Forms. One such feature is the rewards claim request, which enables members to claim an end-of-year dividend that the credit union offers as a perk for members based on the products and services they’ve used throughout the year. The claim form lists all of the possible products and services that qualify for a reward amount, and the member enters a few details to verify themselves. The form verifies this information against the database to qualify the submission, and a Laserfiche workflow sends an email confirmation, recording all activities into a database so that rewards can be paid out at the end of the year.

Laserfiche digitization and automation projects have supported increased focus on the member experience, even through significant periods of growth for the credit union. Since 2007, the organization has completed 10 mergers, enabling asset growth from about $39 million to just over $370 million (as of April 27, 2023).

While mergers are always a huge undertaking, the process was made less painful with standardized and automated processes in place. “Mergers are very, very large projects — everything gets dumped into a central location, and there’s cleanup and moving things around,” said Tingey. “If it weren’t for the structure from Laserfiche and the tools like Workflows, they would be nearly impossible.”

Laserfiche has become such a vital part of American United FCU’s infrastructure that many employees aren’t able to imagine life without it today.

Up to 8,000 employee hours saved per year“Laserfiche is a cornerstone of our environment. The automation functionalities alone save us thousands of hours annually, but on top of that it helps us in so many ways to gather, process, and document nearly every piece of information that passes through our organization.  There isn’t a single member of our team that doesn’t interact with Laserfiche, and most of them are working with the system throughout the day, every day.”

4Front Engineered Solutions Eliminates Errors and Improves Efficiency in Customer-Facing and Back-Office Processes

SITUATION

• Needed a way to centralize information
• Reliance on manual processes such as order management and accounts payable
• Lack of standardization and automation in processes

RESULTS

• Automated manual processes and created a digital-first, streamlined employee experience
• Increased productivity, transparency, and accountability

4Front Engineered Solutions has nine facilities in North America, and designs, manufactures and installs loading dock equipment solutions that are aimed at supplying the critical needs of customers across warehousing, manufacturing, retail, and distribution centers. As a result, productivity is a high priority. Commanding that accounts payable processes conform to the demands of today’s digital world is imperative. Like the modern and efficient approach taken with its products/solutions, 4Front wants to ensure it complies with industry regulations and more importantly, that customer needs are met with speed and accuracy.

“We initially wanted a quick way to process and access files ranging from order records, invoices and credit memos across different offices,” said Amy Skoug, director of IT — Applications at 4Front. “By developing a system that employees can use to manage core business documents from across the country, we have been able to use Laserfiche to improve efficiency and transparency for our customer service teams and other departments.” 

4Front has been able to centralize information across departments in multiple locations, including accounting, customer service, engineering, and distribution, using Laserfiche repositories that enable standardized records management practices and simultaneous collaboration on documents. Employees use Laserfiche to digitally capture, manage and process order documents from purchase orders through invoicing, boosting accuracy and accountability. These initiatives have also enabled employees to work remotely during the pandemic, contributing to the company’s long-term business continuity and resiliency. Additionally, 4Front has leveraged Laserfiche to gain greater insight on how to continually improve efficiency, using to the process data from Laserfiche to rapidly identify and address process bottlenecks and opportunities for optimization.

Digital Transformation Covering Thousands of Miles

4Front initially implemented Laserfiche in 2016, driven by a need for a digital document management system that could provide long-term access and easy retrieval for manufacturing order information. With a previously paper- and manual task-driven order process, the organization scanned existing files and input new orders into a centralized Laserfiche repository for office locations in the U.S. and Canada. 4Front used the Laserfiche platform to build a digital customer and order information system, enabling staff to search for files with metadata and monitor real-time status for orders. This digital system has improved responsiveness to customers in need of service, as well as enabled departments such as accounting and customer service to digitally update and approve amendments to orders. Through an automated Laserfiche workflow, documents in need of review are routed to the relevant team, who can then cross-reference submissions across multiple locations and approve of changes within the system. Staff can work off one master copy of the document, which minimizes errors associated with managing multiple document versions. 

“We gained a lot of interest from many departments after implementing Laserfiche Forms, including customer service to distribution, accounts payable and accounting,” said Skoug. “It provided us with a new way to do approvals for many of our existing processes.” 

Implementing Laserfiche has also supported global expansion at 4Front. The company used the solution to digitize the check filing process within its Canada office. Using this system, staff can now process large batches of checks, which are digitally paired with corresponding invoices and filed within the repository by vendor name. 

The company also integrated Laserfiche with 4Front’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to process invoices and work orders more easily. Files are automatically sorted and populated with the relevant sales order metadata, allowing interdepartmental collaboration, digital search and retrieval by leveraging metadata for order information. Using Laserfiche, 4Front also automated the three-way match between invoices, receipts and order forms. Laserfiche generates reports and checklists throughout the approval processes to help staff stay on track, identify areas of improvement, and minimize manual errors. Starting as a manual, paper-intensive process, the new invoice and work order processes have enabled more transparent customer and order information and opened up new opportunities for digital transformation.

The Road Ahead

After implementing its automated invoice and order management system, 4Front has achieved substantial savings in time originally dedicated to manual, paper-based tasks. This has been especially crucial during periods of expansion, as well as during pandemic-related operational disruptions.

