FOIA solution for Dynamics 365

Government agencies must ensure transparency and accountability to the public, and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) plays a crucial role in achieving this. Implementing an effective FOIA solution is essential to comply with laws, enhance transparency, increase efficiency, reduce costs, manage data, engage the public, improve records, handle crises, and facilitate collaboration. In conclusion, an effective FOIA solution is indispensable for government agencies to fulfill their obligations, improve operations, and maintain public trust.

Offering:?

A solution built on Microsoft Power Apps and the PowerPlatform that provides valuable benefits by using a fully automated approach to FOIA request submission and fulfillment. The solution allows FOIA requesters to access a portal to create custom requests for every agency. This automated approach also supports the General Services Administration (GSA) 18F organization discovery goal that a fully automated system minimizes the burden on agencies for supporting the public-facing portal and the back-office workflow-based solution.??

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MERP’s FOIA Solution:?

Email Templates: MERP FOIA Solution uses dynamic email templates for notifications and reminders which can be easily customized by anyone.?

Email to Request: A request can be automatically created when an email is received on a specific mailbox with specific text contains into the subject.?

Reporting: Preconfigured and ad hoc reports provide a 360-degree view of the entire system, including simplified creation of the annual and quarterly FOIA Report. The resulting view can be exported to word, pdf, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, XML etc. formats.?

Audit Log: Auditing feature allows you to track changes made to data in the system. It also tracks each time a user logs into the system. Audit history is maintained on record level as well as field level to track who changed record and when the record gets updated.?

Document Management: The solution uses SharePoint for document management which is very easy to use, productive, efficient way to store and manage the documents. The documents are visible into the sub-grid of related records.?

Role-based Permissions: Give users access to only the information and part of the request which they need to see.?

Data Backup and Recovery: Automated, unlimited backups of CRM data up to four times a day which minimizes data loss, downtime, and restore times while satisfying aggressive Service Level Agreements. Data can be restored and accessed on-demand with full-fidelity recovery.?

Real-Time Dashboards & Analytics: Interactive dashboards which show real-time data like Pending, Acknowledged, Perfected, Estimated, etc. request statuses. It offers deep and actionable insights into all these requests on a real-time basis within one screen. These analytics and dashboards are accessible on mobile phones and tablets as well.?

Quick/Advanced Search: Search the requests, appeals, and documents with a quick and advanced integrated search engine and can export the data in excel or CSV format.?

Advanced eDiscovery: Identifies and delivers electronic information that can be used as evidence in legal cases; and manage custodians and analyze content by using the feature-rich Advanced eDiscovery solution in Microsoft 365.?

Key Features:?

• Automates the process for Government or States to validate requests from citizens, collect the information, redact any sensitive information, perform legal review, process payment, and distribute the information.?

• Provides annual, quarterly, monthly, reporting, auditing, and records management.?

• Correspondence to the Requester is listed in the Activities Timeline for future verification.?

• Automatic SLA timers with auto-pause, resume, expire, and cancel for specific days of a timeline.?

• Supports automated workflows to streamline business processes?

• Automatic request assignment, task scheduling, and reminders.?

• Auto calculate the submissions based on working days, working hours, and defined business closures.?

• Auto calculate the expedite request fee-based fee category and resource utilization.?

• Centralized processing from various request channels: Web, Email, Postal Mail, and Online.??

• Simplified uploads of documents, photos, and videos directly to the SharePoint.??

• Handles Litigation Hold on requests under court procedures.?

Benefits:?

• Increased processing speed with the use of advanced technologies, such as AI and automation.?

• By utilizing AI and machine learning, the system can more accurately identify relevant documents and apply appropriate redactions, minimizing human error and ensuring compliance with legal standards.?

• Automation of repetitive tasks and improved efficiency can lead to cost reductions for agencies, including lower labor costs and reduced expenditures on manual processing and review.?

• The system can handle a high volume of requests simultaneously, making it suitable for agencies experiencing large backlogs or sudden surges in FOIA requests.?

• Standardizing processing workflows ensure consistent application of FOIA rules and exemptions, reducing the risk of inconsistent responses and enhancing compliance with legal requirements.?

• Faster and more accurate processing of requests can lead to increased transparency, as information is made available to the public more promptly.?

• The FOIA accelerator solution often includes intuitive interfaces for both FOIA officers and requesters, simplifying the submission, tracking, and management of requests.?

• The system incorporates robust security measures to protect sensitive information during the processing and redaction phases, ensuring that confidential data remains secure.??

• Advanced reporting tools provide insights into processing times, common exemptions applied, and other metrics, enabling agencies to identify bottlenecks and improve their FOIA processes.?

• The FOIA accelerator solution can be integrated with existing agency systems and workflows, reducing the need for extensive changes to current processes, and ensuring a smoother transition to the new system.?

• The solution facilitates better collaboration among agency staff, with tools for sharing documents, tracking changes, and managing workflows, leading to more efficient and coordinated responses.?

• By accelerating the processing of requests, the system helps agencies address and reduce their backlog of pending FOIA requests, improving overall responsiveness.??

Technologies:?

Power Apps?

Power Platform?

D365 CE?

Artificial Intelligence?

Process Automation?

Machine Learning?

eDiscovery??

SharePoint?

M365?

MERP Systems, Inc. employs the Microsoft Power Platform, which not only boasts a wide array of features and capabilities but also provides a scalable and seamlessly extensible foundation. Power BI empowers business users to craft visually compelling, drill-down dashboards, while Power Apps facilitates the creation of feature-rich model-driven applications with highly intuitive low-code apps and custom pages that seamlessly blend the functionalities of both approaches, offering a hybrid solution. Advancements in AI/ML integration can be seamlessly achieved through the Power Automate framework, presenting a compelling alternative to Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Additionally, deploying virtual agents and chatbots is made straightforward using Power Virtual Agents. The potential for the Dataverse platform to interact with ChatGPT opens up uncharted possibilities in the marketplace. Whether it involves modernizing legacy applications, upgrading retiring ones, or completely revamping large-scale systems, the Low Code SWAT approach provides a pragmatic and successful path.

If you are interested in discussing further about our approach and techniques for enterprise digital transformation, please contact us at [email protected]