Fire Department, IT Services: Device Magic Automated Document Workflows

The Challenge 

Many of the processes that underlie City services cross departments; hiring someone, for example, may involve Human Resources, the Legal Department, the Controller’s Office, a number of managers, etc. And for every process there is a “paper trail” - the review and/or approval process. Routing documents to their next reviewer in a way that ensures the reviewer will see the request and act on it is one challenge. Additionally, tracking where a request is in its overall process is done differently depending on the department… or not done at all. Many try to manage the process by email; however, because of the high volume of emails City employees typically receive, action requests can often go unanswered. Seeing no clear way to bridge this gap via email, Fire Chief Jason Moore began researching alternative solutions. 

The Idea

Chief Moore and technology Support Specialist Ashley Davis discovered Device Magic early on in their research. This web-based, online form system allows users to automate workflows - automatically sending documents along to the next step in the process, sending alerts to a user’s device when a review is needed (bypassing email clutter), and allowing users to review the full routing history of a document in a user-friendly format.

Through this process, users are notified of updates to documents only when those updates are pertinent to that person’s needs. Once an action item has been completed, Device Magic automatically sends the document to the next relevant individual for approval or action. After everyone in the workflow has completed their actions, Device Magic notifies the author and all involved parties of the document’s completion. Currently, The City of Bloomington’s Fire Department has expanded Device Magic to processes involving vehicle checkout, scoring metrics, hiring, and more. 

The Costs

Device Magic is approximately $250 per device. BFD originally purchased licenses for 6 devices and then expanded to 13 devices so that all of their administrative forms could be automated. At 13 devices, the total cost amounts to about $3,250 total. An example of how much time this software is saving the BFD is the performance review process. In the past, it would take the Chief and all the Captains around 240 hours to review and rate each person in the department on paper or in a spreadsheet. After the initial review, it would take the Chief an additional 40 hours to compile all the information and compute the final review for each person. With the introduction of Device Magic, the initial review takes the same amount of time, the process is managed by the workflow established in Device Magic, and  the final review is automatically calculated, saving the Chief 191 hours.

The Benefits

Device Magic reduces the likelihood that an action request will be missed, ignored, or otherwise unanswered by forwarding notifications straight to users’ devices. It also reduces the clutter of email account inboxes by providing a platform specifically for interdepartmental review processes. Device Magic displays document history, action item requests, document status, authorship and more in a clear, succinct layout. There is no searching required to find any information that may be needed before completing the next step in the process. Everything is prepared and readily available to Device Magic users. 

Metadata

City Department(s): Fire, ITS

City Point of Contact: Jason Moore, Fire Chief

Partner(s): Device Magic

Partner(s) Point(s) of Contact: N/A

Type of Innovation: Technical/Software