Going Paperless with Minimum Pain and Maximum Benefit

Author: Evelyn J. Graham, President, Presynct Technologies, Inc. Page 1 of 4

Paperless incident reporting is the goal of just about every law enforcement agency, but it
has primarily been achieved only by larger law enforcement agencies. How can a smaller
agency with a very limited budget and little or no technology support staff go paperless?

Just as importantly, why does a small law enforcement agency even need to go paperless?

Paperless incident reporting offers measurable (dollar) savings in staff time, office supplies,
and postage. Paperless gets the information where it needs to be in the shortest amount of
time. Paperless protects privacy when it needs to be preserved. Paperless solves the data
sharing problem.

So how does the smaller agency go paperless with minimum pain and maximum benefit?
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). SaaS is a concept that is as old as your telephone and
electric services where users ‘subscribe’ to the service and pay a monthly fee for on-
demand dial-tone and power. Customers don’t own the dial tone or the power grid, and
they don’t have to repair it when the service goes down. Your cell phone, 2-way radio,
Blackberry, and Internet access are all Software-as-a-Service. If your dispatch is a shared
CAD, your agency operations already benefit from SaaS.

Subscribing instead of purchasing software is oftentimes the only way the smaller law
enforcement agency can move into the 21st century technologically and get the same
sophisticated, state-of-the-art functionality that larger agencies deploy. Without such
technology, critical information that exists in the smaller agency is neither shared nor widely
disseminated, and the public safety data sharing and interoperability initiatives at all levels
of government are hindered in their mission. I’m sure most of you recall learning about the
April 2001 incident when the Sheriff in Broward County, Florida, stopped the vehicle of
Mohamed Atta, one of the men responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and issued Atta
a ticket for driving without a license. Authorities now believe Atta was at the controls of one
of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Centers. Although Atta was on a U.S.
government “watch list” for terrorist activities, Broward didn’t have access to the
information.

Let’s look at the experience of the Dos Palos Police Department which is on the leading-edge
in law enforcement with the use of SaaS. The Department performs general law
enforcement duties for the City of Dos Palos, CA, which has a population of +/- 5,000 in
western Merced County. There are 15 sworn officers in the Department. Dos Palos has an
off-site RMS and an outside contract for CAD services from a regional provider.

The Chief had been looking at purchasing an RMS/CAD of their own, but prices were well
over their budget. Then, without warning, the old PC-based incident report writing system
Dos Palos was using suddenly crashed. There was no electronic archive or storage of the
data anywhere, and all of Dos Palos’ incident data was lost when the system crashed.
Obviously, quick action was called for.

In their search for a system to replace the software that crashed, Dos Palos defined their
objective as quickly implementing a state-of-the-art digital incident reporting application
that improves efficiency in incident report writing, while serving as a reliable offsite storage
system for record archiving. The goals were (1) software that is accessible wherever the
Internet is reachable, including laptops in police vehicles, PC’s in the office, and mobile
devices; (2) a system that can be implemented quickly because the existing system crashed
completely and was no longer usable; (3) a reliable incident reporting system that

© Copyright 2008-2010 Evelyn J. Graham | All Rights Reserved

Going Paperless with Minimum Pain and Maximum Benefit
Author: Evelyn J. Graham, President, Presynct Technologies, Inc. Page 2 of 4

minimizes the operational expense and IT support associated with hosting and maintaining
a system in-house; and (4) a system that is affordable within the existing budget.

Deciding to subscribe to the Presynct_SaaS paperless incident reporting application was not
a new concept for Dos Palos Police Department. The off-site RMS and the CAD service
contracts were, in fact, software-as-a-service, so they were already familiar with the
significant benefits of SaaS. Chief Barry Mann decided it was better to hire another patrol
officer to support the community than hire IT staff to support a system.

Dos Palos Police Department has been using SaaS paperless incident reporting since August
2007. At first, the subscription was on a month-to-month basis to be sure it would meet
Dos Palos’ needs. “We needed a comprehensive web-based system that can transfer
incident data to other agencies,” according to Chief Mann, “and dollar for dollar
Presynct_SaaS was the best choice. With Presynct, we have a record of all reportable
incidents from petty theft to homicide, and by backing it up locally and saving it remotely,
our files are safe in case of catastrophe.”

