County Treasurer Automates Documents to Benefit Taxpayers
By Gordon E.J. Hoke, eVisory (www.evisory.com)
(Author’s note: The following story is true. I personally visited the site, took the quotes, and researched the solutions. The names have been changed for political reasons. The numbers have been generalized, but not increased, to protect requested anonymity --G.E.J.H.)
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The Treasurer of a large, metropolitan American county is on a mission, relentlessly pursuing efficiency. First elected in the ‘90s, she embraced digital automation, trimmed the staff’s size from 250 to 175, and returned unneeded operating funds to the county general fund.
A key strategy is winning control of the millions of documents in the Treasurer’s office workflow: About every six months, significantly more than a million tax bills go out and payments return. The Treasurer’s office receives much more than a billion dollars in property taxes annually. This is the primary source of income for the county and its 1,000-plus taxing agencies (local units of government).
Under this fore-thinking treasurer’s administration, the taxpayer comes first. Previously, paying property taxes in person was an ordeal: On due dates, a two-hour line snaked around the county office building. To alleviate the logjam, the Treasurer forged an agreement with a major bank to accept payments at local sites. Today, hundreds of branches accept payments, some in grocery stores.
The Treasurer’s staff processes the incoming funds and then distributes them. Each step creates more records. Property tax money goes not only to the many, many towns, villages and cities in the County, but also to their agencies: police and fire departments, school districts, sewer systems, pest-abatement districts and more. The taxes from any given property may go to more than a score of different jurisdictions.
Further, the taxes fund countywide efforts such as a massive jail, an extensive parks system, and a medical services network that includes the county hospital.
These functions generate an astronomical number of records, bills, payments, correspondence and other documents. Seeking better efficiency, the Treasurer convinced the county commissioners to fund a document automation initiative.
“When [the Treasurer] came in, there were calculators, adding machines, a check processor and eight personal computers,” states the Treasurer’s Chief Information Officer. “Collecting, reconciling and distributing funds could take up to six weeks. Now it takes 24 hours or less. She installed a network, hired IT staff, and computerized everything.”
The CIO adds, “As recently as 2002, there were 35 different systems in operation. Integration was a problem, so the flow of paper became more, not less.”
Drawing from each part of the Treasurer’s Office, the CIO forged a team that identified 40 different operations where taxpayers could benefit from document automation. Each operation became a project. “In our four-year plan,” he explains, “document management is a part of every project. We identified each operation’s requirements and developed a strategy that included indexing, storage and retrieval.”
While the Treasurer sought and won funding for document technologies, the CIO’s team considered proposals from software developers. They sought a full-featured system, although installation would go step-by-step. They wanted the capacity for imaging, report management, workflow, forms processing, records management, portals and more. Further, they wanted training for the Treasurer’s IT staff so the Office would be relatively independent of the developer.
The CIO’s team evaluated several vendors’ proposals and selected the DocFinity suite from Optical Image Technology (www.docfinity.com). “We bought the product, and we bought consulting for training because we wanted knowledge transfer,” the CIO recalls. “We trained specific employees to give them expertise in each of the document management technologies – a couple of people for workflow, two or three for first-line support and so on.”
The four-year project, valued at well over $1 million, includes hardware, training, support, and a site license for the entire DocFinity suite: imaging, electronic forms, full text retrieval, enterprise report management (COLD), zone optical character recognition (OCR), barcode processing, an email server, hierarchical storage management and more.
Getting Going
The CIO chose a deliberate path for implementation. A Senior Analyst and Document Management Specialist led reviews of every process designated for automation and every installation procedure. He accepted that there would be a need for fine-tuning, but, with the Treasurer’s commitment to serving the taxpayer, system failure was not an option.
In this atmosphere, the CIO chose the Human Resources Department as a pilot site for two reasons. First, HR acutely needed improved workflow. The paper-based systems were prone to confusion and ambiguity. Second, HR is internal, and any glitches would not directly affect the taxpayers.
“There are a lot of rules and set procedures for Human Resources in the public sector,” explains the CIO. “There are two sets of forms for everything, one for union workers and one for non-union. If someone wants a day off, or if there is a disciplinary action, a lot of forms go through a lot of steps. The paper used to go from desk to desk.”
The CIO assigned an office Business Analyst to automate the procedures. “In IT, we had a vision of a paperless office,” he explains, “and the HR staff helped us hone that vision. Getting their buy-in was crucial because they liked their physical documents. We knew we needed to use DocFinity’s workflow, but we went through a learning curve to figure out how. Security is always a big concern,” he adds. “We had to be very specific as to who could see what.
“We used DocFinity XML FormFLOW for content. Then we started building the workflow. As we worked, managers kept asking for more steps, stages, options, and oversight. We delivered the functionality they wanted, but we kept getting requests for more features. This slowed down development, but the result is a richer, more effective application,” the CIO concludes.
For example, the workflow for disciplinary action now covers at least five steps. Every step of each procedure flows from the manager to the employee, HR and each supervisory level. Even with oral discipline, the employee electronically acknowledges receipt. Each level of management has approval and rejection options. HR keeps electronic archives of all the forms and workflows.
