When the Baldwin Police Department responds to a situation – be it a traffic accident, general complaint or criminal offense – its patrolmen generate an incident report.
         
It’s the job of Judy Michalski, the department’s office manager and records administrator, to archive and retrieve those 1,500 reports generated annually along with the tens of thousands of pages of accompanying documentation.
           
The original incident-related documents are archived in the station’s records room “forever,” said Michalski, and, until recently, were transferred to microfilm for reference and space storage purposes.  It was, said Michalski, a cumbersome, time-consuming system.           

“The incident reports are important documents that are used regularly by probation officer, security companies, FBI and other law enforcement agencies and the Defense Department for criminal back-ground checks,” she said.  “Insurance companies look at accident reports when processing claims.  Each inquiry means physically pulling the file, putting it onto a microfilm reader-printer and providing the requestor with a copy.”           

“Whenever I get a request for a record from, say, 1980 or earlier, I tell them, “Have a seat, it’s going to be a while”, she said.          

For help in devising a solution, the Baldwin police turned to COMPUCOM’S  Dave Lauterbach.  The solution includes a high-speed scanner to scan all incoming incident reports documents.  The digitized documents are placed on the police station’s network, which now runs an OTG document management application.           

While COMPUCOM also helped convert Baldwin’s indexing system for several years’ worth of records, it’s up to Michalski and her assistant to scan archived records.  “So far, we’ve scanned about five years worth of records,” she said.             

Now, when a requestor needs an incident report, it’s just a few clicks and keystrokes away.           

COMPUCOM has helped the Butler County Historical Society reclaim a bit of its past and make the society a tidy profit to boot.

The society recently discovered more than 400 newspapers dating to as early as 1805 in the basement of an area home.  The papers, which had been untouched for more than 150 years, contained an enormous amount of lost Butler County information. While too fragile for individuals to read, Becky Sheeler, the society’s executive director sought a way to make the newspapers available to the public via computer disks.  “When we found out what an undertaking this was going to be, we enlisted the help of COMPUCOM”.

COMPUCOM developed a two-step strategy to transfer the newspapers to disk.  “The papers were so delicate that we couldn’t simply use the scanners we would ordinarily use,” said David Lauterbach. COMPUCOM’s sales consultant. “Our solution was to transfer the papers to microfilm, then scan the digital image of the microfilm onto CDs.”

The project included more than 40 different newspaper titles and 2,000 individual editions, spanning the period 1805 to 1901.  Everything from Daniel Boone’s obituary to Annie Oakley’s local shooting exhibition is covered in the archives.  The papers were indexed by date so that users can easily conduct a search to locate a particular newspaper.

Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Light transmits and distributes electric energy to more than half a million direct customers throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. In the process, the company also churns out several hundred thousand sheets of sheets paper, documenting its activity for customers, vendors, government agencies and its own corporate records.

When it’s labor-dependent, paper-based record keeping system started showing signs of stress, one trailblazing department manager searched for a better way?and found it in an electronic document storage and retrieval system. The automated system proved so beneficial—substantially improving worker productivity, enhancing customer service and lowering operating costs—that other Duquesne Light departments took notice. These department managers adopted similar systems as their own, epitomizing Edison’s philosophy of innovation.

Right of Way, Right Away

Jennifer Rabold was the new manager of Duquesne Light’s Right-of-Way Department. She oversaw a team responsible for hundreds of thousands of legal documents proving the company’s rights around 45,000 miles of overhead power lines, 250,000 utility poles and 103,000 transformers throughout Allegheny and Beaver counties. Whenever property owners wanted to construct a new addition to their homes, build a second garage, or otherwise work on their property, and transmission lines were nearby, they called Duquesne Light to find out who owned the right of way. Whenever Duquesne Light’s vegetation teams were trimming trees around electrical wires, customers phoned and wanted to know what gave them the right.

Rabold’s team fielded those calls. Clerks would track down the legal documents to verify right-of-way ownership. They used 3 x 5 inch index cards to determine the location of the original documents. Some were kept in office filing cabinets; most were stored off site and had to be shipped in. An inquiry could take up to two weeks to resolve, just waiting for the documents to arrive.

“Clearly, it was a very cumbersome, inefficient and labor intensive process,” said Rabold. “We located the paper documents we needed because we had a very seasoned workforce. But that workforce also was nearing retirement. I knew that knowledge was going to walk out the door any day.”

Duquesne Light’s Real Estate Department relied on a similar index-card-based filing system to track down documents stored off site. “I kept asking, ‘Isn’t there a better way than hunting and pecking through index cards?’” Rabold recalled. She met with staff supervisors to discuss options. “I wanted a system that was transparent; a system that didn’t require specific knowledge of the creation of the documents in order to be able to easily retrieve them.”

