‘We Needed a New System’
Before he took office in 2011, Chuck Storey had an idea of what could be improved at the Imperial County Clerk-Recorder’s Office. He’d interfaced with the office for 30 years through his work as a real estate agent, during which he had to process many land and real estate titling documents. So he had first-hand experience as a customer and wanted to bring that perspective to his work at the County. Upon entering, he realized there was some catching up to do first.
“When I came in, I had citizens tell me it took as long as 4 years to get a recorded document back! It was a mess,” said Storey. Boxes of documents (what amounted to a three-year backlog of work) were stacked in a back room waiting to be processed. Plus, it regularly took as long as three months for the office to record a document and turn it around to customers. The software they were using at the time to manage all the land, vitals, and registration forms didn’t help.
“I knew immediately that we needed a new software system for recording county documents. And we needed it soon,” said Storey. “If you’re a businessperson, like I’ve been, you don’t keep something around that’s costing you money every day, especially if it’s contributing to lackluster customer service.”
Automate Records Management
After meeting with the Granicus team about govRecords solutions that could streamline and automate their labor-intensive process for recording, tracking, and storing county records, Storey had more than a sense of optimism.
“I felt I had discovered a company that could not only provide a product I needed, was comfortable with, but that they listened to me and cared about what I cared about,” he said.
Storey introduced the new Granicus solutions to his staff. Solutions included RecorderWorks for automating official records land and vitals processing and ClerkDocs for automating numerous fillings and registrations, indexing, imaging, storage, and retrieval of these forms.
“After showing RecorderWorks and ClerkDocs to my staff, they asked me, seriously, ‘What are we going to do with all our free time?’ I told them that’s a great problem to have! There are countless other improvements and initiatives we could set to work on.”
With a vision for the future, Storey and his staff at Imperial County worked closely with Granicus staff to implement the new software. It quickly streamlined every aspect of the records management process. Currently, the clerk-recorder’s office can record a document, scan, redact, index and verify all in the same day while benefiting from the software design and workflow that helps staff maximize their efforts.
Faster Service, Better Productivity
With help from RecorderWorks and ClerkDocs, along with improved internal processes, the team at the Imperial County Clerk-Recorder’s Office went from a three-month document turnaround time to just four to six weeks.
“We really turned things around,” said Storey. “Now we get instant results.” Storey admits the new software gives them the capability to return documents in mere days. The timeframe takes a few weeks because the County doesn’t return documents until they’ve recorded enough to process a full roll of microfilm.
They were able to work through their backlog of work and customer complaints about slow service has all but stopped. The improvements are also boosting morale, said Storey. “I have a lot of the same employees that were here before me, and they’re happy about their work, and proud of what we’ve done together.”
Storey said the new technology has made a measurable impact on team productivity. But it’s the support team at Granicus that has made the biggest impact on him.
