251 - Electronic Filing - Snohomish County Clerk's Office

As the third largest Clerk's Office in Washington State and the largest county to implement Tyler Technologies Odyssey Case Manager (OCM) application in May 2016, the Snohomish County Clerk (Clerk) requests to implement electronic filing (e-filing), at the earliest possible date, using Tyler Technologies Odyssey File and Serve (OFS) platform. Snohomish County intends to negotiate an e-filing contract, as a single-source procurement, directly with Tyler Technologies. Since meeting with AOC in mid-2017 to discuss implementing e-filing, the Clerk has been working with Tyler Technologies to develop an OFS implementation plan which would have minimal to no impact to AOC resources.

Following Snohomish County's implementation of OCM, the Clerk requested funding from Snohomish County Council to implement e-filing which was approved in our 2017 budget. At that time we were unaware of our dependency on AOC to implement e-filing, regardless of application or vendor selected, due to how OCM is configured and centralized at AOC. This fact coupled with the fact that AOC does not have resources to commit to e-filing until 2019 or later has left Snohomish County with an approved local technology project and requisite funding, but with the inability to move the project forward. Additionally, e-filing is and has been the Clerk's number one technology priority since implementing OCM, and it has been the number one request from our large customer base for several years.

Moreover, while we were able to move funding from 2017 to 2018, the Clerk is at risk of losing this funding if not expended, or at least partially expended, in 2018.

Based on the lack of available AOC resources as well as their infrastructure costs required to deploy OFS, the Clerk worked with Tyler Technologies to develop a new proposal that would have minimal (i.e. one half day) to no impact on AOC resources and would allow Snohomish County to move forward with e-filing. Tyler Technologies is proposing two implementation options:

1. Integrated Model Solution: This would start with a manual configuration which would be accomplished by Tyler Technologies. Over time, full configuration would be completed as AOC resources become available. This option would:

• Integrate with OCM;
• Shift data entry to the filer;
• Reduce a great percentage of Clerk data entry; Clerk staff would transition from data entry to review and validation of filings, which is much more efficient.

AOC Impacts: If properly resourced and managed by Tyler Technologies, there would be minimal impact to AOC (i.e. approximately one half day of AOC staff resources).

2. Manual Model Solution: This would get OFS implemented for use by customers while the back-end (i.e. Clerk's processes) would continue to be manual. This option would:

• Get Snohomish County started with e-filing;
• Require manual data entry into Odyssey OCM, which replicates over-the-counter work performed by the Clerk today;
• Proven to be three (3) times more efficient than paper processes.

AOC Impacts: Zero impact to the AOC resources.

Note: Clerk prefers option 1).

The Clerk and Tyler Technologies e-filing team would like to meet with AOC to discuss the latest proposal at the earliest possible date.

With Snohomish County's implementation of OCM in May 2016, the Clerk discontinued the creation and use of a physical court file. While this was a major change for both the Clerk and Superior Court, it has provided efficiencies resulting in significant cost savings and the reallocation of resources to other critical areas. However, the front-end process of document filing and processing remains paper-based and is extremely resource driven. As a result, this continues to limit the Clerk's and Superior Court's ability to further streamline processes that e-filing would provide. Benefits include but are not limited to:

• Improved customer services and access by eliminating requirement to file paper documents;
• Improved judicial officer access and decision making;
• Improved efficiencies using electronic workflows, work queues, digital signatures, etc.;
• Reduced operational costs;
• Increased productivity through automation of current paper-based processes;
• Ability to handle increases in Clerk workload without additional resources;
• Eliminates approximately 75% of paper filed documents (once e-filing is mandatory);
• Standardization and compatibility of software; one vendor versus separate e-filing vendor.

Implementing e-filing in Snohomish County now will ultimately benefit AOC in the future should they look into implementing OFS statewide.