IMC Develops Award-winning, FOIA Case Management System
"I cannot express the last time I was more overjoyed at any initiative undertaken by USCIS as I was after I received a FOIA CD of a request file.Thank you very much for instituting the FOIA CD program. Not only will this program help conserve filing space, we might be able to save a forest or two as well."
- An attorney and customer of the FIPS System
IMC developed a reliable, proven and cost-effective solution to solve key, statutory requirements and established enterprise architecture building blocks for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Before IMC, FOIA/PA driven actions were characterized by manual processes, high costs and large backlogs. Today, DHS enjoys a powerful, state-of-the-art case management system that efficiently processes more than 90% of the workload, at fractions of what it used to cost.
And while many agencies still strongly rely on manual processing to meet FOIA/PA and other statutory requirements, IMC's award-winning solution is scalable and flexible to meet each agency's document imaging, case management and workflow needs.
- Ensuring that USCIS FOIA/PA units meet all Federal statutory requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA)
- Replacing antiquated case tracking systems using manual processes and old mainframe technology, while providing daily management and Congressional FOIA/PA reporting capabilities
- Support FOIA/PA processing in all DHS FOIA/PA Offices across the U.S.
- Support an average of 130,000 FOIA/PA requests per year
- Provide FOIA/PA information to the public and government agencies upon request
- FOIA/PA units are mandated to process requests for information within 20 working days of receiving the request, regardless of its complexity or the time involved collecting information from other sources
- Reduce manual based and paper related storage and handling costs, improve efficiencies while lowering staff requirements, improve customer service, and eliminate backlogs
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- Booz Allen & Hamilton (BAH) conducted an independent cost benefit analysis of FIPS and cited both a positive NPV and a positive ROI, as well as showing a 42.9% efficiency savings when DHS used FIPS to convert from manual processes
- FIPS is one of the most cost-effective, flexible and scalable FOIA/PA processing solutions being used today - combining one of the highest transaction volumes with the lowest relative cost and lowest headcount of any Federal agency
- FIPS was smoothly deployed for 260 users at 48 locations across the country, including Hawaii ; it supports all the required processing in two shifts (20 hours per day) and more than 130,000 requests per year
- IMC successfully created FIPS as an imaging, workflow, and case tracking system that provides online processing, redaction and release (on paper or CD) of documents, efficient movement of cases through a role defined and secure processing and approval progression, and tracking of cases to ensure compliances with all mandates and rapid release of documents requested
- System users have applied FIPS to complete more than 1 million cases, handled more than 17 million images and 3 terabytes of data, and logged over 17,250 hours of production operation in its six year tenure
- In 2003, FIPS processed 144,748 cases, representing 90% of the FOIA/PA cases handled by DHS, at only 24% of the average cost per case closed as compared with all other DHS components combined
- FIPS is scalable to the national enterprise level; Enterprise FIPS was selected as one of first Joint/Consolidated Investments by the OCIO in DHS and will be an Enterprise application
- In September 2002, a key National Records Center (NRC) manager reported that FIPS system enhancements resulted in the ability to complete an additional 500 cases per month with no additional staff
- IMC awards for this technology solution include the DOJ's Justworks Award(1998) , INS Commissioner's Award (1999) , Giga's Innovation and Excellence in Workflow Process and Knowledge Management (1999) , and GIGA's Global Excellence Awards (2001)
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Solution Areas:
Enterprise Content Management
Regulatory Compliance
Disaster Recovery
Business Continuity
Accounts Payable
For additional information, contact:
Case Studies
E-mail: solutions@imc.com