Government Case Study
News City Government Organization
No Need to Fight City Hall–Documents Wise, At Least
The public rarely thinks of city government as an enterprise, but many departments run like a business providing services that generate income. With that come reports and statements which, like any serious business, must be captured, managed, delivered and preserved in order to serve the needs of the two customers this enterprise must serve–the consumer of the service and the taxpayer to whom this organization must ultimately report.
Take the case of users like public works, especially the water division. The ultimate water consumer hardly recognizes the amount of information–data–that goes into managing this city hall business. That includes reports on volume and water quality, test reports, maintenance reports, meter collaboration, customer statements, credit and debit balances, detailed summaries, the annual transaction register and more.
The challenge to docHarbor was to ensure complete, accurate and secure document capture in a repository that provides instantaneous access to authorized users in various city works departments often in dispersed locations, and to provide backup via CD services. All of this had to be accomplished with the objective of improving distribution of reports, increasing "profitability" via an improved accounts receivable cycle, and advancing the sharing of information across city hall departments while reducing the costs of printing and mailing.
Outsourcing to docHarbor meant this government agency would not have to invest in new infrastructure, programming and training. Rather, docHarbor captures to its repository every document from any source, leveraging the department's existing computer and communications capability and the power of the Internet so that authorized users can quickly access specific report or billing data or query the repository for specific information needed for everything from usage trends to strategic planning.