Source: BLUDOT TECHNOLOGIES INC. submitted to NRP
MANAGERIAL SYSTEM FOR RURAL JURISDICTIONS TO INCREASE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CAPACITY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1029014
Grant No.
2022-51103-38247
Cumulative Award Amt.
$599,000.00
Proposal No.
2022-04508
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2022
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2024
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[8.6]- Rural & Community Development
Recipient Organization
BLUDOT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
1616 LEE WAY
MILPITAS,CA 950359011
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The ability to manage, support, and communicate with local businesses rapidly and effectively hasbecome exceedingly urgent. Ruraljurisdictions are especially faced with the challenges of limited resources, limited capacity, or both. Rural economicdevelopment leaders and communities will benefit greatly by having a technology solution that helps maximize their impact ineconomic recovery.Through this research project, Bludot will continue to work with existing and new rural community partnerswho will utilize the Bludot platform in their respective jurisdictions. Bludot will analyze and evaluate the communities' usage, results, andfeedback, which will have an invaluable contribution to advancing Bludot's technology solution for the benefit of all other ruralcommunities in the country.Bludot empowers each rural economic development staff by giving them the tools they need to excel at their work. This not onlyhas significant market potential, but immense socioeconomic impact. Findings from this research will directly contribute to asystem that will build rural economic development capacity and lead to expansion of businesses, creation of jobs, and overallbetterment of rural Americans' quality of life.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
20%
Developmental
80%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
60860503010100%
Knowledge Area
608 - Community Resource Planning and Development;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
3010 - Economics;
Goals / Objectives
Research PrioritiesBludot will focus on the following two main research priorities:A. Enhance local capacity building, communications, and managerial functionalityThe results from our Phase I research have shown us firsthand Bludot's impact on increasing Economic Development capacity. Building upon these promising results, we shall continue to enhance the impact on capacity building for a wider group of rural communities. This includes more easily and comprehensively tracking engagements with local businesses, more collaborating amongst staff, more organized and efficient information management, and doing outreach more proactively and making strategic decisions. Further, we will expand our scope and investigate additional potential use cases, such as business registration, business services, workforce development, and shop local incentive programs, which have all come up as potential opportunities during our Phase I effort.B. Enhance big data accessibilityFrom our Phase I research, we have seen the impact that data has for rural community's Economic Development teams, and we will seek to enhance our data capabilities during our Phase II project. We will improve our data import and merging algorithms to further reduce manual work while minimizing errors. We will also investigate ways to improve our data quality, especially in areas that showed weaknesses during Phase I, to provide more accurate data to our communities. Lastly, we will enhance our tracking of data analytics within the platform, including the dashboard and the custom reporting features, to make it more user friendly and more robust and empower our communities to measure and support their goals.Bludot has the following four technical objectives in this Phase II project:Technical objective 1: To continue to develop and enhance Bludot's data algorithms.Automate merging between the community's dataset and the external data we source.Merging between datasets has so far still relied substantially on manual oversight. In this Phase II effort, we will aim to automate this as much as possible to reduce manual labor while not sacrificing accuracy. This applies to both the initial importing as well as any subsequent updates.Overcome the identified shortcomings of external data sourcesDuring Phase I, certain shortcomings of our external data source became apparent. For example, identifying businesses that have closed is a challenge. Businesses that have closed may still be labeled as Active due to a lack of indicators. In our Phase II project, we will evaluate any proxies and/or other data points we can use to overcome the shortcomings and enhance our data accuracy.Identify and implement additional data sourcesDuring Phase I, we have evaluated other data sources, which we will continue to implement and build out during Phase II. Additionally, there have been requests for data points that we could not provide, such as demographics data (eg. black-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, etc). More and more Economic Development teams are interested in these data to help them better support the minority community and grow more inclusively. In our Phase II effort, we will evaluate potential data sources to make this possible and implement accordingly.Technical objective 2: To continue to enhance our cloud infrastructure and product performance.During Phase II, we will continue to enhance our AWS setup. We have identified a few areas of improvement that we will work on during Phase II. For example, we are observing CPU spikes during heavy writes in Opensearch. This will be addressed in Phase II. Additionally, we will continue to monitor system performance and enhance our infrastructure for large-scale commercialization.Technical objective 3: To enhance the usability of the product's user interface."Easy to use" is one of the requirements that come up the most from the communities we meet. Rural communities barely have enough time to do their day-to-day responsibilities, let alone spending weeks learnings a new tool or wasting time with manual tasks. Thus, usability to key to Bludot's success and will continue to be enhanced during our Phase II effort. Working with our partner communities during Phase I has revealed many invaluable insights which we promptly acted upon; with the tracking tools that we set up during Phase I, our Phase II project will only help us learn more ways to enhance our user interface and maximize value to our communities.Technical objective 4: To add functionalities and explore areas of expansion.In Phase II, we will implement the features roadmap identified during Phase I. Additionally, we will explore other ways to expand. For example, business registration, business services, workforce development, shop local incentives, are all areas that have come up during Phase I that are worth exploring. These are opportunities to broaden Bludot's product offerings and further strengthen our impact to rural communities.
Project Methods
Bludot will perform the following tasks during this project:Implementation Task 1: Community Onboarding and Data ImportThroughout the 2-year duration of the Phase II project, Bludot shall continue its partnership with the existing rural communities on the platform that joined during Phase I, as well as adding more rural community partners as appropriate.For each new rural community that joins Bludot, Bludot will onboard the community by carrying out the following steps:We will host a kickoff session with the community, where we will discuss the existing datasheets that the community would like us to import, as well as GIS shapefiles that identify the jurisdiction boundary and any specific geographic areas within the jurisdiction.We will use the GIS shapefile to source business-level data for all the businesses that are located within the jurisdiction. We will leverage data sources including Data Axle, Google Maps API, as well as additional ones that we identify throughout Phase II.We will then conduct a merging algorithm between the community's data and the external data we sourced. In this step, we will evaluate the results of the algorithm against the datasets, confirm the quality of the matches including any false positives or false negatives, and readjust the algorithm to optimize results. This will be an iterative process to produce an optimal algorithm that will allow us to perform the most effective comparison and achieve the best results in merging business records.Once the merging algorithm is complete and results optimized, we will import the final merged data onto the platform and set up the Bludot workspace for that community. The main user of the community will then be invited, and onboarding training session scheduled.For each community that is live on Bludot, we will conduct data updates on a quarterly basis. For each data update, again, we will take any existing data from the local communities as well as external data we source, and run through our update algorithm. We will evaluate the results of the algorithm against the new datasets as well as existing data, confirm the quality of the sync, identify any records that were missed or mis-updated, and readjust the algorithm. An error in this algorithm can have significant implications for loss of critical data. Hence, it is critical that this algorithm is thoroughly tested and results confirmed before rolling out to communities.Implementation Task 2: Usage and MonitoringFor each community that is live on Bludot, their users, i.e. local economic development staff, will be using the platform in their respective communities. We will continue to provide training and support as much as needed to each participating staff. Each community may use the platform to the extent that fits their community and their economic development initiatives. We will maintain a close and collaborative relationship with each of the rural community partners, as we have done with all of our existing community partners thus far. We will be available to answer any questions, address any issues, and help them implement the tool in a way that best supports their needs.There are a few performance issues that we have identified during Phase I which we will address in Phase II. We will also continue to monitor the status of the server instances on an ongoing basis as the volume of data and user queries grow. Any worsening indicator will be reviewed immediately. Any changes required to maintain the optimal performance and ensure application uptime will be addressed in the highest priority.We will also regularly monitor the performance metrics/KPIs as users interact with the platform. If we observe any excessively lengthened processing times, it will be reviewed immediately and the appropriate action taken. Any errors or exceptions thrown within the platform will also be tracked. If it is something that a user is experiencing on their end, we will be able to leverage LogRocket to inspect the user session recording, attempt to replicate and identify the root cause.Implementation Task 3: Evaluation and FeedbackAs our rural government partners use the platform in their communities, we will actively seek their feedback on what they like, don't like, or find missing in the tool. As this task is more qualitative in nature, it will rely on direct engagements with each community. The monthly check-ins we conducted with communities during Phase I had proven to be successful, which we will continue during Phase II. In addition, communities shall feel free to provide feedback at any time outside of those check-ins.For each suggestion we receive, if it is a quick fix, we may roll out the fix relatively quickly, the current planned release. If it is a more extensive feature development, we will evaluate its priority against our existing development roadmap and plan accordingly. Throughout this process, we will remain agile as we have been, and diligently listen and respond to our users' feedback.Each time we release a fix or a new feature to the platform, all partner jurisdictions will access the latest version instantaneously, upon which we will continue to monitor their usage, gather feedback on the new version, and continue making improvements, hence making this an iterative process.Our Phase I effort has given us a roadmap of features to build in the coming months. Throughout Phase II, we will continue to identify areas where we can make our existing functionalities easier. The tools that we have implemented including LogRocket and Mixpanel will give us quantifiable insights into users' behavior and challenges. These will be critical as we continue to enhance Bludot's user interface.As we have already seen from Phase I, our community partners often come up with new requests for features that we don't yet have. Some may be enhancements to the existing platform; others may be a whole new use case, such as for another department or process. These are invaluable feedback for us to be able to continue developing Bludot to be as comprehensive and effective as possible.The results of this project will be shared with all of our rural community partners organically; as they use the software platform, they will be involved and trained in all the enhancements that will be built as part of this project. In addition, we plan to present the results at industry educational conferences and events, such as the International Economic Development Council.

Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Bludot's primary target audience include small-mid sized cities and counties in the country. Our target customers include local government staff, local/regional economic development organizations (EDOs), chambers of commerce, etc. During this reporting period Bludot has worked with 70 rural communities as part of our SBIR Phase II effort. Small to midsized jurisdictions face capacity constraints most acutely and hence is where the Bludot solution provides significant value. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has allowed Bludot team members to learn more about the profession of economic development, gain knowledge and skills on what's required for those departments, and train on how best to support those goals and initiatives. Through working with a diverse set ofrural communities across the country, Bludot has gained a tremendous amount of insight that we have incorporated into our solution as well as shared with my community partners. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Bludot has presented workshops, seminars, and panel discussions at a number of industry conferences during this reporting period: Learning Lab presentation on Business Retention best practices, International Economic Development Council annual conference, September 2023 Exhibitor,Texas Economic Development Council annual conference, October 2023 Presentation on Business Retention solutions, Economic Development Council of Colorado annual conference, October 2023 Exhibitor, International Economic Development Council Economic Leadership Summit, Feb2024 Exhibitor, Virginia Economic Developmenters Association Spring Conference, Mar 2024 Exhibitor, California Association for Local Economic Developmenters Annual Conference, April 2024 Exhibitor, Florida Economic Development Council annual conference, April 2024 Exhibitor,Texas Economic Development Council midyear conference, June 2024 Exhibitor, International Economic Development Council Economic Futures Forum, June 2024 Exhibitor,ACCE Chamber of Commerce conference,July2024 Exhibitor, Southern Economic Development Council annual conference, July2024 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Phase II technical objectives, as well as a detailed description of the accomplishments during the second half ofPhase II, are as follows: Technical objective 1:To continue to develop and enhance Bludot's data algorithms. Automate merging between the community's dataset and the external data we source. In Phase II, we have built a script that automates 90% of the merging process between a community's dataset and our sourced data. This includes both the initial onboarding as well as periodic updates. Additionally, we are now able to provide an SFTP server to facilitate automated file transfers between our cities and us; if a city has ongoing data files that they need us to import, they can simply schedule those files to be delivered through the SFTP server which will be automatically picked up and run by our data import script, fully minimizing manual effort. Overcome the identified shortcomings of external data sources By the end of Phase II, we have built a hierarchy per data field that prioritizes the more accurate data source for each data field. By incorporating multiple data sources it allows us to compliment the strengths and weaknesses of each source. We have also built the internal tracking mechanism that prioritizes user entered values above our sourced values. Identify and implement additional data sources By the end of Phase II, we have now fully automated our data process incorporating multiple data sources, including Google and Outscraper. Each business record has an ID per data source which is used for subsequent updates. We have also expanded our contract with Data Axle to include more data points that we can provide to our cities. Technical objective 2: To continue to enhance our cloud infrastructure and product performance. During this second half of Phase II, we have continued to enhance our AWS cloud infrastructure, primarily in boosting our elastic search setup as well as leveraging AWS QuickSight as a revamp to our reporting module. In doing so, we have also performed revamp of some of our legacy code which had become a hindrance to further upgrades and scaling. Technical objective 3: To enhance the usability of the product's user interface. Usability is a key determining factor of users' adoption of the platform, and is another key objective for our Phase II effort. In this second half of Phase II, we have made the following notable enhancements: Revamped group email functionality: improved UI and updated backend processes to avoid timeout errors Revamped Business Activities view: reorganized legacy features and delivered a cleaner, simpler UI Revamped Custom Report module: delivered a completely new custom report builder experience that lets users create their own report tables easier and more intuitively Revamp custom forms: we have outgrown the original custom forms backend design and are now performing a refactor to support continued upgrade Microsoft SSO implemented: users can now create accounts and sign in via Microsoft SSO Technical objective 4: To add functionalities and explore areas of expansion. Notable new features that we have released in the second half of Phase II include: Super-admin management panel to streamline internal manual processes Contacts tab: users can now view contacts in a separate tab than businesses, making it easier to organize contacts and track additional key stakeholders in the community that may not be associated with individual businesses Business license module: users can now track their businesses' license information in the same centralized workspace; some communities have even started using Bludot to accept business license applications and renewals, further streamlining economic development workflow Business Insights Dashboard: Cities now have a dashboard to view monthly ongoing changes to their local businesses, including alerts for new businesses found and businesses closed