Digital, centralized information has supported business continuity at 4Front as well, providing employees with a means to access and share files during the pandemic when staff needed to work remotely.  

Solution-driven metrics are another component contributing to 4Front’s digital transformation initiatives, utilizing monthly reports that provide insights on overall productivity, staff performance and trends on reason codes. Additionally, the company is actively identifying other departments and processes where Laserfiche could be deployed, including the HR department to centralize employee files, facilitate the onboarding process and track trainings and safety reporting. 4Front is also looking to digitize common manufacturing industry processes such as generating and managing bills of lading (BoL), as well as new product information documentation. To continue driving change, plans are in place to deploy Laserfiche in departments handling input and feedback from external stakeholders, such as the warranty team and in-records retention processes, as well as engineering change processes.

“The manufacturing sector is becoming increasingly data driven. Our digital transformation initiatives have enabled us to provide a better experience for our customers and staff members. We can respond to customers more quickly, retrieving relevant documents in seconds while speaking to them.”

Amy Skoug, director of IT — Applications, 4Front

SIU Medicine Modernizes and Streamlines Processes with Laserfiche

SITUATION

• Complex processes surrounding procurement, service requests and other business needs lacked consistency and oversight.
• The organization sought a solution to automate business processes and streamline them for staff.

RESULTS

• Automated solutions accelerated key workflows including the timesheet process, which was reduced from one week to less than a minute.
• Digitization and automation initiatives supported staff satisfaction, new hybrid work models, interoperability and compliance across the organization.

SIU Medicine is a publicly assisted medical school and clinical practice with more than 2,000 providers, researchers and staff members across the state of Illinois. Additionally, SIU is home to a world-class scientific research facility. The facility’s more than 100 active projects complement the institution’s mission of optimizing the health of the people of central and southern Illinois through education, patient care, research and community service.

SIU’s multi-pronged approach requires complex business processes for procurement, service requests and other everyday activities. The organization has been using Laserfiche for digitizing records for the past 10 years, partnering with Laserfiche solution provider TKB Associates. Recently, SIU found a need to modernize processes and expand use of Laserfiche to include Laserfiche Forms and workflow.
Pandemic Prompts SIU Medicine to Modernize and Streamline with Laserfiche

“[We saw] an opportunity to get executive buy-in and automate processes like online timesheets,” said Jennifer Washburn, IT manager at SIU Medicine. “And since then, we’ve had people lining up and really wanting us to tackle their projects.”

Today, the organization has embraced process automation across departments, leveraging Laserfiche as a capture, decision-making and workflow engine. With streamlined processes and automated records management that reclaims time for employees to focus on more value-added work, Laserfiche supports the organization’s goals, enabling SIU to sustain high employee and patient satisfaction.

Responding to Change with Tech-driven Solutions

Like healthcare IT teams across the country, SIU Medicine’s Process Automation Team has navigated three significant challenges in recent years:

  • Staffing and new work models: Healthcare provider shortage remains a growing concern to public health professionals. The industry must adapt to new hybrid and remote work models.
  • Interoperability: Operating across numerous systems, healthcare organizations need timely and secure access to health data to optimize outcomes for the people they serve.
  • Compliance: The regulatory landscape is increasingly complex, and requires fast and full adherence to avoid poor outcomes, financial penalties and negative attention.

The Process Automation Team’s commitment to continuous improvement has been a boon to the organization’s ability to respond in innovative ways.

“Laserfiche allowed us to tackle problems and solve them in ways that I don’t think would have been possible otherwise,” said Jennifer Washburn, IT manager at SIU Medicine.

Supporting New Work Models

To support hybrid and remote staff, the organization started by automating the timesheet process with Laserfiche Forms.

“Laserfiche Forms allowed us to help our staff continue to do their jobs from wherever they were,” said Washburn. The team created electronic forms and associated workflows for different types of timesheets in various employee categories.

SIU’s timesheet process was reduced from 1 week to less than a minute.The difference in the automated process was significant. “Previously, the manual processes could take a week or longer,” Washburn said. “Today, it takes less than a minute.”

This initial automation project also sparked a shift in which many departments began to see real value in digital transformation.

The selection of timesheets for a pilot was also strategically successful for the Process Automation Team. “Not only was it a huge efficiency gain for us, but it also introduced every single member of our workforce to Laserfiche Forms,” Washburn explained.

The Process Automation Team has continued to take on new projects with the goal of enhancing the employee experience and empowering users to do the work and research that supports the organization’s mission. Meanwhile, Laserfiche tools like electronic forms, automated workflows and electronic records management also support compliance with internal and external requirements, as well as users’ ability to access data across different systems.

Improving Interoperability across the Organization

SIU Medicine has automated both simple processes such as animal requests — enabling researchers to request animals for research projects, with streamlined approvals and documentation— and more complex workflows that are used organization-wide.

For example, purchase orders are now on Laserfiche Forms. What was once a manual process that involved PDFs being emailed or paper forms being passed from desk to desk is now completely digital and automated.

