Building Department Improves Access to Over 4 Million Records through Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is a necessary path for municipalities and Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) that want to improve workflow, recruiting and knowledge base.

The Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts has digitized millions of their paper records with the intent of making them publicly accessible. This includes public documents of the Building, Planning & Development, Conservation Commission, Health, Licensing, and Town Clerk departments. This digital transformation project was spearheaded by Brian Florence, the Town’s Building Commissioner and Director of Inspectional Services, as well as Lawrie Peirson, the Town’s Assistant Director of Information Systems, to expand the use of Laserfiche® to 11 departments within the Town, as well as its seven villages.

“The Town recognized the need to digitize our documents and make them accessible to over 250 employees, as well as 50,000 constituents,” said Peirson.

Barnstable selected Laserfiche Content Management Software and implementation services provided by ICC Community Development Solutions (ICC-CDS), a Top 10 Laserfiche Solution Provider and a member of the International Code Council family of solutions.

“Barnstable’s Building Division recently opened all of its property files to the public through LaserFiche. Citizens access property content utilizing a convenient link on the division’s webpage. There they enter an address and can obtain a complete history of the property’s permitting and code compliance information. If documents were submitted to the building division during the life of the property, they are available to the public. Citizens and professional agencies alike, using the access portal to conduct research have had nothing but praise at how accessible our public records are now,” explained Florence.

The goal was to improve data management and automate department-based processes using Laserfiche workflow and forms. This provides easy access to information internally and to the public via Barnstable’s Laserfiche Web Portal.

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The Town also contracted with an ICC-CDS scanning partner to digitize and index the documents, then ICC-CDS processed and uploaded those documents into Laserfiche.

While the expansion and use of Laserfiche is an ongoing project for the Town, the digitization of more than 4.2 million images has been completed and are now accessible within Laserfiche.

“The Department of Inspectional Services has converted millions of paper files to electronic files. This helps our staff complete remote property and plan reviews, has decreased the footprint required to house the paper records by over 4000 sq. ft. and will allow for remote property information access by the public,” said Florence.

Barnstable is known for its historic preservation, and this digital transformation project is an extension of that community focus. With records dating back to 1639 when it was incorporated – and many buildings from the 1600s and 1700s – document preservation is of high importance.

Barnstable’s embrace of digital solutions extends to other services from the Code Council family of solutions: General Code hosts the Town’s eCode® and provides codification services; The Town also subscribes to the Massachusetts State Building Code which is derived from the Code Council’s International Codes®.

Join ICC-CDS for the next session of our webinar entitled An Introduction to Laserfiche for Building Officials (click to see upcoming dates and to register).