HR also needed help tracking workers’ time off. The paper-based system succumbed to clerical and organizational miscues as well as workers’ memory lapses. Under the Business Analyst’s DocFinity solution, when an employee visits the office intranet site, the software populates a form showing available time off: vacation, personal days, sick time, comp days and overtime hours. The employee adds time-off requests and annotations before submitting the form. DocFinity renders the form into archival PDF to safeguard the signature, and its workflow takes the form to the worker’s supervisor and department manager. For vacations, the Deputy Treasurer also rules on the request. Each recipient electronically signs the form and returns it to HR.
The day before time off, the process re-activates so everyone involved is reminded of the next day’s situation. DocFinity transports the images of all supporting documents.
“The HR system is home grown, but it works seamlessly with DocFinity,” endorses the Business Analyst.
Going Big Time
Compared to the HR system, the transaction support system will be a monster when all 40 processes are automated. Already, portals deliver the system to each user. The Treasurer wants himself and each worker to be able to see every piece of information that affects their jobs. This will include images of all forms, documents, payments, correspondence, envelopes and the related database information. The portals will also deliver information from the DocFinity database.
Every property in the county has an identification number, the PIN, and every transaction revolves around it. Every document receives a barcode that points to the PIN. The system indexes every payment by PIN, tax year and installment (as mentioned, taxes are paid twice a year.) The barcode also points to four common business indices, including document type and tax type.
After the HR application proved its efficacy, the CIO authorized the first transaction process automation: refunds for duplicate payments and overpayments.
Ever year, taxpayers for approximately 100,000 properties send in either duplicate payments or excessive amounts. To get a refund, each claimant has to file a form (available by personal request or on the Website) with proof of payment. Every business day, the Treasurer’s Office receives about 100 of these.
The process varies depending upon how the taxpayer obtained the refund form and whether the claim arrives by mail or at the customer service counter. Each claim receives a refund application identification number – a pointer to the property’s PIN, the tax year and the installment. Treasury workers make sure each request has or receives a barcode, and they scan each request as its own batch, typically about four pages.
“There are business rules in the system that help the [lobby] counter worker evaluate an application,” says the project manager. The counter worker scans all pages, checks the image quality and saves the images. That launches the refunds workflow for duplicate payments and overpayments. Counter representatives see the refund system screen on their workstations. If everything is right and the file is complete, they give a receipt to the taxpayer. A supervisor double-checks every over-the-counter refund request. DocFinity digitally stores the images.
For mailed requests, the mailroom staff ensures there is a barcode and scans the documents. Workflow takes the claim to a proofer who verifies that everything is right and orders the refund. A supervisor checks five percent of mailed requests for accuracy. When a refund application is incomplete, the proofer orders an appropriate form letter to be sent. This contains a barcode so when supplemental material arrives and a mail clerk scans it, DocFinity quickly associates the new documents with an existing file.
Whether refund requests arrive by mail or with the taxpayer, DocFinity’s Validation tool pulls 10 values from a master database to help any retrievals of any batch. A Power Indexing tool speeds searches by showing multiple search fields on a single screen.
Late for a date
After each semi-annual due date, tens of thousands of mailed payments arrive late. The Treasurer’s lockbox service extracts the contents and forwards the envelopes to the office. Two scanning workstations in the mailroom capture images of the envelopes in batches of 200. About 99 percent of the envelopes show the PIN below the return address. Clerks index envelope images with the PIN.
“I have trained over 50 clerks from many departments to do indexing,” states the Senior Analyst, “so the work can be spread out. Anybody with idle time should be indexing images of envelopes. DocFinity’s work-balancing facility shows who is really good at it.”
Frequently, taxpayers dispute that a payment arrived late. In those cases, a customer service representative opens a DocFinity portal screen and retrieves the envelope image to inspect the postmark. Skeptical taxpayers receive a print of the image. If the postmark is illegible – even when magnified -- the taxpayer receives the benefit of the doubt.
The time-saving from automating this process is profound. The old, manual process to prove each tardy payment required several staff-hours over a two-day period. Now staff members recall any of over 75,000 envelope images in moments. The trays upon trays of paper envelopes that cluttered offices are only a memory.
Continuing Automation
Another process electronically archives documents related to foreclosures initiated by failures to pay property taxes. These files often include court orders.
Each year through at least 2008, DocFinity will automate more transactions. The CIO and his staff proceed deliberately, minimizing any chance for error. Each installation adds to the impressive gains in staff productivity and quality of service. For example, the system tames the mélange of court orders, receipts, and certificates that resolve tax payments after erroneous sales of properties. Similarly, the system electronically delivers reports derived from thousands of scanned bill payment coupons.
The Treasurer’s Office will draw from a growing number of DocFinity modules. Before the original purchase, the CIO ensured that the same system that ran a relatively modest HR workflow system could also power an enterprise solution with myriad demands for technology. He remains confident in the solution’s scalability and large capacity.
As an indicator of the installation’s success, the Senior Analyst joined OIT’s 12-member Technical Advisory Panel that helps the company’s planning. TAP gives OIT fresh ideas and formalized input and feedback about products and services. The Analyst shared his experiences at the Treasurer’s office, and the dialogue continues. His thoughts help DocFinity’s developers improve future releases while enhancing support services.
The end product fulfills the Treasurer’s demand for better service for taxpayers with higher efficiency for the county. Even in its first year, this project delivered both. When completed, it should make the Treasurer’s office a model for local governments.
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Gordon E.J. Hoke is a consultant and journalist with 16 years experience in document automation and content/records management. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for AIIM E-DOC. Contact him at Gordon.hoke@evisory.com or (507) 534-2293.