SaaS is typically purchased for a fixed monthly fee and, like telephone service, the user
agency determines what and how much information is shared with others. Just getting rid
of the paper is worth the cost of SaaS. According to Chief Mann, the Presynct_SaaS
incident reporting subscription benefits to the Dos Palos Police Department are many,
including:

 Professional Image. Electronic incident reports serve as the professional report

presentation to the District Attorney, the public, and others.
 Feet on the Street. The Department policy is to have at least one of the 15 sworn
officers on the street at all times so that there is always visibility in the community.
Paperless incident reporting facilitates that policy.
 Efficiency and reduced operating costs. Paper and printing costs are eliminated for
report distribution. The District Attorney gets an electronic copy of incident reports and
prints out whatever copies they need for themselves.
 Fast report turnaround. The district attorney’s office appreciates the fast turnaround
of incident reports and the quick response they receive for requests to resend reports or
provide copies of reports to others.
 Affordability. The department’s cell phone bill is more expensive than subscribing to
SaaS incident reporting.
 Quick Implementation. Three weeks after contract signing, the Department was fully
operational using computerized versions of incident report forms. And because
Presynct_SaaS is forms-based at the data entry level, officer training time and user
acceptance are minimized.
 Accurate UCR statistics. With a customized Property Form created for Dos Palos in
the SaaS, the clerk gets details on-line rather than trying to tally statistics from paper
and/or handwritten reports.
 Accessibility. Officers and supervisors have instant access to incident data 24/7
regardless of where they are physically located. All they need is a computer with
internet access and a secure username and password.
 Fully supported at no additional cost. Dos Palos uses their existing hardware
(desktop PCs, laptops, MDC’s) to access the SaaS incident reporting application over a
secure connection. Dos Palos is not responsible for managing the software and does not
need expensive off-site storage for paper based incident reports.
 Disaster recovery solution. The SaaS is part of the Dos Palos COOP (Continuity of
Operations Plan). If the building burns down, all that is needed to be fully operational is

© Copyright 2008-2010 Evelyn J. Graham | All Rights Reserved

Going Paperless with Minimum Pain and Maximum Benefit
Author: Evelyn J. Graham, President, Presynct Technologies, Inc. Page 3 of 4

the patrol car, a pistol, a shotgun, and a laptop for access to the SaaS incident
reporting. The building is just office space.
 Security and Privacy. All data to and from the SaaS are encrypted in transit. Chief
Mann says it would be easier to get crime report data from the courthouse public record
than trying to snag their encrypted data over the secure SaaS Internet connection.
 Trial Period and Discounted Fee. When Dos Palos first signed up for the SaaS
incident reporting, they wanted to make sure the software worked for them so they paid
the subscription fees on a month-to-month basis. Now that they are confident the
system works well, they have taken advantage of the discount that is offered for annual
payments.

The above list of benefits is a good place to begin to evaluate SaaS and determine whether
SaaS is a good fit for your agency. Are these desirable goals? Will SaaS have a positive
impact on your agency’s operations? Can you reallocate any clerical resources to more
mission-critical tasks than typing reports? What expenses can be reduced or eliminated
from the operating budget by going paperless? Is the savings greater than the monthly
cost?

With SaaS, there is nothing to install and no hardware requirements to keep up with. If
there’s a problem, it’s the SaaS provider’s problem, not yours. There is nothing to
maintain. Upgrades are taken care of automatically. Backups are done automatically by
the SaaS provider. You can also do your own data backups, but it’s not necessary.
Deployment is simple – you are up and running in minutes instead of days! SaaS scales
easily to match your organization’s growth pattern. SaaS is pay-as-you-grow. You don’t
have to buy, hold, and pay today for what you think you’ll need tomorrow. Users have
instant, secure access to critical data 24/7/365 regardless of where they are physically
located.

