2012 NASCIO Recognition Submission Nebraska Enterprise Content Management System Category: Data, Information, and Knowledge Management Nebraska Office of the Chief Information Officer.leading the way Kevin Keller IT Supervisor Administrative Services Office of the Chief Information Officer 501 South 14 th Street, 68509 Lincoln, Nebraska Phone: (402) 471-0655 State of Nebraska Project Initiation: October 2010 Project Completion: April 2011
Executive Summary Nebraska, like many States, continues to envision a paperless environment. We have also placed a high emphasis on Shared Services to reduce overall expenditures and to provide more efficient government. Nebraska is using its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) to meet these goals. Through the use of the ECM, the State is able to provide more efficient government through the use of online forms, workflow and automated document composition. This is an innovative approach to using ECM that will allow the State to move from a paper based State to a paperless State, as well as improve processes and efficiencies within government. For years, as agencies purchased their own Content/Document Management Systems, the state found themselves in a position of owning and operating 6 standalone content/document Management Systems, each with standalone equipment and staff support. As systems were nearing the time for upgrade, as well as additional agencies looking for content/document management systems, the direction was clear that a move to an Enterprise Content Management Shared Service was needed. Six agencies volunteered to be involved with the requirements/rfp/award phase for the new shared ECM system. Over 6 months, the group identified 126 requirements, prepared an RFP and evaluated the results to an award. The licensing model and products purchased is allowing Nebraska to move from a paper based state to a paperless state while it drives improved processes and efficiencies. The agencies that have deployed applications are reporting improved services within their own organizations as well as improved services to constituents saving both State and Federal dollars. The ECM is also providing increased productivity and faster service delivery which has improved Government Services and provided a significant return on investment. The cost benefit of ECM is well worth it we don t know if we can get more efficient. DEQ
2012 Nebraska Enterprise Content Management System NASCIO Award Submission Data, Information, and Knowledge Management ECM Enterprise Content Management Problem Millions upon millions of paper documents consume many agencies and various employers across the state of Nebraska. Government agencies have a unique responsibility for the handling of records that contain information essential to the operations of government, and to the protection of the rights and interests of our citizens. These records are mandated to be safeguarded against destruction and must be available when needed. Government also has a unique requirement to provide public accountability in the process of collection, sharing, disseminating and providing access to our public records. For that reason many extremely manual, labor intensive solutions have been put in place to conduct the business of the State. Most agencies sort through bulky paper files that are difficult to locate, sort through and store not to mention monitor or audit. Once records are found, very often the process to ensure agency workflow includes unnecessary copying and/or emailing of documents to more than one individual. Extensive paper processing, data entry, and paper handling are performed frequently, which can lead to spending valuable time searching and retrieving documents. All of this creates extensive paper handling on a day- to- day basis. In addition to the day to day management of paper, records retention is/was becoming a nightmare for many state governments, including Nebraska. Rental rates for space to hold the boxes of documents that must be held for specific periods of time are continuing to climb. Additionally, tracking when documents should be destroyed is also a labor intensive process in most states. In Nebraska, the 2011 budget request for the Nebraska Records Management Division included a shift of funding from salaries to rent in order to fulfill contractual lease obligations. The budget request states that the additional space was necessary to accommodate the box storage needs of our state agency customers, as capacity in the building was nearing maximum. Additionally, agencies were experiencing inefficient processes regarding multiple systems needing access to the same data. For example, the Nebraska Department of Revenue dealt with high costs to export information and their system needed additional software license purchases. The Department of Health and Human
Services printed on average 8000 multipart forms weekly, mailed them to Child Care Provider where the Child Care Providers hand entered information, mailed them to the local offices across the State, the local offices verified information and then mail them to the Central Office. Following that process, thousands of Explanation of Benefits documents were mailed out weekly. Various additional agencies were also consumed by their mailing processes and didn t have real-time document access. Throughout all the agencies their communication was inefficient and time consuming inside and outside of government with entities such as, employers, providers, vendors, and counties within the State. Agencies needed a solution that would provide them with excellent service, they needed a better solution. Solution In April of 2009, a workgroup was formed of agencies looking to find a better way to manage documents. The group started gathered requirements and in September, an RFP written by the workgroup was released. An Enterprise Content Management System was awarded in September 2010 to edocument Resources using Hyland s OnBase software. The State negotiated an unlimited licensing agreement for Nebraska which allow the State to provide services very cost effectively to not only State agencies, but the constituents we serve. The system has over 60 products that can be configured and leveraged to provide a more efficient government. Along with the e- Forms, Workflow and Document Composition, other core base modules are; Capture, Automated Indexing, Search, Retrieval, Records Management, Security, Auditing, Mobile Access through Droid, Apple and Microsoft Tablets and Phones and Configurable Integration to legacy applications. ECM has a complete set of Enterprise Class tools that can be leveraged to provide self-service which will move the State from a paper to paperless environment, and improve processes and efficiencies at an affordable cost to the agencies. This software also allows agencies to implement solutions faster. Additionally, the contract included a provision for edocument Resources to provide the technical support to launch applications quickly, while providing training to State resources. This allowed the State to get a jump start on putting applications out very quickly. The enterprise architecture was designed and built with oversight from the multi-agency workgroup from October 2010 through April 2011. The first application was built in April 2011 and other applications were being configured as the enterprise architecture was being implemented. Sixteen applications for 8 agencies were configured and implemented in production as of June 2012. There are over 40 applications for 14 agencies currently be configured.
