As part of the vision of the provincial government of the Western Cape (PGWC) to remove the majority of its physical documentation and paper-based files from its processes, the Department of Transport and Public Works has, with the assistance of Datacentrix, scanned more than 7.4 million pages - equating to more than 37 tons of paper - which have been catalogued, boxed, indexed and uploaded into an enterprise content management (ECM) system, based on OpenText's Livelink, in full text searchable PDF files.
This has saved the department 186m2 of floor space, which would have been required to store all of the content scanned during the project.
“Since its initial implementation in 2006, the department has been using the solution as a platform to drive its ECM campaign, and has, once again, led the way for the provincial government with its latest project to capture, index and store the existing paper content in its offices,” says Trish Dicks, strategic account manager: Public Sector at Datacentrix, a provider of high performing and secure ICT solutions.
“Datacentrix worked closely with the department's staff in order to gather the paper documentation, ensure that it remains classified according to the approved provincial archives file plan, and then scan it into the ECM system. This initiative created a platform for improved compliance with the archives legislation.”
The ECM system had already allowed easier and faster access to electronic documents for the department, using powerful search capabilities, and provides access to documents by multiple authorised people at the same time.
Furthermore, the scanning initiative introduced optical character recognition (OCR), providing the ability to search .pdf documents, meaning that even scanned documents are now fully searchable. This has significantly increased the department's efficiency when searching for information, Dorrington explains.
“When the scan centre became fully operational, the team scanned an average of 75 000 pages per day,” she adds. “Almost three quarters of this content was not returned to the department's offices, but was sent to its central archive, thereby freeing up precious office space for use by people rather than paper.”
Says Reggie Parker, director: knowledge management at the department: “This project will reduce the amount of time spent by officials looking for information, as well as decreasing operational costs related to paper and photocopying through easier sharing of and collaboration on documents. Decision-making and auditor queries are further facilitated through this process, as less time is spent on accessing content. In addition, physical files are now better protected by reducing the movement of critical documents.”
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