Guest Contributors: Kennewick School District Systems Analysts Holly Veach and Dave Croney
Kennewick School District (KSD) in Southwest Washington has seen rapid growth over the past decade, now serving over 19,000 students in 33 schools.
The district’s growth meant it was time to examine inefficient or outdated processes and replace them with scalable digital ones.
KSD turned to Laserfiche, an industry-leading enterprise content management system, to digitize and automate its processes. Laserfiche enables organizations to move away from paper-based workflows by providing:
- Electronic Forms & Automated Workflows. Reducing manual data entry and approval bottlenecks.
- Document Management. Securely storing and retrieving records for easy access.
- APIs for Integrations. Connecting with existing systems like HR, payroll, and student information platforms.
- Compliance & Security. Meeting regulatory requirements while protecting sensitive information.
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Where to Start with Digitization?
Digitization affects multiple departments, processes, and stakeholders. Dave and Holly knew that they needed a strategic approach to avoid becoming disorganized, overwhelming, or ineffective. By starting with a manageable department and gaining leadership buy-in, Dave and Holly ensured smooth adoption and a scalable foundation for future digital transformation.
“I think the first step is to find a department that has issues that you can definitely help out with using the Laserfiche tools and start there. Start with one department,” Dave said. “I wouldn’t choose teachers or parents first. It’s just too big of a group, and it’s too diverse.”
So Dave started with the Transportation Department. His goal was to digitize their bus trip request process.
“Everyone that went on a field trip would need to fill out all these different forms that had to be approved. We had a tremendous amount of paper that flowed between different buildings and departments, but no way of tracking it,” he explained.
Initially he planned to replace just one form in the process with a digital one, but the superintendent encouraged him to think bigger.
“The superintendent says, ‘Well, Dave, that’s nice, but why don’t you start with the travel request form because all the information for this bus trip comes from that form?’ That moment made our superintendent our champion. From that point forward, he was presenting his vision of being able to use these products to streamline our operations, and now you got the backing from the top guy!”
Once the entire process was digitized, it took approval time from two weeks down to a single day.
Dave worked closely with Transportation Department employees to ensure they were happy with the process, too.
He explained how he gained buy-in: “As you work with them, let them sign off on the products and make sure that every step of the way you’re doing what they want. They turn into converts quickly, and suddenly they become your champions.”
Building Momentum with Digital Forms
Holly and Dave not only had support from top leadership; they had the support of boots-on-the-ground personnel who were seeing how much easier Laserfiche could make their processes.
“Little by little, as we rolled over forms from paper to digital, people became more comfortable with it,” Holly said. “People saw how the benefits and time savings made a huge difference.”
As word spread, they soon had a list of projects to work on.
One new process that benefited a wide range of employees was faster expense report processing.
Dave explained the time-consuming, paper-based process:
“We required that everyone fill out the paper form, enter all their information, enter the information about what they’re pulling off of their receipts and what they wanted to get back. Employees had to tape their receipts onto an 8.5 X 11 piece of paper for easier scanning. They sent it to the building secretary, who would send it to the district office downtown. Accounts Payable would redo all the calculations.”
Benefits of the new process include:
- Faster reimbursements. “Staff is no longer waiting for their approvers to sign off on a paper form. It’s not sitting around on someone’s desk,” Holly said. “They’re getting money in their bank accounts faster; these are real-life experiences that enable them to see the benefits of having this electronic process.”
- Fewer errors. “When you implement something like this, it takes away repetitive work that has the potential to introduce a lot of errors,” Dave explained.
- Higher staff satisfaction. “You free up that person to do something more interesting, and they’re a lot more productive.”
- Reduced staffing expenses. While KSD didn’t lay off any of their accounting staff, the new process was so much more efficient that they didn’t need to replace one that left.
Growing with Laserfiche
As Dave and Holly have grown in their understanding of the system, they’ve been able to develop more and more complex processes.
“Laserfiche is so easy to learn and very user-friendly. It’s an excellent system for someone without a technical background,” Holly said.
“The level of complexity that we’ve gone to from our first form is just phenomenal. That comes from the ease of use within the system, the training that we’re able to get online [from MCCi], as well as at Empower, and the teamwork that we have,” Dave added.
Plus, they rely on MCCi’s support team when they get stuck.
“I spend a lot of time troubleshooting,” Dave said. “If there’s an issue, I get to contact MCCi support. They’re awesome. Every time you contact them, you don’t have to go through tier one support, and then elevate it to tier two. The person you get on the phone can [typically] answer your questions and resolve the issue for you right there. You often get a solution on your first call.”
What’s Next for Kennewick School District?
Their next big project will involve integrations.
“We want more integration with our other systems, such as the student information system, the HR system, and the payroll system,” Dave explained. “Laserfiche is a great tool for us to be able to pull it all together from these various systems and get some good data out of it. We really hate the idea of having them to enter information that we already have about them. An integration will provide something to the customer that’s going to use the least amount of time and effort.”
“How it works is, we’ll just have them enter in a couple of pieces of their information; usually their employee ID, last four digits of their Social Security number, and then as soon as they enter that, it will do a lookup to fill in all the information needed, depending on the form,” Holly said. “Then, the last part of their social will disappear for security reasons. At that point, they’re all set. They enter in a little bit of information, and the form will auto-fill whatever we need it to.”
