Capture Automation Streamlines Intelligence in Government Agencies

Did you know that the County of San Diego is saving over $225,000 a year by digitally transforming document-intensive tasks into automated workflow processes? Did you know that by investing in document capture automation technology, your organization can accomplish the same? In fact, with capture automation software, government agencies can improve all aspects of paper-based processing from document capture to data extraction, automated indexing and document routing. This streamlines the management of all incoming documents such as police reports, tax information, court records, property data, voting records and postal information.

Enhancing document-centric government processes with capture automation will benefit your establishment and the communities your organization serves. By digitizing data output and delivery, government agencies can spend more time serving constituents, lower document processing costs, and better manage sensitive public information. Let’s take a look at some areas where capture automation will allow you to do more in less time, while seeing a return on investment that outweighs the costs of manual processing:

Finance and Administration

Between handling public records, agendas, tax management, and other responsibilities, the finance and administration departments are among the most paper-intensive areas of government. With so many people relying on timely and accurate financial data, it’s more important than ever to make sure budgets are met and work processes are streamlined. With document capture automation software, large batches of invoices, purchase orders, and other paperwork can be instantly captured through a multifunction printer (MFP) or scanner, allowing for quick approval processes. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and other essential validation checks ensure that once captured, the data within your records is accurate, before sharing with other departments downstream. In addition, with 24/7 mobile access to captured digitized documents, supervisors can approve and sign documents wherever they are, through eSign compliant regulations. This gives agencies a leg up on productivity, allowing for less mistakes and faster decision making, all within budget.

Justice and Public Safety

Keeping the community safe and secure is always a top priority, and the same should be said for your data. Personal information needs to stay protected and it’s important to know who has access to what, and the changes they are making. Capture automation software provides end-to-end workflow visibility, defining each step of document transformation through a stream of workflow activities. By scanning documents through a scanner or copier – case information can be indexed once and data lookups can do the rest – pulling up all client information and speeding up the time it takes to bring a document into the system. Once the information is received, automated email notifications can be sent to inform users of their arrival, speeding up processes like investigations and court proceedings. Full audit trail logs can also give insight into who has printed, scanned, emailed and even edited a document. By assigning access based on user authentication, security is enhanced, and in the event of a data breach, you can easily identify what device was the source, who sent the confidential information, and who received it. By automating the route of court records and public safety documents, retrieval time can be accelerated by giving staff immediate access to essential data and information.

Planning and Public Services

Having a central storage area for all your documents is all well and good, but providing the tools to easily search and retrieve them is what can make or break the foundation of a public service department. With capture automation, your documents are instantly transformed for simplified search and retrieval, and can be automatically converted to the document format you’re most comfortable in (PDF, Microsoft® Word, Excel), no matter where you are. Capture automation also allows agencies to integrate with other business applications. Documents can be scanned and coded at a line item level, routed to a user or department for approval, and then pushed into a document management system or other common business application, such as Munis – a Government ERP software solution. In addition, public portals can be created, giving the community and its members the option to service their own public requests. Once logged in, security options permit users to read and download specific documents that meet their search criteria. From pending permits, reviews and critical building development documents, once captured into the system, all the information and the data within them becomes immediately available, opening the door for quick and easy customer service.

With the constant changes in the economy, government agencies are always finding it hard to put together the resources they need to better serve the community, without drowning in paperwork. Regardless of whether you’re looking to improve accounts payable processes, increase document security or better serve constituents, with capture automation, any government agency can gain the specific tools it needs to succeed, boosting resources and productivity, without going over budget. If your organization is ready to get started with a proven capture automation solution, contact Square 9 Softworks today!