Little bit late on the Customer Round-up for March, but I've pulled together a Public Sector focused round-up this month.
Kane County Circuit Court -
The Kane County Circuit Court Clerk understands first-hand the importance of delivering fast, efficient services to citizens. As the fifth largest county in Illinois, Kane County court staff manages over 150,000 cases annually, ranging from simple traffic violations to serious felonies. At the same time, the Circuit Court Clerk's office is responsible for handling citizen requests for orders of protection, which typically involve domestic violence cases.
Kane County were looking to improve the quality of services that victims of domestic violence receive when they came to the county for help. Historically it could take up to six hours to process an order of protection - and the office wanted to dramatically reduce that time.
To improve and streamline the processes, Kane County is using a web-based solution, powered by Adobe LiveCycle and Flex solutions to transform how orders of protection are accessed, completed, submitted, reviewed, and approved. The more integrated, automated processes translate into enhanced citizen services that can be delivered faster, more conveniently, and more cost effectively than ever.
The automated process built around Adobe LiveCycle software is dramatically faster than the previous manual process. Within approximately sixty seconds of having a judge sign the document, an order of protection arrives at the sheriff's office for input into the national wanted persons database. Overall, Kane County have seen seen as much as a five-fold improvement in the time it takes to complete, submit, and process orders of protection.
Berlin -The procurement process for hiring construction sector workers to work on federal projects in Germany is especially time-consuming and costly due to the complicated application procedure. The process begins with a job announcement in a publication such as the federal job site listing. Companies submit written bids along with the necessary job application forms. To send these documents, the respective office charges the bidder administrative, copying, and shipping costs, fees usually amounting to at least €20. The bidder then fills out the documents by hand and sends the entire bid in a sealed envelope to the respective administrative office. Confidentiality is of great importance as the offers are only opened and read after the submission deadline.
In an attempt to improve this extremely time consuming process, the state of Berlin began advertising its jobs electronically in 2004, and at the same time began a project to make the whole process on-line whilst ensuring the process adhered to the strict confidentially and other German federal laws.
The state of Berlin used an Adobe LiveCycle and PDF based solution to reduced government and industry costs for completing and processing project bids; simplified bid completion and selection processes; increased transparency of bid selection; minimized errors on bids by reducing manual processes; and accelerated bid review by integrating electronic forms with backend systems
Court of Cremona - The Italian legal system has traditionally managed case documents using paper-based processes that can drain resources, slow court proceedings, and impede collaboration across legal teams. As a result, legal staff—including magistrates, lawyers, court clerks, and administrators—often find themselves working in challenging conditions. To improve processes, the Court of Cremona wanted to adopt an information system that could help ensure “conditions of parity” between all parties involved in proceedings, a requirement stipulated in the Italian Constitution.To accomplish this goal, the court set out to implement a cost-effective, easy-to-use system that would dramatically reduce the amount of paper used during proceedings. Ideally, the solution could be deployed and maintained by government staff.
In 2003, the Court of Cremona began running technology tests and pilot schemes using PDF files to share digital documents among parties working on preliminary hearings. The approach is integrated into a system called DIGIT and has so far saved more than €356,000 since automating the management of case documents; eliminated the need to copy, route, and manage millions of pages of case proceedings annually; improved information sharing and availability across legal teams and court staff; and addressed government requirements stipulating reliable, secure access to case documents for all parties involved in hearings