072: OnBase for DOL: Workflows, Reporting, and Streamlining Processes

Steve Nimon:

Welcome to the podcast. My name is Steve Nimon Account Executive with ImageSoft. Today we’re discussing how OnBase manufactured by Hyland assists Department of Labor with moving to paperless processing. ImageSoft has implemented OnBase for over 20 years and is a Hyland Platinum Elite partner and Diamond Support partner.

I have worked with OnBase in government entities for well over 10 years and look forward to discussing how it impacts Department of Laborers with our two industry experts. So, Paul Gorman is the ImageSoft subject matter expert for government solutions. And Rob Johnson is the Government Senior Industry Consultant at Hyland Software.

We look forward to providing you with information today. To talk about how you enhance your paperless journey. So first let’s have some introductions. So let me start with Rob.

Rob Johnson:

Steve, thank you. Rob Johnson Senior Industry Consultant with Hyland in the government space. I’ve been working in the government sector for my entire career since graduating from college.

And, and excited to be joining you today. This is probably one of the highlights of my day when I get to do these type of events. And so, Steve, thank you.

Steve Nimon:

Appreciate that Rob. And now Paul, would you please introduce yourself?

Paul Gorman:

Absolutely. My name is Paul Gorman. I’m an Account Executive with ImageSoft. I’ve worked in government and with OnBase since 2006. I’ve worked in government my entire career as well starting in the federal, then working in CIO for two states and a city. Looking forward to talking today about how OnBase works in the government agencies.

Steve Nimon:

Excellent. Thank you gentlemen. And now let’s dive into the Department of Labor and how we can help they’re moved to their paperless process and the benefits associated with that. Gonna start with you, Paul, and, and kind of take a look at, when we talk about a Department of Labor, there are many areas that this could touch. We could be talking about wages, job search assistance, unemployment benefits, recruitment areas. As we start to look at that, can you talk a little bit about where paperless process is going to benefit that the DOL the most and why?

Paul Gorman:

Thanks, Steve. First off, there are three large pain points that pretty much exist in almost every government program. The application or program onboarding [process the routing and, and workflow of content through the agency’s business processes and determining the eligibility of applicants to a particular program. In the unemployment process the applicant is providing supporting documents and completing a standardized program application form. Most states already have online form processes in place. OnBase can augment the electronic form processing, especially with the rules and processes change and in DOLs, they change frequently. They help support the manage, and manage the supporting documents.

With many of these processes, the process may change annually or more frequently and state IT systems are not able to keep up as rapidly as that process is changing. There’s a misalignment there between the rate of process change and the rate in which legacy systems can keep up with that change.

What OnBase can do is they can step in and use in the configurable workflow processes, and they’re able to bridge the gaps that exist between these legacy state systems and the current business process. And that’s really where we’re seeing OnBase make a huge difference for DOL programs in the states.

Steve Nimon:

Thank you, Paul. I heard a lot of great pieces there. Some of the big things I’m pulling out are all right. We’re really talking about creating control, helping to automate how the documents move, but we’re talking about flexibility for the departments. Is that…

Paul Gorman:

That’s correct. I, I mean, I think it’s critical that a system need to be, a system that you’re doing in a department like this that frequently sees changes in programs. I mean, frankly, every year you’re getting congressional and legislative changes, both at the federal and state level that affect these systems. And if you do not have a flexible product in place, that can really stymie your ability to use automation and be more efficient.

Steve Nimon:

So that does bring up one additional question for you as we start looking at this. How, how does this help the department, the department with really their compliance or retention requirements?

Paul Gorman:

Great. That’s, that’s a great question. First, from a compliance standpoint, one of the, one of the audit findings that organizations frequently have is that they’re not treating all applicants in the exact same manner. If two different case workers are working on a client’s case and they’re not treated the same. That’s an audit finding and that can really cause problems for agencies with an OnBase product that has a structured workflow that enforces business rules management can be insured, that any process that goes through follows the exact same business rules and exact same structures so that everyone gets treated the same, and that’s pretty critical in a, in an agency.

Now you had also mentioned some, one of the other aspects of compliance is the retention and the records management here.

Steve Nimon:

Yes.

Paul Gorman:

Now the documents that are associated with these processes are subject to records management, and oftentimes it’s not that you’re not keeping them long enough, it’s that you’re keeping some of them too long. OnBase helps you enforce those rules associated with retention and records management and makes it possible for you to actually meet those compliance requirements without having a tremendous work, work effort on the part of your records managers. One of the other things I’d like to say about that a as well, is that, that that retention process and the way in which records management are enforced within an agency can the ability to meet Freedom of Information Act requests and public record requests more efficiently.

And that would probably be another whole segment. We could, we, we could talk about that as a solution, totally separate and independent from Departments of Labor. But frequently Departments of Labor, increasingly Departments of Labor are being subject to these Freedom of Information Act requests and OnBase can help you address those.

Steve Nimon:

Excellent. Appreciate that, Paul. That is some great information. Well, I want to shift gears over to you, Rob, and maybe focus a little bit more now based on what Paul has provided. A little bit more about OnBase impact how it, how it helps that at the DOLs and, and we can talk maybe a little bit more functionality wise.

So, turn it over to you from that perspective.

Rob Johnson:

It also increases that constituent experience if things are able to be handled in a much faster fashion. And that really starts from the beginning, Steve, of, capturing the documents right out of the gate and getting those into the system and then being able to have the workflow. Attached to it where the right people have eyes on a certain document because it’s part of the process. And then being able to quickly retrieve that information once it’s stored. And then finally that retention component that Paul alluded to is, is key as well. For so long. I think records managers thought, well, we better hold onto it just in case. And you know, as Paul mentioned, when you store that information for too long and it’s requested, if you have it, you must retrieve it and, and provide it.

