Risk Management Blog

First Corporate Solutions was once again proud to sponsor the 2020 International Association of Commercial Administrators’ (IACA) Annual Merit Award Ceremony.

The IACA Merit Awards provides administrative offices with a forum to share successfully implemented changes in their home jurisdictions. The focus is always on innovation and this year’s entries did not disappoint.

The judging for the Merit Awards takes effectiveness, originality, significance and lessons learned into account. When all of the scores were tallied, there were 4 Merit Award winners for 2020.

Winner #1: Colorado Secretary of State: Designing a Winning Customer Support Services Track
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Business and Licensing Division implemented a new Customer Support Services model. The new model maximizes available resources, enhances employee training opportunities, develops future division and department leaders, and has proven to be successful and beneficial. The new Customer Support model was designed to strike a balance between customer support and employee professional needs. By changing the design of their daily work, the organization addressed employee utilization deficiencies, longstanding professional development shortfalls and improved customer service.

Winner #2: Indiana Secretary of State: INBiz: The Next Level of One-Stop
INBiz connects Indiana business-owners to Indiana State agencies by providing a one-stop resource for registering and managing their business while ensuring it complies with state laws and regulations. Since 2016, INBiz has grown to encompass functionality of eight different agencies including the Department of Revenue, Department of Workforce Development, Office of the Attorney General, the Professional Licensing Agency, the City of Greenwood, Indiana Small Business Development Center, and many other state and local partnerships with a list of features that is growing every month.

Winner #3: Rhode Island Secretary of State: RI Business Data Hub
The RI Business Data Hub is a collection of reports and interactive visualizations that use the vast volume of data collected by the Business Services Division to tell the story of the business landscape in Rhode Island.

Before implementing the RI Business Data Hub, a casual user searching the RI corporate database could only find information on one entity at a time. With the new online system, users can now research registered entities by location or by business activity, both of which are extremely useful.

Winner #4: Washington Office of the Secretary of State : Corporations and Charities Filing System
The Washington Office of the Secretary of State implemented a new online filing system for business entities, nonprofits, and charities called the Corporations and Charities Filing Sytem (CCFS).

The new online filing system replaced their old cumbersome, paper-based system so that now the overwhelming majority of their filings are completed online, automatically, and nearly instantaneously upon submission. The new efficiencies in online filing has enabled the RI staff to handle the remaining paper submissions quickly and efficiently, and spend more time processing complex filings.

While the winning submissions for 2020 varied from new customer service models to enhanced online capabilities – the core value behind all of these submissions is innovation which is particularly commendable considering the year that we’re having.

First Corporate Solutions is committed to providing innovative and efficient solutions to our lending and legal customers. We are proud to sponsor this year’s Merit Awards to help honor the filing offices whose improvements allow us to better service our clients.