Town of Chili, New York - Laserfiche Installation Profiles - document management solutions from General Code; document imaging software; records management; indexing; electronic documents

One of the most important attributes of Laserfiche® electronic document management systems is their scalability. A municipality can start with a relatively small project and grow the system as needed. The Town of Chili chose that solution.

The Town received a Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund grant from the New York State Archives and Records Administration. The grants, awarded on a yearly basis, are designed to help local governments improve records management systems. Initially, Chili's grant money was earmarked for microfilming Town records.

When he originally applied for the grant, the Town Clerk, Dick Brongo, was not aware of

Dick Brongo, Town Clerk

any more efficient alternatives. However, when he came across General Code's information about Laserfiche, he realized: "This is much better than microfilm. Why do I want microfilm?" Microfilm can be an appropriate solution in some situations, but when you are dealing with information that is frequently referenced, it's much easier and more efficient to be able to access the information instantly right from a desktop PC.

After some negotiation with the grant providers, Dick arranged for General Code to proceed with backfile conversion on years of Town Board, Planning Board and Zoning Board minutes, along with Water and Drainage District documents. Backfile conversion is the process of digitizing old records (paper, microfilm, microfiche, etc.) so that they can be accessed on computer. General Code scanned over 10,000 pages of documents, imported additional electronic files, organized them according to a system worked out with the Town, and provided the documents to the Town on Laserfiche Viewer CDs. Each CD holds the contents of an entire four-drawer file cabinet!

Before acquiring the Laserfiche Viewer CDs, Dick had to resort to page-by-page searches of documents to find information. While some years' minutes had been placed on CD, the system used could only search one year of minutes at a time. It was cumbersome to open a file, search, and then open another file and search, until the right piece of information turned up. Dick cites Laserfiche's comprehensive search capabilities as one of the best features of the product. Its ability to do "fuzzy" searches so that documents can be retrieved by any word or phrase, even when the word or phrase is misspelled, makes it an extremely useful tool.

"Ours was kind of a first step," Dick says. He plans to upgrade to a complete Laserfiche system in the future in order to input documents and maintain the databases on his own, and to enable the Town to post its minutes on the Web. Dick realizes that "The longer we wait, the longer it will take to catch up!" Several other Town departments are also interested in taking advantage of the system, including the Finance Department and the Building Department. The fact that Laserfiche systems are both flexible and scalable allows them to meet document management needs in any office environment.