The Paper Chase: Managing Files with Radio Frequency Identification Technology in Government

With limited resources, Westgate had to find a solution that was not only cost-effective, but would be compatible with the county’s complex database program used by many law enforcement organizations in the county. After implementing the 3M system, Westgate reports: “Our benefits are primarily peace of mind, but there are definitely financial gains, including not having to dedicate personnel to file searching. Now I get only one or two e-mails a week asking about a file’s whereabouts, instead of several inquiries a day.”

Likewise, in Prince George’s County, Maryland (suburban Washington, DC), the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court has implemented a system from FileTrail to track its case files, which number up to 40,000 annually. Now, with successful implementation in this circuit, the County is looking at implementing the FileTrail system in other circuits.

Florida State University in Tallahassee has recently become the first educational institution to implement RFID-based file tracking, as its Office of Sponsored Research and Sponsored Research Accounting Services has installed 3M’s RFID file tracking system. According to Judy Hefren, FSU’s Assistant Director of Sponsored-Research Accounting Services, these offices oversee more than 1,200 active research projects, which produce approximately $200 million in grants annually. In support of this effort, the university maintains more than 3,000 project files, to which more than 40 employees have routine access. Hefren recently commented: “Looking for the file that’s critically needed by one person, but is in the possession of someone else, is not a productive way to spend valuable time. A missing file can delay an invoice or interrupt the progression of a project. And with so many people having simultaneous access to thousands of files, the potential for inefficiency is high. We were determined to address that problem.” Florida State thus stands as an early leader in state government use of such file management systems.

Analysis: Time to Put Systems in Place

This is an exciting application area, both from the user perspective and the RFID vendor perspective. Government agencies across the board – not just those dealing with legal issues – will need to seriously examine how such RFID-based file tracking systems can be applied in their organizations. From health care to education to public assistance, government agencies are being held to higher standards for data security and higher expectations in terms of service delivery. RFID-based file tracking can deliver the goods in these areas, while also making good business sense from an ROI standpoint, especially when taking into account the lost man hours that it takes to find misplaced or simply misfiled folders. Thus, we can expect more and more vendors to target the government marketplace, adapting systems from other retail and library applications for file management tasks. 

Conversely, experience and lessons learned in the public sector environment may then enable vendors to craft more and more exciting solutions for file management in other private sector applications. As prices drop on such systems, they will be within range of even the smallest firms. As such, we may see the days of lost files – paper ones at least – become a thing of the past.

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David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator.