Meet the Client
York/Poquoson Department of Social Services serves approximately 79,000 residents across Virginia’s York County and Poquoson. With 64 staff members managing an average of 5,400 monthly cases, this frontline agency delivers critical services ranging from SNAP benefits and Medicaid to child protective services and foster care programs. Their mission? Protect vulnerable people, meet basic needs, and promote self-sufficiency in their community.
Daily Detour: When Space Runs Out
Picture this: A building physically unable to support more filing cabinets. Files locked behind doors, creating bottlenecks when caseworkers needed access. Patti Alderman, Administrative Service Manager, watched her team struggle with a growing problem. “The building couldn’t handle the weight,” she explains. Meanwhile, the Commonwealth of Virginia launched a document imaging system requiring physical copies of every document. The agency faced a choice: rent expensive off-site storage with confidentiality risks, or find a better way.
The manual file system ate up precious time. Staff members walked back and forth to locked file rooms, filling out tracking forms, hunting for misplaced documents. “Before, it could take up to three days, and now we can find data in under five minutes,” Alderman notes. With 4,000 active files needing conversion, the paper chase was pulling staff away from the people who needed their help most.
About our Client
CLIENT NAME:
CHAMPION:
Patti Alderman
Administrative Service Manager
POPULATION:
est. 70,000 residents
SOLUTIONS:
The Solution: A Digital Partner That Understands Government
York County already had Laserfiche, but the social services department needed to commit fully. They hired part-time staff dedicated solely to scanning open records. Over two years, they converted their entire active case library. The result? A flexible system that adapted to their exact workflow needs.
Now caseworkers access files from their desks. No more locked file rooms. No more checkout sheets. The agency built automated workflows that capture case information at night, eliminating duplicate data entry. Human resources onboarding? Applications flow directly from the state system into Laserfiche. When new cases open, documents go straight to digital storage.
“It’s also great that we can tailor Laserfiche to our own needs. It is flexible to be precisely how we need it to be,” says Alderman.
The technical integration speaks for itself. Documents sync nightly with Virginia’s DMIS system. Peer Place accepts PDFs seamlessly. Audio recordings from client meetings? Stored securely. Sexual abuse investigation files? Protected and accessible. Even audit processes became simpler. Instead of wheeling carts full of folders to auditors, staff now print only requested pages.
The Results: From 39 Cabinets to 19, From Days to Minutes
Let’s talk numbers. York/Poquoson DSS cut their file cabinets in half, freeing up 400 square feet of office space. They saved approximately $20,000 on filing equipment they no longer needed. Two administrative positions were reallocated to direct service work.
But the real wins go beyond dollar signs. Lost files? Nearly impossible now. “We can search for it upside down, and inside out,” Alderman points out. “The chances of losing a record are almost impossible now.” When two child protective service cases went missing, the audit trail in Laserfiche revealed exactly where they were filed. Every document change is logged. Every search is traceable.
Response times dropped dramatically. What took three days now takes five minutes. Staff spend less time managing paper and more time serving families. Audits run smoother. Clients can scan documents directly to their caseworkers, reducing office traffic.
Looking ahead, the agency plans to eliminate 18 more file cabinets. “By the end of 2020, 90% of the existing closed files will no longer exist,” Alderman projects. As they expand Laserfiche to foster care records, they’re gaining office space while improving service delivery.
Robin DeLorge and the team learned valuable lessons during implementation. Buy-in from senior leadership matters. “The executive and management teams need to be positive about the impact it’s going to make,” Alderman advises. Staff who do the work should help develop automated workflows. Patience helps too, as change takes time for long-term employees.
The transformation required commitment, but the payoff speaks for itself. A Laserfiche partner who understood government workflows made the difference. Training and support kept the team moving forward. Now, York/Poquoson DSS has a system that grows with them, protecting vulnerable residents while giving staff the tools to focus on what matters most.