Town of Henrietta Streamlines Document Management with DocuWare

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The Town of Henrietta, located in Monroe County, New York, was facing a significant record-keeping problem. Paper documents were filling both on-site and off-site storage facilities at a costly pace. These documents included town meeting minutes, planning and zoning case files, registration forms, claims, and lawsuits, all of which needed to be permanently archived. Searching for important documents in filing cabinets and vaults had become a daunting task, and off-site document storage and retrieval was a growing expense. The town's IT Coordinator recognized that implementing a document management system would solve their paper file problems. The top priority was finding a solution that could seamlessly integrate with their existing software such as RPS (New York State Real Property Tax System), BAS’s Municipal Clerk Licensing System, and ABBYY.

The Town of Henrietta is located in the heart of Monroe County, just outside of Rochester, New York. It is home to approximately 45,000 people and takes pride in its small-town feel. The town's government offices include the Town Clerk's office, Recreation Department, and Building Department. These offices had a major record-keeping problem, with paper documents filling both on-site and off-site storage facilities at a costly pace. These documents included town meeting minutes, planning and zoning case files, registration forms, claims, and lawsuits, all of which needed to be permanently archived.

The town of Henrietta implemented DocuWare, a document management system, to solve their paper file problems. The Town Clerk’s office was the first place DocuWare was rolled out because this office manages all public records, such as real estate and land records; birth, death and marriage certificates, sporting licenses, dog licenses, records of board and commission meetings and more. New records are now stored electronically and the Town’s in-house staff back scanned existing paper records, starting with newer and frequently accessed documents. Once the contents of each box from the storage facility were scanned into the system, the paper records were destroyed. The system was later expanded to other departments, including the Recreation Department and the Building Department. The system was also integrated with ABBYY, allowing for the electronic import of responses from a land use survey into an Excel file, which was then exported to DocuWare where information could be accessed as needed.

• Before implementing DocuWare, finding certain documents could take days or weeks, depending on the amount of research involved. With DocuWare in place, retrieval is easy and happens in seconds.
• The Recreation Department evolved from physical to electronic filing cabinets, putting an end to trips to the document vault to manually search for files.
• The Building Department benefitted by storing and back scanning completed residential and commercial building and renovation permits. Employees now retrieve information on projects in seconds instead of the days and weeks it used to take.

• The Town’s Return on Investment was realized within 15 months.
• They saved over $20,000 a year on paper storage.