IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The project will be implemented in three phases with the first one involving conducting a needs and business analysis on the operations of the various government ministries and departments and the different stages at which records are generated, used and disposed or retired to the National Archives for preservation.

On a European scale, the research indicates a wastage amounting to 4.7 billion Euros, and only 23% of European government organisations were found to have a document management strategy in place.

The project sees Angus Council replace its paper-based system in revenues and benefits with Comino’s electronic document management (EDM), document image processing (DIP) and workflow solution.

The project is part of Scotland's efficient government initiative that is driving the setting up of shared services throughout the health service.

Public bodies have received some guidance on the IT implications of the Act from the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

As part of a £200,000 deal, supplier Comino will work in partnership with North Dorset District Council to overcome the challenges posed by the Government’s drive to encourage citizens to interact with their authority online.

Birmingham City Council has implemented EMC Documentum's Enterprise Content Management platform to manage documents for planning applications and construction and refurbishment projects.

The council is using the ECM platform as part of its drive to meet local e-government targets. During the roll-out, which began in December 2004, the council will scan in, store and index paper documents into PDF format. Later it plans to add voice files, photographic files, video recordings and AutoCAD images.

Document Management is obviously one of the main supports for the Government's eGovernment initiative. However, the complexity of the Public Sector Tendering Process is a concern. The time cost alone to just enter the bidding process is, in some cases, becoming prohibitive.

The £191,000 system from supplier Comino will be implemented corporately starting with planning and finance, before being rolled out to other departments.

Taking a cue from the popular “Star Trek” theme, the hospital has ventured into uncharted territory with its “E-Health Odyssey” — a $13 million effort that will see by the end of this year the hospital doing much of its medical charting electronically — doing away with the centuries old practice of using paper.

Developing an electronic medical records system has been a goal of hospitals for more than two decades. Many have ventured that way, few have succeeded. Sierra View officials feel the time is right and there is no “fail” in their vocabulary.

Chief among Sacramento’s strategy, according to Assistant City Clerk Dawn Bullwinkel, who led the project, was to move beyond the thought of just digitizing a paper product. The clerk’s office stepped back and took a close look at all work processes, identifying how they could be more efficient before moving forward.

But 162 years after Dickens published his classic novel, a shrinking number of U.S. courts rely solely on human beings to record legal proceedings. In an era of tight budgets, courts in all 50 states have replaced court stenographers — many of whom can type more than 250 words per minute — with digital recording systems. These systems range from simple tape recorders to multiple-camera, motion-sensitive systems.

What's more, VA is working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Defense Department to make Blue Button technology available to all 8 million of these agencies' health plan beneficiaries.

VA also began four years ago to convert its massive collection of paper personnel records to a new eOPF — electronic Official Personnel Folder — making records available to employees 24/7 from nearly all of its 140 locations.

North Carolina standardized a new process that allows for notarization to be completed electronically. Some state officials are calling the program the first and most robust move to e-notarizations on a statewide level.

Notarizations are traditionally completed manually with paper documents and require an authorized “notary public” to approve, sign and seal official documents – often for legal purposes. Laws require that when documents are notarized, both the notary public and the parties involved with the documents are physically present for the notarization.

The new system, “BoardDocs”, replaces the old method of compiling, printing, and distributing meeting documents to a limited audience.

Inspectors from the Washington, D.C., Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) Fire Prevention Division began filling out reports digitally in October. According to Fire Marshal Bruce Faust, the change is temporarily hurting productivity, but the statistical benefits should outweigh the initial bumps in the road.

Things will work differently in Arizona when the Arizona Supreme Court (ASC) connects all the state's court document systems. The forthcoming system will let a citizen who's filing a document at any courthouse to retrieve all relevant case material from other courts in the same transaction.

So wouldn't it be nice to reduce paper consumption -- and streamline work processes?