Faced with a need to complete the badging process for the new Federal Inspection Service facility at William P. Hobby Airport — and in a hurry — Kevin Jones came up with an electronic-based solution that not only accomplished that urgent task, but also did so in a matter of hours instead of weeks.

Because of that forward-thinking approach, Houston Airports was nominated for the first time for a Hyland Government Innovation Award, and won the 2016 award at this year’s CommunityLIVE conference, Sept. 11-15, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.

With the opening of the new facility in Hobby Airport — and with the return of international flights around the corner — Jones teamed with private-sector partners, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials and Greg Wulfers, who oversees the badging office at Hobby Airport, to come up with a credentialing solution, utilizing OnBase Workflow to streamline the application process to grant agents special access to international gates.

The new technology paid off quickly, and decreased badge application/approval turnaround time from about a month to a matter of a couple of days.

“That was a completely paper-based process that we looked at and were able to come up with a quicker, totally electronic solution,” said Jones, an IT applications manager with Houston Airports. “We had about 2,000 badges that needed to be processed in less than 90 days, and with the old paper-based system that would have taken 3 or 4 weeks. But under the new process we were able to take care of that in about 48 hours and with weeks to spare.”

Jones said the faster, electronic-based badging process eventually will be utilized at George Bush Intercontinental Airport as well.

Hyland Software Inc. is the developer of the enterprise content management (ECM) and process management software suite called OnBase, which is utilized by Houston Airports. Hyland offers OnBase as a single enterprise information platform for managing content, processes and cases. More than 1,600 government customers use OnBase for public works, finance and administration, health and human services, and courts and public safety.

Out of hundreds of nominations offered by Hyland agents around the world, Houston Airports was picked as one of three finalists, along with the State of Nebraska for its online permitting application, and Cook County in Illinois for its OnBase property appeals processing solution, which has transformed how its assessment appeals are reviewed and how taxpayers interact with the Board of Review.