A state Department of Transportation gained productive team members to help digitalize processes
Going digital
In an effort to modernize, a state's Department of Transportation (DoT) needed to digitize 27,000 paper files. But converting a backlog of stored and archived files to electronic versions while maintaining day-to-day operations was challenging. The department needed an end-to-end solution that could handle a range of document types and meet a variety of process, regulatory, and security mandates. It also knew it was likely to see inconsistent requirements across various divisions in the department and have ad-hoc requests that were difficult to foresee.
"The quality of work was outstanding. Previous digitization projects have been slow, tedious, and prone to errors due to the repetitive nature of the work. When we tried to use machines for scanning, the results were less than perfect. With the new team, we knew the job would be done right because they scanned each file by hand, and they paid attention to detail."
Creating meaningful work
The governor of this state at the time believed that everyone deserves the chance to experience the self-fulfillment, confidence, and gratification that comes from a good job. He needed a roadmap that would facilitate employment for neurodivergent individuals to support residents of his state.
The governor reached out to CAI Neurodiverse Solutions to help build that roadmap. CAI uses an innovative process for recruiting and interviewing neurodivergent individuals so they can showcase their unique talents in a non-threatening and supportive environment. CAI handles the selection process along with developing and conducting a workforce development training and competency assessment designed to prepare candidates to be successful in the work environment. Four individuals were hired for the team and received support that was tailored toward their social and technical needs in the context of the digitization project.
"Everyone we worked with at CAI was solution-oriented in their approach to both customer service and client delivery. They consistently provided metrics and status updates for both measurement and planning purposes. Throughout our engagements, I was continually impressed with how evolved their operation is, and how they consistently met our needs in converting more than 27,000 files."
Meeting the challenge
To complete the project on time, the team needed to upload 1,800 documents a day; the new team exceeded this goal by completing 2,000 to 2,200 documents a day. In fact, the state DoT was so pleased with the team, it committed to continuing the contract even after the backlog was completed. Five years later, the team grew to 9 analysts and continued to meet or exceed the daily contract requirements with an error rate of 2 percent or less.
The state DoT contracted with CAI to provide as many as 30 team members, who have integrated into the Archives team, which is responsible for indexing files and rolls of film, and the Historical and Cultural Affairs team, which is responsible for digitizing all the historic properties for the state. This information has been made public and readily available on the Cultural & Historical Resource Information System.
The state DoT contracted with CAI to provide a team that delivered an end-to-end solution for digitizing more than 25,000 documents. The team outpaced the daily goal and far exceeded expectations for productivity and accuracy.
