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3. Virginia Retirement System

Summary

The Commonwealth of Virginia Retirement System (VRS), the retirement agency for state employees, supports activities such as health insurance, taxes, monetary refunds, disability processing, death claims, retirements, retirement estimates, field counseling, deferred compensation, member accounting, and investments for its 310,000 active and inactive members, 72,000 retirees, and 800 employers. The agency handles a high volume of incoming and outgoing documents that initiate (1) retrieval of documents and information from existing files, (2) changes to existing files, (3) creation of new files, and (4) storage of documents and information in files. Frequently, several VRS employees must work on a document concurrently.

Imaging is uniquely suited for such a situation because it dramatically reduces the endless and inefficient paper shuffling indigenous to the retrieval and storage of high volumes of documents and concurrent use of those documents by several workstations. VRS wanted imaging to improve the efficiency with which documents were retrieved, routed to workstations for processing, worked on concurrently, and stored. The agency needed to be able to look at all the records for a given individual without first having to gather them from several places.

VRS states emphatically that these expectations were realized in their imaging system, not only in the improved efficiency that it sought, but also in improved member service. The system makes documents and index information available for responses to inquiries -- usually while the member is still on the telephone, thereby dramatically improving service and avoiding the inefficiency of follow-up calls.

In addition to the performance of the system, the strong support of VRS management and users is cited as a major reason for the system's success. The technical staff worked closely with these other employees to develop plans and requirements for the system and to apprise them of progress during system development and implementation. This close association is continuing so that managers, users, and technical staff members can be sure the system is functioning properly and future needs are met.

While the $1.76 million imaging system has improved the efficiency with which VRS operates and the service the agency gives its members, there are liabilities. The system is highly complex, it will be difficult to maintain, and some agency staff feel enslaved by the system even though it has freed them from many routine tasks.

Like VRS, courts receive many documents that they must index, store, retrieve, group with other information, route to different workstations, and work on concurrently to answer questions and prepare cases for the next stage of litigation. The VRS imaging system, therefore, should be of interest to court officials.

Information on the VRS imaging system was provided by Ms. Jane Pugh, the agency's Plans and Operations Manager, who has been in charge of the system since its inception. We appreciate her assistance.

Enterprise Description

VRS members include employees of the state agencies as well as teachers, judges, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and various employees of political subdivisions in the state.

The agency is located in Richmond, Virginia, and consists of 120 employees. Its address and telephone number are

1200 East Main Street
Richmond, VA 23219
804-786-8785.

Agency files contain almost 1.7 million images on approximately 500,000 individuals.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia hierarchy, VRS is under the Secretary of Administration, has a Board of Trustees, and is run on a daily basis by the Director and Deputy Director. As Plans and Operations Manager, Ms. Pugh is on the next management level. She has a full-time staff of six.

Imaging Application

Overview

In the early 1980s, VRS implemented a microfilm system, called the computer assisted retrieval (CAR) system, to support recordkeeping. While the CAR system was state of the art at the time, it was labor intensive and fell far short of eliminating the paper blizzard. On a typical day, more than 1,000 documents were moved from microfilm to paper for reference work at a cost of approximately $.10 per page and untold hours of staff time. Documents pertaining to a given individual could be scattered throughout the CAR system files, and a massive effort often was required simply to gather all documents when work pertained to that person's records. Finally, since documents were microfilmed after they were processed by VRS staff, and the microfilming required ten days, either copies or originals of many documents were held by staff until they were reasonably sure there would be no follow-up inquiries. This increased the amount of paper being handled and made documents unavailable to other staff.

To address these problems, VRS began to consider imaging in the early 1990s. Imaging was first regarded only as a replacement for the microfilming system, but its wider applicability became apparent as the project progressed. A request for proposals was issued in September 1991 for an imaging system, and this resulted in an award to IBM in June 1992. The system became fully operational in March 1993.

The VRS imaging system:

Scans incoming documents;
Helps the operator index the documents;
Stores the document images on optical disk for retention and magnetic disk for upcoming work;
Stores the indexes on magnetic disk;
Determines which workstations will handle each document;
Retrieves related documents, groups them with the new document, and routes the entire package to the appropriate workstations;
Tracks pending follow-up work;
Helps supervisors control the workload of each operator; and
Makes documents and index information available for rapid responses to inquiries.

The VRS Imaging Network computer setup is shown in Figure A - 11.

