The City of Boroondara in Melbourne’s inner eastern suburbs has developed an electronic document management process that has increased document registration in its Corporate Information department to 100 per cent. This has and resulted in a positive cultural change across the organisation.
ëSmart Reg’ is a front end interface system that automates and controls data inputs and manages quality for document registrations as part of Council’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM). It also automates electronic links to the hard copy archiving process, with preset disposal codes and colour coded filing identifiers.
Prior to implementation of Smart Reg, inconsistencies with quality, timeliness and accuracy of document registrations had a direct impact on cross organisational acceptance of electronic document management.
Since Council’s Electronic Document Management System was introduced in 2005, it had very slow uptake by some departments, resulting in various methods of records management across the organisation.
This posed a significant risk in meeting the Public Records Office Victoria standards for document management, particularly in regard to permanent public records, as well as information availability for staff to best service the community.
Recognising this, Boroondara IT Manager Lesley Milburn contracted a process review consultant, committed IT Business Analyst Ibrahim Rafei, and recruited a new Coordinator Corporate Information, Julie-Ann Mains.
The three were charged with the task of improving business practices and efficiencies.
Julie-Ann Mains said that it was through the course of this journey that Smart Reg was designed, developed and implemented.
“Not only is Smart Reg user friendly, but it combines significant automation and quality measures to ensure timely and accurate document registration,” she said.
“The interface talks directly to ECM and draws references and indexes live from it.
“More than 1,000 standard templates are accessible via keyword search, making the system very easy to use. This automation has led to an average 3,720 reduced key strokes per person per day.
“Documents are registered with absolute consistency, without spelling or typing, errors and are distributed accurately and timely by all staff.”
The Smart Reg system has also increased accountability. In the previous ECM process, a single document could be handled by up to five different staff with sorting, batching, scanning, registering and archiving.
Smart Reg allows for the installation of individual, off the shelf portable scanners, so that one person is now responsible for the document from scanning and registering, through to accurate archiving.
Julie-Ann Mains said that previously, it took several months to train staff for registration, but with the new system, a new or temporary staff member can be trained and productive in their first two hours and fully productive within four to six weeks of joinging council.
Hyperware Consulting, who was contracted to develop the solution, now has copyright and ownership of the Smart Reg product, making it available to all ECM users. It has since been purchased by Shire of Yarra Ranges, City of Greater Bendigo and a number of other councils have provided valuable feedback and expressed interest in the product.
Further developments are in progress, such as providing search and batching options, making Smart Reg a one stop shop for quick and easy storage and retrieval of information for all users.
For further information contact Julie-Ann Mains on (03) 9278 4366.
