Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

General Manager of Community Services in consultation with the Director of Information Technology

SUBJECT:

Document Imaging/Management System - Third Phase

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

POLICY

On June 7, 1994, Council established information as one of the City's corporate priorities.

SUMMARY

The DOMINO system has been in service for four and one half years. It was installed initially to fulfill the urgent need to replace the deteriorating microfiche system in CSG and to provide significant improvements to customer service. The system as it is currently licensed and designed allows for basic retention, retrieval and routing of documents electronically; however, it does not yet take advantage of the full functional capabilities of the software. In addition, the current version of the DOMINO software used by the City needs to be updated. To fulfill the terms of our maintenance agreement with the software vendor, CSG must upgrade our software to the current version supported by the vendor.

Community Services' Information Technology funding plan balances the timely implementation of new systems against our financial ability to repay the loans in a fiscally responsible manner and from guaranteed funding sources. At any point in time, our outstanding loans should not exceed the lessor of; five years, or the expected useful life of the funded systems. This systems request will extend the expected repayment of all DOMINO related loans to the end of 2004, a period of slightly more than three years.

CSG's document imaging program is being implemented as a number of separate projects (or phases).

Phase 1, approved by council in March of 1996, was implementation of the basic scanning, retrieval and routing of documents. This phase was completed in September of 1996 at a cost of $2,256,400. The project was funded by an internal City Loan to be repaid from user fee increases and permanent budget cuts in CSG's annual operating budget. The outstanding balance is currently $852,000. With monthly payments of $59,000, this loan will be repaid in December 2002.

Phase 2 (backfile conversion) was approved by Council in November of 1996. The project included conversion of 400,000 paper documents into images on DOMINO. The project was completed in November of 1997, at a cost of $500,000. It was financed by an internal City loan and is being repaid at a rate of $10,600 per month from savings in CSG's operating budget. The outstanding balance is $377,000 which will be repaid in December of 2004.

Phase 3 is the subject of this report and recommends the conversion of the existing licenses to "full" to enable system enhancements such as a tracking application, integration with other City systems such as MAP, Intranet access and capture of other CSG paper records into the imaging system. It also recommends the upgrade and/or replacement of the existing hardware. Community Services proposes borrowing $1,000,000 in capital funds from the CFF (Capital Financing Fund), to complete these DOMINO system enhancements. $72,700will be reallocated from our loan repayment budget to cover ongoing, additional annual costs. Payments on this loan will commence in January 2003 once our phase 1 loan has been repaid. Monthly payments of $53,000 will repay this loan by the fall of 2004.

PURPOSE

This report requests Council's approval for a loan of $1,000,000, to be repaid by the end of 2004, for consultation services, license upgrades and enhancements to the existing Document Imaging System (DOMINO) in Community Services. These changes will increase the level of service we provide to our customers and improve the efficiency of our Development related activities.

BACKGROUND

Council approved the purchase of the DOMINO system on March 28, 1996. Staff on the Project Team determined that a Phased approach to the implementation and expansion of the system would be practical and manageable.

Phase I (capital cost of $2,256,400 plus annual operating expenses of $124,000)

This phase included acquisition, design and installation of the basic storage, retrieval and routing capabilities of the software and captured all address related documents dated July 1, 1996 and forward.

Phase I was completed on September 16, 1996.

Phase 2 (one-time capital cost of $500,000)

Phase 2 (backfile conversion) was approved by council in November of 1996. The project included conversion of 400,000 paper documents into images on DOMINO.

Phase II was completed in November of 1997.

The sources of funding for phase 1 and phase 2 loan repayments are;

DISCUSSION

The System works by capturing `address related' documents in Community Services for the approximately 130,000 civic addresses in Vancouver and now contains in excess of one million document images. Approximately 153,000 documents are added each year. These documents include permits and internal and external correspondence related to approvals, permit processing, inquiries, and bylaw violations. Paper documents that arrive in the Community Services' Data Resource Centre are fed through an electronic scanner that creates digital images of what is on the paper. The digital images are stored on optical disks and are indexed so that they can easily be retrieved for viewing from workstations located throughout Community Services as well as several workstations located in Engineering and Legal Services.

The DOMINO System has proved to be very valuable in organizing and expediting work:

· staff have simultaneous access to the records thus reducing processing delays
· the records can be viewed immediately at the user's desktop
· files no longer get misplaced or lost
· there is no degradation of the files
· property historical records can be searched rapidly benefiting both the public and staff
· files are updated daily
· documents on the system can be updated with the most current information by users at their desktops
· substantial floor area (previously used for storage of paper files) has been freed up
· documents are tamper proof
· the system is backed up regularly

Some enhancements are already underway funded by efficiencies in the Community Services budget in order to keep the existing hardware and software current. An upgrade to new server hardware is currently in progress and a software upgrade to the current release is proposed for later this year. The new software release makes DOMINO an `open system' that will easily support future integration with other software applications and supports the expansion of the indexes or keys used for document storage and retrieval. This will allow the document classification system to be closely aligned with the corporate classification schema that is planned by City Clerk's.