The imaging application and database use IBM ImagePlus software and run on an IBM AS/400, Model E45, mid-range computer. The AS/400 file server is connected to a local area network (LAN) comprised of an IBM PS/2 network server and 40 PS/2 workstations. The PS/2s run with the OS/2 operating system, and the LAN runs under IBM's token ring topology. The LAN includes two scanners and a printer. A printer, 16 billion characters of magnetic disk storage, and a Cygnet optical jukebox with four optical disk storage units are attached to the AS/400. All of this equipment and software is dedicated to imaging.

Other than imaging, all VRS applications run on the Virginia Department of Information Technology (DIT) IBM mainframe. (DIT is the state computer services agency.) The VRS AS/400 is connected to the DIT mainframe, and VRS users not on the LAN are connected to the DIT mainframe and, through the mainframe, to the VRS AS/400.

Figure A - 11: Virginia Retirement System's Imaging Network

The VRS operational staff who process documents and inquiries from members have LAN workstations. These users work directly with the images. Through terminals and personal computers, VRS users not on the LAN can look at anything from the imaging system (i.e., index information, comments, and audit trails) except the actual images.

Planning, Implementation, and Management

The primary concerns at the outset of the imaging project were:

Whether VRS users would accept a new way of doing things;
Whether the shortcomings in the CAR system and related procedures could be eliminated;
Whether the new system would work--particularly as it became apparent that the system would be complex with many different computer technologies to be integrated; and
Whether the equipment specified for the new system would have sufficient capacity.

The VRS Plans and Operations unit addressed these concerns by:

Making sure all users and managers, and DIT as appropriate, participated throughout the new system project;
Conducting a thorough requirements analysis in which the processes that must be performed were identified, the applicability of imaging to those processes was examined, and the equipment and software comprising an imaging system that addressed the requirements were identified; and
Developing a realistic working plan to obtain and implement the system.

A major part of implementation was to convert CAR system data to the new imaging system, and this began in July 1992 when enough new equipment had been installed. First, using the CAR system index, discrepancies in CAR system data were identified and corrected. Then, to improve inquiry and retrieval, VRS developed and put on the new AS/400 an overall and expanded index. This gave VRS an index of all cases regardless of whether they resided on optical disk, magnetic disk, or microfilm. Given the magnitude and complexity of the conversion, VRS decided the more cost-effective approach would be to automate it. The agency engaged a vendor to accomplish this task.

There was no prototype or pilot testing of the new system; VRS simply started using the new system on March 1, 1993. Operators had been using personal computers with windows and mouse technologies and image displays since September 1992 to become familiar with those features. Even though the implementation was successful, VRS recommends an imaging prototype if (1) sufficient funds exist to cover the loss should imaging turn out to be the incorrect solution and (2) the prototype can be expanded into the real system if imaging is the correct solution.

Throughout the planning and implementation, and continuing now that the system is operational, VRS has used a number of management controls. Initial management approval was necessary from the VRS Board of Trustees, Virginia Department of Planning and Budgeting, Virginia Council for Information Management, and DIT. As noted above, management and users participated in the planning and implementation. Now that the system is operational, the following controls exist:

Audit trails for each document in the system showing date submitted, time stamp, size, person who submitted, microfilm cross-reference if converted from microfilm, and cross-reference to document received if scanned into the system;
Restricted system access whereby data can be entered or modified only by VRS operators on the LAN or by being imported (i.e., transferred) from the DIT mainframe;
Restricted system deletion whereby only the VRS system administrator can make deletions;
An audit trail of all deletions;
Duplicate storage of each image on optical disk to the journal platter, which contains chronological entries, and the cluster platter, which contains all documents for a single member;
Weekly backups and off-site storage of the index; and
Each VRS operator can access only his or her work queue.

Unlike the situation in some courts, there were no immediate legal issues that VRS needed to address before imaging could proceed. Long-range unresolved issues concerned data retention on optical disk.

Operation and Maintenance

IBM provides support for the equipment and software, and the VRS Plans and Operations unit handles tasks such as system administration, LAN administration, print management, and minor problem correction. The VRS computer staff provides support in activities such as file backups and problem resolution.

System operation and maintenance so far have been trouble-free except for minor problems with the optical jukebox.