“We created a Laserfiche form that pulls budget purpose numbers and auto-populates the necessary information from another system, which then brings in the fiscal officer that’s responsible for that budget number,” said Mike Overmeyer, data architect at SIU Medicine. The automated system also helps employees by auto-routing POs that may need to go to multiple officers, or that are rejected by one or more officers. “We also give purchasing the ability to run POs by IT or an administrator, if they need to. It’s conditional, and we’re not putting the onus on the employee to make those decisions or execute those manual tasks that can end up causing delays.”

Washburn said that budget purpose numbers are housed in a separate, legacy accounting system that can be leveraged via lookups from Laserfiche Forms. “Users enter a number and it all pre-populates. They click submit and it’s near instantaneous getting to the next person. The end users are amazed that they can do all of this in one place.”

Feedback has been so positive that the project was expanded to include purchases that are made through state procurement cards. “The intent is now to use it for everything that gets purchased for the school, from paper towels and office supplies to computer or laboratory equipment,” Washburn added.

medical sector can modernize and streamline data with LaserficheSIU also used Laserfiche to expedite the collection of patient information when a local healthcare provider retired. “There was a local practice where the provider retired, and all of their patients were transitioned into our practice,” Washburn explained. “We had to collect release of information notices, so we quickly deployed a Laserfiche form to streamline that process. Our clinical staff just had to enter the patient’s health record number. Our system integrates with our practice management system to pull everything automatically, which significantly reduced the time it would have taken manually.”

SIU Medicine’s IT department also stood up its own Laserfiche-powered system for entering requests. Employees fill out an electronic form to request a variety of IT services, including reports, software installation, or even new processes through Laserfiche Forms. “Prior to using the forms, we would get requests that were very unstructured, and there might be a lot of follow-up questions to find out, for instance, what reports someone needed, or what we could to do provide support,” said Jeff Wilson, IT director at SIU Medicine.

Other processes that the organization has transformed using Laserfiche include:
  • Medical provider onboarding
  • Student registration
  • Proof of vaccination collection
  • Program requirements tracking for medical students
  • Animal research laboratory access requests
  • Human resources performance evaluations
  • HR applications for retention bonuses
  • Position change requests
  • Invoice distribution
  • Special event approvals
  • Equipment move requests
  • Equipment inventory count certification

Navigating Compliance and Supporting Staff Satisfaction

SIU leverages Laserfiche’s robust records management capabilities on a daily basis for compliance with industry and state requirements. All forms and information generated from Laserfiche processes are saved and managed in the Laserfiche repository, supporting information governance practices at SIU.

SIU Medicine - million-plus (or 2 million+) documents in Laserfiche“We have well over 2 million documents in our repository,” said Washburn. “If there’s not an existing folder structure for the area that we’re working in, Laserfiche Forms can create it dynamically. We make sure that everything lands in Laserfiche at the end of the day.”

Finally, the organization’s digital efforts have extended beyond process, productivity and compliance improvements, into staff resilience and satisfaction — which has been invaluable in the current healthcare climate. “Working in healthcare, there’s a lot of pressure and demand, so we are constantly thinking about how our staff is doing and what we can do to make the experience better,” Washburn said. “SIU’s executive leadership has emphasized that staff are more contented in their roles when they feel supported and know what they can expect from their leaders. In the most recent employee satisfaction survey, we were rated highest in staff understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and we ranked steady in satisfaction.”

NWFM Streamlines Accounts Payable to Scale with Growth and Increase Transparency for Investors

SITUATION

• Company expansion led to a need to optimize paper-based accounts payable processes.
• NWFM sought a means to manage invoices digitally and increase transparency between back office and field operations.

RESULTS

• Achieved hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings
• Increased accuracy in invoice processing
• Over 300% increase in invoice capacity
• Increased investor confidence in the company

NWFM is a locally owned, full-service farm investment and property management company based in Yakima, Washington. Established in 2018, the company had initially processed all its vendor invoices manually. However, as NWFM expanded, the amount of paper invoices increased proportionally with its growing operations and client base.

“Originally, we manually processed about 250 invoices a month,” recalled Tim Hull, administrative manager at NWFM. “As a few hundred acres of new land came under our management, I could see a paperwork tsunami coming.”

Recognizing an opportunity to optimize paper-based accounts payable processes and improve back office and field operations, NWFM searched for a digital capture and workflow solution. Due to its reputation as a robust cloud content services platform, Laserfiche was chosen, and NWFM worked with solution provider FreeDoc of Lynnwood, Washington, to design a dedicated, customized accounts payable workflow.

Since implementing Laserfiche to keep up with a rapid growth trajectory, NWFM has achieved substantial cost and operational savings, as well as gained the ability to leverage data and metrics built into Laserfiche to improve transparency and accuracy throughout its operations.
Farmer in the field with a crop

Cultivating a Digital Invoice Processing System

Managing hundreds of acres of farmland across Central Washington, NWFM recognizes the value of automation and technology in its operations for the sake of efficiency and accuracy. Assessing its original invoice processing system, the company identified significant challenges:

  • Area managers working on-site would typically make purchases with local vendors, but the process of tracking purchases and matching them with the correct invoice in a timely manner was prone to bottlenecks
  • Employees had to manually manage documents that could be easily misplaced during the process

“As we took on more farmland to manage, I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle such a big influx of invoices every month,” said Hull. “Laserfiche helped us to create a solution to connect our employees located almost 100 miles away to our central office and resolve many of our major challenges.”