Following an extensive RFP process, Rabold chose COMPUCOM, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based document imaging and microfilm solutions expert. “We were encouraged by COMPUCOM’s recommended solution, its service and support capabilities. And the fact that they were local, that our records were staying nearby, was very important to us.”

Introducing Automation

COMPUCOM consultants introduced an automatic electronic document conversion, storage and retrieval system, providing both Right-of-Way and Real Estate department staffers instant access to key documents.

Here’s how it works: Paper documents are indexed by key search fields, such as municipality, county, street address and others, and then scanned. The electronic records are stored on an optical disk archival system connected to a jukebox device. The system enables multiple networked users to simultaneously retrieve and share files. Powering this process is Legato’s ApplicationXtender software, which features an intuitive, web-based interface.

COMPUCOM’s Service Bureau performed indexing and scanning of the Right-of-Way Department’s 200,000 documents, 10 storage boxes at a time. “One of my big fears was that we would need records that were in the process of being scanned,” said Rabold. “But when that happened, COMPUCOM immediately brought over the files we needed, and when we were done with them, took them back to complete the conversion.”

After completing the right-of-way documents, COMPUCOM converted the Real Estate department records. Duquesne Light owns approximately 700 parcels of land, and each corresponding record is at least a half-inch thick, brimming with title reports, deeds, closing contracts and other paper documents. COMPUCOM’s Service Bureau indexed and scanned the records, and then brought the real estate system on line.

To introduce day-forward records into the system, COMPUCOM engineers integrated a high-speed scanner so Duquesne Light staffers could index and scan their own newly created documents. “The volume is quite manageable for us,” said Rabold.

The automated archival and retrieval system has delivered remarkable results, said Rabold. “What used to take two weeks now takes us two minutes,” she explained. “We’ve become a more efficient organization, both in the office and out in the field. And, clearly, it enables us to dramatically improve customer service.”

First Call Resolution

Vern Edwards, Duquesne Light’s Customer Service Manager, saw this leap in productivity and started to get ideas of his own. The Customer Service Center handles more than 1.2 million phone, mail and walk-in inquiries each year. The department’s walk-in center was responsible for maintaining customer contract records. And, just like the right-of-way and real estate paper documents, the vast majority of customer contract paperwork was stored off site.

“Whenever a customer would visit or phone in to verify service account responsibility, we would have to search through filing cabinets to find it,” said Edwards. “These requests were infrequent, but it always was a struggle to find the proper records. We had hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper both on site and off site. And if the records were stored off site, it could take a week or longer to retrieve them. So, we couldn’t take any action on their inquiry until we had the documents in hand.”

Occasionally, the state Public Utility Commission requested to review these same records.“After seeing firsthand the benefits of the Right-of-Way Department’s automated record storage and retrieval system, I knew that was exactly what we needed in customer service,” said Edwards. “We wanted the ability to instantly retrieve those records and resolve a customer’s or the PUC’s inquiry on the spot.”

Criticality of Records

Edwards explored other solutions providers, but kept coming back to COMPUCOM. “Jennifer had certain expectations going into her department’s implementation. But I didn’t have expectations—I had actual proof of the work COMPUCOM had done,” he said. “The people at COMPUCOM didn’t approach our department’s needs as just an extension of the other departments’ technology. They sat down with us to discuss our specific business needs, and provided documentation to assure us that the technology was acceptable to PUC and other key stakeholder groups. They really understood the criticality of our records.”

In a matter of weeks, the COMPUCOM Service Bureau performed 1.2 million keystrokes in indexing the Customer Service Department contracts, and scanned 185,228 documents. The records were stored using the previously installed jukebox and optical disk storage system. The only additional upfront costs to Edwards’ group was a few additional licenses for the ApplicationXtender software, accommodating up to 25 users, and the introduction of two scanners for Duquesne Light staffers to perform day-forward conversions. The staff now adds about 12,000 documents each month to its electronic archives.

“There are two key customer service wins to this system,” said Edwards. “First, the resource efficiency—the issue is resolved immediately on the spot for the customer. Records are retrieved in seconds. We can literally spin the computer monitor around and show the customers their electronic files. Second, overall office efficiencies are significantly enhanced, which means we can concentrate on providing better customer service instead of hunting for records.”

Sharing Successes

Meanwhile, as word spread of the benefits that Right-of-Way, Real Estate and Customer Service were getting from their automatic electronic document conversion, storage and retrieval systems, more Duquesne Light department managers began taking a closer look at their own operations.

