Corporation of Town of Ajax

The Town of Ajax is located in Ontario, Canada and has a population of approximately 110,000. All nine of its departments have been ISO 9001 certified since 1997, making the Town of Ajax the first fully registered municipality in North America. The municipality employs over 300 full-time staff and approximately 500 additional part-time staff during their peak summer months.

Challenge

• Replace multiple binders across departments with one central, accessible location
• Reduce time and resources dedicated to meeting Document Control requirements of ISO 9001
• Ensure version control and audit preparedness

Intelex Solution

Document Control
Intelex’s Document Control Software application simplifies the way organizations access, share, edit and store their documents

Results

• Achieved significant reduction in administrative effort by streamlining business processes
• Simplified ISO 9001 compliance with the creation of a consistent audit trail
• Ensured employees always have access to the most up-to-date documentation
• Digitized over 10,000 documents, saving physical space and simplifying retrieval process

Objective

The Town of Ajax was looking for an electronic document management system to replace their paper-based system, which had become "an administrative nightmare." The municipality was keeping 27 sets of binders across their departments with hard copies of their ISO 9001 quality documentation, and every time a document was created, edited or updated, 27 copies had to be printed, distributed and added to each binder.

Not only was this time-consuming, but there was a lack of version control, disparity across the departments, and sometimes last-minute scrambling to ensure audit preparedness. The Town of Ajax needed a system that would allow them to better manage their ISO 9001 documentation, including operating procedures, work instructions and related forms.

Implementation

After releasing an RFP, the Town of Ajax received several proposals. Intelex was identified as the software provider most capable of delivering a cost-effective solution that would support their ISO 9001 certification. Automated email notifications would drive annual reviews and streamline the approval process, and the software would also create a consistent, reliable audit trail. Their purchase of the Intelex solution coincided with the implementation of a new version of the ISO 9001 standard and so the Town of Ajax simultaneously updated their documentation as they uploaded it into the Intelex system.

The end result was a clean, accessible centralized location for employees (and auditors) to find the most up-to-date documentation and conduct reviews and approvals when necessary. The Town of Ajax has been an Intelex client now for more than a decade, and continues to rely on Intelex as a one-stop-shop for all their necessary documentation.

Efficiency Gains

• Significantly reduced the time and resources needed to continue meeting their ISO 9001 certification requirements.
• Uploaded more than 10,000 documents into Intelex's Document Control system, eliminating the need to maintain 27 binders and control thousands of pieces of paper.
• Simplified document retrieval process and saved physical space by storing all critical business documents in one web-based location, including not just quality documentation but also by-laws, corporate policies, letterhead, and scanned engineering drawings.
• Ensured timely completion of annual document reviews and streamlined the approval process with automated email notifications.
• Increased confidence in version control and audit preparedness, eliminating the need for any last-minute scrambling.