Brazoria County Saves Time and Effort for Staff and Public

Industry: County Government
Location: Angleton, Texas
Number of Employees: 16
Population: 330,242
Tyler Client Since: 2012
Tyler Product Used: Records Management, Municipal Justice [powered by Incode® Court], Enterprise Justice [powered by Odyssey®], Enterprise Jury Manager

Challenges

Joyce Hudman has worked for Brazoria County for 20 years, and the county has been with Tyler since 2012. Now serving as Brazoria County Clerk, Joyce has experienced significant progress since her earlier years with the organization and recalled just how challenging it was to manage operations. With four offices serving a population of much more than a quarter-million people, keeping the public well-served and time well-managed was tough without capable technology. Office frustrations existed in simply finding a physical document, interpreting the handwriting on public forms and requests, pushing financials through correctly, and the redundant or doubleentry of data into the system — just to name a few. Her constituents and her office of 16 experienced these challenges daily.

The office needed to streamline its processes to improve convenience for every stakeholder. If a taxpayer needed a record, deed, or other document, the taxpayer might have to visit several offices to acquire the appropriate information, then travel to the recording office to search for documents on public computers or in index books.

“Basically, we wanted to get everything on the computer so the public wouldn’t have to come in and look at or touch a paper file, touch a book to look up their deed, pull that huge book, look for their name, that kind of stuff.”

The goal became clear: gather all the appropriate information digitally so people could get what they need from one location — the recording office, a person’s home, or otherwise. Having easy access to that critical information is important.

“Prior to Tyler, we would have a waiting line for the computers. They would only get 15 minutes at the computer. Anything prior to 1980, they literally had to go search in an index book to find what they were looking for — for a chain of title or order of deed — then go pull that book and volume, find the page, and then ask us for a copy.”

It was a challenge for her staff to simply acquire a copy for the public in her busy office. Constituents needed assistance more rapidly and conveniently, and the office was not meeting expectations.

Solution

When the clerk’s office chose to implement solutions from Tyler in 2012, the Records Management software was the perfect fit for Brazoria County. An easy-to-use system, the software allows her staff to adapt to the change and thrive. The county notices its public adapting to the new technology rapidly and with minimal errors or training. Capable of reducing manual work and keystrokes, optimizing process automation, and indexing and filing documents easily, the Records Management software allows the office to take more governance over its information. The staff is able to accept, identify, and batch process records and documents with minimal effort.

The county has also minimized the effort and headache in searching for documents. Constituents can research and investigate online and submit requests electronically, addressing that growing attention to customer convenience and reducing lines and waits in offices. This digital capability also saves the staff time having to interpret citizens’ handwriting, search tirelessly for the content, and facilitate the exchange of information. Brazoria understands that streamlining the flow of critical information for the county and making documents available to the public online can significantly impact efficiency in the office and the need for overexertion when it comes to everyday tasks.

Now, even physical commutes are eliminated due to the technology changes. With the courthouse already using Enterprise Justice [powered by Odyssey®], documents are scanned and immediately uploaded to the system. The software helps the county to address transparency and share information across offices seamlessly. Prior to implementing a Tyler solution, the office had to post meeting notices manually — someone would receive the meeting notice and drive it over to the courthouse to be posted. Now, any meeting notice is immediately entered in the system and posted on the web for improved transparency, all in a few simple steps.

The clerk’s office, auditors, and information systems teams also worked with Tyler to construct a solution to streamline financial processing. Prior to this specific project, the appropriate data was entered manually, and reports were painstakingly reviewed for extraction with limited ability for customization. This was time consuming and left manual tasks open to potential human error.

The mission was to export one file containing all tender types into a third-party tool to generate specific deposit journals. Now interfacing the current financial system with Records Management, the transactions and files flow through the correct account for each tender group, and the data is extracted with ease. End users also control the format of each field for the extracted files, making report configuration, distribution, and analysis even easier. And if a change to these processes can make such a huge impact on office productivity, consider the additional time savings in other areas of operation.

Results

In the previous system, end-of-month procedures and the closing out of transactions might have taken a week. However, with assistance from Tyler and changes to optimize processes, Brazoria is now able to close out the month in a few hours. Joyce feels the value from this single new efficiency in the office is worth the price of the entire system. Staff now experience the many benefits of using advanced software tools to help the county do more across the board.

Brazoria County now operates with less effort and more efficiency. Bookkeeping tasks take less time. The office saves 30 to 45 minutes per person, per day. Employees can compile data from spreadsheets easily and return custom reports in an automated fashion. Information flows seamlessly across offices so there is less strain on the public to locate what they’re looking for.

The county has progressed to the point where it is now also seeking ways to scan index books so the public can locate and verify information easier — and county officials have reached out to Tyler’s expert staff for support. The county is looking forward to when that portion of operational enhancements can provide additional efficiencies.

The software can tackle the toughest challenges in any office. The organization is humming along with enhanced workflows, less data entry, and a more convenient experience for constituents.

Efficient Records Management and Advanced Functionality at Your Fingertips

Tyler’s land and vital records solution has been an industry leader for more than 40 years by providing the advanced functionality recording offices need to achieve the highest levels of efficiency, accuracy, and customer service. We help you accomplish more with fewer keystrokes and fewer screens.

By using Tyler’s software, you can take advantage of the industry’s most advanced tools to easily manage the recording and filing of your jurisdiction’s official records, transfer documents, trust deeds, mortgages, Uniform Commercial Codes (UCC), records, tax liens, and more. With Records Management, you can tackle your biggest financial and recording challenges with features that ensure:

• Efficient workflow
• Indexing
• Records retrieval
• Imaging
• Cashiering
• Public access

Get Started Today

Contact Tyler today to learn more about our many other best-in-class solutions for your recording office.

Call 800.554.4434

Email recording@tylertech.com

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