A European Capital City and DocFinity®: Document Management Solution Facilitates City Administration History and Background

From its beginnings in mediaeval times more than nine hundred years ago, this government corporation has been responsible for all of the major activities and public spaces in the core of this major European capital city.  One of the oldest local government authorities in Europe, it is also one of the most famous in the world, serving more than 300,000 people who work within the city center daily and thousands more each night.

Initially responsible only for the geographic area of a single square mile, this government entity provides services that enhance the quality of living for those who work, live, and do business within one of the world’s most vital international financial and business centers.  Today, the corporation funds a wide range of charitable projects outside the city core, and from which people throughout the world benefit, including world-class presenters of classical music and theatre as well as a variety of public spaces.  In addition to maintaining several city bridges, the corporation administers housing programs, refuse collection, social services, town planning, its own police services, and the country’s central court for criminal justice.

Given the variety of programs that it oversees and the many contracts and other legal documents related to their projects, the entity’s in-house legal department has its hands full.  Launched as a department during the peak of the sixteenth-century Renaissance, the department has nearly two dozen client departments within the corporation, and stores commercial property records, tax records, and other important documents dating from three hundred years ago.  Seeking a solution to their document management challenges and the large volume of information stored at the corporation offices, the management team selected a solution centered around DocFinity document management software in the fall of 2001.

Getting Started

The corporation faced challenges in multiple areas that confront many companies, including the need to initiate effective e-governance and succession planning, to improve client care, foster collaboration, encourage learning, increase communication, and avoid constantly reinventing the same wheels.  The business goals they hoped to solve through technology were threefold:  to offer quality insurance; to improve people management; and to increase their knowledge management capabilities.  Information technology (IT) was intended to facilitate knowledge management within the corporation, enabling the company to “deliver the right information to the right people at the right time.”  Although the office was very efficient prior to automating, trying to access information quickly was a bit like playing a game of the Wheel of Fortune:  sometimes the lawyers hit the jackpot and found the documents right away, and sometimes it required a second or third attempt. 

In an ambitious undertaking that was designed to address these challenges, the corporation launched a 21st century initiative to centralize their records, case law, case studies and practice notes, as well as track precedents and client needs, and manage all of their records and activities more effectively.  The DocFinity COLD-ERM enterprise report management application was chosen as the vehicle for storing the past, present and future files for the corporation, which included Microsoft Word files, spreadsheets, images, and other formats.  By 2002, scanned documents were added, including a large library of images, and a total of seven million paper documents were put into the system.  Electronic documents came into the picture afterwards, with all files and images linked directly to the events within the appropriate legal transactions. 

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Since the legal department was the one that would benefit the most from the automation, getting the buy-in of the lawyers was critical to the project’s success.  This meant that the vendor had to understand the needs, challenges and concerns of the lawyers in order to ensure that the automation would address every detail to their satisfaction, and meet their high expectations. When reflecting upon the vendor’s ability to work with the legal department and address these business challenges, the office services manager for the corporation said, “OIT was willing to understand and listen.  They were a critical part of our planning.”  A study of the legal department’s manual processes and staff training helped to ensure that the lawyers were able to continue their work seamlessly when the system was ready to roll into production.

How the DocFinity Solution Works

Instead of searching for paper documents as they had with the previous paper-based system, lawyers now conduct their searches with the aid of a simple toolbar, where they can ask for files, images, or supporting documents; request templates for documents they need to create; and send files to other lawyers or third parties as needed.  Each record has a file number, and key events (relating to specific legal transactions) can be assigned to each job.  Depending upon the specific need, DocFinity enables the lawyers to query the system for documents that match the search criteria exactly, or to search for all documents that are similar to the search criteria.  Each job can be assigned a risk factor as well, helping the staff to run and monitor their risk assessment program efficiently and effectively.

Since lawyers often need to access files from remote locations, having the files, images and supporting documents available remotely over the Internet was of paramount importance.  Now, instead of a lawyer phoning in a request for someone to search for a document and either send the information in the mail, return the call with the needed information, or put it on a desk for processing as soon as the lawyer returns, the staff in the legal department can search for whatever information they need at the moment that it is needed.  And, with the robust security built into  DocFinity software, only the staff that is permitted to view or annotate each individual document may do so, helping to ensure that the information on the knowledge wheel spins in, and into, the RIGHT hands.

How the Corporation’s Legal Department Benefits

Since all of the documents have been entered into the knowledge management repository, true knowledge has been far more accessible.  Lawyers working on behalf of the corporation and other third parties with whom the corporation works now have access to all of the documents they need, encouraging collaborative work, sharing of information, less duplication of efforts, and more effective document and records management.  The corporation’s goal of marrying their explicit knowledge (information available from past and present journals, e-mails, and other sources) with tacit knowledge (knowledge contained in the heads of those who are involved in the business) is now in place, making it possible for the legal department to operate more effectively now and prepare for the future.  DocFinity has, in essence, served as their “fortuna rota volvitur”, their revolving wheel, enabling the staff to learn from transactions and events of the past and spin this knowledge into the fabric of future transactions.  Instead of “spinning their wheels”, the staff is constantly busy spinning their knowledge wheel – and doing so effectively.  Learn – Plan – Do – Review…..Learn – Plan – Do – Review…..a cycle of continuing education and improvement is now in place.

Where the Past and Present Meet the Future

Now that all of the past documents are in the system, maintaining the system is easy.  Newly generated documents are added to the electronic document storage repository daily, making information accessible immediately.  The legal department can plan effectively and efficiently for the future.

It’s clear that this major European city government hit the wheel of fortune’s jackpot with the DocFinity Suite.  Eager to share his experience and enthusiasm with a group of IT managers at a recent conference, their office services manager posed the question, “Who needs OIT?”  Answering his own question, he responded emphatically, “We ALL do.”

For more information or to schedule a demonstration, please Contact DocFinity now.