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Customer stories

Publicsector customer storySouthwestern US county

Populous county uses OpenText Content Management integrated with Microsoft 365 to drive digital transformation

Publicsector customer story

About the southwestern US county

This southwestern US county covers an area of 8,061 square miles and has a population of more than two million people. The county administration is split into 38 departments providing a broad range of services to residents and visitors.
City skyline at sunset with glowing street lights
  • Population served:
    >2 million
  • Departments:
    38

Summary

Challenges

  • Needed to effectively deliver content to a large, diverse population across multiple channels.
  • Existing content management system had limitations, slowing service improvements and efficiency.

Solution

  • Enhanced productivity across the organization with a single, centralized repository of information.
  • Enabled rapid access to high-quality information.

Results

  • Maintained tight security controls
  • Cut time to access key documents
  • Established a firm foundation for AI

Challenges

  • Needed a way to effectively deliver content and services through traditional and digital channels to a large and diverse population
  • Legacy content management system limited service improvements and efficiency

This southwestern county in the United States is home to millions of people and welcomes millions of visitors annually. The challenges of serving this hugely diverse population have changed significantly in recent years, driven in part by the availability of new digital technologies.

The county’s administration delivers services through multiple different touchpoints—from traditional in-person counters in municipal offices to mobile apps—and continues to evolve to become more interconnected with its residents. This demands streamlined integration and information sharing among the 38 departments in the county and external organizations.

Deputy chief information officer (CIO) at the county said, “We host huge numbers of events, from movie shoots to concerts with hundreds of thousands of attendees. The process for organizers or promoters can be inconsistent and cumbersome. They might need to apply for road closures, liquor licenses—even permits for wild animals. Many of the departments involved are part of the county proper, but many are not, so we need to collaborate both internally and externally.”

The county wanted to make processes more repeatable and sustainable so that it could improve service levels while increasing efficiency and value to taxpayers. In the background, the IT team aimed to modernize information sharing to support a growing number of requests from internal business units.

In pursuit of its modernization objectives, the county aimed to upgrade its internal content management solution. The existing technology was doing a good job of indexing content and enabling employees to find items rapidly, but it had limitations.

“The world is now all about efficient experiences on mobile devices, the best possible service for the fewest clicks,” said the deputy CIO. “We need to support teams that are serving four or five different generations of residents and visitors at the same time, who all like their content delivered in different ways.”

Digital blocks arranged on a circuit board

The OpenText solution empowers us to secure selected data and redact documents. The ability to do that directly on the platform makes it much easier to manage security.

Deputy CIO
Southwestern US county

Solution

To power digital transformation and support more efficient information sharing, the county upgraded to OpenText™ Content Management for Government. The solution provides deeper content integration with the county’s Microsoft 365 applications.

Products deployed

Enhancing productivity across the organization

The county chose to upgrade from an existing OpenText solution to OpenText Content Management for Government, which provides ready-to-use business processes, integrated Microsoft Teams collaboration, and automated security and governance features in a secure cloud environment. The OpenText solution gives the county a single, centralized repository of information that is secure but also easy to share with authorized users.

The deputy CIO’s team at the county focuses on the “four Ps”: portals, places, productivity, and platforms. Portals are the digital doorways to the county’s services, from websites to mobile applications, while places are the physical locations associated with government activities.

“Productivity and platforms are really where OpenText comes into play,” said the deputy CIO. “For productivity, we're looking at workflow analysis of our standard operating procedures, the processes that embody our day-to-day operations. And as for platforms, everyone across the organization depends on enterprise content management. If there are any issues, my inbox fills up very quickly, because people rely on the services that OpenText Content Management provides to them.”

Enabling rapid access to information

The county is taking advantage of the deep integration between OpenText Content Management and Microsoft productivity tools to simplify workflows for its employees. County employees can use their Microsoft single sign-on to gain secure access to the OpenText solution and can easily share content with other employees directly within the Microsoft ecosystem.

“We're looking to give our users the ability to start their workflows and their business processes in a single place,” said the deputy CIO. “The integration of Microsoft Teams with OpenText Content Management provides an opportunity to give users a consistent experience across the platforms they use daily. With single sign-on, they're able to get to their content a lot quicker, then share it securely using the Microsoft stack.”

A person working on a laptop

The combination of OpenText Content Management and Microsoft Office 365 gives our users that much more power, literally at their fingertips, to get their jobs done.

Deputy CIO
Southwestern US county

Results

The OpenText solution is empowering the county to make full use of its existing store of documents to generate new value across the organization. This high-quality data source will also act as the foundation for a new generation of AI-powered tools.

Unleashed the power of enterprise content

With OpenText Content Management making the full store of content available from within Microsoft applications, county employees have a familiar and convenient way to find and use content from a single source of truth. The ability to easily access and share documents unlocks the value of the county’s accumulated data, enabling employees to collaborate more effectively both internally and with external partners.

“We have years’ worth of data available to our users,” said the deputy CIO. “The OpenText solution makes it a lot easier to share data without having to go in, download something, add it as an attachment to an email, or drop it somewhere within Microsoft SharePoint. It's all within the same ecosystem and just makes our lives a lot easier.”

Maintained tight security controls

As the custodian of large amounts of data on residents, the county sees security as priority number one.

“We work with a lot of sensitive legal documents,” said the deputy CIO. “The OpenText solution empowers us to secure selected data and redact documents. The ability to do that directly on the platform makes it much easier to manage security. And the fact that OpenText Content Management for Government is FedRAMP-authorized is one less worry for us.”

Cut time to access key documents

OpenText Content Management is driving efficiency gains at the county by reducing the time required to find and share documentation, particularly for multi-stage processes that span several departments or teams.

“The combination of OpenText Content Management for Government and Microsoft Office 365 gives our users that much more power, literally at their fingertips, to get their jobs done,” said the deputy CIO.

Built a firm foundation for AI

OpenText AI content management solutions will form the foundation for the county’s planned rollout of AI capabilities. As part of this initiative, the county has identified several use cases for deploying OpenText™ Content Aviator™, an AI-powered content assistant. One of the first areas of focus is the marriage license bureau, where the county plans to use OpenText Content Aviator to mine historical wedding data and uncover patterns that can improve future planning and anticipate demand.

“Huge numbers of people come here to get married each year,” said the deputy CIO. “We think Aviator could help us understand and predict demand so that we can plan accordingly, make sure that the licensing bureau is open at the right times and is appropriately staffed. That information can sometimes get lost in all data.”

The county also plans to use AI-powered chatbots to bolster customer service for residents and to guide promoters of major events through the process of applying for the relevant permits.

“People love AI because it's a buzzword, but the key to its value is having high-quality data behind it,” said the deputy CIO. “With OpenText Content Management for Government, we have that data—fully indexed and accessible. By adding AI tools, we can take that accumulated knowledge and build on it to provide enhanced customer service more efficiently.”

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