Publications


    Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/24

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Bludot's primary target audience include small-mid sized cities and counties in the country. Our target customers include local government staff, local/regional economic development organizations (EDOs), chambers of commerce, etc. Small to midsized jurisdictions face capacity constraints most acutely and hence is where the Bludot solution provides significant value Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has allowed Bludot team members to learn more about the profession of economic development, gain knowledge and skills on what's required for those departments, and train on how best to support those goals and initiatives. Through working with a diverse set of rural communities across the country, Bludot has gained a tremendous amount of insight that we have incorporated into our solution as well as shared with my community partners. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Bludot has presented workshops, seminars, and panel discussions at a number of industry conferences during Phase II: Learning Lab presentation on Business Retention best practices, International Economic Development Council annual conference, September 2022 Presentation on Business Retention best practices, Texas Economic Development Council annual conference, October 2022 Presentation on Business Retention solutions, Economic Development Council of Colorado annual conference, October 2022 Exhibitor, Kentucky Association for Economic Development conference, November 2022 Exhibitor, International Economic Development Council Economic Leadership Summit, Jan 2023 Exhibitor and Innovation Showcase presentation, Cities Summit, April 2023 Exhibitor, IDA Economic Development Conference, April 2023 Exhibitor, Florida Economic Development Council annual conference, May 2023 Exhibitor, International Economic Development Council Economic Futures Forum, June 2023 Panel Presentation on Supporting Local Businesses, California Association for Local Economic Development, June 2023 Exhibitor, Southern Economic Development Council annual conference, Aug 2023 Learning Lab presentation on Business Retention best practices, International Economic Development Council annual conference, September 2023 Exhibitor, Texas Economic Development Council annual conference, October 2023 Presentation on Business Retention solutions, Economic Development Council of Colorado annual conference, October 2023 Exhibitor, International Economic Development Council Economic Leadership Summit, Feb 2024 Exhibitor, Virginia Economic Developmenters Association Spring Conference, Mar 2024 Exhibitor, California Association for Local Economic Developmenters Annual Conference, April 2024 Exhibitor, Florida Economic Development Council annual conference, April 2024 Exhibitor, Texas Economic Development Council midyear conference, June 2024 Exhibitor, International Economic Development Council Economic Futures Forum, June 2024 Exhibitor, ACCE Chamber of Commerce conference, July 2024 Exhibitor, Southern Economic Development Council annual conference, July 2024 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? The Phase II technical objectives, as well as a detailed description of the final Phase II results at the end of the project, are as follows: Technical objective 1:To continue to develop and enhance Bludot's data algorithms. Automate merging between the community's dataset and the external data we source. In Phase II, we have built a script that automates 90% of the merging process between a community's dataset and our sourced data. This includes both the initial onboarding as well as periodic updates. Additionally, we are now able to provide an SFTP server to facilitate automated file transfers between our cities and us; if a city has ongoing data files that they need us to import, they can simply schedule those files to be delivered through the SFTP server which will be automatically picked up and run by our data import script, fully minimizing manual effort. Overcome the identified shortcomings of external data sources By the end of Phase II, we have built a hierarchy per data field that prioritizes the more accurate data source for each data field. By incorporating multiple data sources it allows us to compliment the strengths and weaknesses of each source. We have also built the internal tracking mechanism that prioritizes user entered values above our sourced values. Identify and implement additional data sources By the end of Phase II, we have now fully automated our data process incorporating multiple data sources, including Google and Outscraper. Each business record has an ID per data source which is used for subsequent updates. We have also expanded our contract with Data Axle to include more data points that we can provide to our cities. Technical objective 2: To continue to enhance our cloud infrastructure and product performance. By the end ofPhase II, we have performed substantial enhancements of our AWS cloud infrastructure.Auto-scaling has been established in the AWS infrastructure to reduce spikes and support variable workload. Additionally, we have set up savings plan and reserved instances for performance and cost-management purposes. We have boostedour elastic search setup as well as leveraging AWS QuickSight as a revamp to our reporting module. In doing so, we have also performed revamp