Judging from the number and size of manuals issued and maintained by Washington State’s Administrative Office of the Courts, it’s easy to understand why Webmaster Virginia Neal finds in favor of Transit Solutions.
“It’s a 21st-century solution that automates the whole process of keeping our 100-plus manuals updated online. A printed version of each manual would range in thickness from one to three inches, and some manuals are comprised of two volumes. Without Transit Solutions, the sheer volume of paper would be extremely difficult to manage.”
The manuals that focus on regulations for judicial proceedings (from municipal courts to the State Supreme Court) are subject to frequent code changes determined by the Legislature. Manuals containing internal administrative policies and procedures are constantly evolving as well. “It all adds up to a flurry of activity that Transit Solutions helps us keep under control, and it saves us an immeasurable amount of time,” says Neal.
She recalls what it was like before her office brought on Transit Solutions. “We’ve come a very long way from printing and mailing updates—lots of paper and postage. We eliminated those costs when we began emailing updates. But there was still a great deal of manual intervention and burden on the courts. The updates had to be printed out and inserted in paper binders. Then Transit set us free to create an independent, browser-based web system. Now we can make changes electronically, so the latest information is always available, without any IT involvement. Plus, users—court clerks, administrators and judges—can access the most current manuals anytime, from anywhere.”
LIKE CLOCKWORK
Transit Solutions automates posting new manuals and updating existing manuals. “I’d say 90 percent of our content is in Microsoft® Word documents, so Transit’s a huge timesaver for the manual owners, who are all in my agency. It automatically converts Word into HTML using the appropriate template,” Neal explains.
She adds, “The content owners are web-challenged, so Transit makes it easy for them to maintain the manuals. It allows them to work in Word, an environment they’re comfortable with, rather than HTML. They find the whole process very easy to use.”
Neal set up over 100 scheduled tasks for Transit Solutions. The software checks every 15 minutes to determine if any updates have been posted to a designated folder. If it detects a change, Transit converts the Word document to HTML and posts the page in a staging area for review by the content owner. As soon as the owner approves the content, it is sent into production within the proper online manual.
“Transit runs like clockwork,” says Neal. “It keeps our system for updating manuals running like a charm.”
