CaseStudy

From Document Manager Magazine Vol 17 No 06 - November/December 2009

Havant Borough Council has transformed productivity, operational efficiency and customer service, while halving its paper burden, thanks to a highly flexible electronic document & records management solution

In common with many other organisations, both public and private, Havant Borough Council had reached a crossroads in its endeavours to manage information and serve the public effectively and efficiently. Specifically, it needed to be able to handle Freedom of Information (FOI) requests more speedily, and respond to the government agenda to make councils more efficient, information more visible, staff more productive, and their use of resources (including paper, and office space) more frugal.

While under no illusions about the practicalities of ridding its offices of paper entirely, the Council knew it needed to take fairly radical action to bring more of its documentation online and free itself of the costly and constraining burden of relying on single hard copies of critical content.

As Ross Morley, Smart Info/Data (SID) programme manager at Havant Borough Council, explains: "Paper is a nightmare - not only because of storage costs and the inconvenience of constant filing and re-filing, but because it is also very exposed to being lost or damaged through fire and flood. The amount of time and expensive resource that is wasted wading through paper, not to mention the inconvenience to the customer in service delays and poor response times, is staggering."

Havant needed to find the most cost-effective and least disruptive way of capturing, managing and sharing this content electronically, while ensuring that sensitive content remained highly secure. The resulting solution needed to enable faster, easier access to required information, regardless of location; easier backup and protection of important material; and a substantial reduction in both the use of printed paper and the vast physical filing cabinets and associated storage rooms.

It was important, however, that the resulting solution did not cost the earth, and was not so complex that it would hamper staff as they went about their work. The Council knew, too, that it would be unrealistic to expect staff to completely abandon paper overnight, so it needed a pragmatic, migratory approach to an electronic platform.

The Solution
To fulfil its many requirements, the Council went through a rigorous procurement process, based on the 'Catalist' framework, which eliminates the need to go through the lengthy process of OJEU tendering, while still complying with EC procurement legislation.

As a result of this process, the team at Havant engaged independent information management specialist Kainos to implement an optimised, integrated content management platform. This largely computerised environment would meet the Council's numerous targets concerning the secure handling of private information, greener working practices, and enhanced customer responsiveness, yet without demanding a wholesale rejection of paper.

Core to the solution is an electronic document & records management system (eDRMS) from Autonomy Records Management (formerly Meridio), integrated with a data capture solution from Kofax and a workflow system from K2.

The implementation has been rolled out using a phased approach, on a service by service basis, with Havant's Environmental Services division having been the first department to undergo the transition.

The Benefits
Tangible benefits have emerged rapidly with each stage of the roll-out. Havant is currently completing the second phase of the eDRMS project and is reporting reduced information retrieval times and transmission costs, reduced storage costs (both physical and electronic), and greater ease in meeting audit requirements.

In storage space alone, Havant has cleared 70 square metres of space this year and is expecting to clear a further 30 square metres next year. This is space that will be re-assigned for other use and in some cases will generate rental income.

In the long term, the Council expects to generate as much as 50% less paper, while reducing its information storage capacity significantly, thanks to the electronic streamlining and consolidation of content. Additionally, as a result of deploying the optimised, best-of-breed content management solution from Kainos, Havant is benefiting from corporate-wide availability of information; noticeably reduced customer response times (particularly important for Freedom of Information requests); increased manageability of archived information; and reduced printing costs.

In addition to the faster response time, customers now find that more of their queries are satisfied on first contact, because of the completeness and greater accuracy of information available to the Council staff they are speaking to.

Similarly, Council services have seen a reduction in the time previously spent by specialists on administration work, freeing them up to handle more important tasks, while a greater wealth of data can now be accessed without users having to refer to other departments, aiding general productivity. Easier access to information from the users' own desktops makes for a more rewarding working environment, too.

Last but not least, the eDRMS project is a perfect fit with Havant's green agenda. "We can destroy files with confidence, as we have a better idea of retention schedules and every file has a life span in the system," Morley notes. The overall result is that the council can control how information is accessed, amended and destroyed.

"We can be extremely detailed about how information is treated and can determine levels of access," he adds. "We can track if an officer has responded to a letter and whether there has been a reply. We are saving time and improving customer service. Information can also be retrieved from the system in near real time."

The independent specialist role of Kainos, as the systems integrator and service provider, has been crucial to the smooth, successful deployment, Morley concludes. "We have relied heavily on Kainos's depth of document and records management technology expertise and experience, and we are learning with them through each phase of the project," he comments. "The Kainos team has a refreshingly positive and proactive attitude to working with other vendors and technologies to deliver the right solution for us, and the result is a system that we are confident to take over and manage going forward. The skills and knowledge transfer process has been exemplary."

The Future
Kainos is now working with Havant Borough Council on the next phases of the roll-out, which cover the Planning department where an anticipated 95% reduction in paper is expected.  Kainos is also overseeing the management, specification, installation and delivery of all projects relating to Havant's information management plans. 

The project includes all incoming departmental mail; eventually Havant plans to retrospectively scan all of its filed paper documents into the electronic system.
More info: www.kainos.com

CaseStudy