In the late 1990s, QFlow Systems built and implemented a custom Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) for a division within the Defense Information Systems Agency of the United States government. The division within the Agency provides information technology contracting services for federal organizations.
The Challenge
The custom solution served the needs of the division for many years, managing contract documents at all stages of the contracting process (Pre-Solicitation, Solicitation, Post-Award). As business needs and technology evolved, the division began experiencing problems with keeping the system up to date and meeting security standards.
As time passed, the system required more of the division’s IT resources to keep it operational. Maintenance on the system was becoming increasingly time consuming, because issues needed to be tracked to individual workstations within the division. IT support was also required to install the system on new workstations.
QFlow continued to provide support for EDMS, and the division explored COTS options to modernize the system. However, none of the softwares they experimented with were successful in providing the functionality they needed for document processing.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in spring 2020. Like so many employers across the globe, the division worked quickly to transition to having its employees work remotely. However, employees were not able to access the EDMS from their home computers—meaning they could no longer view or process contract documents electronically.
The Solution
The division was introduced to Q-Action as a potential solution that would alleviate the challenges of the legacy EDMS. The QFlow Systems team used its knowledge of the EDMS system to provide a tailored version of Q-Action that matched the division’s exact needs.
Replacing the legacy system with the web-based Q-Action would allow the division’s employees to regain productivity while staying safe working remotely. The security built into Q-Action also met the needs of the division in storing confidential information.
Toward the end of the implementation, QFlow’s team worked around the clock for weeks during the final push to replace the legacy EDMS in the middle of the pandemic. Once implemented, the tailored version of Q-Action entirely replaced the functionality of the custom EDMS.
The Results
Q-Action’s native functionality already included many of the features that the division needed, and the QFlow team tailored workflows accordingly. Because Q-Action was already well suited to meet the division’s needs, QFlow was able to implement the system quickly and cost-effectively.
With Q-Action in place, division employees were able to resume pre-COVID productivity while working from home with secure access to the system from anywhere with internet connectivity. The division’s IT resources now carry less burden since the software no longer needs to be installed on individual workstations.
Ongoing maintenance and updates are also much easier for the division now. Since Q-Action is a COTS software, QFlow continuously provides updates to the platform without the need to involve customer IT teams.
Conclusion
On top of receiving a modernized version of EDMS with all of their needed functionality, the division now has a document management and workflow platform that is scalable. Q-Action has the ability to easily expand to serve other groups and organizations within the Agency with similar needs. The Q-Action platform also has the built-in capability to easily conform to the future needs of the division, including records management and other follow-on enhancements. Because of Q-Action, the division can work more efficiently and securely—during the pandemic and beyond.