SUCCESS STORY

E N T E R P R I S E I N F O R M A T I O N M A N A G E M E N T

Industry

Non-profit

Customer

New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority

Partner

Atticus Consulting

Challenges

n Expensive and time-consuming manual processing

n Outdated waiting list for assisted housing requests

solutIons

n OpenText RightFaxn OpenText Alchemyn OpenText Workflow

system IntegratIons

n Microsoft® Exchangen Kofax Ascent Capturen Canon Multi-Function Printer

BenefIts

n Timely electronic delivery of critical documentsn Automated capture, indexing for easy accessn Updated, refined waiting listn Secure records for disaster recovery and

regulatory compliance

outdated, but hopefulNHHFA recognized something had to be done to maintain trust in the accuracy of its growing waiting list for rental assistance, but validating thousands of hopeful appli-cants was a daunting exercise. Like other organizations working within paper-bound industries, forms and signed documents flow in and out of NHHFA by the thou-sands. Application letters and other docu-ments are exchanged, entered into data-bases, and stored to meet organization standards and compliance requirements. For instance, NHHFA receives funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Section 8 Housing Voucher program. “We have many more applicants than we can service with limited funding, which is a sad thing,” says Dave Hebert, Managing Director of Information Technology for NHHFA. “So, we always need an accurate accounting on the size of the waiting list and who is on that list.”

In addition to thousands of clients, NHHFA receives hundreds of applications for rental assistance every month that used to be slipped into folders, labeled, then stored with more than 10,000 folders in

new hampshire housing finance authority eases delivery and automates Capture, archival with opentextNon-profit organization maintains integrity of Section 8 rental assistance waiting list

a room full of filing cabinets. When they submit a request, applicants are informed of a four to six year wait for assistance. However, during those years, adjustments are common with many applicants moving or experiencing a change in status. As a result, updating the waiting list is impera-tive. Dee Pouliot, Managing Director of the Assisted Housing Division, explains, “It’s important to keep the waiting list up-to-date and clean, not filled with people’s names whose needs have changed.”

Unfortunately, updating the list was cumbersome. “We hadn’t updated the list for three years because we didn’t have the time or the staff to do it,” says Katherine Rondon-Escalera, Rental Assistance Manager in the Assisted Housing Division.

“It was an extremely long, manual process that took several months and required temporary labor.” In the past, completing a waiting list update required three people, including one dedicated employee and two full-time summer employees.

Regardless of the administrative challenge, NHHFA did not want to make closing the waiting list an option. “Being the state housing finance agency, we not only want to help people obtain housing but also

New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority (NHHFA) is a non-profit public benefit corporation. It promotes, finances, and supports affordable

housing opportunities and related services for New Hampshire families and individuals.

SUCCESS STORY

E N T E R P R I S E I N F O R M A T I O N M A N A G E M E N T

both in the sales and development depart- ments. They’re a solid, reliable vendor,” Hebert notes. NHHFA worked with Atticus Consulting, a solutions provider based in Massachusetts, to purchase, install, and configure OpenText products.

“Really, the love affair with OpenText began with RightFax,” Jukes says. The fax server became NHHFA’s first experience with OpenText after industry and product inves-tigation. “In the fax server world, there’s not a lot of competition to RightFax,” Jukes notes. In fact, OpenText RightFax holds a market share nearly double its nearest competitor, according to the Enterprise Fax Market Report by Frost and Sullivan, published in November 2010.

Using OpenText RightFax and more than 120 Direct Inward Dial (DID) numbers, staff members manage documents at their desktops. They receive faxes along-side emails in Microsoft® Outlook® and send faxes from any business applica-tion, accessing common forms from a fax library. “We have many users tak- ing advantage of RightFax,” Jukes says.

“So we wanted to go beyond and look at other OpenText products.” NHHFA conducted a formal search and selection process for a document management solution, compar-ing Alchemy to several competitors. It found Alchemy competitively priced while fitting NHHFA’s requirements. Presenting a fold-er-based user experience and integration with Microsoft products, Alchemy provides a familiar, easy-to-use interface. With its own programming and development team,

give them hope,” Rondon-Escalera says. “People in dire need of affordable housing for their family call, and though we may not have any more vouchers available, they at least have some hope by getting their name on a waiting list.”

Other NHHFA areas were also affected by paper-centric methods. The Accounting and Mortgage departments manually filed and retrieved invoices and legal docu-ments. In addition to its waiting list process, the Assisted Housing department also handles the Emergency Housing Program, a function conducted mainly via fax. Forms are sent for landlords and participants to complete, sign, and return. Close to 30 staff members shared one fax machine, with each sending forms several times per day. Replies then came back via fax and had to be manually sorted. “We wanted to free up the fax machines [across the organization]; we felt we could make a big impact,” says Bruce Jukes, Principal Programmer/Analyst with NHHFA. “That’s where we started with OpenText.”

