When Keith Macedo took on the role of IT Director for the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas, he knew he didn’t fit the typical mold. His approach? Focus less on the latest tech trends and more on what actually makes life easier for both employees and residents.
“IT has two goals,” Keith explains. “Improve the efficiency of employees, and improve the type of services we provide—whether it’s our residents, businesses, or community.”
That philosophy led Fayetteville to rethink how they were managing everything from utility applications to departmental workflows. The results speak for themselves: over 300,000 pages of paper saved in just the first year, and a system flexible enough to pivot when COVID-19 forced everyone to work remotely.
Daily Detour: High-Demand Government Services in a Growing College Town
Fayetteville faces unique operational demands. As a university town, half the homes are rentals. That means constant turnover, residents moving in and out, services starting and stopping, and applications coming in waves.
The existing paper-based processes couldn't keep pace. When a utility application came in, it had to be physically routed to the right person. If that person was out of the office, the application sat idle. Multiply that by hundreds of applications per week, and you've got delays, frustrated residents, and overwhelmed staff.
The city needed a system that could handle high transaction volumes while giving staff the flexibility to work from anywhere. But Keith wasn't looking for just another document repository, he needed something that could actually reshape how departments operated.
The Solution: Rethinking What a Laserfiche Can Do
Keith and his team partnered with MCCi to deploy Laserfiche across multiple departments. But here's where their approach differed: they didn't treat it as a document management system. They saw it as what Keith calls "a gap filler"—a way to connect processes that were previously disjointed.
Take utility applications. Instead of paper forms moving desk-to-desk, they built a digital workflow where applications land in a shared queue. Any trained staff member can process them, regardless of location. No more bottlenecks. No more lost paperwork.
The implementation went beyond just scanning documents. MCCi provided hands-on Laserfiche training so staff could confidently build their own workflows as needs evolved. That knowledge transfer proved critical—Keith notes that someone walks into his office at least once a week with a new idea for using the system.
"At least once a week, someone comes into my office and says, 'Hey, I saw this, maybe we can use Laserfiche for that!' The majority of the time, the answer is yes," Keith shares.
Having reliable Laserfiche support made the difference between simply having software and actually getting results. MCCi's role as an experienced Laserfiche partner meant Fayetteville had backup when internal knowledge reached its limits.
About our Client
CLIENT NAME:
CHAMPION:
Keith Macedo
Chief of Staff
POPULATION:
est. 100,000 residents
SOLUTIONS:
When the Pandemic Hit, They Were Ready
We could have predicted COVID-19, but Fayetteville’s investment in flexible digital workflows paid off immediately when lockdowns began.
“When somebody submitted an online utility application, it went to a queue, and anyone could work on that, whether they were in the office or working remotely,” Keith recalls. “It was really something to watch how we used Laserfiche to tackle the issues and struggles related to the pandemic.”
While other municipalities scrambled to maintain services, Fayetteville staff logged in from home and picked up right where they left off. Residents didn’t experience service interruptions. Applications kept flowing. The digital infrastructure they’d built for efficiency suddenly became essential for continuity.
Technology That Solves Problems
You probably want to serve citizens well because it’s your mission. But there’s also a compelling practical reason: 87% of people say a great digital government experience would increase their trust in public organizations.
That trust translates into cooperation. Research shows that for every 1% increase in an agency’s customer experience score, 1.9% more people comply with the organization’s requests. After the challenges many agencies faced with pandemic policy compliance, the connection between service quality and public cooperation became impossible to ignore.
The City of Naples, Florida, demonstrates this principle in action. After redesigning their website and implementing a modern public records request system, they earned recognition for transparency improvements. Salt Lake City publishes searchable meeting records and documents through Laserfiche, making it easy for residents to stay informed about local government decisions.
When citizens can easily access information and services, they see their government as responsive and accountable. When every interaction requires phone tag and office visits, they see bureaucracy and barriers.
Why Act Now
Your municipality faces the same pressures Fayetteville did: growing service demands, limited staff, and residents who expect responsive government. The difference between struggling and thriving often comes down to having systems that flex with your needs.
Working with the right Laserfiche solution provider means getting more than software installation. It means having partners who understand government workflows, provide meaningful Laserfiche training, and offer ongoing Laserfiche support as your needs evolve.
Keith’s advice? Start with the relationships. Identify the departments where small process improvements could yield big wins. Then bring in expertise that can translate those needs into working solutions.
The technology exists. The question is whether you’re ready to move beyond document management and start filling the gaps that slow your organization down.
While Keith Macedo has spent his entire career in local government and the last six years in his current position, he says he is not a typical IT director.
Reaching those goals has included the innovative use of Laserfiche technology to improve processes throughout the departments he serves for the City of Fayetteville.
“A lot of people think of Laserfiche as a document management system, but it’s really not. It’s so much more than that. We look at Laserfiche as a gap filler. We’re a university town, and 50% of our homes are rentals, so that means the local government provides many services that we’re starting and stopping. We estimated in our first year after we transitioned to Laserfiche for our utility applications, we saved over 300,000 pages of paper.
I think I’m probably one of the least technical IT directors you’ll meet. I’ve tried to break the mold of IT. I think IT has two goals: to improve the efficiency of employees, and to improve the type of services we provide, whether it’s our residents, our businesses or our community."
The move also prepared them for the unforeseen challenges related to COVID and the need to access information remotely.
“When somebody submitted an online utility application, it went to a queue, and anyone could work on that, whether they were in the office or working remotely. It was really something to watch how we used Laserfiche to tackle the issues and struggles we had to deal with related to the pandemic.”
Keith said that deciding on which technology to choose for improving process efficiency starts with relationships.
“We try to develop a tight relationship with every department, so when technology needs come up, we’re usually already in the conversation. We want them to know we are always available to discuss challenges they are faced with and want to enable technology to help run operations. Our goal is to be a trusted source.”
At least once a week someone comes into my office and says, ‘Hey I saw this, maybe we can use Laserfiche for that!’ The majority of the time the answer is yes. We have a lot of internal knowledge but it often takes support and that is what MCCI provides us. We have a great relationship that makes a real difference.
