Lyon County Maximizes Time With Efficient Records Management Solutions

Industry: County Government
Location:Yerington, Nevada
Number of Employees:4
Population:51,579
Tyler Client Since: 2017
Tyler Products Used: Records Management, Records Public Access

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Challenge

It is hard to do your job effectively when you must rely on multiple systems to get things done. That was the case for the Lyon County, Nevada recorder's office. It relied on separate systems for recording, indexing, scanning, and verifying land and official records. Employees spent considerable time moving back and forth between screens and applications to accomplish their daily tasks – time that could have been spent doing other things in their already busy office.

Dawna Warr, retired Lyon County Recorder, had dreams of switching software providers to solve this issue; however, ongoing budget constraints made those dreams seem unattainable. Her staff had already dropped from seven to four employees, and several county officials felt a switch was unnecessary or not financially prudent since the current software worked. In December 2016, the county came to the realization that it had to make a switch. Its current records management software provider was going out of business. Dawna and her team had to act fast to find a new provider that could deliver all the features and functions her small office needed at a reasonable cost.

After doing the research and reviewing all available options, Dawna and team chose to go with Tyler Technologies in 2017. They chose Tyler's Records Management and Records Public Access solutions to meet their records management needs.

Solution

Implementing a new records management solution is a big deal, especially when two Lyon County staff members had been using the legacy system for more than 16 years. While it was a normal expectation for these long-time legacy users to be nervous, the transition to Records Management could not have been any easier.

"It was so easy to learn," Dawna explained. "I mean the ease of the whole program was just mind blowing. The hardest part was learning that we didn't have to keep going to another system."

That was Dawna's favorite part — her staff didn't have to use multiple systems to perform daily recording functions anymore. The county could accomplish everything inside its new software.

"In Tyler, no matter what you record, it's all in the same system," Dawna said. "No matter what you index, it's all in the same system. No matter what you verify, it's all in the same system. If you need to correct something, it's all in the same system. We don't have to go anywhere else, and it's amazing."

Staff members were able to save time with every document they recorded, especially when e-recording. Notifications let them know when a new document or set of documents were ready to record. Then they could review, approve, record, and index all those documents electronically, instead of having to struggle with printed files.

Records Public Access further multiplied the county's time and resource savings by offering online access and service. Constituents no longer had to come down to the county office and wait in line. They could conduct research or request document recording anywhere with internet access.

When constituents call in and ask for copies of their deeds, Dawna and her team direct them to the self-service option. They only need to walk them through the website one time step-by-step before they feel comfortable finding what they need on their own, saving the office from additional potential calls that take staff away from other tasks.

Offering a self-service option also strengthened Lyon County's relationship with title companies, which it deals with from counties nearby and all the way to California. To operate their businesses at peak efficiency, it is critical for title companies to find the title information they need quickly and easily online. Judson Klinger, owner of Datasource, a company that provides online property information in Nevada, appreciates how Lyon County has made it easy for him to do his job.

"The new search capabilities offered through Lyon County's website are fantastic, and they have helped me to easily find relevant title information. The interface and advanced functionality that is enabled is a major benefit to title companies and title abstractors looking for county records and helps us do our jobs better."

The new software solutions have helped free up county resources, and at the same time, connected citizens and empowered them to get more involved in their local government.

Results

By being more efficient, Lyon County continues to operate with its small staff and still get all the work done it needs to, without feeling overly stressed. Employees have streamlined processes and saved countless time required to complete both daily and monthly tasks.

When using their old legacy system, it would take Dawna and her staff over an hour and a half to record a package containing 10 documents. With Records Management, it only takes 20 minutes.

County staff have also reduced the amount of time spent completing end-of-month procedures. All the reports needed to close out the month used to take an entire workday to print, fill in, and balance. With Records Management, it only takes an hour and a half. No one stresses over the last day of the month anymore. The system simplifies the process of generating reports and makes it easy for you to find the information you need.

"Every recording there's a dollar here, three dollars there, five dollars here, and you had to make sure all of those were correct," Dawna said. "And some of those we would have to go through our receipts for every day of that month and make sure they were the same as what was on our end of month report. In Tyler, we click a button and we tell it which report we want and for how long and it spits it out. We don't have to add up anything."

All these condensed processes and time savings forced Dawna to go back and simplify her training manual. "I was sitting down and working on our training manual and there were so many things I had to take out of there that don't apply anymore because of the Tyler system," Dawna said.

When Dawna and her team run into issues, the support center is there to help. The center is staffed by knowledgeable employees certified by the Help Desk Institute, a leading organization dedicated to helping groups improve their levels of service and support.

"The customer service is just amazing," Dawna said. "When it's some little thing we want fixed right now, we just call support and they are on the ball. Sometimes I know it's not important to them, but they know it's important to us and they get right on it." Dawna continued, "A lot of times, more than once, I have called support on something and they'll come onto my computer and look at what I am talking about. Then they say, well I noticed this, and I think if we tweak that a little bit we can make it do this and it'll be a lot nicer." The support team is there to do more than just fix problems. It also offers suggestions on how you can do things to better utilize the system to meet your needs.

In the end, Lyon County staff members are happy with the move to Tyler. They accomplish more in less time and better serve their citizens using a single, unified records management system.

Delivering Advanced Functionality to the Modern Recording Office

Tyler's land and official records management solution has been an industry leader for 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 land records, transfer documents, trust deeds, mortgages, Uniform Commercial Codes (UCC), records, tax liens, and more.

You can tackle your biggest financial and recording challenges with features that ensure:

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