Case Study: Intradyn Helps Maine Legislature Respond to FOAA Requests
Name of Project: Maine State Legislature Gains Reliability, Flexibility with Intradyn
Type of Project: Intradyn Email Archiver
For many government agencies in the United States, the ability to quickly access information stored in email isn’t a convenience — it’s a necessity. Most government bodies are required to comply with public records laws, which give the public the right to request access to records related to how government business is being conducted.
The Maine State Legislature, a bicameral legislative body composed of the lower house (the Maine House of Representatives) and the upper house (the Maine Senate), is required to comply with the Maine Freedom of Access Act (FOAA). Similar to the FOIA, the FOAA grants Maine citizens access to the public records and public proceedings of state and local government bodies and agencies.
THE CHALLENGE
Whenever a constituent submits an FOAA request, their legislator will hand the request over to the Legislature’s Executive Director as the Public Access Officer, per Maine statute (1 MRSA §413). The Executive Director then works with Stacy Morang, the Legislature’s Internet Infrastructure and Applications Administrator in its IT department to determine how best to respond to the request and in what format to present the results before the FOAA request deadline.
Prior to working with Intradyn, the Maine Legislature was using a different archiving system but, in addition to being slow and prone to breakdowns, Morang said the system had poor search capabilities and lacked the ability to document everything the legislature needed. After learning that the software was soon to be discontinued, Morang knew it was time to search for a replacement.
THE SOLUTION
When looking for a more effective email archiving solution, the Maine Legislature had a few basic criteria: The software in question needed to offer local storage as well as reasonable pricing because, as a government agency, the Legislature is required to justify all expenses. After researching other products, Morang received a call from Intradyn’s sales team and scheduled a live demo of Intradyn’s Email Archiver.
THE CONCLUSION
After making the switch to Intradyn, Morang still needed a more efficient way to determine whether requested information can be disseminated and a way to control access and distribution of that information to the intended recipients. As part of their ongoing relationship with the Legislature, Intradyn set Morang up with an in-house developer to make adjustments to its existing tagging feature to accommodate this need.
