State of South Dakota (Department of Social Services) Expands Efalia ECM utilization

The South Dakota State Department of Human Services has expanded its use of the Efalia ECM document management solution, thanks to our partner Active Data Systems (ADS). This solution enables the efficient management and retrieval of medical documents, legal files and much more. By working with ADS & Efalia ECM, you’ll see below that the state benefits from a modern, secure infrastructure, optimizing management and access to its vast document archives.

The State of South Dakota contracted with our partner Active Data Systems (ADS) to expand its utilization of the Efalia ECM Document Management System for the Department of Social Services (DSS). ADS installed systems in DSS offices in Pierre and 41 locations across the state.
The Department of Social Services uses Efalia ECM® to manage and retrieve medical service records, child enforcement and day care information, case files and legal records, energy assistance records, correspondence and any other “paper originated” information.
Active Data Systems has long provided document management solutions for South Dakota government entities.

According to Todd Mahoney, ex-Director of Development— Active Data Systems, “State government has been using microfilm to archive their documents for years. Microfilming documents is very manual and labor intensive, especially on the search portion after you have microfilmed it.” Added Mahoney, “In 1991 we started making the transition from micrographics to imaging.”

Efalia ECM is Active Data Systems’ latest document management solution. Developed by Spielberg, it has been designed to offer an unrivaled level of features, power, security and ease of use. The State of South Dakota has found the flexibility and expansion potential to be a perfect fit for their ever-growing document management needs.
Partnered with the Efalia ECM document management systems are the Canon DR-3080CII and DR-5010C Color Desktop Scanners.

Says McClung, “We have been associated with Canon for a long time and have found their equipment to be of high quality and quite affordable. The state of South Dakota will get many years of dependable service from these scanners.”

The Bureau of Information Technology (BIT) manages the core infrastructure components for all of South Dakota’s State Agencies. With hundreds of thousands of documents to manage, BIT designated Efalia ECM as the State Standard for document management.
Efalia ECM fits well into their existing infrastructure and the amount of additional hardware costs are very minimal. BIT has Efalia ECM set up on two servers, both are online at the same time in a load balance situation in two different buildings.

Says Mahoney, “They could lose an entire building and still not lose any of their information. The State has experienced storage capacities ballooning in areas where they were not anticipating.”

 

With Efalia ECM’s storage, all of their information is on their network storage area and they can take care of it in a much more efficient manner.

Mahoney added, “Departments don’t have to worry about losing files and they don’t have to worry about backups or restores.”

BIT is able to manage the clients’ needs easier through one central location and can set standards so everyone is using the same product. It makes management a lot easier for BIT and in turn easier use for state-wide departments.
The information in Efalia ECM is very secure. BIT is able to have terabytes of data online which is available and accessible for state government departments and agencies in a very secure fashion with each having its own security level.

With the “.net” infrastructure, Efalia ECM is designed to be scalable in an environment where they have scalability demands.

According to McClung, “Another major benefit of Efalia ECM is that it is web-based. The state can develop their own customizable websites that point to Efalia ECM utilizing the internet to make more information available to more people quickly and easily.”

DSS is in the process of implementing Efalia ECM® to more effectively and proficiently enhance their ability to provide better customer service. In addition to DSS, the state has Efalia ECM installed in other departments and offices.