Context
Our public sector client was experiencing pressure on resources – budgets were tight, and yet the social problems that local authorities and NGOs are trying to combat are increasingly complex and pressing. Furthermore, they were sought to address the challenges of social housing with an emphasis on community co-operation, innovative housing, and partnerships with the local providers.
Challenge
Our client found that its wider ambitions were hampered by an outdated and inefficient paper-based information management system. Documents were stored across four different floors, and the indexing and categorisation was at best haphazard, making collaboration slow and inefficient. Many of the documents were non-standard formats or sizes, such as technical drawings, which further complicated the system.
Solution
OASIS implemented a digital solution – scanning and digitising their documents using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) so they could be accurately indexed for retrieval and making it easy to search and share documents regardless of what they contained. Furthermore, the approach allowed the client to audit, identify and destroy data that was no longer required – removing unnecessary costs and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Outcome
The new system provided radical improvements in efficiency and ease of access across departments and within the supply chain. The new digital formats future-proofed the existing data, ensuring it remained easily accessible when needed and new paper documents are also digitised and stored in the system, reducing waste and providing a single point of access for information. Storage and staff costs were also reduced as manual retrieval and archiving were no longer needed.
