Canadian Government Executive - Volume 21

November 2015 //

Canadian Government Executive /

were designated for each department and

they are the main licensees of the technol-

ogy and the guardians of the new stan-

dards and filing methods for city records

within each department. The OPRs had to

review the information then manage the

filing. In so doing, the organization main-

tained control over the consistency of the

filing, while still enabling staff to deposit

items into folders.

Taking the plunge

With implementation now complete, the

organization has indexing templates for

all of its LGMA sections and can file di-

rectly from MS Office applications, which

has streamlined the process. Soon, the

plan is to use Ricoh copiers to enable us-

ers to send incoming documents directly

into the filing system. Quickfields, another

software module built into the system,

will automatically extract the indexing

information, called metadata, from each

document allowing for easier automation

of new business processes that are still be-

ing done in paper, such as invoices.

“Every area of the municipality has mi-

grated to the new system,” Knowles said.

“The financial savings, both realized and

potential, are tremendous when you think

of the global impact of the solution and

the value/effectiveness realized through

its adoption throughout the government.”

Mission is not the only local government

trying to keep pace with the adoption of

the latest technology. Government profes-

sionals said they had planned to invest in

core technologies in 2015 as a way to keep

up with ever-changing technology, accord-

ing to a December 2014 survey of more than

330 local government IT and communica-

tions professionals across North America.

In fact, more than one-third of respon-

dents planned to boost their tech budgets

by 10 percent to 19 percent over the next

five years, according to the survey com-

missioned by Vision Internet to identify

Innovation

“What’s Next in Digital Communications

for Local Government.”

The top three technology investments

by government in 2015 were social media

with 49 percent, content management

systems with 42 percent and mobile gov-

ernment with 32 percent.

Lessons Learned

Of course, no major conversion goes with-

out some tough lessons learned along the

way.

For example, Knowles advises that oth-

er municipalities considering the move

to ECM systems should remember to get

the indexing down first before introduc-

ing others to it, especially with migration.

The District of Mission learned that les-

son the hard way when it began training

before the database was fully populated.

“In hindsight it wasn’t a good idea and

was a step backwards in the buy-in and

we had to do damage control until we had

that sorted out,” Knowles said.

Knowles also suggests forming a records

management committee with representa-

tives from all of the various departments

who can provide input on the design and

development of the project and the train-

ing along the way. “Having their input was

critical,” Knowles said. “A lot of customiza-

tion of the system really launched us from

struggle to success and now it’s delivering

solutions they really like.”

For those government agencies that are

on the fence, Knowles had some advice:

People should not hesitate getting started

for fear of getting stuck, because the ex-

pertise, technical support, and resources

are out there to get organizations through

all the bumps along the way. “And there

will be bumps,” Knowles says. “We had

things we had to tweak, fix and redesign

as is the case with any major project.”

Savings and Innovation

Now that the District of Mission has found

and implemented a simple interface so

that employees no longer have to sift

through decades’ worth of records, every-

body has migrated over to the new file sys-

tem and Lotus Notes has been turned off.

Knowles said it will be difficult to quan-

tify the return on its investment because

the benefits and efficiencies run through

the entire business unit. Instead, this

transformation of systems must be evalu-

ated in light of the reduction of risk in

terms of legal liability with FOI compli-

ance and the saving of employees’ time.

“It’s difficult to quantify but the ease with

which people can accomplish tasks re-

duces frustration, increases productivity

and customer service,” Knowles said. “All

of these add up to a whole lot of value

both monetary and intangible.”

The District of Mission has officially

completed Phase One, a nearly two-year

task when planning and training are

brought into consideration. The next step,

which will start with Human Resources,

is to leverage the power of the new sys-

tem to improve efficiency. The plan is to

add collaboration spaces, work with ap-

provals and workflow and delve into each

department of Mission from Public Works

and Fire/Rescue to Parks and Recreation

and Economic Development find paper

processes that can be replaced by the new

system.

The District of Mission has long been at

the forefront of government innovation. It

dates back more than a century as the site

of British Columbia’s first rail link to the

United States. Mission is home of one of

the first hydroelectric dams and the site

of one of the first Fraser River bridges. It

also clearly at the forefront of eliminating

as much paper as possible from govern-

ment service.

acker

is a technical writer for

NBN Communications, a writing and re-

search services company.

Today, while many municipalities are still searching for documents stored

in dozens of file cabinets, the District of Mission has done away with

its electronic system and replaced it with an enterprise content

management system (ECM) that has helped it to organize and

make searchable more than a million documents.