Agenda - 04-17-2000-8i - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: April 17, 2000 Action Agenda Item No.g SUBJECT: Acquisition of Register of Deeds Imaging System DEPARTMENT: Register of Deeds PUBLIC HEARING: (YIN) No ATTACHMENT(S): 4/12/00 HCI "Assessment and Recommendations Report" 3/13/00 Proposal from Mackin Imaging Systems INFORMATION CONTACT: Joyce Pearson, ext 2676 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To consider approving agreements for the acquisition and implementation of imaging and retrieval software for the Register of Deeds (ROD) Office, and associated equipment and services. BACKGROUND: Beginning in 1990, the Register of Deeds Office had the capability to scan and retrieve images of vital records such as births, deaths, marriages and Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)` certificates. This capabi~ty was provided by the GeneSys system, which beginning. in 1998 became increasingly obsolete and unsupportable. The result has been that for approximately two years, the ROD has been without a scanning and retrieval capability for these records. Staff have examined a number of options for regaining this capability, and received a number of proposals and estimates as to the potential costs of "buying" off the shelf software already written, or "building" software written specifically to meet the specifications laid out by the Orange County ROD. With the encouragement of the Information Technology Committee, staff retained the services of Harshman Consulting, Inc. (HCI) to evaluate the "buy vs. build" options and provide advice to the Register of Deeds on how to proceed. HCI, owned by Cy Harshman, has over 20 years of experience in both building and deploying optical imaging systems in a variety of State and local government settings. HCI has evaluated the "buy vs. build" options on the table and as noted in the attached report, has recommended that ROD proceed to acquire and install existing software from Mackin Imaging Systems, along with associated hardware and support services. The Mackin system has been in operation in Watauga County for over one year and reportedly is very well regarded by their Register of Deeds staff. It performed well during a demonstration visit to Watauga by the Register of Deeds, Mr. Harshman, and Information Systems staff.