Hardly a day goes by without some media report of corruption, incompetence and/or bad service emanating from one or more local government departments scattered across the nine provinces of SA. It has reached the stage where people no longer expect government to provide decent service and anticipate a long, fruitless wait in any interaction with these organisations.
There is no quick fix to bad service provision in any organisation. Good service relies on staff attitudes and education, coupled with having the tools to do the job and the information customers require at hand. Not a simple matter at all.
At the best of times, accessing relevant information is a time-consuming and frustrating task.
Paul Mullon is marketing director for Metrofile
Given the historical processes local governments and municipalities have employed in the execution of their duties, information about people tends to be scattered around various locations in different filing systems managed by people with diverse backgrounds and training.
At the best of times, accessing relevant information is a time-consuming and frustrating task, only made worse when a document has been checked out by someone and left in an in-tray or filed according to someone else`s filing system, or simply lost.
And this is only the tip of the records management crisis local authorities find themselves faced with. There are simply too many records, stored in too many locations (and often in the wrong locations) that are too hard to access. And the loser is always the customer, Joe Citizen, and the staff trying to serve him who feel as if they are swimming against the tide.
A methodical document management system would solve many of these problems and go a long way to making service delivery faster, better and simpler.
The implementation of a document management system is a great opportunity for local authorities publicly to clean up shop and set each individual entity on the road to efficiency never before seen in government. The starting point is defining the process required to deliver information accurately and on-demand. Only then is it possible to run a completely digitised organisation where all copies of records used are electronic.
Of course, this is easier said than done and there are many factors that have to be considered in the digitisation process:
Is the digitisation process auditable to ensure nobody can alter documents anonymously?
If they are legally permitted to make changes, is there a verifiable tracking mechanism that shows who did what?
Do all staff members have the appropriate tools and the training to use electronic forms correctly?
Once digitised, what happens to the physical records? Where are they stored? Are they secure, yet accessible if needed?
Have the appropriate security controls been put in place to ensure customer privacy is respected?
Have staff been trained on what they may and may not do with these records?
Is the infrastructure supporting this process able to handle the load effectively?
The first benefit to arise from an electronic records management process will be the ease and simplicity with which employees can access the records they need without having to put in a request to the appropriate department or even leave their desks. All records will immediately be available on screen at the click of a mouse, and what`s more, they will be available to multiple people simultaneously so there`s no need to follow a trail of clues to find out who has a file that`s been requested.
The management system will be responsible for tracking who did what with the records, relieving staff of the seek-and-(sometimes)-destroy burden or making mistakes because they are not aware of what has been done in other departments.
An audit trail is a critical aspect of any records management implementation if it is to prove successful and ensure frontline staff have answers to all customer enquiries.
If indeed government wants to put people first, as it has indicated it does, taking appropriate care of their private information while making it available to the correct people when needed is the first step in this process.
We live in an information economy. There is a constant barrage of data thrown at us in our work and personal lives. The ability to manage this information effectively not only makes us more productive, but also ensures those of us involved in customer service are able to deliver a better service far faster than ever before, and with fewer mistakes.
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