Laserfiche is an intelligent content management tool that saves time, money, and space. In order to fully utilize it, however, an organization must first get their team on board with implementing something new.
Keith Macedo, Information Technology Director at the City of Fayetteville (Arkansas) believes that building relationships with key personnel in each department is the first step to achieving buy-in on any new project or initiative.
“Imagine you’re a new employee,” Macedo said. “You probably have new ideas, and we’d love to hear about them. That’s No. 1 for a successful buy-in: you start building a relationship with those departments and key staff members from day one. You have to set the stage before you even get to the point of trying to say, ‘Hey, this is Laserfiche, it would be great to implement here.’”
This people-first strategy allowed the City departments to incorporate the new technology at a pace that worked for them.
Setting the Stage
The City of Fayetteville first implemented Laserfiche for their records management in 2016 and now utilizes it in almost every department city-wide. They train employees to use it so they can be more efficient as well as recognize and fill gaps in software as needed.
Laserfiche is a flexible, enterprise content services platform that improves an organization’s efficiency while also utilizing the technology they already have. Macedo believes that having relationships with each department has helped to make the introduction of a Laserfiche solution easier.
Navigating Pushback
Despite their success with Laserfiche, Macedo recalls experiencing some initial pushback from departments that later became excited about what the new software had to offer. For example, he said, it took nearly two years to convince their animal control department to use Laserfiche for a key form. But after they had gone paperless, they began to brainstorm ideas for integrating it in additional ways. Macedo believes having a strong relationship with the employees in each department was a key part of that transition.
“We start the relationship-building process on day one for every new staff member that comes to the city,” he said. “I make it a point to call departments to ask, ’How are you doing? Is there anything we can do?’”
In addition, the City holds an annual technology review that includes a check-in for each department. They open a dialogue, noting changes that have been implemented and problems that have been solved in the past year. This gives leaders a chance to ask each employee what problems they’re facing, or what problems they anticipate in the future.
“It really sets the stage to say, we want to know who you are, we want you to know how to contact us, and we want you to know that we’re here to help,” Macedo said. This approach has proven successful as more and more Fayetteville departments make Laserfiche an integral part of their daily operations.
Getting Started with Laserfiche
Implementing new technology organization-wide can be a big undertaking, but we can assist. We are a business automation company that accelerates digital transformation by adding intelligence to your processes through systems like Laserfiche.