Whereas if it’s gone past its retention schedule and has been destroyed. You’re very, you’re very much compliant within the law. One thing, Steve, I wanna mention too, that I think is important within the Department of Labor’s today, and we’re seeing it more and more with today’s economy, is the need to have accurate statistics as it relates to employment numbers and things of that nature which then feed into what’s happening with regards to the financial markets and being able to compile that information quickly and have accurate information really does help those department of laborers meet those requirements and, and provides the financial markets with, with strong information.

Steve Nimon:

Thank you, Rob. That helped a lot from my perspective. Great information. So, let’s circle back to just where you were co couple of things that popped in that I’m wondering how they, from a, on talk about, from an on base perspective, so you were kind of going re reporting and those pieces, so we’re really talking about pushing data out.

Is that what, what you’re talking about to provide these statistics?

Rob Johnson:

Absolutely, yes.

Steve Nimon:

So if I’m looking at it from a perspective of constituents let’s talk a little bit about how this information might be provided from a just a public perspective, just what that means, whether we’re talking portal or what we’re, we’re talking about from that.

Rob Johnson:

Absolutely. Well, Steve, you know what, when you’re dealing with a manual process it’s subject to the potential of a lot of human error both on the knowledge workers’ part, which is, is is something that that just happens through the process. But also from the constituent’s perspective of providing that supporting documentation. When it, putting a system like this in you have everything in real time. It’s linked together and it’s much easier to process, whereas it was the standard for certain processes within a Department of Labor to take days, if not weeks. That can be brought down to minutes or hours. And changing that mindset is tremendous within an agency that is responsible for so much work and, and data that that is really important.

So being able to process it quickly, but also being able to have that reporting behind it to show what’s being done provides a real value.

Steve Nimon:

Yes, and, and I think everybody who’s out there who’s had any interaction with that over their lifetime would go, yes, I would love to have that information faster from a public perspective. Not to mention the workers having it at their fingertips, understanding all the disparate systems we’re talking about in this scenario.

Rob Johnson:

Correct.

Steve Nimon:

Thanks, Rob. That was great information, kind of bringing together the two sides of where it starts and giving a little more on how OnBase fits and addresses that. One of the things, and, and this can be for either of you, is it’s always great to hear about where we’ve had solution impact for an existing customer. So, I don’t know if either one of you wanna have somebody you want to talk about, but that would be great to share with the audience here.

Paul Gorman:

Absolutely I can, I can step in here. We, we currently work, and I’ve worked with a number of DOLs over the past 20 years, but the one that sticks in my head right now is the North Carolina Agency. North Carolina, DOL has used OnBase to manage a number of, of specific program activities for the past, I think seven, eight years. They have they have a solution investigative case management solution for complaint capture, management investigation and referral for litigation. It’s helping their knowledge workers manage all of the dispersed information associated with a particular investigation in helping them gather it together and present it in a coherent fashion for.

They’re also using OnBase as well in the back office, managing financial and budgetary processes. That’s the financial reporting that Rob was talking about. Critical in an agency like this, they gather all this financial information and it, it goes, it goes up to the governor’s office and as well has federal reporting requirements.

They even have a mobile inspection solution, and this is really where we get into the differences that exist in DOLs different states have different programs cuz their states are all diverse and different. And in, in the case of North Carolina, they have a agricultural housing program that the Department of Labor is responsible for reviewing and administering.

So, they’re using a mobile inspection solution in OnBase that allows staff to access OnBase eForms provide the inspection of the housing and process capture tools on their field for their field staff, on their mobile devices. So, it basically eliminated paper from that process. It is allowing a fairly small staff to cover an awful big area in terms of doing these inspections.

It’s an annual inspection process, so. When an agency like this has new mission requirements or additional mission requirements, or the mission requirements change, being able to use a product like OnBase to meet it without having to staff up or increase dramatically their staffing really shows how OnBase is delivering value.

Steve Nimon:

That was excellent, Paul. Appreciate that, great to hear about where this has affected accounts directly. Rob, anything you’d like to add to that?

Rob Johnson:

You know, I think Paul said it very well from the standpoint of Departments of Labor in various states vary based upon what they’re responsible for. And OnBase has been able to help those agencies in a number of states meet those requirements and, and, and be able to move those things forward.

I think, you know, the, the key that, that I’d like to, to really focus in here, Steve, is the fact that if a Department of Labor is managing things through email and Excel spreadsheets. It’s a tremendous opportunity for a tool like OnBase to be able to come in and, and help automate that process and, and provide some role visibility into the organization. One of the biggest challenges that I see out there, and I’m sure Paul has seen it as well, is you see many of these departments within a Department of Labor are very siloed. And so, you don’t see that sharing of information. When a tool like OnBase comes in it really opens things up to where those knowledge workers can have access to key data that may have been collected for another group that’s pertinent to what they’re trying to do. And can really streamline the process. So having that visibility within the organization is, is so important. And we’re, we’re proud to offer that.

Excellent. Well, I would like to thank both you, Rob, and Paul for being here today and providing your knowledge and overview of how OnBase can help Department of Labor. Hopefully as people view this podcast, they’ll see some of the benefits that can come from that and be able to start down the road becoming paperless and automating processes, controlling processes, and being able to report you now to improve their reporting and data management. I appreciate your time and I hope everybody enjoyed our podcast.

We will talk to you soon.