What is the #1 factor blocking SaaS adoption? Trust – being able to give up control in
exchange for benefits.

How does SaaS save you money? The first question is probably “Does SaaS save you
money?” and the answer is “It depends.” First, look at whether the functionality provided
by the SaaS is part of your core mission to protect and serve and whether you can risk
giving up absolute control over the functionality. If it is not part of your core mission, then
look at whether it is a prudent business decision to develop expertise and allocate finite
resources to owning and managing software and the infrastructure and staff to support it.
Look at the extraneous costs, such as setup, training, storage limits, integration, hardware,
etc. Then look at your internal resources, such as personnel, expertise, IT facilities, budget
(capital versus operating), etc.

What are the typical fees for SaaS? SaaS is a pay-as-you-go lease. Fees are typically
per-user, or per transaction, or a fixed amount per month and are typically paid monthly,
quarterly, or annually in advance. Per-user fees are easy to verify; find out if there are any
charges or rebates for terminating a user and whether you can reassign that user license.
Per-transaction fees are tracked by the vendor and periodically billed to the customer; you
should understand how the back-end billing mechanism works and if you can verify the
charges. Fixed-fee-per-month is easy to verify; ask if there is a discount for paying
quarterly or annually.

What are the keys to success with SaaS? The two most important things to look at
when considering SaaS are (1) the contract and (2) the vendor’s corporate culture. Your

© Copyright 2008-2010 Evelyn J. Graham | All Rights Reserved

Going Paperless with Minimum Pain and Maximum Benefit
Author: Evelyn J. Graham, President, Presynct Technologies, Inc. Page 4 of 4

relationship with the SaaS provider is defined in the contract terms and conditions…much
more so when you lease than when you purchase software. The contract terms relating to
data security, data mining, cancellation, exit strategy, data ownership, backup policies, etc.
take on much greater importance with SaaS.

Why is the vendor’s corporate culture so important to success? With SaaS, you need
a service-oriented provider with a track record of consistently delivering exceptional
customer service. When you lease software (SaaS), you have a contractual relationship
with a vendor whose corporate culture is delivering customer service 100% of the time and
developing requirements based on direct user experience and feedback. This is very
different from the corporate culture of a vendor that sells software for on-premise
installation in your agency. When you buy software from a product vendor, you get
physical possession of the product, and you have a contractual relationship with a vendor
whose corporate culture is to install product and turn over management and control of the
application to your agency.

What should you watch out for with SaaS software? Ask if there’s a discount for
annual or quarterly payments? What’s the uptime availability? Does the uptime percentage
include maintenance downtime? What kind of notice do you get about planned downtime?
How often is the application upgraded? What’s the data management approach? Is your
agency’s data securely isolated from other users’ data? Does your data exist in a separate,
discrete database? Can you use a third-party to provide an interface to the application?
What are the data rights policies? How fast can you exit and how much does it cost to
exit? Are there any add-on costs? Read the contract. You might not understand
everything, but you will have a greater familiarity with what you’re signing up for.

A little-understood fact is that “SaaS” (Software-as-a-Service) is not the same as “ASP”

(Application Service Provider). The principal difference between the two business models is
the design of the software being offered. A SaaS application was designed to operate on
the web and to be used multiple customer groups; an ASP application is a software program
that typically was reconfigured to operate on the web and may or may not be used by more
than one group of users (customer). Thus, although both ASP and SaaS are hosted by the
vendor, the architectural differences in the software can affect performance and security in
a hosted environment.

SaaS truly is the smaller agency’s technology path to going paperless with minimum pain
and maximum benefit. The benefits of SaaS to your organization include fixed operational
cost, rapid deployment, cash preservation, optimal resource utilization, productivity
improvements, streamlined operations, and a hedge against obsolescence, upgrades,
maintenance, and support.

For additional information or for assistance putting together the business case for SaaS in your
organization, contact Evelyn Graham, President of Presynct Technologies, Inc., at 866-773-7962 or
egraham@presynct.com.

© Copyright 2008-2010 Evelyn J. Graham | All Rights Reserved