Genesee County Employs ECM To Do More, With Less

By Beverly Lyons, ImageSoft, Inc.

The Genesee County Board of Commissioners, in Michigan, had long recognized the need for a comprehensive document management solution in all county-wide departments. Board Chairperson Ted Henry said, "In challenging budgetary times, the need is evident for a county that can work smarter, not harder. We saw the need to provide a technological solution. Despite our budgetary constraints, we committed the funds to implement the new solution." Prior proposals for a paperless system were simply too costly.

Many departments, including the Genesee County Friend of the Court (FOC), were operating in a time warp without the inherent efficiencies of a paperless system. Departments comprising the criminal justice system were mired in mountains of paper documents—each maintaining redundant individual files—and were further bogged down by outdated work processes and outmoded manual systems. The county experienced lagging productivity and increasing costs as individual departments struggled to maintain services to constituents. "We were stuck somewhere in the 1960s," said John Battles, of Genesee County FOC. "We had two massive file rooms overflowing with approximately 60,000 active files and no efficient way to manage the daily flow of paperwork."

In 2008, the County Board entered into an agreement with ImageSoft Inc., of Southfield, Mich., to begin implementing a customized OnBase solution in the FOC, the Family Support Division of the Prosecutor's Office, the County Clerk's office and the Probate Court. This spring, following an infusion of technology to automate their processes, the four court divisions began the process of vastly streamlining and improving their operations. The result was increased productivity, reduced costs and, at the same time, enhanced services to constituents.