No Police Agency Should be Forced to Operate without PowerDMS
April 22, 2021
No Police Agency Should be Forced to Operate without PowerDMS
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with PowerDMS
A police department runs on communication, and inevitably, paperwork. Adrian Police Department is leveraging PowerDMS to improve internal communication and simply workflows, document distribution, training, public access to records, policy management, and accreditation assessment. Currently, we are the only Department in our City using PowerDMS. The other Departments within the City use another product, that lacked functionality for police use. All employees and police reserve officers have access to PowerDMS, via a web-based application and smartphone app. This gives 24/7, world-wide access to all forms, schedules, and training, requiring only a web-enable device. We are also able to complete our accreditation compliance assessment within the application, using proofs that are real documents, updated in real time. In short, all business functions of the police department rely on PowerDMS, while all law enforcement functions are air-locked in a separate records management system.
- Policy management- [Users] sign for, and can take [tests] to prove understanding of policy right in the application. As [the] policy is updated, old versions are retained, so that we not only know what a policy contains, we can track changes and provide information on what a policy was at any given time in the past.
- Training- Users receive notifications when training is due and are guided to complete the training. If the training requires recertification, PowerDMS can be configured to alert the user that re-training is needed, without a supervisor needing to keep track. All documents used in training, including presentations and videos, can be contained in the PowerDMS course, so we can prove not only that an employee was trained, but exactly what curriculum was use din any given training.
- Accreditation Assessment- [Our] accreditation standards manual is uploaded directly into PowerDMS. Proofs are accomplished using the actual policy and procedure, as well as the documents created during the workday. There is absolutely no duplication of effort.
- Communications accountability- Email [can] be read and forgotten. With PowerDMS, a document can be distributed for user signatures, insuring that the user took affirmative action to read and understand the document.
- Due to the immense capability of this product, learning the product can be daunting.
- As with any new system, learning the "language" of PowerDMS is essential. Sometimes they don't call things the same thing you do.
- Good software services are never cheap, and neither is PowerDMS.
- Accountability- [Documents] are acknowledged by signature.
- Transparency- Any document can be made public and displayed on a public-facing website. This is accomplished by simply checking a box, and requires no additional programming
- Portability- Our working information is available to all employees and all times.
- We have approximately 150,000 pages of documents saved in PowerDMS. None of those are stored on paper.
- We have reduced the time needed to prove the accreditation assessment by at least 2/3
- We have greatly improved our workflow and accountability, saving endless hours of meetings and the time taken previously to access records.
Our previous document product was Image Silo. It was a stable-enough product, but was strictly an indexed filing system. PowerDMS goes well beyond indexing (which it does very well) and provides countless more features and functions as described above. I would describe the difference between our previous product and PowerDMS like the difference between the library and the Internet. Both contain information, but on is limited, while the other has it all.
Do you think PowerDMS by NEOGOV delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with PowerDMS by NEOGOV's feature set?
Yes
Did PowerDMS by NEOGOV live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of PowerDMS by NEOGOV go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy PowerDMS by NEOGOV again?
Yes