Borough of Old Tappan, New Jersey - Laserfiche Installation Profiles - document management solutions from General Code; document imaging software; records management; indexing; electronic documents

On October 16, 2003, the Borough of Old Tappan, New Jersey became just the 12th municipality to date to receive state certification for their Laserfiche® document imaging system. At the invitation of the Department of Archives and Records Management (DARM), Greg Hart, Borough Administrator/Clerk of Old Tappan and General Code Representatives Earl Babb and Bruce Cadman met with the New Jersey State Records Committee at their headquarters in Trenton. The meeting was to discuss the Borough's application for the state's certification of its Laserfiche document imaging system and to formally receive the certification.

At the meeting of the committee a brief technical overview of Old Tappan's imaging system was presented to the State Records Committee by Dan Noonan, Supervisor with DARM.

Dan had previously visited the Borough to review the document imaging system and to discuss the compliance process. Dan stated to the Committee that the application for certification submitted by the Borough was the best and most complete of any he had received from a municipality. He continued by saying that he had visited the Borough offices, reviewed the document imaging system with the Borough Administrator/Clerk and found his system to be in full compliance with all State requirements.

Also of great interest, said Dan, is that the Borough, with help from their solutions provider, General Code, developed a paperless agenda system for Mayor and Council utilizing the document imaging system. State Committee members expressed great interest in pursuing this concept with Administrator/Clerk Hart and congratulated him on his innovativeness. The State Certificate of approval was then awarded to Mr. Hart for the Borough of Old Tappan.

Addressing the Records Committee, Greg Hart stated: This is an important step in our continued efforts to maximize the benefits of imaging the records of the Borough. In my opinion any municipality that utilizes document imaging should follow through and get their imaging system certified. The benefits of certification are very meaningful and the process of certification is not difficult. Quite the contrary, it is straightforward, systematic and efficient. We see the certification of our imaging system as a solution to the Borough's storage problems while still providing immediate access to our records. We will now be able to destroy records, after scanning, that have a retention period of less than 10 years, knowing we have certifiable copies, not only of these but all our records maintained in the Laserfiche document imaging system. This will free up a considerable amount of storage space.

In regard to his Laserfiche document imaging system from General Code, Greg Hart also stated: Freeing up space is only an incidental benefit to having an imaging system. The primary benefit to me is the tremendous utility that a document management system provides. With Laserfiche, all records in my office are easily scanned into the system. With my 25 page per minute scanner, the scanning process is quick and efficient. The documents are then organized in a manner that replicates my paper filing system, except that it is so much easier to set up a folder in the electronic document management system than it is to set up a paper folder. Because of the simple straightforward folder structure, I can now find documents so much easier and faster than prior to having Laserfiche. Best of all, however, is the search function. It finds all documents with specified words or phrases

within the entire document database within seconds. More advanced searches help me find documents within specific folders or specific dates or by several other methods. It is wonderful.

Also, the original purpose behind the Borough's purchase of the Laserfiche system was for the Mayor and Council to start having "paperless" meetings. Because of all of the Laserfiche features, paperless meetings in Old Tappan have been greatly successful. The Mayor and Council get a CD each week with all agenda items and correspondence. They also maintain on their laptop, from CDs that I have provided to them, complete board rosters and the entire Borough Code provided by General Code. At meetings, they bring their laptop and then need to open up only one document, "The Agenda" which contains links to the various agenda items and correspondence. Instead of shuffling papers, the Mayor and Council access whatever document they need at the click of a mouse.

"From day one," says Greg Hart, "General Code's representatives have helped us, whenever necessary, to set up the system and implement it. They worked with me in establishing and refining the paperless meetings concept, which proved to be invaluable. Also, of note, the General Code Laserfiche support staff have been extremely helpful in working through issues that we have come across. They are both knowledgeable and available."

General Code is pleased to have assisted Old Tappan in the successful application process for state certification of its Laserfiche document imaging system. We look forward to continuing to work with the Borough as its uses for the system grow and develop even greater benefits.