The digital accounts payable system at NWFM routes all electronically imported invoices into a dedicated folder within the company’s Laserfiche repository. Each invoice can be reviewed for accuracy before sending it for final approval and payment processing. Throughout the process, the administrative team can make changes to expense category codes and make notes to the bookkeeper.

NWFM’s Laserfiche system is integrated with FastField purchase order software, which allows area managers to upload pictures of invoices directly to Laserfiche from remote locations. The integration extracts vendor names, ranch names, individual blocks, numerical codes and other relevant information needed for processing and approvals; facilitating the management of clear, categorized information while processing invoices.

This has significantly increased the efficiency of invoice review and finalization. NWFM has gone from processing 250 invoices a month to more than 1,000, with the potential to scale up as the company continues to grow.

“Laserfiche has really proven to be the backbone of many of our processes,” said Hull. “Its cloud-hosted infrastructure and the ability to search for specific words within documents has helped us to form a solid connection between our central office and the ranches we manage — we are able to understand each other more clearly in terms of orders and financial documents.”

In addition to the need to establish a revamped AP system, the NWFM team wanted to give investors located out-of-state the ability to review invoices and financial documents digitally. Rather than continue with the legacy process of storing invoices in filing cabinets, NWFM now has a standardized digital repository and has been able to increase its financial transparency when working with investors, giving them access to invoices in real-time. Built with email import functionality, purchase order integrations and granular access rights, the new AP management system has supported NWFM’s efforts to modernize its operations and position the company for growth.

A Fruitful Digital Transformation

Hull explains that NWFM initially tracked cost savings from the AP automation initiative for the first several months after implementation.

“We happily stopped counting savings after it exceeded $1,000 per month,” he said. “The savings was used to hire a chemical inventory specialist who now tracks inventory movement and returns unused stock. This allowed us to already return $72,000 in unused chemicals this year alone.”

NWFM’s new AP system also enables employees to process invoices while checking the price of products against bid sheets. In addition to the time savings from managing invoices, this process has additionally saved NWFM thousands of additional dollars by enabling the company to catch vendor billing errors, identifying $14,000 in billing errors per year. Leveraging data extracted from its invoice repository, the company is now making more accurate and productive purchasing decisions, and identifying savings opportunities.

Following the success of its AP system, NWFM has plans to establish satellite offices to further localize invoice processing in a more distributed strategy. This puts invoice processing closer to the ranch managers who make the purchases and generate the purchase orders. As the company continues to expand, Laserfiche has proven its effectiveness as a scalable solution.

“Organizing invoice and purchase order information by project or by ranch and block for review would have taken me weeks,” stated Hull. “Now I have it all at my fingertips.”

Prosper Scales Town Services with Laserfiche

SITUATION

In 2020, the Town of Prosper created a continuous process improvement program based on lean practices. As a part of this effort, the town aimed to eliminate paper-driven processes and manual tasks across various departments in order to meet the demands of the town’s growing population.

SOLUTION

The IT department began by replacing the paper applications for the town’s boards and commissions with a Laserfiche form. After experiencing Laserfiche’s ease of use, the department expanded with more electronic forms for the municipal court and the public works departments.

RESULTS

In addition to reduced opportunity for error and a streamlined staff experience, the time the public works department spends on the water equipment readings process has been cut by 75% or more. The department estimates it has saved more than 100 hours annually by re-engineering the process.

The Town of Prosper is a fast-growing suburb with small-town charm, located 30 miles north of Dallas at the crossroads of U.S. 380, Preston Road and the Dallas North Tollway in Collin and Denton Counties. Prosper sits on 27 square miles and is home to more than 35,430 people. A home-rule municipality, governed by a council-manager form of government, the town has full-time fire and police departments, including its own dispatch service. As the Town grows to its projected build-out population of 70,000 residents, Prosper’s vision is to remain a “Place Where Everyone Matters.”

Prosper is a town within Texas’s Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area that has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. With a projected build-out population of 70,000 — double its current population — the town’s IT department has had the foresight to prioritize increased efficiency, implementing processes and solutions that will help the town scale with growth and continue delivering high quality public services.

As a part of this effort, IT has leveraged Laserfiche enterprise content management (ECM) in various departments as a channel for process modernization and efficiency. The town started by replacing the paper applications for the municipality’s boards and commissions with a Laserfiche form. After experiencing Laserfiche’s ease of use, the department expanded with more electronic forms for the municipal court and the public works departments.

“We’re utilizing Laserfiche for what it’s good at, which is routing information, filing it into a system that makes it easy to search, easy to retrieve and easy to maintain with retention guidelines,” said Leigh Johnson, director of information technology at the Town of Prosper. “Anywhere that we can get a department to start using it more we’re trying to do so.”

Johnson’s vision puts digitization and centralization at the forefront, reducing opportunity for human error while providing a streamlined staff and citizen experience when interacting with the town’s information. Laserfiche supports this vision, as the town continues to explore new ways to leverage Laserfiche’s robust records management, electronic forms and integration capabilities.

Supporting Town Services Through Process Modernization

The Town of Prosper recently implemented a continuous improvement program with the ultimate goal of maintaining a high quality of service to the town’s growing population. This initiative led the IT department to explore opportunities for new efficiencies within existing technologies and processes.