Advantages and Disadvantages

VRS has derived the following benefits from imaging:

Improved indexing through fewer operator keystrokes and improved accuracy;
Greater coordination of documents on optical disk with documents and information (e.g., documents imported from DIT mainframe; index; name, social security number, and retirement date changes) on magnetic disk;
More efficient use of disk storage by being able to integrate documents on magnetic disk with documents on optical disk through the index, thereby eliminating the necessity of storing all documents in less efficient image form on optical disk;
More efficient staff usage because of the integrated disk storage noted above by permitting some documents to be retained on magnetic disk, thereby eliminating the need to scan all documents onto optical disk;
Better inquiry capability;
Less paper usage, reproduction, and storage;
More efficient staff usage because of time saved searching for documents, fewer returned telephone calls, and elimination of many repetitive processes;
Immediate and concurrent access to documents;
Better document control from the moment they are received;
Better coordination of newly received documents with related open cases;
Automatic retrieval of documents when certain types of cases are created;
Automatic document routing to appropriate workstations;
Automatic tickler file and pending work capabilities;
Better supervisor control over operator workloads; and
Better audit trails at document and case levels.

The disadvantages of the imaging system are as follows:

Slower data entry because of the need to use multiple windows on the computer screen (but this is more that offset by the overall speed of processing a document from its receipt to the time the case it initiated is closed);
Some VRS operators are disturbed because the system has taken away their control of case processing and relieved them of most decision-making; and
The system is complex and will be difficult to maintain.

The Future

Enhancements being considered by VRS for the future include:

Input and output to facsimile transmission;
Notebook computers linked to the imaging system for field personnel; and
Links to other agencies and companies with which VRS has operational ties.

Detailed System Description

This section describes the operational flow of the VRS imaging system as documents are processed at the LAN workstations. The system has the following special capabilities:

Document images from optical disk are displayed on one part of the user's screen, and data from the database and text from word processing or other system facilities are displayed on the other part of the screen. Through these windows on the screens, the user can integrate optical images with data and word processing text.
The system can import WordPerfect word processing documents from personal computers and computer-generated letters from the DIT mainframe, store these documents as data or text files on magnetic disk, and use them with documents from optical disk in case processing.
Telephone slips and notes can be appended to cases, and comments can be added to cases and documents.
In some functions, such as indexing and entering tax information, programs have been set up to work with the personal computer's mouse to perform specific groups of entries. Known in VRS as a programmable mouse, this saves operator keystrokes and is being expanded as other opportunities arise.
There is a menu-driven capability to revise system settings for workflow routing, document retrieval when preparing a case to be processed, and maintenance procedures.

When a document is received at VRS, it is batched by document type, scanned into the imaging system, and indexed. This creates an audit trail and permanent record of each document.

Indexing is accomplished using the programmable mouse. The document type and date are obtained automatically during scanning. Upon entry of the member's social security number, the programmable mouse causes a search for the member's name. First, the AS/400 database (which contains data on imaged and microfilmed documents) is searched, and if the member is not found, the DIT mainframe database is searched. After visual verification of the retrieved name against the name on the document, the indexing is completed by clicking the mouse. As an example of the keystrokes saved by the programmable mouse, the entire indexing is accomplished by entering the social security number and clicking the mouse twice.

As a result of scanning, the system automatically performs the following:

Assigns a process type to the document based on the nature of the document;
Checks to see whether there is already an open case for that member and, if not, opens a new case;
Subject to user override, routes the document to predefined workstations based on its process type;
Retrieves from optical disk any documents that will be needed with the process type, associates them with the case, and places them on magnetic disk for faster retrieval while the case is open; and
Determines whether there are other open cases to which the new document should be sent and distributes the document accordingly.

Then the VRS operator, whom the supervisor designates by placing the document in his or her work queue, can work on it. When the document comes to the top of the queue, which can be sorted in various sequences, its image is displayed on the right side of the operator's screen while data from the database (e.g., on the member or the case), text from relevant word processing documents, and controls to initiate other system functions are displayed on the left side. The operator processes the case using these screens to retrieve and display the needed images, data, and text.

Many cases cannot be completed in one step because they require follow-up documents and other activities. The system maintains a pending file of such cases, which are removed from the operator's active queue while they are pending. Alerts are automatically generated if the case remains pending more than a predefined number of days, or the case is returned to the active queue if the required documents are received.

When all work on a case is completed, the case is closed. The system maintains an audit trail of everything that happens during the case, and VRS has purchased report generation software to produce management reports based on the audit data.

The system provides a special screen that permits the supervisor to monitor and control operator workloads.

Conclusions

VRS is delighted with its imaging system. It says it was worth the money, time, and effort expended to plan for it, obtain it, install it, and make it work. Imaging in general and its system in particular were right for VRS because it (1) needs to distribute specific types of documents to workstations that process those document types; (2) has several operators working on a document concurrently; (3) needs to integrate imaging, data, and text; (4) needs to group information received over many years; and (5) needs to locate files and information rapidly.

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