Meet North Texas Municipal Water District
The North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) delivers vital water, wastewater, and solid waste management services to more than one million residents across North Texas. As a wholesale water supplier serving a significant portion of the region, NTMWD operates critical infrastructure that communities depend on every day. The district manages complex operations spanning multiple facilities, including treatment plants, pump stations, and landfill operations. Their work requires meticulous record-keeping, strict safety protocols, and rapid response capabilities to serve their growing service area.
Daily Detour: Filing Cabinets Full of Risk
NTMWD’s records manager, Kelly O’Brian, watched paper pile up at an alarming rate. The district captured an average of 1.3 million pages annually. Each page meant another filing cabinet, another square foot of storage space, another barrier to finding what staff needed when they needed it. But the paper problem went deeper than storage costs.
Tax exemption certificates took days to process through paper routing. Employees waited to purchase critical repair supplies. Maintenance got delayed. Equipment stayed broken.
Accounts payable staff manually matched bills of lading to packing slips to invoices. They sent emails requesting payment approvals. They waited. And waited. Invoice processing crawled while vendors waited for payment.
Then there were the confined space permits. OSHA requires detailed tracking when workers enter potentially life-threatening environments. Manholes. Tanks. Underground vaults. Spaces where toxic gases can accumulate, where oxygen can disappear, where one mistake can be fatal.
Paper permits created dangerous gaps. Supervisors needed immediate notification when someone entered a confined space. They needed to know the exact location, the type of space, what work was happening, who was doing it. Fire departments needed that same information instantly in case of emergency.
Paper couldn’t deliver that speed. Paper couldn’t guarantee that notification. Paper put lives at risk.
“Processing forms through paper routinely took days,” Kelly explained. “We needed a way to document compliance while actually protecting our people.”
The district needed document management that worked as fast as emergencies happen.
1. Take advantage of online training.
2. Use Laserfiche Answers when questions arise.
3. Set naming conventions from the beginning.
4. Configure audit trails to track unusual activity.
5. Attend Laserfiche Empower.
The Solution: Three Minutes Instead of Three Days
MCCi implemented Laserfiche document management across NTMWD’s operations. The system replaced paper processes with electronic forms and automated workflows that route information in seconds, not days.
Tax exemption certificates now process in three minutes. Kelly timed one. Employees initiate the certificate digitally. Approvals route automatically. Purchasing happens immediately. Repairs get done.
Accounts payable workflows automatically match supporting documents to invoices. Pattern matching fills in template fields. Email notifications request payment approvals. The system routes to the right people without manual intervention.
But the most critical transformation happened in safety protocols.
NTMWD built a comprehensive confined space permit system using Laserfiche Forms and Workflows. When an employee needs to enter a confined space, they complete an electronic permit form. The form adapts based on the type of space and work being performed. Only relevant sections appear.
The moment someone submits an opening permit, supervisors receive automatic email notifications. The permit attaches to the email with complete details: location, space type, assigned workers, planned tasks, required safety equipment.
Air quality testing happens at specified intervals. Staff document those tests through additional electronic forms. The system tracks every measurement.
When work completes, the employee submits a closing permit. Managers get instant notification that workers have exited the confined space safely. Laserfiche automatically combines the opening permit, all air quality tests, and the closing permit into one complete record.
All permits feed into a centralized safety dashboard. Supervisors can see at a glance who is working where and what hazards they face.
The Safety Department created a dedicated landing page for all safety-related forms. Staff adapted quickly. The system proved so effective that when NTMWD demonstrated it to a local fire station, firefighters immediately asked why every district wasn’t using this process.
MCCi integrated Laserfiche with NTMWD’s existing systems. The WasteWORKS software at the landfill facility exports scale house tickets nightly. Laserfiche’s Import Agent automatically retrieves those files, properly names them, and stores them in the correct location.
Workflows pull data from IBM Maximo, the district’s asset management system. This integration automatically populates form fields with standardized information, reducing manual entry and ensuring consistency.
The district continues expanding their use of Laserfiche Forms and Workflows. The benefits are becoming clear across departments. Paper processes are converting to automated workflows one by one.
MCCi provided Laserfiche training and ongoing support throughout implementation and beyond.
The Results: $41,600 Saved, Zero Lives Lost
“The first year, Laserfiche saved us from purchasing 104 cabinets at the price of $400 per cabinet (an estimated cost of $41,600),” Kelly stated.
Physical storage costs dropped dramatically. Based on three years of data showing 1.3 million pages captured annually, NTMWD avoided purchasing 104 filing cabinets in a single year alone. That’s $41,600 in cabinet costs not spent. It doesn’t count the saved floor space, the eliminated filing labor, or the avoided facility expansion costs.
Processing time collapsed from days to minutes. Tax exemption certificates that once took days now process in three minutes. That’s a 99% reduction in processing time.
Employee productivity jumped. Staff who once spent hours routing paper now focus on value-added work. Accounts payable processes invoices faster. Purchasing happens when needed. Repairs don’t wait for paperwork.
Document retrieval transformed. Finding the right document used to mean walking to filing cabinets, searching through folders, hoping someone filed it correctly. Now staff search electronically and retrieve documents instantly. Public information requests get fulfilled faster. Litigation production happens on deadline.
Safety compliance became provable. NTMWD can now document every confined space entry completely. Every air quality test. Every supervisor notification. Every worker exit. The district demonstrates OSHA compliance with clear electronic records, not paper trails that can disappear.
Most importantly, response times improved when lives are at stake. Fire departments receive confined space notifications immediately. Supervisors know exactly who is where and what hazards they face. If something goes wrong, responders have the information they need before they arrive.
The system scales naturally. As NTMWD continues converting paper processes to Laserfiche workflows, efficiency gains multiply. Each new workflow adds capability without adding complexity.
Electronic forms and automated workflows don’t just reduce costs. They protect lives, accelerate operations, and prove compliance when regulators ask questions.
What started as a document management project became a safety initiative, an efficiency driver, and a model that impressed local fire departments enough to ask why everyone isn’t working this way.
Because paper kills efficiency. And sometimes, paper kills people.