Gus, the system I'm talking about created real savings by avoiding large
on-going penalties due to lost records. The poor records keeping
practices related to access to and distribution of hard copy in a highly
volatile environment where overstressed employees were prone to lose
documents, not to how the documents were created, or even how they were
initially filed. The data system used to track contracts by number was
already in place and worked fine, it was mainly the hard copy use that
was causing the problems. The solution simply located the record copy on
a server where it is now available to all for viewing, avoiding the need
to handle, distribute, and lose hard copy. 

BTW, I have no personal interest in this system - I didn't recommend or
develop it, a vendor did. I did, however, support it when the vendor
checked with me about it, and it appears to work well. Its actually a
case where an expenditure of very little money paid huge dividends -
virtually the entire system was implemented utilizing already existing
tools. However, I will agree that I have some concerns about these sorts
of ad hoc systems spreading throughout the county. I could easily see an
accumulation of such office and series specific applications get out of
hand without operating in a larger, overall framework. One
recommendation I've made is to have our office serve as an office of
record for procedures related to such systems, to provide some degree of
business continuity in the event key employees leave or operations
close. 

Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution and Stores
(FREDS)
1620 S.E. 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
Phone: (503)988-3741
Fax: (503)988-3754
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