Washtenaw County

The challenges

• FileNet administration required costly integrator services and scripting.
• The county needed to replace its Unix infrastructure with Microsoft.
• The FileNet workflow was costly and complex.

The results

• Hyland helped the county achieve a 100% conversion success rate.
• Washtenaw County tripled its ECM solution, workflow included, for the price of upgrading.
• The county saved a $50,000 annual consultant fee.

The solution

Washtenaw chose Hyland's OnBase, offered by authorized OnBase solution provider ImageSoft. For the same price that IBM proposed to merely upgrade its existing 20-user FileNet system, Washtenaw converted to OnBase, replaced its Unix servers with more efficient and less expensive Microsoft servers and installed more than 100 process improvement workflows across 15 departments.

Selecting the right vendor

With the 5-year old FileNet solution in need of an upgrade to meet the expanding business requirements, it was clear the Unix hardware needed to be replaced. But with budget cuts looming, the IT department decided to see what other high-value, proven content management solutions were out there.

The county wanted a solution that could be maintained in-house and deliver a more complete solution ownership experience at a lower total cost. So they started an RFP process to find content management solutions built on the Microsoft platform that would enable them to maintain and expand the solution as needed by the county, without constant consultant services. All in all, they evaluated 11 different vendors before selecting OnBase.

Better service, improved processes and reduced costs

With OnBase came an immediate return on investment.

At half of the price it would have cost to fully expand the FileNet solution to 15 departments and hundreds of users, Washtenaw not only got a lot more user licenses and functionality, it got a system that staff can expand and maintain completely in-house. Before switching to OnBase, employees were only able to integrate ECM with one line-of-business application. It took weeks of VB scripting to get up and running, and from then on required someone to maintain the scripts.

With OnBase, IT staff has integrated with more than 50 line-of-business applications without custom code or scripting. And as part of the conversion, even the county's home-grown, VB-scripted and Kofax scanning solutions were transformed to OnBase solutions, eliminating the cost and maintenance of custom-coded solutions and disparate legacy systems.

With complete control over its content management system, IT can provide much better service. And when they do need help, the customer support is like night and day compared with their former integrator.

"We used to have to go through the sales department and open up a project ticket for every single call," OnBase Administrator Dave Wilson said. "Now, we get answers to most questions in minutes. We love working with an integrator who treats us as a partner, not just a paycheck."

More departments, users and workflows

In five months, all FileNet data was converted — without losing any images. The five county departments that had been using FileNet were also up and running and fully trained in OnBase. From there, the new solution took off. From five departments to 15; from 20 users to more than 300; from simply scanning, storing and retrieving documents to more than 100 automated workflows. Start to finish, it took the county only 15 months.

Departments using OnBase include:

• Human resources
• Finance
• Procurement
• Building inspection
• Sheriff
• Courts
• Children's services