“The PeopleSoft screens integrated seamlessly to eliminate double data entry.”
The Solution
From the rich history to the beautiful beaches Lee County, Florida is the epitome of the typical Florida destination. It’s also home to The School District of Lee County (SDLC), which consists of 120 schools with a total student enrollment of 93,167. They are one of the largest in employers in the area with 11,000 full and part-time employees. Like the large number of employees, the amount of work to manage a school district of this size is quite the task. But, better technology solutions for intricate processes and content management make all this easier.
SDLC had many systems that dealt with a high volume of content and without Laserfiche, information that needed to be processed was overwhelming. For instance, 80,000 invoices are handled annually by the finance department as part of the district’s “Req to Check” processes, also known as “Procure to Pay.” Invoices were not always approved and paid in a timely fashion, and there were long waiting times to send and receive copies. Because the copies were sent and received through “The Pony” as the district refers to their inter-office mailing system, it took that much longer for invoices to be approved. The primary PeopleSoft Business Process Analyst at the SDLC assigned to Laserfiche, Greta Malaise said, “We recognized a need to improve the efficiency of these processes.” The district already had a small investment in Laserfiche and decided to expand this investment to automate their complete Req to Check Procurement and Accounts Payable processes.
SDLC contracted with MCCi to perform a GAP analysis on their current Laserfiche solution and map out their current and desired Req to Check processes. A Laserfiche Gold-Certified Project Manager spent time with the district evaluating the current processes and record management procedures. A formal report and project plan were prepared because of these requirements gathering sessions.
Beginning with a reorganized Business Services repository for Finance and Procurement, the intricate process included more than 300 Laserfiche workflow activities – resulting in a streamlined Requisition and Accounts Payable processes fully integrated with PeopleSoft. When users submit a Requisition in PeopleSoft, they are given the ability to attach records directly to Laserfiche through the PeopleSoft interface, tying the record to that Requisition. When their Principal or Department Head reviews the Requisition, they can call up those attachments while viewing the request. Upon approval of the Requisition, PeopleSoft queues the request up for Purchase Order (PO) generation. When Procurement issues POs twice each day, these POs are routed to Laserfiche. Laserfiche automatically breaks up the giant batch of POs and files the POs under a folder unique to each vendor. The supporting documentation is placed with the PO so that Procurement can mail relevant supporting information to the vendor when sending out the PO.
Later, when the vendor submits an invoice against that PO, the PeopleSoft integration allows an Accounts Payable clerk to scan the invoice after creating a Voucher in PeopleSoft. From the voucher screen, Laserfiche actions appear allowing the invoice to be attached. The invoice is then created in Laserfiche with all the relevant data about the voucher included. If the voucher is associated with a PO, the invoice automatically locates the PO in Laserfiche and routes the invoice in front of the relevant department or district bookkeeper for review. After the bookkeeper “receives” the relevant goods or services in PeopleSoft, the invoice packet in Laserfiche is routed to a holding area where it waits for checks to be issued from PeopleSoft.
PeopleSoft will only issue checks when a voucher and matching receipt are generated. Once that occurs, a weekly check batch is created and mailed to the appropriate vendors. The “non-negotiable” check stub associated with the check is virtually routed to Laserfiche directly from PeopleSoft, eliminating the need to print a second check copy for filing. Using backend integration with PeopleSoft, the checks are automatically split up in Laserfiche and matched with the relevant POs and invoices. The entire invoice packet is then filed away with the appropriate retention schedule. In the future, personnel can open a folder for that vendor and see all the POs, invoices, and checks that have been filed for that vendor.
Between eliminating the inter-office mail, reducing data entry, and eliminating paper filing, SDLC has saved a tremendous amount of time and money. Laserfiche commonly integrates with many applications used by school districts. In this project, MCCi worked with SDLC to integrate Laserfiche with their ERP system, PeopleSoft.
Customer care specialist Paula Dawson said, “PeopleSoft screens integrated seamlessly to eliminate double data entry. We were also able to automate the archival of POs and non-negotiable check copies.” She continues, “After dispatching purchase orders twice, we export the batch as a PDF and drop it in Laserfiche. Laserfiche automatically splits them into multiples and files them in Laserfiche by number, supplier/vendor name, and requisition number.”
Another area that has been streamlined is in student services. Graduated or departed student records are scanned into a secure Laserfiche repository to be indexed and easily searchable. When a student requests their transcript for college applications or move to another school district, the transcripts are easily available.
Human Resources is another department that has been able to benefit from Laserfiche. All personnel files and applicant files are stored securely. SDLC is not stopping here with their utilization of Laserfiche. They have plans to streamline and simplify even more processes in the future and are actively deploying a new Personnel Action Form as well as streamlining their teacher onboarding processes.
