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Authorizing City Council’s Committees on Labor and Civil Service and Technology and Information Services to hold joint hearings to explore the implementation of technology and changes in workflow processes to enable the City to provide better services to its citizens more efficiently.
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WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia spends millions annually on paper and paper infrastructure. Every dollar spent on paper can be tied to between $13 and $31 dollars spent on secondary, paper-related costs Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board, “Office Paper Reduction Demonstration Project” http://www.swmcb.org/files/OfficePaperReport.pdf; and,
WHEREAS, For example, the City spends approximately $14,000 annually on paper for payroll checks and direct deposit statements. However, the City spends $500,000 annually, or 35 times the paper cost, on secondary costs associated from the use of paper checks; and,
WHEREAS, Moreover, in its May 2003 Information Technology Strategic Plan, the City of Philadelphia identified systemic inefficiencies that drive up the cost of maintaining and upgrading the City’s aging information technology infrastructure; and,
WHEREAS, The report noted that a fragmented information technology infrastructure results in costly procurement and management processes and that duplicative core business application functionality leads to expensive and inefficient business processes; and,
WHEREAS, Many of the City’s Departments rely on paper forms to process requests for City services. For example, some departments process the same paper form 24,000 times in single month, which results in city employees having to manually enter the data from each individual paper form; and,
WHEREAS, A number of the City’s Departments, such as Fleet, Revenue and Pensions, successfully have implemented document imaging systems in order to create more efficient workflow processes, which allowed them to reassign staffers to tasks that involved more face-to-face interaction with customers; and,
WHEREAS, According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in addition to cost savings realized from increased productivity of workers, organizations can expect a 50% drop in error rates and a 40% drop in total transaction time WasteWise 2006 Annual Report, http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/reduce/wstewise/pubs/report06.pdf; and,
WHEREAS, Other cities, as well as private companies, have embraced technology in order to effectuate cost savings and increase service delivery. For example, New York City estimates that a proposal for Electronic Procurement would save the City, $75 per transaction or $186 million annually. Additionally, Verizon Wireless reduced administrative and paper related costs by $9 million per year by offering online paperless billing to its customers; and,
WHEREAS, Historically, the City has strategically underinvested in information technology resources and as a result has a unique opportunity to create new best practices for municipal uses of technology; and,
WHEREAS, Given the fiscal crisis the City now faces, it is imperative that City Council explore ways to reduce costs and improve efficiencies in workflow processes so that the City can provide better service to its citizens.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That it hereby authorizes City Council’s Committees on Labor and Civil Service and Technology and Information Services to hold joint hearings to explore the implementation of technology and changes in workflow processes to enable the City to provide better services to its citizens more efficiently.
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