Case Study: East Rochester
East Rochester is located southeast of the City of Rochester in Monroe County, New York. The village, incorporated in 1906, is home to about 6,587 people.
THE PROBLEM
The Town and Village of East Rochester are responsible for maintaining countless records and archives, many of which go back decades. All of their building documents – including permits, certificates, violations, and oversized plans and maps – were on paper. Looking up information was time-consuming and inefficient. If a flood, fire or other natural disaster were ever to occur, these irreplaceable documents could be lost forever. Additionally, over many years paper documents become faded, stained, and damaged, making them difficult to read and use. East Rochester needed a solution that would increase the longevity of their town archives, maintaining them for many years to come.
THE SOLUTION
InStream converted all of East Rochester’s building records to a digital format and loaded them into their IPS software from BAS. The Integrated Property System (IPS) is an innovative software suite that can consolidate property data from every department within a municipality into a centralized database system that allows for quick and easy access to all authorized users. This has greatly reduced the time it takes for them to find records and respond to Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) and other requests. InStream worked with East Rochester’s existing software and also provided ECMS software. This experience, combined with InStream’s expertise, created a suite of out-of-the-box solutions that are affordable, secure, and scalable for users.
THE RESULTS
As a result of digitizing their archives, the documents are now disaster-resistant. The digital conversion of these documents allowed the town to permanently avoid the damage and wear to their archives that typically happens to paper documents over time. By going paperless, East Rochester was also able to maximize cost-savings by reducing scanning, printing, shipping and supply costs of paper. Documents can now be retrieved instantly, as employees no longer have to take the time to search through file cabinets. With the help of InStream, East Rochester can efficiently serve the members of its community.
“The most important is the fact that we have positioned ourselves to fully take advantage of future significant software and digital technologies. We made a conscious decision to format the end product with standard upgradable technologies. I can only imagine what the next 10 years will bring in software advancement and we are positioned to take advantage of all of it.” – David Smith (Building Inspector, Village of East Rochester)
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