Isaac Kamkai: Entrepreneur Guide by Isaac Kamkai

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I think for the previous couple of years, there’s been a perception of state that it fails to accomplish anything. “Drain the swamp” was the rallying cry (for some) not that way back. Yet when faced with a crisis, we see what government agencies are really fabricated from. And because the CEO and co-founder of a platform that automates the creation of online government forms, we’ve seen firsthand what reasonable leaders are at the regime level during the coronavirus pandemic.

Case in point: one in every of SeamlessDocs' partners (we call our customers partners), Andrea Terkelsen of Dedham, MA, was set to depart her role as town CFO/CIO at the top of March 2020. But since the pandemic has swept the country, she has requested to be kept past her end date so she will ensure a smooth handoff and continuity of processes.

From towns like Dedham to cities as large as ny, and each size municipality in between, it’s been incredibly inspiring to work out regime leaders stepping up. In some ways now, the regime is being forced to think and act like an entrepreneur.

Build completely new systems

We’ve worked with partners within the past who still relied on walking from building to putting together to hand-deliver paperwork. Suddenly these agencies got an order to shut their offices and find some way to figure remotely. Many have adopted quickly. We’ve seen our partners bring many essential forms online incredibly quickly and demonstrate willingness to maneuver rapidly to totally embrace digital systems.

Related: He Designed Peloton and SoulCycle Bikes. Now He's Made a Tool to prevent COVID-19.

Find what works and scale quicklyJust because government agencies need to move quickly doesn’t mean they will skirt protocol. Many still need to follow tedious protocol — but now they have to follow it at scale.

In Lynchburg, Virginia, we saw one partner create a far off work application for workers and in minutes clone that process across 25 different departments so everyone within the agency could follow procedure for performing from home.

As Luan Hunt, Coordinator of Communications and Marketing for Lynchburg explains, “We started our remote work process with this application because our Strategic Management Team for COVID-19 needed to work out the large picture. Over 400 employees suffered this type we sent out through SeamlessDocs, and about 80 percent of them were eligible to figure from home if the necessity arose.”

This was also the case in Mesquite, NV, where the city’s IT Director, Dirk Marshall, reached dead set us for helping convert a FEMA emergency funds request form that needs quite 100 form fields. Knowing their resources and capabilities, they leaned on us to templatize that form for them, which we were able to neutralise minutes. Now the Mesquite team — and plenty of our other partners — can duplicate that FEMA form for each employee and ensure accurate time tracking throughout this crisis.

Related: Ecommerce Entrepreneurship Grows as Unemployment Rises

OvercommunicateNearly every regime website we encounter now includes a dedicated coronavirus response page that they’re using to speak with citizens on a daily or maybe hourly basis. The case for several of those local governments remains fluid, and citizens have to know they will depend on their regime for accurate information and clear direction. Princeton, NJ, has even gone thus far on creating an ardent Twitter handle (@PrincetonCovid) to speak updates.

In certain areas, governments are asking businesses to shut unless they're essential. But because the term "essential" will be construed in such a big amount of other ways, it’s causing plenty of friction between businesses and government. Alachua County, FL, during which you'll be able to find Gainesville and also the University of Florida, created an application for local businesses who aren’t sure if they’re essential or not.

And in many areas across the country now, governments have founded volunteer forms to create it easier for citizens to use to assist without having to depart their homes first.

Stepping up to fulfill the challengeMaybe over again I can talk more about the challenges of selling B2B software to government agencies. The sales cycles are definitely longer than a typical B2B SaaS product, and also the indisputable fact that we fairly often lose our champion and need to resell the merchandise to an existing customer every four years has made life interesting.

What I can tell you at once is that "normal" has gone out the window. Sales cycles have gone from six months to 24 hours. Adoption of latest technology and onboarding processes are fast-tracked. Suddenly, agencies that were apt to maneuver carefully have mobilized an all-hands effort to effect change for citizens and staff ASAP. Their determination to maneuver quickly to confirm the security of everyone seems to be inspiring.

At this time, everyone seems to be flying by the seat of their pants, and I’d argue that government agencies particularly are being yanked from their temperature the fastest. I’m happy and encouraged to report that, by and huge, they’re stepping up to fulfill this challenge.

- Isaac Kamkai

Isaac Kamkai

Wednesday 3 June 2020

Entrepreneur Guide by Isaac Kamkai

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