B) Description of Planned Enhancements

The DOMINO system now needs to be enhanced to provide a foundation for capture of additional documents, take advantage of additional functionality that is now available, and to perform a hardware and software upgrade. Secure inquiry access via the Intranet can be made available City wide on a need to know basis.

Storage of these additional documents is to be supported by the establishment of a Records Classification System in DOMINO that will be closely aligned with the classification system planned by Corporate Records. Development of the Records Classification System will include an inventory and assessment of all CSG records. The records will be filed in a logical and consistent manner that will allow staff access to pertinent information. As well, the establishment of the Records Classification System will allow staff to respond more efficiently and accurately to requests for documents under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

A number of the planned DOMINO enhancements relate to the capture of paper documents that are currently not stored into the DOMINO system. Currently, these paper documents require a significant amount of physical storage space and because of the diverse and/or
varied filing systems are often only easily accessible to the creators of the files. Other staff, including other City departments, who need information from these files either are unaware of their existence, or may have difficulty accessing the information.

Planning block files These are paper documents filed by block.
Photographs Photos that reflect by-law violations for civic addresses as well as a visual record of certain aspects of projects under construction
Subdivision files Paper files that are filed under legal descriptions
Subject related files These include Council reports that are not related to addresses, technical reference documents, general code related items, etc.
Electronic documents Address-related documents that are created in Community Services using WordPerfect, e-mail, etc., must now be printed and scanned back into DOMINO. Documents that are not related to addresses are not currently captured.
Project files Files related to projects covering geographic areas such as Mole Hill, Victory Square, etc.
Development Permit Files Paper and electronic files related to the processing of Development Permits.
Rezoning Files

Additional functional enhancements are planned in order to:

· allow faxed documents to be stored directly in DOMINO
· to make DOMINO documents are accessible via the Intranet / Internet

A technical upgrade is also planned for the `jukebox',which is the equipment that stores the images.

These proposed enhancements and their respective cost estimates are summarized in the table below:

 

Summary of cost estimates:

      
 

Description

One-time

Annual

  
 

Consulting

504,000

    
 

Temporary staff

100,000

    
 

Hardware

50,000

7,800

  
 

Licensing

346,000

64,900

  
         
 

total:

1,000,000

72,700

  
         


A detailed description of the enhancements and their cost are included in Appendix A.

D) Proposed System Enhancements:

The recommended changes outlined below will enhance our ability to deliver improved, more timely service to our customers and to increase the efficiency of our document handling.

· Conversion of Planning block and subdivision files, storage of photographs, inspectors reports, and external documents in DOMINO will provide:

· Conversion of existing licences to `full'

· Development of new user interface for search and retrieval as well as integration with the Development Tracking and potentially other Community Services applications will provide:

· Access via the Intranet will:

· Jukebox hardware replacement

· Fax service integration

E) Consulting Services

Preliminary discussions have been concluded with a consultant in order to confirm that these enhancements are possible.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Preliminary discussions with representative consulting services have produced the estimates for services. These estimates are believed to be generous but a Request for Information will be issued to selected consultants to obtain accurate costs.

The first two phases of the DOMINO system were completed on time and on budget. Loan repayments for all three phases of DOMINO are currently provided for in Community Service's operating budget. All loans will be fully paid by the end of 2004.

CONCLUSION

This report recommends approval of a loan of $1,000,000 in capital funds from the Capital Financing Fund for consulting services, license upgrade and commencement of the third phase system enhancements to the DOMINO (document imaging system) in Community Services. This is the next step in improving our handling of documents and in integrating our Development related activities. This is important to help speed up customer service, and to improve both effectiveness and efficiency of our staff by allowing online access to related information from multiple sources.

* * * * *

Description of Enhancements

Cost Estimates

 

one-time

annual

Expand the library structure to support capture of paper documents that are currently not stored into the DOMINO system

    - requires consulting services to review directory structure, purchase of additional licenses, and involvement of City technical staff
    - the sum of $ 100,000 has been included for temporary staff required for document indexing

215,000

2,000

Conversion of existing licences to `full'

    - To take full advantage of the enhanced features of DOMINO, we need to upgrade the capabilities of system users. Limited use licenses obtained from the vendors need to be upgrade to full access licenses.
    - costs may be negotiable and may, in part, be offset by providing Intranet search and retrieval

219,000

53,000

Documents in DOMINO need to be accessible for Development Tracking purposes.

    - provision of desktop integration between DOMINO and the Development Tracking application requires consulting services, involvement of City technical staff, and purchases of specialized integration products.

271,000

  

Provide access via the Intranet

    - the vendor offers a software product that provides search and retrieval using the Intranet / Internet

55,000

9,900

Jukebox hardware replacement

    - the jukebox is now 4.5 years old, replacement is recommended later in 2001 or early in 2002

35,000

6,300

Fax services

    - integration with Right Fax, the City's central fax software product

15,000

1,500

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