Collier Township is a residential community with fewer than 5,000 residents, located just west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a mostly residential area. This area of the state is growing, increasing from 1,200 homes just eight years ago to 2,200 homes today in addition to an emerging variety of industrial and retail businesses. The Collier Township Municipal Authority (CTMA) is the regulatory body that implements the installation, monitoring, testing and compliance issues surrounding the sanitary sewer services provided to the residents of this developing township.
This growth in homes and businesses, as well as EPA, DEP, and other state and federal regulations, has also led to a growth in the demand for information related to Municipal Authority operations. These increasing demands led Carmel Taylor, Office Administrator of CTMA, to search for “ a better way.” “I’ve been looking for the right document imaging system for a few years now. When we saw a Laserfiche demonstration at the Fall conference, we were quite impressed and signed up for the General Code workshop. We are fortunate to have a Board who has the foresight to realize that an investment in a good document imaging system now will result in great efficiency and time savings.”
The Authority chose Laserfiche through General Code and purchased a small team server
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CTMA Office Administrator, Carmel Taylor |
system which can efficiently run with up to approximately 20 users. It has been using the software since November 2004. “The on-site installation and training were great,” according to Carmel. “The training approach of using ‘real records’ allowed the staff to thoroughly understand how Laserfiche software would process, store and make accessible their many records.”
Robin Slater, Administrative Assistant for CTMA, handles most of the day-to-day inquiries from real estate companies, homeowners and the ALCOSAN sanitation plant. “Laserfiche is a great time saver,” she says. “It also gives me a sense of personal accomplishment to be able to find the information through an electronic search and e-mail the answer, all without leaving my desk, sometimes while the customer is still on the phone. What once may have taken hours now is totally completed in five minutes.”
According to Carmel, about 20% of the total CTMA records are now in the database. “We are doing a combination of inputting current, day-forward information as well as scanning existing and historical records.” She is looking forward to purging some of the paper documents, as permitted by law, once she has the originals scanned and into the database.
The Authority’s use of Laserfiche’s many features is organized and sometimes innovative. Linda Tsagdis, part-time office staff, along with a student, is responsible for preparing the
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Laserfiche's 'sticky note' feature allows the user to apply electronic notes to text and images on the stored document. |
files for scanning by removing staples and taking care of other initial steps. Scanning the documents is the next step. “We use the electronic ‘post it’ note to identify files that are incomplete or missing information,” Linda points out. The staff then uses the “Search the Note” feature to locate records that need additional work, which is a very creative way to use Laserfiche.
The Authority uses the “Snapshot” plug-in to efficiently import documents created on its computers into the database, making all records searchable. The e-mail plug-in allows staff to send documents directly from the database with no conversion required. CTMA also chose the “Quickfields” plug-in, which aids in more efficiently processing forms.
The staff scans the documents into the database throughout the day and runs the OCR process, the feature that recognizes all the characters on the page, after hours or at the end of the day. They also use the built-in “template” feature, an electronic index card, to identify key fields in handwritten records, making all those records searchable as well.
When they run into questions, CTMA staff couldn’t be happier with General Code’s technical support. “Not only was the training great, but the on-going technical support is as well. There are some tools in Laserfiche that we may not use every day. First I check my support manual. If I still have questions, I know that the technical department is only a call away, and they are always helpful,” Carmel says.
Laserfiche through General Code provides Collier Township Municipal Authority with an efficient records management tool. It is an open architecture software that can be integrated with other applications. CTMA may consider that expansion in the future, but for now, Laserfiche does just want they need it to do – make information accessible in a fast and efficient way. “Our goal is to improve our efficiency, and Laserfiche with General Code is a tool that does just that,” concludes Carmel.
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