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Into the archives
By Lee Howard
Four years. That was the plan for Mike Gingras, Operations Manager at SISIP Financial Services (SISIP FS).
The plan was to archive all Insurance application forms, starting from December 1, 1969, which were being held in boxes, in a storage room at SISIP FS. Thus, making it nearly impossible for quick service when dealing with a customer (Serving and former members of the Canadian Forces member and their families).
"I first had the idea in 1995, but because of the lack of space, it could not be implemented," says Mike. "When plans were made to expand the Ottawa office in 2000, space for building a file room large enough to hold all of our insurance files was approved by the President of SISIP FS."
In April 2001, the new archive room was built. The first step was to hire seven summer students to help with the archiving.
"It was difficult at first, training seven new staff is never easy," says Mike. "With a project of this size, I knew we'd need a lot of help."
"We had to sort through 775 boxes of Insurance application forms," says Mike. "As well as 165,000 applications that needed to have Social Insurance Numbers changed into Military Service numbers."
In those 775 boxes, there were also 82,000 applications, which needed to be destroyed due to length of account inactivity.
"The staff that worked on this project really helped keep it going," says Mike. "Without them, it would've never happened."
The new archive room has the capability of holding 200,000 files, which are filed by Military Service numbers.
The main reason for the archiving project was to increase the speed of customer service.
"Customer service is our first priority, and Mike is very committed to it," says Chantal Mercier, Vice-president of Insurance Services. "The archiving system makes servicing clients quick and efficient."
"Prior to 2001, if a customer called with a question about their insurance plan, it would take hours before the file could be pulled," says Mike. "Now we ask them for their Military Service number, and we can find their file right away."
"When we came to the last box of files, everyone that was part of the project was really happy!" exclaimed Mike.
"I told my wife the night before that we were going to finish the next day, so she baked us a chocolate cake."
When asked about the stress level of a project this size, Mike joked "This project is why I don't have anymore hair!" "It was a huge project, with lots of work and effort poured into it, but everything turned out well, and I'm proud of it…but thank goodness it's over!
