Three Australasian enterprises set out their ECM strategy to deal with workflow and document-centric collaboration.

Department of Premier and Cabinet

At the Queensland Department of Premier and Cabinet, there is no big stick approach to driving use of the TRIM EDRMS.

Since the TRIM implementation was completed in early 2009, around 600 users within the department and associated statutory bodies are underway with the migration from shared drive storage.
Mary Brehaut, Acting Director - Corporate Information, said that the whole department had moved to using TRIM as their only repository for Ministerial correspondence, and departmental briefs,
In addition, about 40% of users had migrated to using TRIM as their only repository for all business documents, and this figure is expected to grow to 80% within the next 12 months.

“It takes time because people must learn the system and you need champions in each area to drive its adoption. But we are finding the more staff use it the more they like it, and when they have made the shift we make their shared drive read only so they can only save documents in TRIM.”

“We are also encouraging people to email TRIM links internally instead of document attachments.

The DPC is running TRIM 6R2 with Office 2007 integration.

A strict business process for official Ministerial correspondence and departmental briefs requires that a document must be lodged in TRIM to be approved.

Rather than using a rigid system workflow DPC used the existing “assignee” and “notes” function within TRIM to develop a business process which is flexible and has the ability to manage both structured and unexpected routes.

Incoming mail is scanned to a Tracking Folder, assigned to a responding author, who places the response in the same Tracking Folder. Any notes or instructions are placed on the Tracking Folder, and it is then assigned as required for review, comment, approval etc. Metadata relating to the progress of the Tracking Folder is used to report on outstanding items.

Christchurch City Council

Christchurch City Council has implemented TRIM as its EDMS (Functional Classification based) but Lyn Ferris, TRIM - EDMS Administrator, points out that some things don't work with other systems in TRIM.

“We have set up a Team Based Shared Resources Drive which apart from Databases and shared spreadsheets is for non- corporate records. This includes templates and Standard letters, listings and labels, social photos and a place for document collation - for mail merges etc and then they must go to TRIM.

"No security or AD groups are allowed on this drive.

"We have set up a restricted resources drive and this is for uploads to other systems such as direct debits uploads and payroll, traffic cameras etc. They are restricted to one level of security at the top only and the AD group is the name of the drive. These must be justified by manager.

"We have a PhotoStore which holds photos only - we delete anything not a JPG or TIF. This is a measure in place until we have a digital image solution (starting later this year.
All scanned documents go to the shared resources and are deleted every night.

"All these drives are monitored for inappropriate documents (although we need more time to do it).

"Old shared drives are read only while they are migrated to TRIM or dealt with - a 2 year process. We send out a migration list each month and give each group 5,000 documents to migrate. If they don't we are about to delete them unless they can justify why they haven't dealt with them and point to a documented migration plan. I suspect after the earthquake they will have plenty of excuses not to deal with them!”

Trilby Misso lawyers

For personal injury law firm Trilby Misso, document management is integrated within its practice management system (PMS).

The Queensland firm has around 150 employees and provides legal counsel in areas such as workplace accidents, motor vehicle accidents, occupiers liability and medical negligence.

The paper trail is still strong in Trilby Misso’s field of specialisation, from interactions with its clients all the way through to briefing counsel and working with the courts, although most cases are settled before going that far.

Consultant Kate Hart, who has helped the firm implement a digital case management workflow, said the a driver for implementing digital capture and workflow was to reduce management risk and to provide an efficient quality service to clients.

“Our digital workflow helps guide users through the fairly prescriptive processes of a personal injury practise.”

“Everything we do is captured within the practice management system,” said Hart.

“All of our interactions with our clients are captured and attached to the case file.”

The electronic file also includes email that has been sent by the PMS or saved from Outlook.

“Our aim was too make the electronic file represent the hard copy file, to aid with disaster recovery. We also wanted to provide a flexible work environment, so staff can access the file from work or home, wherever they are located,” said Hart

Trilby Misso has also opened a series of local client service centres throughout south east Queensland, where clients can discuss the progress of their case without having to travel to the main Brisbane office.
“Our paralegal staff there are able to access all the material on a client’s file remotely, and we are also introducing videoconferencing if they need to talk to a lawyer directly.”

An integrated print and capture environment acquired from Canon Australia includes 16 Canon imageRUNNER MFDs and 8 Canon DR9080 high speed workgroup scanners.

The solution also included 16 eCopy ScanStations spread amongst the scanners and multifunction devices and a new, customised eCopy connector. eCopy ScanStations are small-format touchscreens that attach to any Canon imageRUNNER and allow users to scan back to a businesses network. For Trilby Misso Lawyers they are used to connect into fax, email and the document management application directly from the device.

The Canon solution, including a customised eCopy connector and uniFLOW Output Manager, automated the process of ingesting correspondence. This has previously required time-consuming task of manual scanning, creating a PDF, consolidating to a group PDF then uploading it to the PMS.

Across the firm’s Queensland offices, 20 decentralised teams manage the scanning of hard copy material that arrives in the post. After filling in the matter number when prompted by the eCopy touchscreen, documents are automatically scanned at high speed and made available via the PMS.

“We can now respond very quickly and our staff wherever they are can see correspondence as it comes in,” said Hart

“The need for the hard copy file is diminishing.’