As companies in the private sector increase their competitiveness in the new global economy, state and local government agencies across the country are also finding new ways to become more efficient in order to save taxpayer dollars. In New York State, Erie County - which encompasses Buffalo, the state's second largest city - is a prime example of a government agency using information technology to increase productivity and lower administration costs.
The Erie County Department of Social Services (ECDSS) administers to the safety and welfare of less-advantaged citizens through a variety of assistance programs, from food stamps, medical benefits and child support enforcement to several types of financial aid, including Public Assistance. As a measure of the effectiveness of its innovative employment programs, from 1988 through 1996, ECDSS helped reduce the welfare burden by 20%, its lowest level in 15 years.
The agency's leadership in connecting people to jobs is mirrored in its commitment to improving service by practicing the principles of knowledge management. To that end, the agency replaced their aging updateable microfiche system for archiving welfare applications and financial records with a $2.2 million Windows-based, client-server data capture system that features Datacap Taskmaster to scan, recognize and index 50 different types of documents.
For years, ECDSS converted paper files to storable images using an updateable microfiche system. While an improvement over paper filing systems, the process required 12 camera operators to input 20,000 to 30,000 documents per day. Annual expenses for maintenance and supplies had been steadily increasing for years, but when the vendor announced that it would no longer support its updateable microfiche systems, ECDSS knew it had to find another way.
The agency brought in an IT consultant to analyze its documentation and develop parameters for a bidding process, and the search lead to the selection of Datacap Taskmaster.
Prior to Taskmaster installation, the agency's data entry staff were trained to operate it. In the first phase of the project, nearly 50 different types of documents - containing a mix of hand-written, check-box and typed information - are scanned at the rate of 30,000 documents each day.
Once scanned, Taskmaster creates a document specification for each type of document, called a "DocSpec," which enables the system to identify and extract the desired information. Several functions in Taskmaster recreate procedures that were formerly performed by manual operators, such as image alignment and the removal of blank pages and incomplete documents.
Taskmaster manages the entire document workflow process by routing information into specifically configured batches. It monitors and controls each batch's workflow to ensure the correct sequence of tasks is performed for each document. Once documents are recognized, verified and indexed, the information is exported and archived into an optical database.
ECDSS connected five agency offices, which enabled more than 1,000 of the agency's caseworkers to utilize the application. Both flexible and scaleable, Taskmaster can handle the agency's broad range of documents, provide an easy-to-use upload interface to Erie County's document management system and support the County's future plans for growth.
John King, ECDSS' Assistant Commissioner of Administrative Support, says the system has enabled the agency to reduce processing turnaround time to five days from three weeks, with the same number of imaging staff. "By getting it into the system faster, we improve the effectiveness of our staff and service to the citizens of Erie County," he says. "Another benefit of having all files available electronically is there are fewer duplicate copies of documents in the case records and caseworkers are making much fewer copies than they were before. Now they just call up the file electronically."
"Erie County is a perfect application of Datacap's off-the-shelf data and document capture solutions," said Scott Blau, Datacap CEO. "We were able to help them process 50 different types of documents with more accuracy and speed, providing access to information throughout the organization. The promise of information technology has always been more productivity at lower cost, and it's a promise that Datacap has been able to deliver."