For instance, the Accounting Department saw a growing mountain of paper that it was required to retain, including documents to comply with Pennsylvania Department of Revenue laws. This included conditions-of use-documents signed by customers to verify whether their electrical usage was for private or commercial purposes. Business use is taxable while private use is not. The ability to instantly retrieve and present these documents to the state was terribly important—because if Duquesne Light could not prove that the service was nontaxable, the company would be liable for the appropriate amount of unpaid utility service tax. The potential liability to Duquesne Light was in the tens of millions of dollars.

To confront this problem, the Accounting Department instituted a similar automated document conversion, storage and retrieval system—with a slight twist. Document data also integrates with the company’s mainframe computer database to update the tax status of each customer account.

Similar document conversion needs were identified in Payroll, Contracts, and Human Resources departments. In each case, there were tremendous productivity gains with little additional investment. Explained Rabold, “Every time another department adopts this system, it has been able to use the same document management system that was originally installed. The software licenses are floating licenses, so we’re getting efficient use of them. And, in fact, as each user group signs on, my departmental outlay for the annual service agreement decreases; that cost is shared among all participating departments.”

Across multiple departments at Duquesne Light, the company clearly continues to derive numerous benefits from electronic document conversion, storage and retrieval. Productivity boosts, higher levels of customer service, and reduced paperwork costs are easily documented. So is the drastically reduced tax liability potential. Edwards believes the system also has strengthened Duquesne Light’s standing with the PUC. “The unspoken words that PUC officials express say that the commission respects the way we conduct business, “ he said.

The Company

Nelson White is Civil Engineer Services Manager for Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, Inc., a NiSource Company. NiSource, which includes the former Columbia Energy Group, provides natural gas service to hundreds of communities from Indiana to Maine.

The Situation

Among White’s responsibilities is the records management of land rights of way, leases, deeds, permits and supporting documentation-maps, engineering drawings and original correspondence. Many of these files contain between 20 and 30 pieces of paper of varying sizes and quality. The records, some of which date to the 1800s, are used by 20 remote engineering and planning departments in determining property rights of way.

For example, on average, White’s office receives PennDOT notification on between 40 and 50 roadway projects each year. Some may require relocation of natural gas pipelines, necessitating land rights information. That information, said White, was previously stored in filing cabinets in the company’s Washington Road office. “The Field people would call Wanda, who would look up the information, fax it to them, and refile it. It was a very inefficient and outmoded system, and was only available while Wanda was working. It was also very expensive. The files consumed a lot of space- office space for which we were paying top dollar.”

The Solutions

White’s goals were to streamline record retrieval fro field offices and to reduce file space needed to house records. COMPUCOM won the contract to consult and provide microfilm conversion and scanning services. Microfilm has an excellent record for high quality, meeting government standards for archivability. By digitizing the microfilm, the documents are ready to be used in a computer format.

But White took another step into solving the records accessibility problem, and opted into COMPUWeb. This COMPUCOM service consists of placing scanned documents onto the Internet or organizational Intranet.

COMPUWeb affords organizations all of the benefits of an in-house imaging system without the capital expense and maintenance worry. In effect, you only pay for the images scanned and stored.

COMPUCOM scanned all of Columbia Gas’ relevant documents; the hard copies are now filed in Butler County’s Iron Mountain underground storage facility.

The Result

The Pennsylvania records were available on line in June 1999; the Virginia documents will be available in the first quarter of 2001. Any new deeds issued are also incorporated into the COMPUWeb system, to keep records up-to-date. Employees can search the Columbia Gas archives by deed number, and instantly access the information they need. White estimates that about 40 people in the company’s engineering and planning now have 24/7 access to the data.

“We easily could open access to more individuals if we needed to,” he said.

And while the field engineers and technical staff of Columbia Gas have much greater access to the documentation, White said it’s the company’s law department that has given the new COMPUWeb system the most ringing endorsement.

“Our attorneys are the ones most raving about it,” he said. “They tend to go deeper with the information and would need 300 pages or more of documentation for their research. Now, they don’t have to wait for copies to be made to do their work-they can do it anytime they want, including working late at night.”

White said that the shift to COMPUWeb has improved Columbia Gas’ efficiency in recordkeeping and information access in a number of ways. “Most importantly, we’re now much more effective in providing information quickly to the field,” he said.

Pittsburgh-Based Rapidigm, Inc. is a leading provider of e-commerce, enterprise resource planning and information technology consulting service. The company recently was named by Inc magazine as one of the fastest-growing U.S. companies for a second consecutive year.