of some of our legacy code which had become a hindrance to further upgrades and scaling. Technical objective 3: To enhance the usability of the product's user interface. Usability is a key determining factor of users' adoption of the platform, and is another key objective for our Phase II effort. During Phase II, we have made the following notable enhancements: Revamped Business Profile view: improved social media links, custom data block, etc. components for better ease of use Revamped Business List view: upgraded the business list to match the look and feel of the other revamped UI, also improved some legacy functionalities and introduced bulk actions Revamped Custom Charts: new Custom Charts feature has been released with much more user-friendly designs and more flexible report templates Smarter email matching: giving users more control when an email matches to multiple business profiles Completed data refresh process: users can now review the periodic data refresh to their businesses from their home screen Projects enhancements: notes, tasks and reminders, attachments, UI updates Revamped group email functionality: improved UI and updated backend processes to avoid timeout errors Revamped Business Activities view: reorganized legacy features and delivered a cleaner, simpler UI Revamped Custom Report module: delivered a completely new custom report builder experience that lets users create their own report tables easier and more intuitively Revamp custom forms: we have outgrown the original custom forms backend design and are now performing a refactor to support continued upgrade Microsoft SSO implemented: users can now create accounts and sign in via Microsoft SSO Technical objective 4: To add functionalities and explore areas of expansion. Notable new features that we have released in the second half of Phase II include: User permissions: letting cities assign different roles and permissions to their users so they can manage different levels of access Survey workflows: upgraded survey feature to let cities automate workflow tasks from survey responses, such as creating a project, sending automated emails, etc Super-admin management panel to streamline internal manual processes Contacts tab: users can now view contacts in a separate tab than businesses, making it easier to organize contacts and track additional key stakeholders in the community that may not be associated with individual businesses Business license module: users can now track their businesses' license information in the same centralized workspace; some communities have even started using Bludot to accept business license applications and renewals, further streamlining economic development workflow Business Insights Dashboard: Cities now have a dashboard to view monthly ongoing changes to their local businesses, including alerts for new businesses found and businesses closed

    Publications


      Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

      Outputs
      Target Audience:Bludot's primary target audience include small-mid sized cities and counties in the country. Our target customers include local government staff, local/regional economic development organizations (EDOs), chambers of commerce, etc. During this reporting period Bludot has worked with 70 rural communities as part of our SBIR Phase II effort. Small to midsized jurisdictions face capacity constraints most acutely and hence is where the Bludot solution provides significant value. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has allowed Bludot team members to learn more about the profession of economic development, gain knowledge and skills on what's required for those departments, and train on how best to support those goals and initiatives. Through working with adiverse set of 70 rural communities across the country, Bludot has gained a tremendous amount of insight that we haveincorporated into our solutionas well as shared with my community partners. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Bludot has presented workshops, seminars, and panel discussions at a number of industry conferences during this reporting period: Learning Lab presentation on Business Retention best practices, International Economic Development Council annual conference, September 2022 Presentation on Business Retention best practices, Texas Economic Development Council annual conference, October 2022 Presentation on Business Retention solutions,Economic Development Council of Colorado annual conference, October 2022 Exhibitor,Kentucky Association for Economic Development conference, November 2022 Exhibitor,International Economic Development Council EconomicLeadership Summit, Jan 2023 Exhibitor and Innovation Showcase presentation,Cities Summit, April 2023 Exhibitor,IDA Economic Development Conference, April 2023 Exhibitor, Florida Economic Development Council annual conference, May 2023 Exhibitor,International Economic Development Council EconomicFutures Forum, June2023 PanelPresentation on Supporting Local Businesses,California Association for Local Economic Development, June 2023 Exhibitor,Southern Economic Development Council annual conference, Aug 2023 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, Bludot plans to continue to focus on the technical objectives and ensure that best results are achieved with the rural communities that we work with. In particular, we will double down on user experience improvement as it is a key factor for the economic developmenet teams' continued usage. Additionally, we will deepen our efforts in data analysis, leveraging the data we have accummulated in the platform to generate more valuable insights for the economic development teams. Lastly, we will continue to expand our functionality, bringing efficiency to more workflows.

