One Year In, Planning for the Future
One year ago, I joined CSDC. Anniversaries are good times for reflection and planning — which has me thinking about what we’ve learned this past year, and how that has shaped where we’re headed.
I’ve been fortunate to have three things at CSDC. One, I joined the most experienced govtech team in our industry. Many of my colleagues have decades of experience working with government customers and deeply understand their needs, challenges, and future plans. That heritage is one of our company’s core strengths. Two, I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with our incredible customer base, some of whom just joined us in the past several months, but many of whom have been with us for years. Three, I’ve been fortunate to have been joined by several leaders with unmatched experience managing operations for some of the best enterprises in the world. The combination of govtech expertise, highly engaged customers and CSDC’s ability to effectively grow and scale is powerful — these are the things we’ll use to provide our customers with the world’s best govtech software.
In my early days at CSDC, I met with and listened to customers, our team, partners, investors and other key stakeholders to identify our customers’ needs and pain points. The challenges were common among most of our government customers. For example, capital restraints and poor translatability of private sector technology to government needs often meant governments were faced with ‘second best’ choices. Many were left with legacy systems for various functions that didn’t easily interact. These issues represent significant challenges to the public sector who depend on technology to propel growth and better connect with citizens and communities.
Meanwhile, citizen demands on governments have never been greater. Over the last decade, there has been a sea of change in how consumers expect to interact with any institution. We manage banking, retail transactions, social interactions and more online and on our smartphones. We expect the user interfaces to be seamless, intuitive and easy. Consumers expect the same when interacting with government — whether it’s licensing a new business, permitting a new house, or paying a fee. One of the most memorable quotes I heard from the CIO of one of our most innovative customers was this: “I don’t compete with other cities or counties in terms of providing the best customer experience. I compete with Amazon and Google.”
We accomplished a good deal in the last year to help our customers in meeting their challenges. We made the strategic decision to expand our partner ecosystem, partnering with some of the best in the industry, so we could ensure that more customers could adopt and use the most current version of our Amanda software. While our partners focus on customer-focused, in-the-field implementation strategies, CSDC was enabled to focus our attention on introducing software enhancements at a higher velocity so we could accelerate capability and success between our customers and their citizens.
We introduced a subscription offering called Amanda Editions, that has provided customers much-needed flexibility — in financing, implementation, and hosting — which puts an enterprise-level, secure software solution in reach of any government of any size — making available technology to governments which may not have been able to access it in the past.
How we deliver value to our customers starts with how we’re inspired and aligned as a company. I’m incredibly proud that we did great work in uncovering CSDC’s purpose, mission, and values. We want to create a company where the best and brightest want to be because they’re motivated by its mission. I know we’re on the right path to doing that.
Everything isn’t perfect, and we’re always focused on how we can improve. As we’ve grown, and as we’ve introduced more innovation to our customers with Amanda 7, there’s an increasing demand on our customer support teams. Our commitment to providing incredible support is unwavering, so we’re introducing new tools, talent and processes so we can keep growing and scaling.
Looking ahead, there are exciting new opportunities on the horizon. The age of building smart communities is here, and governments are leading the way. Inexpensive devices are becoming ubiquitous to measure nearly anything that can improve our lives — from air quality to the timing of traffic signals. The opportunity to leverage the data generated by the billions of those Internet of Things (IoT) devices is tremendous — if metadata from those IoT devices is accessible, strategic decisions about growth and economic opportunity can be made.
The challenge is accessing and using the data, making sure it’s translatable for Artificial Intelligence (AI). CSDC’s Amanda software and database provide a critical and strategic foundation upon which we can build. We’re focused on enabling you to leverage Amanda and unlock the power of data to fuel your smart technology initiatives.
After a year, I’m more inspired than ever about the power of governments to transform citizens’ lives, drive economic growth and enable communities to thrive. I, and CSDC are committed to providing our customers the best technology we can so they can build the great communities of tomorrow.
