Implementing Electronic Document Management

Project Description

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Office of The Chief Counsel provides legal support across the agency. A nation-wide intranet supports a staff or more than 3,000 people at 51 locations. InterImage provides software engineering services to meet the needs of these intranet users including formulation of content standards; design and development of intranet applications; content management; and implementation of COTS-based, enterprise-wide content and document management solutions, including Documentum and Sharepoint.

Meeting the Challenge

In response to several cases of anthrax contamination of the US mail and distribution facilities, the US Postal Service instituted a radiation treatment practice for mail sent to several federal agencies including the IRS. This practice caused extended delays in the routing and distribution of mail documents to the IRS, including Tax Court Orders. The challenge was that Tax Court Orders that contain time sensitive information typically requiring 10 days or less of turnaround / preparation time for the affected IRS organization. In response to this challenge, the IRS instituted a process that relied upon express mail and facsimile transmission of orders to any one of over 100 different field offices. While this approach ensured timely distribution, the process was labor intensive and costly for administrative staff. The volume of orders and number of affected offices created significant shipping fees. InterImage was tasked with formulating an automated approach that would improve efficiency and reduce costs.

Solution

InterImage designed a solution that incorporated electronic distribution of the Tax Orders, allowing immediate distribution to many offices. As soon as they are received, the Tax Court Orders are scanned and OCR’d so that they are text searchable. These scanned Orders are then read by an InterImage developed application to identify their title and appropriate IRS office routing. The order is stored in a Documentum repository (known as a ‘docbase’). An automated email is generated and distributed to designated IRS staff based upon the IRS office routing. This email serves as notification of receipt of a Tax Court Order and contains a link that allows the recipient to view the order via Documentum’s WebTop component.

This solution eliminates the need to send a facsimile or mail copy of an Order to other IRS offices. It also eliminates the need to manually sort received orders before their transmission. It reduces errors associated with manual typography and routing, and it dramatically reduces the administrative costs associated with handling the Tax Court Orders.