“From the moment I started digging into Laserfiche, I thought ‘This is really slick,’” Johnson said. “I learned about forms and workflow, and we decided at some point that we needed to be utilizing it more and get some training on it.”

The IT department tapped the town’s Laserfiche solution provider, MCCi, for support and training on the platform, which inspired new ideas and opened doors to more advanced solutions.

One of the first Laserfiche-driven process improvements was done in collaboration with the town secretary, who wanted to modernize the way people applied to be on one of the town’s boards or commissions. Like in many municipalities, Prosper’s application was previously done on paper and the process was entirely manual.

“Any place we can eliminate inefficient processes, whether they are paper or otherwise, is going to benefit us,” Johnson explained.

The new process allows applicants to fill out a digital Laserfiche form on the town’s website. Applicants attach their resumes; information is filed in Laserfiche and assigned a retention schedule, lessening the burden of managing paper records hidden in a filing cabinet.

When COVID-19 arrived, the IT department saw an increased need for digital forms to help decrease foot traffic to Town Hall. Building on their knowledge of Laserfiche forms, the team built several new forms, including:
  • Hearing requests
  • Attorney document submittals
  • Jury summons response

“Laserfiche became our go-to, because it was existing platform and we knew how easy it was to build a form with minimal training,” Johnson added.

Expanding Digital Transformation Across Town Departments

After their experience with creating some helpful Laserfiche forms for the town secretary and municipal courts, the IT department was ready to take on a more complex challenge. The team identified a legacy process that the public works department used daily to collect readings from equipment (such as water meters) at public works facilities throughout the town.

Previously done using a stack of paper comprising a sheet for each facility, the process involves field workers who drive out to each site to take readings from the equipment and note the relevant numbers by hand.

“Employees would then go back to the office and transcribe the information into what I called a ‘dirty log,’ which is basically another piece of paper where numbers could be erased and redone, mustard or coffee could be spilled on it,” Johnson said. Numbers were then transferred into a “clean log,” which could be kept as record and shown to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) during audits. “There were so many opportunities for numbers to be input incorrectly, and it was very time consuming.”

With support from MCCi, the Town of Prosper IT team reimagined the process using Laserfiche, which made the readings available to supervisors back in the office in real time. The new process involves equipping field workers with tablets and enabling them to enter readings digitally into a Laserfiche form. The forms presented a list of facilities and, depending on which facility the field worker selected, the form would dynamically change fields for different types of readings. Field workers electronically sign the form, which would also automatically be geotagged with the location of the facility.

“The public works department wanted another way to verify that a person was at the facility, so that if there was ever any question about it, we would have that signature and geotag,” Johnson said.

Field workers then move onto the next facility and repeat the process. If a supervisor in the office notices an anomaly with any of the information entered, they can immediately notify the field worker to take another reading.

“Before, they have even gotten back to the office before a supervisor could notify them that something looked off, so we’re saving more time and fuel as well,” Johnson added. “As they submit the numbers, they are written to an SQL database. We also file the forms in Laserfiche by month. When TCEQ comes out to do the audit now, instead of having to look through a file folder, we’ve got all the forms filled out, timestamped, geo-tagged, signed, and we know we went out there and did readings as we’re required to do. It’s much more efficient, and it’s updated in real-time.”

In addition to supporting the auditing process, the new equipment readings form has reduced the opportunity for error by eliminating 75% of the legacy process’s manual data entry. Johnson also estimates that the new process saves at least two hours per week in manual transcription, all of which results in huge efficiency gains for the public works department.

Today, the IT department is working on integrations to create even more connectivity and efficiencies.  An integration between Laserfiche and the town’s enterprise permitting and licensing system, for example, will enable the planning department to streamline records management by auto-filing paperwork related to permitting and licensing into Laserfiche. The human resources department, too, has embraced a digital approach to managing content and exploring new solutions.

“We went from having just one form for the boards and commissions application to creating dozens,” Johnson said. “We are growing so fast — we have lots of new employees starting, which has been the trend in recent years. So we’re not slowing down; we can’t slow down. There’s so much growth. Residents are very engaged and they demand a lot. Laserfiche is an example of one of the ways we can use technology to scale our services.”

Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies Improved Data Accessibility for More Informed Decision Making

By simplifying its processes and making better, data-driven decisions, the group of insurance carriers elevates the experience it provides for employees and customers alike.

Transcript

Our focus is to provide worker’s compensation insurance products across a wide variety of industries. Our primary responsibility there is providing our policy holders with the products that they need and providing our injured workers with compassionate care, helping them to get healthy and back to work. You know, we want to give our customers tomorrow more value than they have today, so it’s about continually releasing products, giving them what they need as quickly as possible.

We’ve gone through a lot of growth over the last eight years and as the organization scaled, we realized we weren’t staying current in a lot of our technologies so we had to go out and find a document management solution for the company.

I was really looking at a document management system that was secure, stable and had the ability to scale. We took a look at Laserfiche from a technology standpoint and it fit nicely in the tech stack that we have, but we also like the fact that, from an enterprise perspective, we’re going to be able to grow and expand our Laserfiche footprint into other areas of the company, so really it has the ability to become an enterprise-class product. Right now we are using Laserfiche as a document management repository for all of our policy and underwriting applications.

