In the course of its proceedings, the PRC handles thousands of documents which have to be collated, organized, and ultimately distributed to Commission members and staff, case participants, and interested citizens. Documents relating to the same issue are organized into a docket, which can grow to include legal pleadings, complex witness testimony and cross-examination, and procedural documents. Historically, hard copies of these documents were either hand-carried to the PRC office or sent via mail, with submissions sometimes consisting of thousands of pages.

Additionally, participants making submissions were responsible for mailing their documents to every other case participant. At the PRC, each document was hand stamped with the date and time received, distributed internally, and filed for public reference. For every docket, the number of pages could grow to tens of thousands, and each page might have been copied and distributed over 150 times. The manual duplication and distribution process meant over a million physical pages could change hands during the course of a single case. With printer operating costs, postage, and other distribution expenses, the cost of this paper-intense process could easily exceed $150,000 per year.

Business Challenge

The Postal Rate Commission needed to overhaul its paper-based docket filing system to enable electronic submission and disclosure of documents, effectively eliminating costs, improving efficiency, and making the system more accessible to regular users and the general public.

Solution

Like other government agencies, the PRC wanted to migrate its paper-based processes to electronic systems to help improve efficiency and increase public access. For the PRC, providing online access required a two-phased approach, to effectively deal with both its document distribution and submission processes. After investigating alternatives, the PRC decided upon PDF as its preferred format, realizing its platform-independence, portability, and inherent ubiquity. The first phase of the project involved manually scanning paper submissions to PDF, enabling the PRC to make its documents electronically available for viewing or printing. Although the resultant PDFs were easier to access, the next step involved finding and implementing a more efficient alternative to manual scanning.

Tackling this second phase proved a bit more challenging – the PRC needed to extend PDF creation to filing submitters. Because submissions could be sent from citizens as well as organizations and government entities, the PRC wanted to accomplish its goal without requiring end users to purchase additional software, necessitating server-side conversion. Since original documents could be submitted in unidentified native formats, the PRC required a solution that would enable on-the-fly conversion to PDF from a variety of file types. Once the documents were converted, they could easily be stored and accessed from a secure section of the PRC’s website.

After investigating available server-based software offerings, the PRC selected activePDF as its preferred vendor based on product cost-effectiveness and ease of implementation. Choosing from activePDF’s robust product line, the PRC selected a combination of activePDF Server, DocConverter, Toolkit, and PDFPrint to fulfill all of its requirements.

Integrating activePDF Server and DocConverter into its proprietary Web-based interface, the PRC enabled users to quickly and easily convert over 280 different file formats directly to PDF. PDF conversion options are controlled on the server, so user involvement is kept to a minimum. Submitters simply choose documents to upload and click OK – conversion occurs transparently. Since both Server and DocConverter are engineered for multi-threaded processing, simultaneous submissions are handled seamlessly, without requiring users to wait in a queue.

Once conversion to PDF is complete, the PRC uses activePDF Toolkit to merge related documents into a single navigable PDF file. Toolkit also helps the PRC to replace its hand-stamping process with a more streamlined approach – using information retrieved from the server, Toolkit automatically stamps critical information onto each PDF, without requiring end-user intervention.

After this post-processing is completed, submitted documents are posted to the Daily Listing section of the PRC’s Website. Published each day, this listing provides users with an index of submissions for viewing or printing. Since many users still require hard copies of documents, the PRC has integrated activePDF PDFPrint into the Daily Listing to enable quick and easy batch printing. Upon selecting desired documents from a simple web form, online users simply click an integrated “Print” button to send the entire batch to their default printer – page after page is printed directly through the client browser, without ever invoking a PDF viewing application. Case participants also benefit from the PRC’s new system, as they no longer need to spend significant amounts of time, money, and effort distributing hard copies of their filings to other participants.

Recently awarded the 2003 e-Gov Pioneer Award for its innovative use of technology, the PRC’s implementation of activePDF products has effectively eliminated most of its paper-based processing, reduced foot traffic into its office, and ultimately created a much more cost-effective and efficient process. In fact, the process has become so streamlined, that in a recent case a motion, an objection to the motion, and a reply to the objection were all filed on the same day – a process that historically could easily have taken a week, now can be completed within a few hours.

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