To have a successful enterprise content management (ECM) implementation, you need to have some key factors in place. First, you should invest in a high-performance software system that can integrate with your current business/IT environment—legacy systems, line of business applications, proprietary systems, and more. That software should be backed by an experienced vendor with a proven track record of responding to customers’ unique needs.

At the same time, you should establish a corporate culture of excitement with respect to your transition from paper processes to electronic. Put together a team of representatives from different levels of your enterprise, and design a solution that takes into consideration enterprise needs and future growth. Above all, have a handle on your business processes. Without an honest acknowledgment—and understanding—of existing inefficiencies, a transition to paperless processing is doomed to fail.

Palm Beach State College’s initial ECM implementation: Student Services

Palm Beach State College made sure that they had all of these components in place when they transitioned to ECM throughout their multi-campus environment. Palm Beach State serves approximately 47,000 students in one of the largest counties in Florida.

Chuck Zettler, Director of Information Technology Project Management at Palm Beach State, recalls, "Prior to implementation, we did a backfile conversion, outsourcing our old files to be scanned and indexed. That way, when we went live, everything was in digital format."

Their initial implementation in their Student Services department, which encompasses Registration, Admissions, and Financial Aid, was wildly successful. It addressed efficiency and disaster recovery challenges that were the main motivators for the transition to paperless processing.

Zettler elaborates, "Students are our number one priority, and we wanted to implement measures to serve them more efficiently, with faster turnaround time. Paper processes made work distribution extremely inefficient. There was a need for staff to access information from Web browsers, and a need for simultaneous access to information."

By implementing their ECM solution— DocFinity by Optical Image Technology— Palm Beach State was able to distribute work to staff across the multi-campus environment with the click of a mouse.

The secret weapon: Inexpensive distributed scanning across the enterprise

Zettler attributes much of Palm Beach State’s success to the distributed scanning component of their ECM implementation. Distributed scanning enables Palm Beach State to use inexpensive hardware to scan and index information from many points across all four campuses. Documents are scanned, imported, and accessible as soon as they are received, which eliminates the inefficiencies associated with paper processing. Palm Beach State uses approximately 65 distributed scanners throughout its multiple campuses.

When Palm Beach State articulated a desire for distributed scanning across their enterprise, OIT responded by developing a scanning module— DocFinity QuickScan—to address their need. Now, the institution is able to import incoming materials—including student, faculty, and staff information— easily and inexpensively. In doing so, Palm Beach State is able to increase the efficiency of their back office processes as well as processes associated with student services.

Improving Human Resources with ECM

Like other colleges and universities, Palm Beach State experiences constant turnover with respect to employment. They have approximately 2,600 employees, 1,000 of which are full-time. This accounts for a voluminous amount of documents that are related to HR.

Zettler says, "We’re able to image-enable HR documents using point-of-entry scanning. Paper documents are scanned and indexed at the point of receipt, and accessible immediately to authorized personnel from any web browser."

He elaborates, "Our HR folders are larger and more complex than student records. Student files may contain eight to ten pages, but HR files may be comprised of fifty to sixty pages on average. Nonetheless, they can be imaged and stored in the same electronic repository that houses student records."

Thus, performance evaluations, documents associated with leave, annual salary letters, and other HR records can be electronically stored and easily retrieved by authorized personnel. Palm Beach State uses DocFinity to store current employment records, as well as all of their historical employment records (for which they outsourced the scanning of over one million pieces of paper). All employment applications, W-2 forms, and other HR documents are scanned into the system and stored.

Zettler explains, "DocFinity integrates with a front-end product called PeopleAdmin that we use for job search. Prospective employees use PeopleAdmin to post resumes and other documents associated with job search. Once candidates are selected for employment, their information is automatically transferred from PeopleAdmin to DocFinity to be stored as records. Previously, these records were printed and filed as paper."

Currently, Palm Beach State is renovating and repurposing the four file rooms that had—prior to ECM implementation—been used to house employee paper files.

Making information more accessible

Zettler says, "Now that information is accessible between departments, our hiring process is improved. Typically, even though transcripts are submitted to the HR department, the academic departments need copies of them."

Under the paper-based system, applicants had to make several copies of their information available to ensure that each department had access to it. If a department did not have a copy of the appropriate transcript, it would have to request a copy from the HR department. The process was time- and labor-intensive. Now that HR has adopted the enterprise content management system, Palm Beach State is able to share documents electronically across their multicampus environment. HR and Payroll also interface, and DocFinity provides a smooth information exchange between these departments.

Beyond HR: Making the most of a technology investment

Palm Beach State is using DocFinity in other areas of the enterprise as well. They are able to electronically manage the legal agreements of the College, which total approximately 20,000 documents. Palm Beach State is also looking ahead to 2012, when they will be required to submit information to their credentialing agency. The agency does not accept paper, and DocFinity will allow them to submit information electronically.

Currently, Palm Beach State is working to integrate Purchasing, Receiving, and Accounts Payable with DocFinity. Documents associated with Receiving will have to be scanned, and then matched with billing documents and outgoing checks. All of these departments will also have to integrate electronically with the institution’s ERP system.

Palm Beach State has imaged and stored approximately 2.5 million documents to date. Their success with ECM serves as a valuable lesson to other organizations. Zettler summarizes, "The distributed scanning component of our DocFinity implementation has great relevance to other institutions. Distributed scanning enables organizations to use inexpensive hardware to import information from many points of entry. When information is scanned as soon as it is received, it is accessible immediately to authorized users throughout the entire enterprise."