For the initial agencies, applying ECM into their daily routine changed the way they did business completely. Through the ECM workflow engine, agencies better manage the status of each workflow in their business processes by using dashboards, notifications of pending information, timers and email notifications. In many instances agency staff can process their tasks through their Outlook Exchange client, a familiar interface for most employees. The State has implemented ECM as a Shared Service where all State Entities can leverage and implement the Technology. The ECM infrastructure has been applied in a VM environment which allows for easy, quick and affordable scalability. It s Shared Service leans itself to easily expanding to serve Counties, City and Public Schools across Nebraska. All participating agencies are a part of monthly user group meetings that agree on and approve upgrades, new processes, new procedures, standards, guidelines, etc. The platform has allowed all of the participating agencies to improve their business practices and enhance manageability of their documents. Due to the success of the project, the new ECM platform was established as the statewide standard for any agency looking to deploy ECM. For those agencies that already owned an existing Document/Content Management System, they will be migrated to the shared system when their existing system is in need of upgrade or additional investments. Significance and Benefits The Enterprise Content Management Shared Service is funded through user fees. Agencies sign up for ECM and are charged a monthly user fee that covers the use of any and all of the system modules available, the use of the hosted infrastructure/environment, as well as ECM software upgrades and support. Office of the Chief Information Officer; Department of Health and Human Services; In other words, once the agency pays Department of Environmental Quality; the user fee for an application they Nebraska Department of Labor; Nebraska Department of Roads; Nebraska Department of Revenue; deploy, the agency can deploy additional applications without additional monthly fees. Nebraska Department of Agriculture; Records Management Division; Secretary of State; Department of Education; Post-Secondary Education; Corrections; Game and Parks; City of Lincoln; To combat the issue related to one time dollars available for specific projects, agencies are offered the opportunity to financially participate in the ECM Shared Service by contributing upfront dollars to help offset the initial investment. In return, agency monthly user fees were
reduced for the first five years. As additional state agencies join the shared service, monthly user fees will continue to decrease. The state Enterprise Content Management System is currently used by 14 agencies and organizations; a list of agencies and organizations is provided in the box. The success of the ECM projects has been above expectations. The Department of Revenue scans about ten million documents per year. Conversion of the documents from the previous system appeared to be a huge undertaking for the Department of Revenue. One option they faced was hiring a consulting firm to export the information at a cost between $200,000 to $300,000. Instead, Revenue staff exported the information into ECM for a fraction of the cost, with very minimal disruption in processes. ECM created an easier method for the end-users to do their jobs. Tasks became easier and time was saved through use of automated keyword searches that provided a more exact hit when searching for files and fewer key strokes. Health and Human Services constituents, such as Child Care Providers and Employers, are now enabled to manage their daily business tasks through a real-time e-mail form where rules can be applied and automated documents are generated. Review of requests for services starts with the applicant meeting specific eligibility guidelines and then supplying any documentation that needs to be reviewed. The referrals were once received and processed by several Service Coordinators across the state; however, requests are now also received at the Central Office. This project has reduced processing time and provides instantaneous access to applicants files. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor are estimated to save $1,066,138 each year with Child Care Claims, Human Resource Personnel, Finance and Accounting, Work Opportunity Tax Credit, NEWorks, and Appeals once fully deployed. Cost savings are based on the reduction and elimination of printing charges, copying charges, postage charges, envelope charges, physical storage space, other software charges, staff efficiencies, and paper destruction charges. This ROI example consists of only six of the 55 solutions that were implemented or in flight to be implemented. ECM also provides a number of intangible returns on investments such as time and dollars spent for constituents to drive to various locations across the state to obtain information such as Public Requests from the Department of Environmental Quality. Enterprise Content Management has proven to be an effective and efficient way for agencies to go paperless, realign staff, deliver timely service, unify their workflow processes, and provide self-service to constituents. We are well on our way to eliminating the paper jungle in Nebraska.
With ECM, we have created a paperless process, eliminated the need to print thousands of sheets of paper annually, reduced days searching for outstanding documents and saved significant labor hours. Department of Health and Human Services