SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Closing documents are currently in paper form and require hand signatures. This often requires the expense of overnighting the documents to the owners. If you have people in different offices working on a project, that involves more overnighting documents. Keeping the documents in paper form also makes it harder to track down documents. Allowing all parties to digitally sign and email documents would speed the process... more »

Analyze the funds currently spent on contracts with UPS and Fed Ex to send paper copies of documents (memos, waiver requests) from Field Offices to Headquarters via overnight mail.

Reallocate these funds to develop a simple centralized content management system that allows documents to be submitted online and adds valuable tracking and analytics features.

This could be accomplished with no additional funding by reallocating... more »

All documentation within our systems should be electronic, as it allows us to better manage, organize, store, transport and replicate information. We will save a lot, by implementing this initiative completely. With the production of large amounts of documentation there is a lot of overhead.

Agencies must supply not only the printers but all the parts to maintain them – along with service contracts and of course, paper.... more »

Eliminate funding of Defense Automation Printing Services (DAPS) in-house digital and print production work that is non-mission critical for the Department of Defense (DoD).

Outsource all DoD non-mission critical digital and print production work to the Government Printing Office (GPO).

The GPO has the expertise, an efficient infrastructure, and the largest and most cost-effective procurement organization for outsourcing... more »

If the GPO was required to print government documents only in the English language their budget would shrink to manageable levels. This is a hot button political question right now, but it's a win-win-win. 1.) GPO budget shrinks 2.) interpreters / translators get work 3.) New arrivals are compelled to learn the english language and better integrate into the United States.

We currently provide hard copies of inspection reports and final classification letters (disseminated via FMDs or FOIA requests). Instead, we should make electronic versions, and email them. That way, the Federal Government can cut down furthermore on paper and save some money.

We currently submit hard copies of narrative inspection reports and investigational memos to our supervisors, only to have them marked-up during review. The reports then have to be reprinted. Some of these reports are dozens of pages long.

 

If the review process were electronic, then tons of paper (and money) could be saved, with the added benefit of reducing time printing and reprinting documents.

Synchronize Gov-Trip and ITAS so that it is easier to request, approve and document travel compensation time, rather than having to complete and route hard copy forms to various offices.

Paper documents are subject to reasonable retention periods and procedures. Valuable records are ultimately transferred to NARA, and stale records are scheduled for destruction. Although FRCP 26 (discovery rule) has extended the definition of "documents" in litigation to electronic data, reasonable limits have not been placed on retention of such data. Agencies in litigation are called upon to search and produce obsolete,... more »

In our office, countless pages of paper are wasted because office personnel print out documents only to fax them into an electronic disability claim file. I am sure that this is a common issue throughout the country. Office personnel should be trained on how to submit an electronic copy of the document directly into the case file without having to print it and fax it.

At nearly every military command or defense agency I have worked for, every night watch floors and staffs set to the task of printing hundreds of pages of documents for executive readbooks. Most senior officials only have time to review a fraction of the documents, which are subsequently shredded. This wastes reams of paper and thousands of dollars in labor costs. These documents are already posted online and are readily... more »

Instead of printing a performance plan for review, then another with changes for signature, then a copy with signatures, then a copy for annual review and so forth, provide online performance plans, with electronic password protected signatures which go right into eopf.

Many of us spend hours a day moving paper from one office to another through the clearing process in order to build consensus and input on policy issues. Oten times we are working across agencies and across time-zones with our counterparts across the U.S. and/or at different U.S. embassies around the world.

I propose that agencies engaged in the writing clearance process have a collaborative software developed (similar... more »

All budgets should be submitted electronically to Congress. Departments will send budget documents to printers for the use of Congress, stakeholders, etc. Editing, transmission and reading of budget documents should take place electronically.

Eliminate all use of paper forms by the government, require all government transactions to be conducted electronically. Pay the Postal Service to set up kiosks in their lobbies for use by people who don't have home computers.