Integrated solutions from a reliable vendor NHHFA installed OpenText RightFax for electronic document exchange and OpenText Alchemy for capture and digital storage. Discovering the convenience of an integrat-ed solution from one vendor, NHHFA later installed OpenText Workflow to automate internal processes. “We’ve always received great support and commitment to us as a customer from the folks at OpenText,

NHHFA wanted a solution it could customize for specific needs. “Other companies want to give you the product and lots of services as well,” Jukes says. “We wanted software we could work with and program ourselves rather than rely on an outside vendor.” Hebert adds, “However, you don’t need in-house development to use OpenText.”

NHHFA planned early in its software investi-gation to add workflow capabilities to docu-ment processes. During evaluation, the selection team—a cross section of a dozen employees—looked at workflow options.

“There are definite benefits to having a company like OpenText with RightFax, Alchemy, and Workflow in one place,” Jukes says. The first process NHHFA automated with OpenText Workflow was a leave management system. Users plan, request, and approve time off for employees via automated tracking within Workflow. Together with RightFax and Alchemy, Workflow is another OpenText solution NHHFA relies on. “We have not been disappointed over the years, working with OpenText,” Hebert notes.

updated and automatedOpenText solutions enhance productivity, offer cost savings, and revive NHHFA mission-related processes, including the waiting list for rental assistance. “If we didn’t have Alchemy, there is no way we could be updating and validating our waiting list regularly without it being cost-prohibitive,” Rondon-Escalera says. Instead, using automated capture and indexing, the team

“There are definite benefits to having a company like OpenText with RightFax, Alchemy, and Workflow in one place.”Bruce Jukes, PrinciPal Programmer/analyst, nHHFa

SUCCESS STORY

www.opentext.com n sales@opentext.com n 800 499 6544Copyright © 2012 Open Text Corporation. OpenText and Open Text are trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Text Corporation. This list is not exhaustive. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. For more information, visit: http://www.opentext.com/2/global/site-copyright.html

Atticus Consulting is a document management consulting and integration company located in Medfield, Mass. It provides business information delivery, messaging solutions, and document automation solutions by partnering with the industry’s leading solutions providers and leveraging its consultants’ years of industry expertise.

SUCCESS STORY

sends letters to applicants and updates the waiting list every year without the need to hire temporary labor to handle the workload as was the case in the past. As a result, the list is accurately pared down annually and has been virtually cut in half to a more manageable size of five to six thou-sand applicants. Replies are input via a Canon scanner capable of managing high volumes. The waiting list is automatically updated via integration between Kofax and OpenText—Ascent Capture scanning software employs OCR, OMR, and ICR to recognize text as well as barcodes and check boxes to update the Alchemy repos-itory. “Previously, all the information had to be keyed into the database,” Pouliot says.

“Now, with capture and storage in Alchemy, we’re saving a lot of data entry time and the need for additional or temporary staff.” And, since Alchemy is available to all NHHFA employees on the company network, work to manage the waiting list is distributed among more staff members. “We have a satellite office two hours drive away that always felt disconnected to the Assisted Housing Department,” Pouliot says. With Alchemy, employees in both locations have immediate electronic access to docu-ments, sharing the workload and speed-ing overall response to customer requests. Easy access is enhanced via integration between Alchemy and NHHFA’s custom business systems.

Integration between Alchemy and RightFax also aids efficiency. Documents may be faxed to clients or business partners direct-ly from Alchemy or other applications via RightFax, thereby saving trips to the fax machine. To check for receipt of incom-ing faxes, employees simply view their Microsoft Outlook email inboxes. NHHFA avoided the cost of purchasing additional fax machines and slashed paper and print-ing expenses. “But, savings are not just in the equipment and materials,” Hebert says.

“The big hit is with increased productiv-ity and job satisfaction.” The fax-heavy Emergency Housing Program is one of several OpenText users within the NHHFA organization. The Accounting department scans invoices for quick reference online or to fax answers to customer questions in real time; the Single Family Home mortgage department indexes years of loan docu-mentation, then shreds paper copies after gaining complete confidence in the on-site Alchemy server and off-site back-up of the electronic records instead of the former paper file systems. According to Hebert, “In the old days, if we had a disaster, we’d lose all our paper files. Recovery is the unsung hero of OpenText Alchemy … We’re much more comfortable that we’ve retained these records securely.” Overall, Hebert notes, OpenText provides functionality and inte-gration at an affordable price-point, even for a non-profit organization. “OpenText has come through for us,” he says. n

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“Savings are not just in the equipment and materials. The big hit is with increased productivity and job satisfaction.”Dave HeBert, managing Director oFinFormation tecHnology, nHHFa

CONSULTING