Like all municipal governments, the city of Newnan, Georgia, is faced with a tremendous amount of paperwork. More than a dozen departments – from human resources and accounting to the building department and public safety offices – generate hundreds of documents on a daily basis. All contain actionable information and conform to strict accessibility and retention guidelines.
For years, the city attempted to deal with its influx of documents by deploying traditional methods: paper storage and legacy document management software. Eventually, this resulted in the entire basement of city hall – otherwise usable, climate-controlled space – being filled with boxes of paper files. The city’s electronic document management system wasn’t much more useful, serving only as a relatively crude document archive, allowing only for the storage of scanned images.
The City of Newnan chose PSIsafe over several competing document management systems for a number of reasons. These included:
- PSIsafe’s advanced functionality and configurability, which allowed the document management software to integrate with the city’s existing practices and workflows
- Scalability within and between city departments
- User-friendly interfaces and features
- Simple integration with existing multi-function devices and scanners
- Streamlined document capture
“In the end, it just made so much sense for US to go with PSIGEN PSIsafe,” said Katrina Cline, the City of Newnan’s Finance Director. “It had much more functionality than the other systems we explored. That was a big plus, since we wanted to roll out a citywide document management and workflow solution, rather than just store documents in an electronic archive. We needed a solution that would allow us to go paperless and eliminate duplicate files. And we found that in PSIsafe.”
The city first deployed PSIsafe in its HR and finance departments. The results – particularly gains in efficiency and more access to documents – were almost immediate.
“PSIsafe has made us much more efficient,” Cline said. “Having an easily searchable, centralized document repository means we don’t have to get up and search for a hard copy file every time we need to find a document. We can just pull it up from where we’re sitting. That means we save time – and we’re able to better serve our citizens.”
PSIsafe has made audits easier for the city, too. Instead of pulling hard copies of documents, city employees can simply give auditors access to their PSIsafe document repository, saving countless hours of time. “When auditors are on-site, we just let them right into the system,” Cline said.
“They can test our invoices, licensing, revenue receipts – anything they need, right out of PSIsafe.”
The Future: A True Citywide Solution
As time passes, PSIsafe is being deployed across more and more City departments. The offices of the city manager and police are using it, and it’s being rolled out in the planning and building inspection departments.
Eventually, Cline said, the goal is to use PSIsafe to store all city documents in fully indexed, easily searchable archives, while automating workflows using PSIGEN’s powerful document routing and PDF forms capabilities. And with the PSIGEN mobile app, information is accessible anywhere at any time.
Best of all, when a city employee runs into a snag, they can simply call their local PSIsafe dealer – or access online helpdesk tools for immediate support.
“We love PSIsafe,” Cline said. “We’ve pretty much eliminated our manual files – even the ones that used to be on our desks. That means we have more space, and everything is far more organized and easily accessible. Anything we can do to become more efficient is good for the city, and it’s good for our citizens. PSIsafe has definitely added to our customer service capabilities and response times.”
