Business need: Solution overview: Supporting extraordinary document management requirements "Someone just leaving school might join one of our plans, stay in the plan for 35 years, then retire, and be in the plan for another 35 years," explains the Corporation's Chief Information Officer, Janet Finlaison. "Then we may pay partial benefits to a surviving spouse for a number of additional years. Consequently, our document lifecycle could be more than 70 years. Most importantly, all our files are active. We can't archive these files in boxes in a warehouse somewhere offsite; we need immediate, easy access to the documents on a daily basis." When Finlaison joined APA Corporation in 2002, she recognized that the organization needed to bring its document management practices – along with millions of documents – into a 21st century information management system. At the time, document management was cumbersome and slow. Staff members converted documents into microfiche, which were stored on huge carousels (each 12 feet in diameter), and contained more than 400,000 microfiches (20 million images). Standard turnaround for document retrieval was 24 hours. To support this process, APA Corporation spent approximately CAD$150,000 (about US$120,000) annually to duplicate the microfiche library to ensure appropriate maintenance of offsite backup. The Corporation was required to store and handle toxic chemicals used in the microfiche development process. Says Finlaison, "There was a large down side attached to perpetuating an archaic system with no future. In an age of electronic communications, not being able to access these documents electronically was intolerable. As baby boomers come up for retirement, we expect that the number of pensioners and our workload will increase, requiring more staff in benefit administration and micrographics under the existing manual system." A strong foundation offers means for ambitious new goals Under the Government of Alberta's Standing Offer process, the Corporation implemented a new HP storage area network based on an HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array with a tape library and HP ProLiant servers. APA Corporation then tendered a bid for a new Information Management Initiative that could migrate 1.5 million existing electronic documents and the 20 million microfiche images into a modern Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS). In August 2004, HP won the contract by bringing together a Web services EDRMS solution based on the Microsoft NET framework, and including:
HP consultants led the project team, providing system design, integration, and implementation consulting services to APA Corporation's business users and the IT Business Unit. HP also provided a complete server and storage infrastructure with hardware and software. "HP is delivering a total solution, a comprehensive, integrated
system that meets all our requirements," emphasizes Finlaison. "We
did not want a piecemeal solution that would require extensive user training
and maintenance, and would not suit the way people want to work. For any
information management solution to get buy-in from our business areas,
it must fit into our Microsoft Office environment. In the HP solution,
Microsoft Office, Meridio, and SharePoint all work together hand in glove
to help us serve our members and pensioners. The HP solution has enabled
us to leverage our technical Solution to endow better member services and long-term savings Finlaison also expects that the initial EDRMS solution deployment will be fully operational in June 2005 – including seven HP ProLiant DL580 servers, an expanded HP SAN, and all the software systems. In the microfiche conversion process, staff members will scan microfiche documents and convert them to an electronic form that flows into the EDRMS at a rate of 135,000 pages per week. The IT team plans to roll out the system to client business units over 18 months, starting in July 2005. HP Services is to provide ongoing support under a three-year service contract. Under the new system, APA Corporation will enter existing electronic documents and microfiche images into the system over three years. Meanwhile, staff will scan and enter new documents into the system as they receive them. As the system rolls out to user areas, the plan is that staff members with appropriate access privileges will have the ability to access any of these documents online – in a matter of seconds. "It is all part of a long-term strategy to position ourselves to serve our clients better," says Glen Sustrik, Director of IT Infrastructure for APA Corporation. "People need to know how to make retirement decisions and where their accounts stand. With microfiche, if you had questions about your account, someone had to go through the system, find your document, read and understand it, and then get back to you. With the new EDRMS, we will pull it up on a screen in seconds and answer your question immediately – a much shorter response time." The system will also help APA Corporation meet strict records-management standards, including requirements imposed by the Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act, the Historical Resources Act, the Evidence Act, and the Records Management Regulation. "Records management is really in the spotlight now," says Finlaison. "The Corporation is striving to go beyond mere compliance. This HP solution helps us make ourselves into a very agile, responsive enterprise. Working with HP, we have built a strong technology foundation and taken firm control of our information and business processes, so we can react confidently to changing client needs and to the evolving regulatory environment." "The new EDRMS helps us adhere to regulations more efficiently, and prove that we can," adds APA Corporation's Project Director Mark Farrugia. "To me, the most important benefits to our members and pensioners are fast service, enhanced privacy and information security, and peace of mind. They can be confident that our systems are designed to protect the information and to permit only authorized people to access it." APA Corporation's IT team believes they will experience significant
cost benefits over the long term. Farrugia explains, "In our industry,
cost is usually measured against other pension administration companies
in terms of cost per member for services. Today, we are at the high end
of the scale because we have been investing heavily in technology. However,
in three years we expect to be below average in cost, because of lower
manual costs. We will get faster and more efficient at our jobs, and reduce
manual labour. Our economies will kick in. About Alberta Pensions Administration (APA) Corporation
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