The Indiana Education Employment Relations Board (IEERB) liaises between Indiana teachers and schools to promote harmony and cooperation. They manage a lot of documents in support of this goal—including teacher collective bargaining agreements, salary schedules, and unfair labor practice decisions. But many of these documents were on paper, which made it difficult for the IEERB to do their job efficiently.
The IEERB needed help, and they found it with Webdocs from Fortra Document Management (RJS).
Sluggish Searches Hindered Research
Paper documents aren’t easy to search—and the IEERB knows it. Their documents were in paper form, kept in 20 books organized by year, and stored in two large filing cabinets. Researching a topic meant flipping through books and filing cabinets, hoping to come across the right information. It took too much time and too much effort. Plus, it was hurting their bottom line.
If someone called with a question, IEERB staff were sent on a sluggish search to find the right document to answer the question. Once a document was retrieved, it needed to be copied and mailed (or faxed) to the requestor. And the costs kept piling on and on.
Plus, it was frustrating to those who requested information. They had to provide the right information to the IEERB staff member to help them find the document. Then, they were kept waiting…and waiting.
IEERB needed to move away from the paper and to a digital document management solution. They found the right fit for their business with Webdocs.
Finding the Fast Lane with Webdocs
IEERB hesitated when it came to choosing a document management system. They had unique needs for the software to meet, and not every solution could do it for them. When they found Webdocs, they knew they were onto the software that could be best configured for their business.
Their requirements included:
- Ability to search text within documents
- Ability to find documents based on parameters like document type, school, number of teachers in a school, and year
- Secure access to documents
Webdocs ticked all the boxes. Today, IEERB staff can run a keyword search across all documents and find the one in question. Thanks to indexing with up to 10 search keys, any relevant search pulls up the right documents. And the IEERB can rest assured that only authorized users see the documents in question.
I’d used the other large document management systems when I worked in law firms, but they were too expensive. What’s more, they were too inflexible and couldn’t be modified to meet our needs.
Michael McConnell, Chairman, IEERB
The Right Document Management for Their Needs
Webdocs was precisely the right software to meet their needs. Installation was complete in under two hours. Implementation—including scanning and indexing all paper documents with optical character recognition (OCR)—was complete within six months. Today, all new documents are captured electronically into the system—no need for scanning.
The results were astounding. Document retrieval is instantaneous. Information requestors can help themselves to information with a secure log-in. And IEERB shaved 80 percent off the cost of fulfilling information requests.
Find Your Document Management Solution
Fortra Document Management (RJS) makes it easy for any organization to capture, manage, and distribute documents. See how you’ll benefit from document management in a free consultation.