RNR Consulting was engaged with the City of Lancaster, Building and Safety Division and the City Clerks Department, to select and implement an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).

We received ten (10) proposals in response to the solicitation for this system, short-listed the responding vendors, and provided our final recommendation to the City. As part of the selection, we undertook the following activities:

• Review of the current information system’s infrastructure and connectivity with other departments through network and application architecture and hardware infrastructure. The evaluation of the network architecture helped in the understanding of the City’s network topology and application architecture evaluation helped provide information about the software used in the departments and how data was communicated within and outside of the departments. The hardware infrastructure analysis provided information about the existing hardware including such items as printers, scanners, and workstations;
• Surveys, interviews and focus groups with City officials and employees which included a Full Time Employee (FTE) analysis to identify the potential gaps or inefficiencies generated through performance of redundant processes such as file handling, retrieving, and storage of documents;
• Development of “As-Is” process maps to allow streamlining current information flow. We identified the potential bottlenecks and redundancies in the existing processes to provide a framework through which process streamlining could be achieved;
• Consolidation of forms and documents used by the City to provide an action plan for past-document conversion and future-document scanning;
• Development of evaluation criteria (vendor evaluation matrix) and solicitation of information from vendors (RFAI – Request for Additional Information and BAFO – Best and Final Offer). These activities included the development of a weighted evaluation procedure, and ranking the vendor by the quality of their presentation, their understanding of the scope of the project, reference calls, pricing, and system features;
• Performing qualitative and quantitative cost-benefit analyses of vendor proposals leading to the selection of the recommended EDMS system;
• Development and implementation of change management procedures. During this activity, we utilized a Change Management Survey to analyze the effectiveness of change initiatives in the City, and to anticipate resistance to the changes caused by the system implementation;
• Development and performing a Computer Skills Survey to gauge, analyze and manage training requirements for individual employees;
• Development of “To-Be” process maps to provide an overview of existing processes which could be streamlined to enhance the City’s efficiency in customer service areas;
• Development of “As-Is” and “To-Be” functional maps for the Building and Safety Division and the City Clerks Department. These functional maps provided an overview of the Department’s/Division’s current (“As-Is”) interaction with other departments, and how it could be streamlined; and
• Conducted vendor demonstrations to provide hands-on experience with the EDMS suggested for the client. These demonstrations enabled the client to develop a better understanding of the system and its capabilities.

Upon selection of a vendor, we conducted the following activities for the Building and Safety and City Clerk Department:

• Vendor management, scope management and budget/cost control by consistently reviewing the work plan and project milestone timelines;
• Assisted in the design and documentation of Electronic Work flows for the City Clerk Department;
• Assisted in the identification of document classes, indexes, and respective attributes for each document class;
• Developed templates for various document classes to expedite the procedure of adding newly scanned images by City employees after “Go-Live”;
• Established training plans and an appropriate training environment;
• Established document access security levels;
• Performed acceptance testing;
• Established procedures for scheduling, tracking, and indexing of documents;
• Performed quality control checks for scanned images received from vendors;
• Coordinated the bulk uploading of scanned images into the EDMS System;
• Performed follow-up training; and
• Performed post-implementation troubleshooting support for City employees.