Introduction: The Town of Southampton, New York, known for its picturesque landscapes and vibrant community in the Hamptons, faced significant challenges managing its expanding records collection.
The outdated systems and inefficient processes highlighted the need for a modern solution. With Versatile 2025, Zasio’s state-of-the-art records management software, it was able to transform how it organizes, accesses, and protects records.
Background: Sundy Schermeyer, the Southampton Town Clerk who also serves as the NYS appointed Records Management Officer, has been at the helm of the records management program for more than 18 years, overseeing the Records Management Division. Candace Brambley, Senior Administrative Assistant, joined Sundy’s team in 2014 and together, Schermeyer and Brambley embarked on a mission to transform the Town of Southampton’s records management program, which has grown from 6,000 to 16,000 cubic feet of documents.
Before 2014, the town’s previous records management solution lacked retention schedules, had limited reporting capabilities, and made document retrieval slow and cumbersome. These inefficient storage practices stretched staff time and resources, making change long overdue. “The existing system was not an efficient nor effective system for the retrieval of documents,” Schermeyer said.
The Town of Southampton’s IT department explored solutions and introduced Schermeyer and Brambley to Zasio’s Versatile Professional application (now known as Versatile 2025 with Standard Physical Records Management).
“This was pretty state-of-the-art for us,” Schermeyer said. “…We moved forward because all the features were so attractive. I was all about improving our government’s response to our constituents and the general public while trying to make everything more accessible to internal departments.”
Implementation: The software’s features, such as automatic retention scheduling, unlimited read-only web access, and efficient document retrieval, were game changers. The implementation process was seamless, supported by comprehensive training from Zasio’s technical support team.
The phased implementation of Versatile’s functionalities allowed employees to gradually adopt new features, ensuring a smooth transition.
“Anytime I have a question I get an answer within minutes, and someone will walk me through it,” Brambley said. “Even the silliest questions, (Zasio’s) team always responds.”
Benefits and Favorite Features:
The implementation led to numerous improvements and favorite features for staff, including:
- Improved Accessibility: Internal departments and the public could easily access records online, reducing the need for physical document transportation (20 miles to its record center).
- Cost Savings: Saved significant taxpayer money by streamlining processes and reducing resource wastage.
- Enhanced Space Management: Barcoding and tablets allowed staff to efficiently manage and retrieve documents, minimizing errors and improving productivity.
- Efficient Audits: Audits are now quicker and require fewer resources, with easy access to documents.
- Digitization Projects: Thousands of documents, including timecards and building plans, were digitized, improving accessibility and reducing physical storage needs.
- Positive Feedback: Representatives from the New York State Archives praised The Town of Southampton’s records management system as one of the best they had ever seen.
Staff recently upgraded to Versatile 2025 with Standard Physical Records Management. Brambley appreciates its audit trail and user login history features.
Partnership with Zasio: The partnership between the Town of Southampton and Zasio has been a fruitful collaboration spanning over a decade. Zasio’s continuous support and updates have ensured its records management system remains cutting-edge.
“As we evolved, (Zasio) was able to evolve with us and that was huge,” Schermeyer said.
Conclusion: The Town of Southampton’s journey with Versatile has been a model of transformation, setting a benchmark for records management in municipalities. Its commitment to improving accessibility, efficiency, and sustainability has been achieved through the successful implementation of Versatile. As the Town of Southampton continues to thrive, the partnership with Zasio remains a cornerstone of its success.
“We don’t want to go backward, we only want to go forward, and we want to go forward with Zasio,” Schermeyer said. “It has been a tremendous collaboration and a successful partnership and one that we want to continue.”
About Zasio
Zasio has over 37 years of service in information governance. We help businesses get started in records management and maintain top-of-the-line IG programs. To do this, we’ve recruited a team of expert software developers and technicians, legal experts, and highly-accomplished records analysts—all in-house! Our highly trained team includes certified records managers, information governance professionals, and certified information privacy professionals who keep up with evolving IG trends and scale our Versatile solutions to meet our customers’ needs. It’s no wonder that thousands of organizations, including half of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies, have trusted our software solutions and expert consulting services to create world-class information governance programs.
To learn more about Versatile 2025, call 800-513-1000 or email connect@zasio.com