The Ontario Ministry of Environment and Privasoft Win Green Technology Award

OTTAWA, ON August 26, 2009

The Ontario Ministry of Environment (MoE), a government agency dedicated to protecting the environment, was awarded the Showcase Merit Green Technology award at Showcase Ontario 2009 due to their utilization of Privasoft's freedom of information (FOI) software. Showcase Ontario, the largest public sector information technology event in Canada, recognizes government agencies that are positively influencing both industry and the environment.

The award was granted July 30, 2009, and this year, competition was vigorous as judges evaluated and ranked over 150 outstanding entries from the Government of Ontario, Federal and Municipal Government as well as the Broader Public Sector.

The MoE responds to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests involving property-related transactions. The MoE received 5,200 FOI requests in 2008 alone, a large increase from the 3,800 requests in 2001. With only 10 individuals devoted to filling FOI requests, the MoE realized current FOI handling methods needed to be drastically changed to keep up with the increasing demand and a 30-day handling time.

Privasoft and the MoE began their partnership in 2005, with full automation of their operation achieved in 2009. By employing Privasoft's AccessPro Case Management, Redaction, and Workgroup software, the Ministry of Environment has created one of the most sophisticated automated FOI processing systems in the world. Not only is the MoE system now able to respond to FOI requests faster, which enables them to achieve exceptional compliance rates, it is much more environmentally friendly. The MoE was able to reduce the number of printed or photocopied pages by 90%, now producing less than 100,000 pages (from 800,000) annually. Reports to the Information Commissioner and internal performance reports are generated with ease.

The changes facilitated by the use of Privasoft's software are evident in the Ministry of Environment FOI transactions. In 2001, the Ministry of Environment had a 13% FOI compliance rate. Since utilizing Privasoft's software, the Ministry of Environment compliance rate has jumped to 87% in 2008 with no increase in staff. While the increase in compliance alone is impressive, the increased number of FOI requests further demonstrates the impact Privasoft has had on the way the Ministry of Environment operates. The Ontario Ministry of Environment Privasoft case study can be downloaded HERE.