When the Town of Normal, Illinois, decided they needed an enterprise content management platform, they knew they wanted a system that could be the backbone of their organization’s data and content operations. That’s one reason they chose Laserfiche—because its extensive integration capabilities meant they could collaborate, visualize data, and improve user experience.
Their strategic Laserfiche integrations include:
- Docusign for digital signatures
- Naviline for online bill payments
- ArcGIS for location-based processes
- PowerBI for data visualization
Read on to discover how their integrations have improved processes at their organization.
Why Integrate Laserfiche?
While Laserfiche is powerful on its own, its value is extended when connected to other systems. The benefits of Laserfiche integrations include:
Collaboration: Automate processes involving multiple departments using different line-of-business systems to create seamless workflows.
User experience: Improve user experience by reducing the number of applications staff need to log into. With fewer clicks required to access information and less redundant data entry, employees can work more efficiently.
Data accessibility and visualization: Integration enables better data accessibility and visualization. These integrations help reduce data silos – staff no longer need to “go through Joan in finance” to get a document. Instead, the system provides appropriate access controls, determining who can see what information while making selected content publicly available when needed.
HR Onboarding in Half the Time: Docusign + Laserfiche Integration
Before implementing Laserfiche, the Town of Normal had a paper-intensive, manual onboarding process for new employees that involved multiple handoffs between departments.
Benefits: Faster Service, Fewer Calls, Happier Staff
The Process: Before
- New hires received 100 pages of paperwork with 15 requiring signatures
- HR created a Personnel Action (PA) in Naviline and collected signed documents in a physical folder
- Multiple physical handoffs occurred between departments (HR, Finance, IT)
- Each department performed sequential approvals and data entry steps
- Final processing required scanning documents and manually entering metadata
This process involved multiple physical handoffs of sensitive employee documents between departments, manual data entry at several stages, and significant time delays as the physical file folder moved from one department to another.
Additionally, if the new hire missed any signatures or other information in the packet, the employee would have to come back to the office to fill in missing information—delaying processing even further.
The Process: After
- Digital document delivery: When a person is hired, HR sends the required documents to the new employee through Docusign, eliminating the need for paper. Paperwork can’t be submitted without all the proper signatures.
- Digital PA creation: The HR department or supervisor can enter the Personnel Action (PA) in the Naviline system during this initial stage.
- Automated notifications: A background workflow runs multiple times daily, automatically emailing:
- The department director when they need to approve a PA
- HR when an employee is ready to move through the process
- Finance when their action is needed
- Docusign integration: After the new employee completes and signs their documents in Docusign, the envelope is returned to HR or the supervisor to complete their portion.
- Automatic document processing: Once completed, the Docusign documents are automatically downloaded into the Laserfiche repository with appropriate metadata.
- Digital handoffs: Instead of physically moving folders between departments, all document sharing happens electronically. Documents are accessible to all authorized parties simultaneously.
- Automated IT ticketing: After Finance completes their final processing, an SQL Server task automatically creates a ticket in their ticketing system for IT to complete the employee’s technical setup.
This integrated process:
- Eliminates paper handling
- Reduces manual data entry
- Provides real-time status updates
- Allows parallel processing of tasks
- Protects sensitive information like background checks and social security numbers
All of these efficiencies have cut the total HR onboarding timeline by at least half.
GIS Integration
The Laserfiche-ArcGIS integration creates one-to-one lookups between GIS features (like addresses, historical landmarks, or bridge IDs) and Laserfiche repository folders. In other words, staff can select a location on the map and access Laserfiche documents related to it.
This solves several problems:
- Location-based document retrieval challenges: Prior to the integration, it was difficult to find documents related to specific physical locations without knowing exact folder names or document titles. This was especially true of newer staff or anyone who needed to find documents from other departments. The spatial interface provides an intuitive alternative for finding location-based documents.
- Inconsistent naming conventions across departments: Different departments used different identifiers for the same assets. For example, engineering might use technical IDs like “SN 057-3019.” Other departments refer to the same structure by common names like “Vernon Ave. Bridge.” This created confusion when sharing information across departments. The Laserfiche integration makes it easy to search for documents by either naming convention.
