Unfortunately, government agencies often get a negative reputation because resident encounters with the government are often unpleasant and needlessly complex such as permitting, licensing, or court processes. Plus, we’re constantly hearing the overwhelmed staff scolded by politicians and the media.
What is often forgotten is the scale of the work we’ve given them. Whether it’s public records requests or determining qualifications for HUD funding, these agencies conduct tasks with governance and regulatory requirements on behalf of their entire population, which could mean millions of tasks or minimally hundreds of thousands.
Their role is significant and complex. Imagine how difficult it would be to perform those processes every day using paper or a mix of paper and system data. I think we forget that paper was the original technology we used to execute tasks and how difficult, frustrating, time-consuming, etc., that could be. This routine and these processes are the cause of many of the complaints about local government. I’ve seen stats revealing that less than half of citizen services and back-office processes STILL rely on paper.
I just want to take a minute to appreciate how hard manually executing all those tasks must have been. And in some cases still are.
Why is this? Well, I think that knowing you have a problem and budgeting to fix the problem are two very different things. Then, of course, you have to know how to fix the problem. There’s a certain level of abstraction and tech sophistication that you need to devise and implement business processes efficiently at this scale. The benefits of automation are too real and too palpable to be ignored, especially in an age when residents expect more efficiency and responsiveness.
Staff members know all of this. This is your lived experience. So, appreciating all of this, then, why do so many agencies use Laserfiche as just a “digital filing cabinet.”? Or perhaps more directly, why don’t more agencies use Laserfiche for business processes?
Are staff uncomfortable with using Laserfiche Forms, Workflow, or Capture? Is IT too busy right now to do it for them?
That’s too bad because the risks, errors, and delays associated with paper-based processes can be reduced or eliminated, along with the associated costs, while also ensuring compliance with security and privacy mandates. Plus, automation frees up the team to work on more strategic projects.
Final thought: If the reason you aren’t using the Laserfiche automation tools is that you’ve never tried. We’ve got a webinar coming up that will remedy that. We’re going to use the tools and work with forms, workflow, and capture live. And we’ll take questions. It’s scheduled for October 26th at 11 AM PDT, and here is where you can register. I hope you can make it!
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