Taking a bite out of IT tedium

With Microsoft and Nintendo of America as neighbors, it’s no surprise that police in Redmond, WA, carry laptops and keep up with technological advances.

The top priority for Redmond police, of course, is law enforcement, so they are loathe to spend more time than necessary bogged down in tedious IT tasks. That’s why the department has chosen a new content management solution that will provide officers with speedy Web publishing and access to critical information.

The department wanted to be able to convert documents, files and photos while maintaining the content’s original format. Before implementing a new Xpedio system from Intranet Solutions, criminal information bulletin authors would hand out or mail the bulletins, which were then posted on a clipboard where employees would read them.

Even after scanning and e-mail capabilities were added, an administrator was needed to oversee publishing the information to the intranet. Because officers and administrative staff are the primary content producers, the department wanted to find a system that did not require a full-time Webmaster to convert information and maintain the site. With the new system, contributors can publish information directly to the site for immediate access by remote staff, with little or no involvement from IT staff.

Now employees in all divisions submit content to the system from their desktops, which is then automatically converted to HTML and published on the intranet. The content varies from 17-page bulletins to briefing information and vacation schedules. Officers in the field who rely on laptops with wireless connections to the Internet can now pull up data files and photos in a fraction of the time, and the most up-do-date content is always posted.

Automatic conversion to HTML dramatically reduces file sizes, while maintaining the original file format. With its support of metadata and XML, the solution also allows users to check in any type of data file--word processing, graphics, spreadsheets, etc.--to an intranet, extranet or Internet site, and update it from any location via a standard browser.