All for one

Fairfax County, Va.’s mission to implement a county-wide document management program across disparate agencies has come to fruition. Today, more than 70 agencies, departments and programs  – from police and fire rescue to libraries, and health and human services – are using a hardware/software solution that’s significantly reduced manual handling of paper documents while creating a secure document processing and collaborative environment for more than 15,000 end-users.  

Needs assessments were conducted to create parameters for the system, including reducing paper output, streamlining document handling processes, promoting collaboration among employees/agencies, and creating a common user-friendly interface. Fairfax needed an intelligent management system to proactively monitor the solution to spot problems and trigger alerts.   

The backbone of the solution is a fleet of 500 multi-function devices (MFDs) with NSi AutoStore software from Notable Solutions, which provide document processing and secure integration with a number of back-end systems used for managing health records, accounting and electronic faxes.

“The MFDs are uniform – regardless of model. Hard and soft button layouts are the same, making them intuitive, and increasing end-user adoption. When employees log in using ID cards, the software differentiates among user groups giving employees a customized user interface and access to individualized workflows making the device person-specific. User activity is audited for compliance and reports are sent to the appropriate individual(s) providing a high level of security,” says David Foechterle, MFD program manager for the Department of Information Technology. “Using a distributed capture solution coupled with RFID secure card authentication, employees can securely process documents from any MFD in the county.”

A HIPAA-compliant health management system workflow was created for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB). CSB deals with situations involving private health information issues like intellectual disabilities or substance abuse. Users scan documents to a secure HIPAA-compliant location accessible only to authorized individuals.
The software provides an integrated cost accounting solution tracking the number of impressions going through each MFD, who is creating them and what function has occurred. This generates accurate information for bill-back to individual departments.

Priot to implementation, the budget was reduced by nearly $500,000. Since implementation, the county has seen a 25 percent decrease in paper consumption, a 100-fold increase in documents scanned, and the disappearance of desktop printers, fax machines and associated phone lines saving more than $1 million annually.
“Our mission is to best serve the citizens of Fairfax County,” Foechterle says.  “As stewards, we’re continuously compelled to innovate.”

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