ECM Software for Government

Have you ever considered all of the document centric functions of a City Clerk’s Office? As a community’s historian and official keeper of records, the City Clerk’s Office is the oldest and most document-intensive public servant in local government. According to the City of Jackson, Mississippi, the main mission of the Municipal Clerk’s Office is to maintain the integrity of the legislative process, provide administrative support to the City Council, disseminate information concerning policy issues, and protect and preserve official records city documents.

Unfortunately, these records and the historical information within them, come in multiple document forms from various outlets, including postal mail, faxes, e-mail, and more. With staff time spent searching for documents and misplaced or lost files, it became apparent that the amount of work accomplished was steadily decreasing.

Beyond spending countless hours rummaging through file cabinets, the City Clerk’s office needed to cut down on expensive paper costs and eliminate the misplacement of files. As servants to the community, they also wanted to become more transparent with the citizens of Jackson, by increasing accessibility to public records on file. Due to the high volume of paper processed daily, the City of Jackson desperately needed a solution that would take their paper-based processes digital.

With documents ranging from legislation materials, to official city policies, and municipal election information, it was important to the City of Jackson that their new digital process was as secure and efficient as possible. Luckily, Square 9’s groundbreaking document management software is a secure means for digital document processing! Square 9’s GlobalSearch® enterprise content management and GlobalCapture® document capture automation solutions worked in conjunction to solve the paper-based problems of Jackson, MS. To start, GlobalCapture allows staff to easily and effectively capture and transform paper documents into usable information. As documents are scanned into the system, GlobalCapture automatically captures and classifies documents, enabling automatic data extraction.

With built-in advanced search capabilities, GlobalSearch allows the City of Jackson to easily locate and pull information as needed. Staff also found the KeyFree Indexing function to be especially beneficial. This advanced feature allows employees to select data instead of manually entering the information, saving time and increasing accuracy. GlobalSearch also allows for documents to be accessed from anywhere at anytime, providing a reliable service to staff.

Since the implementation of Square 9’s document management software, the City of Jackson has seen considerable improvements in the amount of time spent chasing documents. The City Clerk’s Office estimates that paper use has decreased by 30%, and there has also been a considerable cut in dollars spent on storage and printing costs. This includes eliminating the need to purchase file cabinets, ink and paper expenses, and costly copier machine maintenance.

GlobalCapture and GlobalSearch have had such a positive impact on the Clerk’s Office of Jackson, Mississippi that they are considering implementing the software throughout the entire city. With these promising improvements, the City of Jackson is also looking to expand the software’s functionality to include advanced document workflow features. As government documents often need to be processed and routed between many people across different departments, visual workflows will allow for employees to easily and seamlessly track the stage of each document, and all impending actions. Square 9’s solutions ensure the City of Jackson remains ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and business efficiency.

For more information on the City of Jackson, visit http://www.jacksonms.gov/.

Interview: Shanekia Mosley, Deputy City Clerk, City of Jackson

Q. What does your organization do? What are your daily business operations?

Shanekia Mosley: The Office of the City Clerk wears many hats. Including but not limited to, maintaining the integrity of the legislative process, providing administrative and technical support to the City Council, disseminating information concerning legislative decisions and policy issues, protecting and preserving official city documents and assisting with all municipal elections. The City Clerk’s office strives to be more transparent with all citizens and has a goal of cutting down on paper costs and lost or misplaced files.

Q. How often is GlobalSearch used? Are there any specific features you favor?

Mosley: The City Clerk’s Office uses GlobalSearch daily! Square 9’s software offers many functions that are beneficial to us. Specifically, we use the Keyfree Indexing feature very often! This allows us to avoid manual data entry, and saves lots of time. We also appreciate the advanced search features of GlobalSearch. They make finding documents immediate, and generally so much easier! Because of our great success with GlobalSearch, we’re looking to implement the software throughout the entire organization.

Q. Can you estimate the amount of paperwork being diminished and discuss the increase in productivity?

Mosley: Approximately, 30% of paper has been diminished throughout the Clerk’s Office. With this steady decrease, our office no longer needs to purchase new filing cabinets! We’ve also noticed increased savings in printer costs – less money is spent on ink, paper, and printer maintenance.

Q. Would you recommend Square 9’s solutions?

Mosley: Absolutely! We would definitely recommend Square 9’s software to everyone looking for a solution to their paper-based processing challenges. Due to the software’s ease of use, and all of the additional functionality and features offered – we’re confident that any business looking to decrease their reliance on paper will be happy to chose Square 9. In fact, we enjoyed our experience so much that we plan to expand on products by adding additional workflow functionality, and also expand throughout additional City of Jackson departments as well.