Hey, folks!
Dave here, penning you from my permanent, work-from-home office. Despite the pandemic storming in and catching everyone off guard with shutdowns, I was so thankful for our IT team who had an emergency response plan in place to get our entire in-office staff, both in Michigan and North Carolina, safely and efficiently up-and-running in their homes. We quickly found that this remote model encouraged our team to be more productive not only with work, but also on the home front. Especially now, with virtual learning and little ones at home needing some extra guidance, the work-from-home system allows our staff to manage it all a little easier.
Because of this success and still so much uncertainty, we decided to switch to a sustainable remote work model for the foreseeable future.
While working with our leadership team on building this new approach, we uncovered a truth about ImageSoft that was known, but not necessarily official. We, the ImageSoft family, are people-first. This means that above all else, we care about the wellbeing of our colleagues and customers – it’s built into every consideration and always takes precedent. We want the best for one another in good times, like marriages and when babies are born, and in difficult times, like when pandemics strike, or we lose a loved one.
Our entire team was supportive and excited to see “people first” finally in place next to our other core values – it just felt right.
It got me thinking about our partnerships with all of you and how this core value has transcended into many of our successful, personable business relationships. I think about our Customer Care team and how some of them have established solid friendships with their customers outside of business. Not only do we know them on a first-name basis, but, often times, their pets and kids too! I recall one utility company that was in the middle of a hurricane and our OnBase Admins were up with them, in the middle of the night, trying to troubleshoot errors so they could offer at least some support to their communities. These tried-and-trusted times really show in our annual Velocity event and at CommunityLIVE when our staff, from Account Executives to OnBase Admins and Customer Care reps, greet customers with hugs and swap pictures of their families.
This is the essence of people-first, and this is what partnership is all about. So often, and especially with Big Tech companies and software teams, you receive expert technical support, some expensive collateral and a few promotions, but the relationship at its core is dry. You may talk to different people all the time, or wonder if you’ll even get through to Support that day.
In ordinary times, but especially in today’s uncertain and stressful world, I would want to know that the enterprise system currently upholding my organization is backed by people who care. This is especially true for government entities, where communities of people and their families are dependent on your ability to work.
But being people-first doesn’t just mean we answer our phones – it means we’re an invested partner in your success, and we’re going to figure out a way for you. It means if you have a need and a budget, like most governments do, we’re going to build a solution that fits both. It means if you have suggestions about one of our products, we want to hear them. Fun fact: many of our newest updates to TrueSign and TrueFiling were actually built on customer feedback and piloted in their workplaces. Partnership means we’re in this together, making each other better.
So as you begin strategizing for the future and considering the digital tools you’ll need to continue serving constituents in this “new normal,” I hope you’ll also work a partnership into your plan. Meet with vendors and really talk to them – get a feel for who they are and how comfortable you will be trusting them to guide you and your customers into this new, virtual future. Please, do not panic buy – with only so much allotted CARES funding, you need to invest wisely and ensure you’re getting much more than just a product – invest in empathy, responsiveness, trust and care.
If you check out the resources adorned around this newsletter, you will certainly develop a gauge for what a successful, truly valuable tech partnership is and is not.
This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for what this pandemic has opened our eyes to and the valued partnerships we still have with all of you, our staff and our business associates.
Happy Turkey Day, everyone!
Dave
Online Dispute Resolution: Making Justice Effortless and Accessible
Join us for a webinar with the Founder of the Collaborative Lawyers of Saskatchewan, Brad Hunter. Journeying through Brad’s expansive legal experiences with this globally trusted online dispute resolution (ODR) platform, attendees will learn how to navigate digital dispute resolution, mediation and arbitration from the highly secure Microsoft Azure Cloud-based system.
ODR’s comprehensive platform ensures increased access to justice and faster, end-to-end, digital dispute resolution without parties ever stepping foot in a courthouse.
Learn more about the webinar participants, talking points and free registration here.
Citizen Experience Innovations That Don’t Break the Bank
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that cities, towns and villages can expect a collective budget deficit of $360 billion due to the pandemic, which caused a loss in tax revenues and fees. All this, while trying to deliver quality remote service to customers – what’s a government to do?
NextGov.com recommends adopting “incremental innovation,” which are quickly deployed, digital solutions that solve for immediate customer needs without breaking the bank. A Labor Department, the article explains, solved for unprecedented unemployment inquiries by implementing mobile messaging and chatbot options. The article reports that, “Associates handling messaging closed approximately twice as many contacts per hour as their voice counterparts and, in less than 10 days, the number jumped to 3.5 times as many contacts closed per hour.”
Keep in mind that there are numerous tech options available to solve for your immediate need, but only one or two that might serve multiple needs and still fall within budget. To filter out only the best opportunities for you and your constituents, we recommend partnering with a trusted technology vendor who can understand your needs and turn them into options.
For more ideas on how to address the sudden spike in customer needs while working on limited resources, skim the full NextGov article, especially its “key takeaways.”
The Importance of a Digital P-A-R-T-N-E-R in Moving Past the Pandemic
As Government personnel, you are the champions of customer support and often have the foresight (or at least enough day-to-day interaction with constituents) to see and understand their evolving needs.
So, by now, you probably know that your entity will need to transform its temporary, make-shift remote operations from March into sustainable, accessible practices for the long haul – with so many jobs going remote, your operations need to serve a variety of varying schedules and expectations for this socially-distant world we’ve come to know.
But how? With the pandemic forcing governments into even more restricted budgets and unprecedented volumes of customer needs, it’s difficult to shop for quickly deployed, economically-sound solutions.
That’s why we couldn’t agree more with GovTech’s suggestion to P-A-R-T-N-E-R. An acronym for how to chart forward with trusted tech partnerships, PARTNER reminds you to expect nothing less from your digital counsel than a guide who will: Punch in, Advise, Relate, consider Timing, Navigate, Engage and Respond.
Grab a notebook and review the full breakdown of what it means to “partner” here. As quoted in the article, Hellen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
What Can We Do For You?
ImageSoft has been bringing affordable, adaptable enterprise content management systems to state and local governments for quite some time. Our industry-leading solutions for government offer automated workflows, improved speed and efficiency, reduced costs and proper compliance.
ImageSoft is ready to help your organization reap the benefits from integrated enterprise content management.