FOI Solutions: Freedom of Information By Design

Freedom of Information (FOI) is an increasingly global concern with impacts for government transparency, personal privacy and business processes.  As experts in FOI request processing, FOI administration, and redaction best practices as well as emerging FOI legislation, AINS prides ourselves on being on the cutting edge of FOI development worldwide.  We strive to help our customers work proactively with FOI requirements and we build our unique solutions around a concept of 'FOI by Design'.

AINS' comprehensive FOI solutions cover the full cradle-to-grave lifecycle of an agency's FOI needs. Our targeted FOIA services, talented staff and gold standard tools such as FOIAXpress and ATIPXpress, make AINS ideal for solving any and all FOI business process needs. AINS staff include mid-level and legal professionals with significant FOI experience to handle any and all of your information requirements.

FOIA Services include:

• Request intake, internal tracking and collaboration.
• Preparation of all relevant correspondence.
• Collection of requisite applicant notification.
• Coordination with applicant for issues concerning document releasability, fees, or other items.
• Responsive document review, screening and redaction.
• Appropriate memorandum preparation supporting the application of FOI exemptions.
• Preparation of appellate referral packages for agency denial authority.
• FOI training and FOI appellate review capabilities.

All AINS staff are experts in the use, administration and training of our unique FOI tools, which are the de facto standard for FOI software in use worldwide.

FOI tools (FOIAXpress & ATIPXpress):

• Allow for easy entry of requests and appeals into the system.
• Electronically store, retrieve, redact and print document for delivery to requesters.
• Easily compute and track invoices and fees.
• Automatically generate annual compliance report such as the Department of Justice FOIA report in seconds.
• Track appeals.
• Provide multi-level access control and privileges.
• Use templates to quickly generate correspondence.
• Receive and log requests, including duplication detection, metadata tracking, on-line review and redaction, web posting and billing.
• Classify FOI requests and appeals.
• Communicate with requesters.
• Maintain consistency of response.
• Enhance inter-departmental and inter-agency communication.
• Are 508 compliant.
• Provide meta data and full text search.
• Scan and import files.

FOI Tools with Public Access Link (PAL) Web Portal:

• Are designed to meet Executive Order requirements and openness in government.
• Allow the public to submit and track the status of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) requests over the Internet.
• Allow the creation of user accounts for requesters with login ID and password.
• Provide electronic request submission.
• Reduce data entry time due to automatic delivery of request to FOIAXpress/ATIPXpress.
• Allow requesters to check on the status of their request.
• Allow requesters to post their request response for download.
• Provide a Reading Room where an agency can easily post and manage frequently requested documents with only a couple clicks of the mouse.