The Challenge
The Democratic Services Unit of our client, a busy Local Government Authority, was invited to take
part in a pilot project to test the effectiveness of the Pathway document search facility. At the time,
the organisation was using both a legacy “key word” search system, and the search facility on their
website, neither of which was particularly efficient or accurate. A more sophisticated solution was
required.
The Solution
Firstly, all documents on Democratic Services’ shared drive and the organisation intranet and internet were indexed by Pathway - a total of 133,800
documents. Three members of staff participated in a three month pilot using Pathway Search.
Users described Pathway as having “great usability as the search screen was clear and simple to use. Searches were done using single words, multiple
words, phrases or groupings. Search requests could be refined by specifying date ranges, author or document type. This feature was particularly helpful
when there were large numbers of search results. For each search result a meaningful summary of the contents of the document was automatically generated,
to identify if it was relevant without having to open the document”.
The Results
The software was used for a variety of search tasks. Some examples were:
-
A member of the public asked about Council members being given car parking permits for parking on housing estates. A search found a report to the
Housing Committee in September 1998, when the idea of issuing parking permits for parking on housing estates was first raised.
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An officer requested information on when and where the decision to close a school had been taken and about the further use of its site. The search
found when the decision was taken and what the future plans were for the site.
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In preparation for the new Council in May 2005, a search was undertaken to find out what documentation had been prepared for the induction of
members in May 2002, and papers located.
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A request was received as to what reports had been considered by Committees during the last 12 months about flooding in the local area in April
2004. The search found 5 instances where this issue had been considered.
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Efficiency savings – locating recent reports setting out corporate and departmental statements on this issue, to assess how the Unit’s recent move
to flexible working fitted with this.
Conclusions
Our client found the search facility to be very powerful and extremely fast in returning responses. The drill down capability eliminated the need to
conduct 2 or 3 separate searches. They were impressed with the look and capability of the product. Pathway saved our client time and gave better
results. Pathway proved particularly useful to the Authority in finding information that they were unsure whether it existed or not, as well as
tracing information that they knew existed, but were unsure of its location.