When entering into a consulting assignment, Rapidigm generates a formal business contract. The original paper contracts are maintained by Rapidigm’s legal department in a centralized master file in Pittsburgh.

However, according to Tina Reisdorf, Rapidigms’s senior legal services facilitator, other corporate departments, including the company’s 18 international sales offices, also may need access to contractual information – a situation that created a lot of busy work

“For example, we would receive a request from accounting for a copy of a specific contract,” Reisdorf explained. “We would physically pull the paper files, then fax them copies of the requested documents.”

Considering Rapidigm has several thousand paper contracts, each ranging in length from seven up to 40 pages, it’s understandable that simply fulfilling interdepartmental requests was becoming a complicated and time-consuming task.

P-doc to E-doc

Rapidigm’s challenge was to simplify and speed sharing of its contract files while ensuring document integrity and security. After consulting with COMPUCOM, Rapidigm implemented a Web-based imaging retrieval system.

First, COMPUCOM scanned five years’ worth of historical contract files. Then, scanned documents were organized using Legato’s APPLICATIONxtender software and posted to Rapidigm’s intranet using WEBxtender.

The digitized contracts now are code-indexed and searchable by date, office location and customer name. There’s also a comments section that Reisdorf uses “to help differentiate multiple contracts with the same customer. It’s a method to customize a search for specific contractual terms,” she said. To keep the contracts database current, Reisdorf now scans incoming documents using Fujitsu digital scanner.

“This system saves an enormous amount of time,” said Reisdorf. “Now when I receive a request for a contract file, I do a simple search and click ‘Mail Document’ to e-mail the contract files to the requestor.”

In addition to the contracts database, the Legato system, housed on a robust server, manages personnel documents for Rapidigm’s 2,500 consultants, a database that’s instantly accessible via password-protected security channels across Rapidigm’s enterprise.

WesBanco, Inc. is a highly regarded, multi-state, bank holding company with headquarters in Wheeling, W.V. Among its subsidiaries is WesBanco Bank, Inc. which operates branches in West Virginia and Ohio. 

In keeping with its community banking and personalized customer service orientation, WesBanco Bank has sought to combine technological advances with its people assets. This philosophy manifested itself two years ago when WesBanco undertook a corporate-wide consolidation. 

“Previously, our loan operations were managed within each of the four regions – Wheeling, Parkersburg, Charleston and Fairmont,” explains Dennis Yaeger, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of WesBanco, Inc. “Our goal was to consolidate the management of our commercial and consumer loan operations, as well as our other business units, under on roof.”

A Plethora of Paper

According to Mr. Yaeger, banks must retain certain loan documents for the life of the loan and for some time after the loan is paid off.  “For personal or commercial loans, that may be up to seven years, or more.  For a 30-year mortgage, however, that means we may keep a file for three decades or longer,” he says.            

The result of the loan operations consolidation was a plethora of paper documents—more than 3.5 million pages – arriving in Wheeling.

For help in effectively managing this information and in making it accessible to its loan managers and other critical users, WesBanco turned to COMPUCOM.  After reviewing WesBanco’s operations and goals, COMPUCOM recommended a multi-level, easily scalable strategy that included digitally scanning the important archival records, organizing and coding them for simple searches, then placing those documents on WesBanco’s Intranet.

The process started in January 2001.  COMPUCOM records all historical files using multiple scanners; WesBanco scans all day-forward information.  All information is stored on WesBanco’s servers, where it is instantly accessible to more than 100 concurrent users via password-protected security channels across the enterprise.  “We scan all of the original documents,” explains Dennis.  “If a loan is still open, it it’s still current, the documents have been scanned.  Certain original loan documents are maintained in a secure, off-site location where they can be easily retrieved. Other supporting documents are scanned and then they are destroyed.”

Greater Efficiencies

In the first 11 months, more than 2.5 million pages had been scanned.  “We’ve completed the digital imaging of all commercial loans and consumer loans,” says Dennis, “and we’re now about 10 to 15 percent through the second phase of the project—scanning approximately one million pages of mortgage loan documents.”

Mr. Yaeger says the main benefits to the new system are obvious—instant accessibility to a broader number of critical users, yet enhanced security and control.   WesBanco also has substantially reduced the amount of office space dedicated to storing paper documents, he said, and employees are spending less time sifting through paper and ore time delivering personalized customer service.           

Says Dennis, “With this new system, we’ve realized greater efficiencies throughout our loan business, including under-writing, collections and record keeping, and we’re now able to respond more quickly to our customers.”           

The process has gone so smoothly that WesBanco has begun scanning signature cards for its consumer and business checking and savings accounts as well as applications for its trust business and even corporate human resources.