Paperless Solutions Expands Use of OnBase Across the Enterprise with Automation of Right-To-Know Information Requests (FOIA)

Lower Merion Township, part of the historic Philadelphia Main Line, is a well-known first-class township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The township was first settled in 1682 by Welsh Quakers with a land grant by William Penn. Lower Merion has long history and important presence in Pennsylvania and now includes a growing population of over 50,000 residents.

As a progressive township in Pennsylvania, Lower Merion was looking more closely at the disparate systems within its IT operations and determining if there was a more efficient way to run government business. The township found success and savings in their contractor license renewal process and their alarm registration and billing processes via automation and digital transformation using OnBase by Hyland.

Another area that needed attention was in managing the time-sensitive Right-to-Know (Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)) requests. Keeping track of a highly compliant, manual process that involved inperson or paper submissions, with a high volume of email and manual follow-up by the Public Information Officer to department heads to check on status of requests, was time consuming and inefficient. Furthermore, if someone was out of the office, emails sometimes were delayed in processing or overlooked altogether. These requests had defined response times that must be met to stay within compliance. Right-to- Know requests were increasingly difficult to manage on an ongoing basis.

Jim Weiman, Chief Technology Officer of Lower Merion Township and Paperless Solutions determined that OnBase by Hyland would be perfect to address the situation and expand its use for FOIA requests. Once the solution was demonstrated to the Public Information Officer, they were also excited about the application and recognized the value and impact it would have on the process.

“Paperless Solutions was able to take OnBase by Hyland’s out-of-the box features for Right-to-Know requests and customize the solution to our needs”, indicated Jim. The IT team no longer wanted to invest in, and manage, separate systems. It made more sense to build upon their OnBase investment. “We had this great tool at our disposal that was already being used effectively and which allowed us to continue to tap into and expand its use for a variety of purposes across the organization,” conveyed Mr. Weiman. Now, automatic notifications of information requests are electronically routed to the right person. With the click of a button, departments are able to fulfill, deny or indicate nothing is available for the request. More comprehensive and easier reporting and tracking ensures better management and status of each request is known, as well as ensures easier compliance.

“Paperless Solutions trained us on the program and even took additional feedback from end-users to suggest further modifications,” noted Jim. “And, it was good to know OnBase is well-known in the market. From an IT perspective, it’s a lot simpler, cleaner solution and it works. We’ve gotten nothing but positive comments about the system from senior staff including ‘it’s simple, easy, and looks very similar to Microsoft Office,‘” indicates Mr. Weiman.

Lower Merion Township plans to continue to leverage the flexibility of OnBase and expand use across the organization. Potential areas of future use include:

• Replacing old Access databases
• Human Resources, including full onboarding and/or retrieving employee files, processing employee applications for the Police Department, Parks and Recreation Departments
• Managing the Business Permits
• Managing, storing and retrieving security camera footage

Lower Merion Township team also envisions that as more information is digitized, OnBase’s eventual integration with Building and Planning permitting system will also provide added simplification, automation and ease of use for the end-user and serve as a better disaster recovery solution in the event of flooding or fires.

Trusted experts in enterprise content management since 1999, Paperless Solutions specializes in industries with complex processes and stringent compliance requirements. State and local government, prothonotaries, manufacturers, laboratories and collections agencies rely on us to simplify their processes, decrease costs and keep their business compliant. By combining innovation with an intelligent business sense we bring about dramatic improvements in every client’s efficiency and bottom line. We skillfully combine best-in-breed off-the-shelf ECM solutions from Hyland OnBase and FileBound with our own software to deliver the right workflows from finance to human resources, court case management, e-Filing, sample test reporting and collections correspondence. Recognized for our outstanding customer service, Paperless Solutions is a repeat winner of the Hyland OnBase Diamond Award.

Jim Weiman, Chief Technology Officer
Lower Merion Township

• OnBase Enterprise Content Management Systems
• ShareBase

• Right-to-Know (FOIA) Requests

• Delivers more efficient process for fulfilling Right-to-Know requests and tracking progress across departments including Building and Planning, Fire Department, Police Department and Public Works
• Improves annual reporting to Board on Right-To-Know information requests with dashboard reports that are more comprehensive and detailed
• Eliminates the need to hire additional staff to fulfill the requests
• Reduces the need for IT team to manage multiple applications across the
• Ensures compliance

• Eliminates manual paper filing and tracking Saves man-hours in fulfilling and following up on requests for information
• Automates the Freedom of Information Act request process
• Increases the number of requests that can be handled
• Improves management and tracking of delivery process
• Delivers comprehensive reports
• Consolidates disparate and outdated systems