- Inability to visualize document coverage: The town had no way to quickly see which physical assets had documentation and which didn’t. The GIS integration visually shows only the locations with associated documents (for example, only 9 bridges appear on the map because only those have documentation).
- Context disconnection: Documents were previously disconnected from their spatial context, making it difficult to understand relationships between adjacent properties or related infrastructure. This problem is solved by the GIS integration’s spatial interface.
PowerBI Integration
The Town of Normal implemented two different PowerBI integrations with Laserfiche: an internal financial dashboard and a public-facing ordinance and resolution dashboard.
Both integrations rely on the Town of Normal’s careful attention to metadata management within Laserfiche. By creating consistent, reliable metadata connections between their systems, they’ve been able to bridge the gap between data visualization tools and source documents, providing context and evidence whether for internal financial oversight or public transparency.
Internal Financial Dashboard Integration
The first integration is an internal financial dashboard that solves several key challenges for town staff. Before this integration, employees struggled to connect financial transactions with their supporting documentation, creating a disconnect between budget numbers and the actual invoices behind them. Staff had to search in separate systems to find financial data and then hunt down the related documents.
To fix this, the town built a PowerBI dashboard connected to their financial software’s backend. It integrates direct links to Laserfiche documents right within the dashboard with one-to-one relationships between transactions and documents. Now when staff are exploring accounts, budgets, and expenditures, they can simply click on embedded links for any transaction – like a Verizon phone bill – and immediately see the actual invoice stored in Laserfiche. This access is secured through single sign-on for internal users only.
Public-Facing Ordinance and Resolution Dashboard
The second integration focuses on public transparency. The town created a publicly accessible ordinance and resolution dashboard on their open data portal. Previously, citizens who wanted to find specific ordinances or resolutions had to search through various council packets – a time-consuming and often frustrating process. Alternatively, they would submit Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests, which created more work for Town staff.
The new solution leverages Laserfiche’s public URL functionality to create a searchable interface for town legislation. This creates a “single pane of glass” experience where citizens can search for ordinances and resolutions and access the actual documents directly through embedded Laserfiche links. This makes government information more accessible and transparent to the public.
Digital Bill Pay with NaviLine
Next up for the Town of Normal is transforming their invoice processing with a Laserfiche-NaviLine integration to eliminate mountains of paperwork.
The Challenge
Prior to this integration, their finance team faced significant burdens:
- Limited staff capacity to manually scan and index the constant flow of invoices
- Varying retention requirements for paper documents
- Multiple physical handoffs between departments
- Duplicate data entry across systems
The Solution
Once fully rolled out, the new integrated process will be a largely paperless workflow:
- Office associates create requisitions in Naviline and upload documents through a Laserfiche form
- The system automatically queries Naviline through SQL to pull relevant metadata
- Automated workflows email directors with links to pending requisitions
- Similar notifications alert finance staff to newly processed requisitions
- Additional documentation can be easily appended to existing PDFs
Document Organization
The Town organized their repository with a thoughtful structure. Records are organized according to their retention requirements to avoid holding onto data unnecessarily. Then, a shortcut is made to each document:
Vendors organized alphabetically, then by fiscal year and accounting period
Color-coded folders provide visual status tracking to show whether they’re awaiting approval, receipting, or finance processing.
This integration delivers significant efficiency gains while maintaining proper approval workflows and document retention requirements. By eliminating paper-handling and implementing automated notifications, the town is creating a more transparent, accessible bill payment process.
Interested in Laserfiche Integrations?
The Town of Normal’s success demonstrates how strategic integrations between Laserfiche and your line-of-business systems can dramatically improve workflows, reduce paper handling, and enhance services to both employees and citizens.
Let’s talk about how we can help you implement Laserfiche and create powerful integrations tailored to your specific needs. Our team of experts will guide you through the entire process—from assessment and planning to implementation and training.
Take the first step toward more efficient operations and better public service. Fill out the form below to contact us today!
