Mayor Richard Kos and Director of Information Technology Vanessa Oquendo are pleased to announce that the City of Chicopee has been awarded a $50,000 grant through the Community Compact Cabinet Information Technology grant program. Chicopee was one of 47 municipalities across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to receive the grant.

This grant will fund a city IT project consisting of converting existing paper-based Human Resource documents into electronic records. The IT Department hopes to expand the document management system to include Personnel Action Forms for more efficient access. This will help protect important documents in the event of a disaster and is part of the business continuity planning effort. The project will be completed by June 2018 by outsourcing the scanning of over half a million pages. The grant of $50,000 will allow the City to begin work on the estimated $92,000 project

The grant will also fund another city IT project to implement electronic forms with workflow and secure signature stamps. Currently, paper-based documents are processed and routed manually. Delays in the approval process are created; staff time is dedicated to making multiple copies and walking them to other departments. By implementing this new process, city departments will be able to digitally submit forms for signature which can then be e-stamped and stored on the document management system, thus cutting down on time and paper.

In a letter from the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Mayor Kos was informed that the City of Chicopee was selected to receive the grant because the city’s application “met the overarching goal of driving innovation and transformation at the local level via investments in technology.”

“Continuing to upgrade our use of technology is a great way to improve how we provide services to our residents,” said Mayor Kos.

These projects are expected to begin once bids are accepted and be completed by June 2018.

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