Finance certainly uses it, marketing, loss control. This platform has a lot of features and functionality than the previous one. Already, some of the feedback from the users is, “Wow there’s a lot more to do here. It’s a lot more powerful.”

Laserfiche provides us with a secure and stable platform; its something that’s going to allow us to grow. It’s going to scale with us as we continue to scale as an organization and it’s really going to enable us to have a single enterprise document management system that we’re able to extract good data and information out of so that we can make better decisions for our customers moving forward.

Digital transformation is something that a lot of companies are faced with right now. For us it’s taking at the tools and technology that we use, getting on to consistent, consolidated platforms, leveraging common technology and technology stacks that developers want to develop in so we’re moving to a bunch more current technologies.

So as an injured worker is injured, we want to make that process, you know, it’s new for them, it’s something that they’re unsure of. How can we give better tools, better features,better functionality to our injured workers to that we can make the overall process easier for them so that their focus is on, “how do I get better, how do I get healthy, how do I return to work quicker” and not on, you know, “when am I getting my check, where is my claim status, you know, where is my doctor’s appointment.” Being able to provide these things and make that easy for them there are less things that they have to worry about.

Explore additional insights on the Laserfiche insurance solutions page: https://www.laserfiche.com/solutions/financial-services/insurance/

What Is a Document Repository and What Are the Benefits of Using One?

Having a sufficient document management strategy is essential regardless of your business’s size. A vital element to this strategy is a document repository. Repositories serve as the central hub for all your organization’s vital forms and documents.

Read on to learn more about document repositories and how they help your organization save time and resources.

What is a Document Repository?

A document repository serves as a centralized storage point for all your organization’s critical and day-to-day content. Document repositories are a vital component of your organization’s overall document management strategy and can assist your organization in efforts to ensure that:
  • All content is centrally managed and accessible to all team members
  • Files and documents are systematically organized and easy to locate
  • Your content is safe and compliant with regulatory and security standards

What is a Document Repository Used For?

The main function of a document repository is to centralize all content produced and housed by your organization. Limiting your document management to physical documents is risky and becomes less efficient as your company grows and scales. A document repository eliminates the need for paper and conveniently organizes your documents into logical categories, folders and subfolders.

Document repositories aid in boosting productivity and collaboration within your organization by simplifying how teams share necessary documents amongst each other.

Additionally, many document repositories come with features that make it easier to locate documents, track their lifecycles and set in place security measures to protect sensitive information.

What are Common Features of a Document Repository?

Many document repositories come with a suite of useful features that allow you to boost your company’s productivity, streamline processes through automation and employ the latest security tools. Features you can expect to make use of in a document repository include:

Capture tools: Capture tools assist with bringing data into your document repository. Having a variety of capture tools increases your team’s ability to work efficiently. Some common capture tools include drag and drop, scanning, online forms and mobile capture.

Automation: Document repositories may allow you to digitize manual workflows and automate processes such as naming and organizing files, modifying document security levels and sharing content with relevant team members.

Integrations: Some repositories integrate with third party software your organization utilizes, boosting efficiency and collaboration.

Collaboration tools: These tools improve productivity by streamlining processes that enable your team members work on various projects together. Other useful collaboration tools allow members to collaborate in real time, add comments and share with stakeholders.

Security controls: One of the most important aspects of your document repository will be upholding your organization’s security policies. Document repositories allow you to assign privileges and rights, oversee document access and sharing and employ access restrictions.

Metadata: Many repositories enable you to store details about a document, such as document type, owner, description and date of creation, as metadata. Metadata aids searchability and ensures documents are easy to query.

The Benefits of a Document Repository?

Your organization’s document repository provides many benefits in addition to increasing productivity and efficiency. Here are three benefits of utilizing a document repository:

Systematically organize your content: A document repository gives your organization full capability to organize content to fit your company’s needs. This allows you to create folder structures and naming conventions that work well for your company’s current workflows.

Manage the lifecycle of your content: A great benefit of uploading content into your document repository is the ability to track its digital footprint. This allows you to monitor who has viewed a document, limit editing and duplication and control the amount of time a document remains accessible.

Maintain security and privacy standards: Document repositories allow you to grant specific access rights and privileges to your folders. These security features give your organization more control to grant various teams and departments the appropriate level of access to perform their duties.

Further Reading

Download our Document Management Buyer’s Guide to discover software that will support your organization’s growth and productivity goals.
The Document Management Buyer’s Guide.

Canadian Seed Growers’ Association Pioneers Digital-First Agriculture

The Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA) is a science-based non-profit organization committed to supporting a competitive Canadian agriculture sector as a respected global leader in seed quality assurance and genetic traceability.

CSGA provides leadership as the only Canadian organization to monitor and certify pedigreed seed for all agricultural crops in Canada except potatoes. CSGA certifies over 1.2 million acres, over 60 different crop kinds of 2,000 varieties for nearly 3,100 seed growers and 2,500 seed-growing businesses annually. Bringing together plant breeders, seed growers and seed sector stakeholders to reliably deliver a national seed certification program through the assurance of genetic identity of pedigreed seed.

