Case Summary
In May 2004 the Business Gateway E-Gov initiative launched Business.gov. Although the portal focused initially on providing general start-up advice to small businesses, the focus soon changed to offering one-stop access to federal compliance and regulatory information. Over time, Business.gov has evolved even more, and most recently, launched the Business.gov Community. By listening to its users and through the innovative use of technology, the Program has been effective at reducing time and resource expenses incurred by small businesses.
Business Challenge
Small businesses spend billions of dollars each year acquiring pertinent information about the government. In response to this problem, an official business link to the U.S. Government was needed that allowed companies to transcend traditional information silos and efficiently obtain relevant public sector data, forms, resources, and personnel contacts.
In the fall of 2001, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identified Business Gateway as one of the twenty-four Presidential E-Government Initiatives. Administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in partnership with twenty-one other federal agencies, the goal of this Program is to "make it easier for businesses to do business." While the broad focus of this initiative has always been to alleviate operational burdens facing businesses by aggregating appropriate information into a one-stop online portal, the specifics of the challenge have evolved over time. Immediately following the Program launch the emphasis was on assisting small businesses start, manage and grow, but over time a new more pressing obstacle was identified: helping companies comply with the vast array of government laws and regulations.
As will be detailed in the following narrative, Business Gateway's ability to adapt and update mission focus has been critical to the success of the Program.
Approach Taken
The first significant step taken by this E-Gov Program was the launch of Business.gov in May 2004. Initially, the portal focused on providing information about start-up and operational sustainability to small business owners. Over the next two years the Business Gateway team consulted with their target constituents through numerous focus groups and online surveys to collect data on ways to improve the site. The overwhelming consensus among entrepreneurs was that Business.gov needed to focus its efforts on helping small businesses navigate the maze of regulatory requirements across government.
Based largely on this feedback, Business Gateway Program Manager Nancy Sternberg spearheaded a major re-launch of the portal in September 2006. The new focus of Business.gov was offering small businesses one-stop access to regulatory compliance information, forms and government contacts. The new content notably included thousands of compliance-related documents on topics like environmental regulations, taxes and office safety requirements aggregated from various government websites. At this time the Program team also deployed an innovative self-learning search engine that performed "vertical searches" which leveraged the need and context of user searches, significantly narrowing the results for a given site inquiry.
In July 2007 more features were added to Business.gov including the Permit Me tool which serves as a consolidated resource for obtaining federal and state permits and professional licenses for businesses. Site evolution continued at the start of 2008 with the introduction of a new Google-based Custom Search that made it even easier for businesses to find forms, licenses, permits, regulatory information and other government resources. At this time, the portal also expanded to incorporate small business regulatory compliance resources from over 9,000 state, territory, county, and city government websites. This addition of new state and local content was coupled with the implementation of improved search engine capabilities that accounted for users' queries geographic context.
In 2008, the Business Gateway team began to roll-out new Web 2.0 tools intended to enhance the functionality of Business.gov, while driving traffic to the site, and communicating the site's resources to larger audiences of small business owners. For instance, the site now features mashups that link Google maps with government office locations. The site is also rolling out a series of powerful search tools, including its most recent "Loans and Grants" tool - the first of its kind to provide access to federal and state programs in a single, easy to use format. Business Gateway is also expanding into new media, including a government resources blog in partnership with the popular small business website, AllBusiness.com. The Program is also rapidly growing its presence on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Furthermore, the Program is presently utilizing Google's open-source management application to enhance team collaboration between government employees and contractors.
In 2009, Business.gov continued to take steps to use technology to better communicate with and respond to the needs of the small business community. In February, the Business.gov Community was launched and serves as an interactive extension of the website, allowing small business owners to interact with government and industry experts as well as with each other. The community provides a forum for small business owners to voice their ideas and needs, while providing a platform for them to communicate ideas and questions about starting, growing and operating a business. The Community's mission is in alignment with the new President's mandate to "create a transparent and connected democracy" with "meaningful engagement of citizens and their elected officials".
Results Achieved
Business.gov has been effective at reducing time and resource expenses incurred by small businesses as they look for regulations and forms across numerous agency websites. In fact, according to data collected through the site's ACSI survey, the portal has saved users an estimated 3,960,269 work hours in fiscal year 2008, while also alleviating the administrative burden on partner federal agencies (e.g. reducing misdirected calls.)
Customer satisfaction scores - as measured by ACSI - are also rising. The site's overall ACSI score has risen from 63 to 74 in the past year, and the switch to Google Custom Search was key in dramatically raising the site's Search satisfaction score from 61 to 75.
Site traffic has also increased since the 2006 re-launch with Business.gov averaging 150,000 monthly visitors. Business Gateway has also received numerous awards in recognition of the Program's accomplishments. For example, in 2008 the Program and/or its leadership was selected as a recipient of the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC) Project Management Excellence award, the GCN Technology Leadership Award and the ACT/IAC Excellence.gov award. Most recently, Business Gateway received the prestigious Search Engine Strategies award for "Best Use of Local Search", and was the only government Program to win.
Lessons Learned
According to Nancy Sternberg, a key component of Business Gateway's success is the team's commitment to finding value for partner agencies. Sternberg recalls the complaints she received about the utility of the site back in 2006, noting that "I don't give up...We were very successful in getting the naysayers to quiet down and even step-up."
The team also learned that in order to be effective, the Program must push content out to where small business owners are most active. Consequently, a pro-active engagement strategy has been implemented to generate as many "impressions" of Business.gov as possible, so that wherever small business owners look, they will be able to find Business Gateway content. The recent use of Web 2.0 tools such as the government resource blog on AllBusiness.com, along with the use of Twitter and Myspace is indicative of this new approach to constituent engagement.
Another important conclusion formulated by Business Gateway is that site content, design and functionality must be constantly evolving in order to provide real value to small businesses. Since its 2004 launch, the Program team has unveiled numerous site enhancements that are guided by the following underlying principle: Go where the users lead us. In this spirit, the Business Gateway is currently finalizing plans to increase the interactive nature of Business.gov. The goal will be to forge a collaborative environment where business owners will be able to learn from each other. Thus the future remains bright for this initiative as Program leaders continuously find ways to innovate and transform.