      Impacts
      What was accomplished under these goals? As of the mid-point of Bludot's Phase II efforts, Bludot is proud to have expanded to 70 rural communities and organizations actively using our platform. The Phase II technical objectives, as well as a detailed description of the interim Phase II results as of the mid-point of the project, are as follows: Technical objective 1: To continue to develop and enhance Bludot's data algorithms. A. Automate merging between the community's dataset and the external data we source. So far in Phase II, we have built a script that automates 90% of the merging process between a community's dataset and our sourced data. This includes both the initial onboarding as well as periodic updates. This script was developed and continually iterated as we ran it through communities' data, fixing errors, improving accuracy, and addressing corner cases, each time making the script better. For the last 3 months the script has been stable and generating results without errors. B. Overcome the identified shortcomings of external data sources During Phase I, certain shortcomings of our external data source became apparent. We have started looking into other proxies that can help us enhance the data quality; this effort is currently ongoing. C. Identify and implement additional data sources During Phase I, we have evaluated other data sources including Google Places API and hunter.io, which we have started to implement in Phase II. For example, we have expanded our usage of Google Places API to query and populate more information about local businesses, such as detailed business categories, hours of operation, photos, etc. This data has been incorporated into our shop-local incentive program, and will be incorporated into our public-facing business directory. We have built a repeatable process to query these data points and import to our communities' workspaces, in the initial upload as well as subsequent updates. Technical objective 2: To continue to enhance our cloud infrastructure and product performance. During Phase II, we aimed to continue to enhance our AWS setup to meet the increasing usage and data requirements on the platform. Auto-scaling has been established in the AWS infrastructure to reduce spikes and support variable workload. Additionally, we have also set up savings plan and reserved instances for performance and cost-management purposes. This new infrastructure has been operational for 8 months and has proven to be robust. Technical objective 3: To enhance the usability of the product's user interface. Usability is a key determining factor of users' adoption of the platform, and is another key objective for our Phase II effort. So far during Phase II, we have made the following notable enhancements: i. Revamped Business Profile view: improved social media links, custom data block, etc. components for better ease of use ii. Revamped Business List view: upgraded the business list to match the look and feel of the other revamped UI, also improved some legacy functionalities and introduced bulk actions iii. Revamped Custom Charts: new Custom Charts feature has been released with much more user-friendly designs and more flexible report templates iv. Smarter email matching: giving users more control when an email matches to multiple business profiles v. Completed data refresh process: users can now review the periodic data refresh to their businesses from their home screen vi. Projects enhancements: notes, tasks and reminders, attachments, UI updates Technical objective 4: To add functionalities and explore areas of expansion. Notable new features that we have released so far during Phase II include: i. User permissions: letting cities assign different roles and permissions to their users so they can manage different levels of access ii. Survey workflows: upgraded survey feature to let cities automate workflow tasks from survey responses, such as creating a project, sending automated emails, etc Additionally, we aimed to explore areas of expansion, and so far in Phase II, we have successfully completed our first pilot of a business license module. This module extends our existing survey functionality to allow business owners complete their business license applications online, make payment, and receive their certificate. It greatly streamlines the city's workflow and saves business owners' time. Another area of expansion we have explored is creating reports with more insights relating to the departments' activities. For example, we have built a custom report on a one-off basis for a county that incorporates text-based analysis, synthesizing the notes and comments that the county has gathered during business visits to generate a useful summary around the top areas of challenges and priorities. This report template has received positive feedback.

      Publications