Canada’s seed certification system ensures germination and mechanical purity while providing a third-party verified audit trail of the seed’s varietal identity. It ensures that the agricultural supply chain is secure, farmers trust the seed they purchase and plant, and trading partners have the utmost confidence in the seed and food products they import. The system is a globally trusted quality-management system that ensures plant breeding innovation is delivered from the lab to the farmer, producer and end market.

To continue strengthening Canada’s global reputation for producing high-quality seed, CSGA has been at the forefront of seed certification system modernization and digital transformation over the last decade.

Since 2014, CSGA has used Laserfiche as a behind-the-scenes champion for many of its key business processes. Using Laserfiche’s electronic forms and business process automation capabilities, CSGA accelerated the seed certification process for its 3,100-plus members.

Agriculture is an essential sector where relationships are key. The recent push for a more digitally driven CSGA has led to better relationships with growers, sector stakeholders and government. The Association’s “CSGA 2.0” Business Plan includes a focus on digitalization or providing transparent, digitally enabled, enhanced traceability services that reduce administrative burden and add value.

A recent blockchain validation pilot project enabled consumers to see their food’s journey from seed-to-table. Using data gathered from seed crops and the blockchain pilot, CSGA’s model tracked and verified a product’s history, which consumers could access by scanning a QR code on the packaging.

These digital initiatives continue to underscore CSGA’s commitment to its stakeholders, the Canadian agricultural community, and the Canadian public, who consume Canadian seed growers’ products every day.

“In any given year, we receive roughly 16,000 to 20,000 applications. The vast majority of these are processed through Laserfiche. We’ll have over 1,000 workflows running in the background. It essentially runs our business.”

— Doug Miller, CSGA Executive Director and former Managing Director, Certification and Technology Services

Streamlining Key Business Processes

CSGA is the delegated regulatory authority for the Canadian Seed Crop Certification System via a public-private partnership with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). CSGA certifies that a seed crop is produced in compliance with CSGA standards for varietal purity in pedigreed seed crop certification.

In the past, the Canadian government provided inspection services for thousands of fields seeking seed crop certification from annually. In 2012, however, the government announced that it would no longer provide those services. Going digital was the solution to connect CSGA, the CFIA and 23 different inspection companies across the country. The CFIA now oversees private seed crop inspections with ensured coordinated access to information.

CSGA created SeedCert, an online portal and one-stop-shop powered by Laserfiche Forms and business process automation to streamline the inspection and verification processes.

Today, seed growers request certification online by logging into SeedCert and submitting a Laserfiche form routed to staff for review. Approved applications are transmitted to inspectors who access requests through Laserfiche on a computer or mobile device. Those inspectors submit completed inspection reports online, even when they are out in the field.

By removing paper and the manual shipping of information, CSGA took something that once took weeks and created a more user-friendly, standardized, and simplified experience for members, inspectors and CSGA staff. CSGA staff now have access to reports quickly, allowing CSGA to promptly communicate with the grower if issues are identified in the field, allowing the grower to address those issues before harvest and obtain certification

A Data-driven Approach to Decision-making

What initially started as a challenge ultimately drove innovation for CSGA. “Our whole system was paper-based and back-logged. Now, processing takes only days,” says Miller. The new digital processes enabled the Association to scale up. CSGA’s SeedCert platform now helps coordinate 23 different Authorized Seed Crop Inspection Services (ASCIS) organize inspections and their 250 individual inspectors — saving CSGA’s current staff countless hours.

CSGA-certified seed crop information is stored in a database, allowing CSGA staff to dive deeper into the data. They can identify patterns and gather insights that could influence strategic decision-making, improve processes and operations, and strengthen relationships between seed growers and regulators — all to serve CSGA’s members and the sector as effectively and efficiently as possible.
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A Digital-First Future for Business

CSGA is finding new ways to leverage technology every day. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization used Laserfiche Forms to enable inspectors to report if they were sick, allowing in-field inspections to be reassigned. Electronic forms also allowed the Association to communicate coronavirus-related travel restrictions with inspectors quickly. In a time of worldwide uncertainty, the improved communications facilitated the continuity of essential operations.

The CSGA sees a new, more diverse wave of producers in the future. The younger agricultural professionals expect digital-first, intuitive interfaces, and quick responses to requests. This highlights the need for the agricultural sector to keep pace with new innovations and technology-driven solutions.

With the help of technology like Laserfiche, CSGA has adapted to this new set of expectations and changing business climate. “We’re looking ahead for the next generation of seed growers and the entire pedigreed seed certification system. We’ve already launched our digital crop certificates and taken big strides forward to a digital end-to-end seed crop certification system. Leveraging digital platforms will elevate the seed sector and Canadian Agriculture,” Miller says.

Process automation has made it possible to certify seed faster, and e-forms have made it easier for CSGA to coordinate among its large and growing network of growers, inspectors and government. All these improvements are critical to CSGA’s mandate to deliver a national third-party seed crop certification system for Canada.

“Regulated sectors like agriculture are going to have to adopt digitization technologies as a necessity.”

— Doug Miller, CSGA Executive Director and former Managing Director, Certification and Technology Services

To learn more about how Laserfiche drives digital transformation, schedule a consultation today.

