Modernizing public records: Faster FOIA responses with millions in savings
This large West coast city was struggling with outdated systems, compliance risks, and delayed FOIA responses. But with RecordPoint, the City brought more than 175TB of content under centralized governance, accelerated its FOIA turnaround, and introduced department-level security controls, saving on time and boosting compliance.
Major West Coast municipality
The customer is a large city on the West coast, that manages up to 20,000 public records requests every year. With a complex data environment that spans Microsoft 365, SharePoint, network drives, and Archivematica, the City turned to RecordPoint to help it govern more than 175TB of content, streamline disclosures, and enforce department-level access controls.
“RecordPoint makes the process much easier and significantly reduces errors, which is the most important part.”
The challenge
Managing public records in a city of more than 700,000 residents is no small feat, especially when request volumes can reach 20,000 per year. Departments were bogged down by manual processes, scattered data, and inconsistent record searches. The stakes were high: slow response times, litigation risk, and a public misstep involving unauthorized data access outside underscored the need for change.
The City faced a few key challenges:
- Overwhelming FOIA volume: With up to 20,000 requests annually, departments were spending months fulfilling each one.
- Scattered content systems: Data spread across Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and 175TB of network drives made record discovery slow and incomplete.
- Disclosure risks: Lacking strict access controls, a department incident involving unauthorized data access triggered a need for secure data segregation.
- Manual compliance risk: Review and response workflows couldn’t scale, putting the City at risk of violating the Public Records Act and federal mandates.
The results
With RecordPoint, the City accelerated its ability to respond to public records requests, gained oversight across massive data volumes, and introduced access controls that protect against over-disclosure.
Key results:
- 20,000 requests managed annually with streamlined discovery
- 175TB+ of content brought under centralized governance
- $13 million in potential savings through faster response times
RecordPoint’s solution enabled:
- Faster FOIA turnaround: PDOs can now search M365 and network drives in minutes—not months.
- Scalable oversight: A centralized, expandable platform supports records management across growing data volumes.
- Department-based access control: ABAC policies ensure PDOs can only access data from their own department.
- Defensible disclosures: Automated categorization and packaging support compliance with PRA requirements.
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