The Italian Embassy in Madrid improves the efficiency of citizen services

Customer Success Stories

Located in the city center, the Italian Embassy in Madrid represents the interests of a growing Italian population living in or visiting Spain. That role involves serving some 106,000 citizens with requests ranging from visa applications and passport renewals to birth, marriage, and death registrations, nationality issues, and more.

11 September 20247 mins

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Limited space and resources

With a relatively small staff, the Embassy needed to find a way to optimise workspace and offer a an improved service.

“As a public administration, our objective is to offer citizens quality services and new technologies are here to help us achieve this,” says Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi.

Security-first approach

Essential to successfully addressing this challenge was streamlining and digitising operations across two onsite archives. Located in the basement, the first archive contained the oldest files, while more active records were stored nearby in cabinets located in various offices.

The two archives held around 83,000 paper files in many sizes and formats. In addition, the Embassy already had some 60,000 digital files that had been created over time. As the project developed, the Tenerife office came onboard, adding more paper files and digital records.

Due to its highly sensitive nature, all paper documentation – and subsequent scanning activities – had to remain onsite. Also, once converted, new digital files had to be uploaded and hosted on the Embassy’s inhouse management platform.

“Having a trusted partner expert in information management to help and advise in taking the right steps is essential. Iron Mountain provided us with the security and peace of mind we needed to start a project of this scale.”

Pietro Maria Paolucci, Counsellor Administrative Affairs, Italian Embassy in Madrid 2.5 million documents digitised in Madrid and 870,000 documents digitised in Tenerife

Eliminating outdated documents

Leveraging its leading global presence, Iron Mountain® designed and implemented a tailor-made digitisation service to match the Embassy’s exact needs in Madrid and Tenerife. The solution facilitated the gradual transition to a digital consular archives management system.

Delivered onsite as a fully managed service, Iron Mountain® specialists carefully review and classify every piece of documentation. Old files that have reached end of life and are no longer required to be stored are identified and securely destroyed.

The remaining paper files are then scanned, converted to PDF format, and uploaded to the Embassy’s management system.

The solution also included training to make employees feel more involved and committed to the digital transformation process.

Leveraging machine learning technology, the tool enables staff to search by a person’s name, date of birth, or other common data field.

Smarter working

The Iron Mountain documentation audit generated a significant saving for the Embassy, thanks to a 30% reduction in the number of files that required scanning. The project has also released 10m³ of space, which can be used for more important purposes.

Now, all information held is up to date, classified and indexed in accordance with latest regulations. Employees work smarter and benefit from faster searches and remote access to documents.

The Embassy has also laid the foundations for a flexible work culture that embraces digital transformation. “One of the main barriers we encountered was resistance to change,” adds Pietro Maria, Paolucci, Counsellor Administrative Affairs, Italian Embassy in Madrid. “We have broken down those walls, thanks to the dedicated training provided by Iron Mountain.”

“We now have full control of files and can provide fast answers, delivering a much more agile and effective service to citizens.”

Giuseppe Buccino GrimaldiItalian Ambassador

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Challenge

The Embassy needed to find a way to optimise workspace and offer a more agile service across across Madrid and Tenerife, but employees were reluctant to change.

Solution

In addition to providing a tailormade digitisation program, Iron Mountain arranged training to enable the gradual transition to a new consular archives management system.