University San Francisco

Westbank First Nation Elevates Employee Experience and Safety

Located in south central British Columbia, Westbank First Nation (WFN) is one of eight Okanagan Nation communities representing a portion of the Syilx traditional territories that have inhabited the valley for thousands of years. Today, the First Nation government comprises about 200 staff members who serve a population of 10,000 residents spread across four reserves. In an effort to address silos between departments and reorganize physical documentation in storage, WFN sought to digitize and inventory its existing paper records. After exploring options with its digital workplace solutions provider Ricoh Canada, WFN selected Laserfiche as its electronic records management (ECM) system. Since implementing Laserfiche more than a decade ago, WFN has expanded its digital transformation efforts, introducing Laserfiche Workflow and Forms to automate business processes, and utilizing metadata to improve reporting and turnaround times.

“We grew so fast as an organization, identifying many processes that we could streamline along the way,” said Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation. “Laserfiche has provided us with an opportunity to assess our processes and improve the organization holistically.”

Laserfiche is now used for numerous internal processes across departments, streamlining approvals and records management through automated document routing. In addition to time savings, benefits have also included investigating the ability to support COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, and the flexibility to continue addressing community health and safety through incident reporting.

Establishing a Digital Foundation

WFN manages over 4,400 properties, which requires intensive property tax documentation processes. From early on, WFN recognized the need for a more efficient records management system. A majority of its vital records management and property tax documents relied on off-site filing, resulting in substantial fuel surcharges to store and retrieve boxes. Seeing an opportunity to improve compliance, transparency and efficiency, WFN explored ways to digitally transform the way the organization managed these documents.

Today, the organization uses Laserfiche to process all documents related to each property tax folio digitally, and automatically store them in a centralized location, eliminating lost files. The system enables metadata to be attached to each document, making them easily searchable. The process now requires less paper, which originally required five floor-to-ceiling shelves containing over 4,000 folders to store. Now, there are only a few small folders for processing documents that either need to be scanned weekly or mailed out to residents, helping to improve responsiveness to members. As the organization grew, file storage rooms were converted into functional workspace.

“The repository grew from managing meeting minutes and policies into managing working documents and case files. We really experienced an organization-wide transformation — department by department.”

— Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation

Increasing Administrative Efficiency and Elevating the Employee Experience

Following the success digitizing its document management process, the organization recognized that internal requests — such as employee change notifications and staff reports — could also be digitized and automated to reclaim time for employees who were manually managing files being passed between departments.

“We really needed a way to improve monitoring and transparency to streamline these submissions,” said Rota.

WFN implemented Laserfiche Forms, which can be edited digitally without being passed between departments for amendment and approval. This system has been fully adopted and integrated across the organization, including the finance department, legal department and HR. Notably, finalized employee change notification requests are automatically filed in Laserfiche via an automated Laserfiche Workflow, with a notification sent to the payroll team for review and approval. This fully digital process has increased efficiency, as well as boosted employee satisfaction as requests are resolved more rapidly.

Additionally, the request portal is hosted using Laserfiche Forms, which can be easily modified and updated with newly available resources. This has supported the dissemination of information throughout WFN, creating a self-service portal for employees, who now have the independence to navigate forms, pending requests and their associated documents.

“Being able to access everything in one central location has empowered staff to become more independent Laserfiche users.”

— Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation

Prioritizing Employee Health and Safety

In addition to creating a long-term digital culture, Laserfiche has provided WFN with a high-level view of working conditions for its employees, improving health and safety when it matters most. If an incident occurs on-site, employees can complete a dedicated Laserfiche form which is automatically forwarded to WFN’s occupational health and safety advisor, while notifying the director of the submission. The system generates a corrective action task, prompting a discussion about the cause of the individual incident and preventative measures. In addition to metadata based on the location and department of the incident, WFN can leverage advanced reporting tools to identify health and safety trends and make more informed, data-driven decisions to improve conditions for specific locations.

This system also helps support compliance requirements — in terms of policy development, WFN submits annual reports to regional and national governing entities in Canada. Now, staff can extract relevant information from incident responses and complete these forms more quickly and accurately. Additionally, during the early stages of the pandemic, WFN also used Laserfiche to support contact tracing efforts, developing a dedicated form for staff entering the premises in order to comply with British Columbia’s health reporting requirements, eliminating the need for Health and Safety specific software.

Understanding Organizational Priorities

By using Laserfiche to establish replicable solutions that can be applied to a variety of processes, WFN has optimized its resources while enabling employees to be more independent and less reliant on paper files. Documents can be retrieved in seconds, allowing staff to work far more efficiently and take more ownership over core processes. Achieving such substantial savings in time and resources has translated to reduced operational costs and headcount allocations, allowing the organization to run more efficiently.

In terms of future digital transformation plans, WFN is working to digitize and streamline accounts payable using Laserfiche Forms and process automation. The organization is also exploring Laserfiche Cloud as a storage solution moving forward.

“We are able to go from the troubleshooting and testing phase to launching new processes so rapidly because we have so much at our fingertips with Laserfiche. It’s easy for us to mobilize efforts and prioritize our workload the right way.”

— Chad Rota, Records and Information Management Supervisor at Westbank First Nation

To learn more about how Laserfiche drives digital transformation, schedule a consultation today.