Managing Executive Correspondence
Each ministry in the Canadian federal government has an organization responsible for providing administrative services to the Minister, Deputy Minister and the other senior executives. WorkDynamics worked with one department to provide a system to track and manage all Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial correspondence, including letters from constituents, letters from other Ministers, internal briefing notes and memoranda, and legal submissions that need to be published in the Canada Gazette (the official “newspaper” of the Canadian federal government).
In addition to capturing the usual correspondence information (names, addresses, subject matter, received date, response deadlines, file numbers, etc.) the staff needs quick and easy access to paper and electronic files related to each item being tracked. Managing workflow is critical – not only the ability to know where a file currently is and where it has been, but they also need to be able to “pre-schedule” where it should go next in the process.
ccmMercury Customization
Using the standard customization features of ccmMercury, WorkDynamics created an Executive Correspondence Database application tailored to the requirements of the department, including:
- Input Date, Document Date, various Deadline Dates
- Subject, Document Type
- Owner (group responsible for the file)
- Records Office File Number (for locating paper documents)
- DM File Number (for locating the Deputy Minister’s paper copy)
- Canada Gazette Number (the volume in which submissions were published)
- Contact Type
- Custom validation pick lists on many fields to ensure that all users enter data in the same manner in order to facilitate searches and reports
- Linking of ccmMercury records to the stored attachments within the Document Management repository, which include the scanned image of the incoming letter, emails or memos related to the file, draft and final versions of response letters, etc.
- Templates created to automatically email users tasked with handling an item, print routing slips for circulating paper files, print a complete summary of all the electronic data for a given record, and simple reports based on search results
- Statistical reports on workload performance and trends (subject matter, types of incoming documents) for managers to analyze
Implementation Benefits
The department realized immediate benefits from its implementation of ccmMercury:
- Faster Turnaround Time from working with electronic versions of documents.
- Reduced Costs from eliminating the duplication, storing and transportation of paper files.
- Better Management Control from up-to-date reporting and statistical analyses.
“With ccmMercury our confidence in our processes has increased dramatically,” says a senior IT manager. “We are now free to focus on using our experience and judgment to help the Minister respond to issues, rather than expending so much time and energy just trying to find and keep track of all the content.”