Baltimore's Department of General Services Automates Processes with Integrify

The City of Baltimore’s Department of General Services has a lofty goal: to implement workflow automation across the entire agency and its partners. After rolling out a series of process improvements with Nutrient Workflow, Varghese Paranilam, City of Baltimore’s Department of General Services Project Manager, definitely sees the opportunity for efficiency improvements in all divisions of DGS.  

Varghese and the BPIO (Business Process Improvement Office) team have already been singled out by Baltimore’s Mayor, Catherine E. Pugh, for their forward-thinking technology advancements and they wanted to start their automation project with Nutrient Workflow by getting a quick win. 

The team focused on a few key manual processes that could quickly show the value of workflow automation. They decided to tackle needs that can be replicated in all agencies: Office Supply Purchases, HR Routing, and Customer Service Tickets.  Each process has a deeper complexity that was made much simpler with Nutrient Workflow.

For instance, approval routing and budget account numbers were automated. These variables equate to hundreds of combinations depending on what type of purchase, what division, amount of purchase and classification of employee. Using the business rules engine built into Nutrient Workflow, the BPIO’s Data Automation and Technology Analyst, Melanie Shimano was able to make this complexity effortless to the end user, reducing user friction and drastically reducing the opportunity for errors. In just two and a half months Nutrient Workflow has already become a standard within DGS.

Babila Lima, the director of the BPIO has been impressed: 

“The addition of Nutrient Workflow has allowed us to continuously improve our processes.  With only 3 processes live and over 100 requests, each process has been enhanced in real time to even further streamline the workflow.  We are currently building a workflow to manage over $10 Million worth of invoices to our vendors.  Additionally, we are building an HR Onboarding process which is a shared pain point for all city agencies.”   Babila Lima, Director, BPIO

The team recently celebrated their 100th request being submitted since the initial group of processes was automated by presenting the person responsible for the 100th submission, Terrel Chesson, DGS’ Deputy Division Chief of Facilities Maintenance, with an “Early Adapter Award.”

Terrel Chesson,  receives the Early Adapter Award. Left to Right VP, Terrel Chesson, Gary Holland (Chief of Staff, DGS). Photo Credit – Photo by Alison Lynch

Varghese has embraced the idea of digital transformation for the City of Baltimore to further their efficiency goals and provide more effective government for citizens and partners. As per Varghese:

“We live in a digital age, so we must embrace technologies that not only improve processes, but are easily deployed and assimilated by all levels of personnel.  Nutrient Workflow provided this solution and we are making strides to continue building workflows to create a more efficient and effective government for both the citizens whom live here and the partners we support.” Varghese Paranilam, City of Baltimore’s Department of General Services Project Manager