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The Department were looking for a mobile solution to help manage their documents in remote locations
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BACKGROUND
Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) has a big job in administering the state’s natural environment and built heritage places. As the second largest state in Australia, it’s not surprising that a 200 strong mobile workforce of field officers is needed to assess the thousands of heritage protected sites throughout the state.They assist Operators in committing to their obligations to various environmental and heritage legislative requirements, with site visits, inspections, onsite testing and investigation.
THE CHALLENGE
The Department undertook a process of improving and redesigning the existing document management systems to improve workflow and aid compliance. Through this the team uncovered other areas where further system improvements could be streamlined, primarily around field reporting, and the remote and mobile access of documents in the field.In the existing state, the officers were required to navigate multiple systems to retrieve the documentation needed for site visits. The ease and efficiency of accessing information was further hampered by the connectivity issues of a vast geographical region. Should a case present unexpected challenges, then the ability to retrieve legislative data on the fly was impeded while offline.
To mitigate this risk of finding themselves without the appropriate documentation, the field officers invested a great deal of time preparing and printing files to have at hand. This was a productivity drain and a potential security risk.
To better enable a mobile workforce, the Department needed to implement a solution that would serve as a Mobile Reference Library, which was accessible while off-line.
THE SOLUTION
Dossiere, initially an iOS based iPad product developed by Speedwell (now available on Windows and Android) enabled the Department to exploit the full power of mobility. Apple’s leading edge security model and encryption features combined with Dossiere’s document handling capabilities, streamlined the Department processes around field meeting setup (Calendar), uploading relevant documents for that individual meeting, data capture in the field, i.e. field reports, and general document management.Dossiere is built with the ability to customise for enterprise level implementation. For EH&P, the tool serves as a Mobile Reference Library (MRL) enabling the field officers to cross reference and link to multiple systems on a mobile tablet device.
An advanced faceted search enables them to search through hundreds of pieces of legislation and documentation, including videos for refresher training when on-the-go.
CUSTOMISED TO THEIR NEEDS
Field officers are able to sign-in to Dossiere with active directory credentials. This feature enables them to:- Configure a dashboard that allows them to bookmark and save frequently used files to the dashboard.
- Create and download personal case folders with links to files and source material
- Link documents, meetings and agenda items, and organise them in the dashboard
- Add their own notes, annotate and highlight text within documents without affecting original source files.
- Update files from different systems and actively monitor their states in terms of currency
- Receive updates of any files that have been updated or changed.
SHARING AND COLLABORATION
The sharing and collaboration features built within Dossiere, allow for efficient, fast and convenient communication between the field officers. Users can:- Annotate documents, make notes and highlight information
- Share annotations and notes with other officers
- View other field officers annotations made available to them
- Send notes to other officers through the system with reference to files within it and/or ask questions of the document owner.
- Grant, read or manage rights to other users so that case files can be shared around the team as necessary.
- Sync all changes only on specified secure networks
THE RESULTS
As Assessment and Compliance grow and the needs of the State diversifies into more sectors which require more monitoring and assessment, the need for field teams to become more agile is becoming increasingly critical.With technology playing a critical role in solving some complex workflow issues within the Department, Dossiere via the Mobile Reference Library, transformed the way in which the department and its mobile workforce operated.
Dossiere provides a secure and safe environment that allows access to files offline acting as a Mobile Reference Library (MRL).
Dossiere’s document handling capability has created a single source of truth and introduced greater security and efficiency in the way the field force operate. They simply log-in to iPad for full access to the latest version of policy and legislation. Having access to important documents even while offline has eliminated the exhaustive preparation time needed to print documents and removed any security risk associated with case documentation.
VISIT THE DOSSIERE WEBSITE
- Increasing the productivity of a 200 strong mobile workforce
- Fast and efficient communication between field officers
- Securely access and share legislative data whilst offline.
- Compile reports whilst in the field