As it builds on a growing portfolio at DHS and HHS, we caught up with some of the VerticalApps team: Will Choi, President; Michael Grace, Chief Technical Officer; Paul Grace, Executive Vice President; and Allison Chen, Vice President Operations to learn more about spinning a commercial lens to Federal service, big picture fixes and how simplicity in partnering drives success and trust.
Spinning a Commercial Lens to Federal Service
From its initial start working with a commercial focus, for more than 5 years now, the team’s efforts have shifted to solely federal work. Leveraging its experience in data, the company has grown to be among the leaders in automation in the GovCon space.
“Thanks to a few customers early in our federal work who gave us the freedom to see what was possible we realized we can really move the needle in improving productivity, improve the culture and make life easier for federal employees.”
Generated by a team that is tight socially and from a shared skillset base, the team is taking its lessons learned and helping a growing client list find a better way forward. “Being very focused on what we do, we have a team that can work across various projects, to take things they are working on for one client and leverage it to help another team working with a different client. That shared focus and exposure to different people, different challenges and the solutions to those challenges, improves results for everyone.”
Big Picture Fixes to Better Serve Federal Employees
Noting that often clients have a singular view of the end goal or challenge to be solved, the VerticalApps team focuses on the helping them see and adjust to the bigger picture. This larger view is driven by interviewing people down the line who are involved in the effort. “Often we can identify changes to ongoing processes ahead of any automation effort that can create huge efficiencies before any actual work is being done.”
Taking some of the manual work out of the process, providing that outside view of how things are done, and working with people at the CIO level who recognize improvement does not come from continuing business as usual, the team is able to improve culture, to energize federal employees. “When we can help people start working from the neck up, removing some of the more manual tasks, they can spend more of their time on the 20 percent that matters, the 20 percent that will both motivate and fulfil them.”
Simplicity in Partnerships
Having seen and heard and learned, the VerticalApps team is committed to simplicity in its partner agreements, in sitting down to put an agreement in place and then sticking with it. Coming to the table with that partner then as one team, badgeless and being transparent in its engagement, the focus is on delivery.
“Our customers appreciate that they don’t need to know who works for who, who they can talk to or should not. We are one ecosystem of players all working toward the same goal, all having the same view and access to the same information.”
Combining two of its core values: Lead by Service and Trust through Transparency, the team is focused on doing right by its clients, partners and team.
The Thread of Values
The company’s core values represent a thread that ties all of its activities together. From its capture process to partnering, from interviews through semi-annual reviews and quarterly awards, the mantra for the team is that if they live and work according to the company’s values, they will succeed.
Another of its values, Grow through Learning, supports professional development activities from grad programs through conferences, and brings the team together over activities that range from brown bag lunches to book clubs. “There is a common intellectual curiosity across our team that is self-driven, that brings people together.”
Those common values and shared curiosity have seen tight ties develop between team members, ties that often continue even as some may move on to other opportunities.
Avoidance of Micromanaging
While many companies were pushing employees to get back to the office, VerticalApps relied on its team to decide what they wanted and found a hybrid balance was preferred. “We don’t mandate anything and found the team embraced a balance of getting work done at home and coming together to collaborate.”
Saying leadership checks their egos at the door, across the organization management decisions are pushed down and shared as they can be. “Our team knows the end goals of what they are driving towards. We prefer to help them grow by allowing them those decisions, and in some cases, those mistakes. We understand that growth and scaling will only come from having more people on the team who can and do make those management decisions.”
Noting that as a company, VerticalApps is agile in its thinking, able to gather feedback, understand what needs to change and then adapt, investing in across its team in the future leaders, the team recognizes that what it is driving is bigger than any one, or any small group of people. “We believe we cannot grow as we should as a company unless we are all fully aligned and rowing in one direction.”
Giving Back
Often when companies are embedded in a great culture, there is a component of giving back. In the case of VerticalApps that giving back is driven by the team, by surveys that reinforce the desire of everyone to be engaged in the community. Over time that interest has led the team to clean parks, support homeless shelters, and participate in organized activities including Race for Hope.
“We also offer a double your donation program through which we will match a portion of what employees may contribute annually to their individual charities of choice.”
Driving forward, aligning with companies as partners, and through involvement in organizations including AFCEA Bethesda and ACT-IAC, VerticalApps is focused on getting the job done, doing it as a collaborative partner and delivering a great customer experience.
About VerticalApps
Vertical Applications, Inc. (VerticalApps) is an SBA-certified 8(a) firm and UiPath Premier public sector partner providing Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Data & Analytics, and Software Development services and solutions to the federal government. We offer a proven RPA solution that can scale across an agency called “RPA In a Box”. Our RPA offering, powered by UiPath, consists of a full spectrum of services to support the automation life cycle from governance, intake management, communications, and training, to process documentation, process improvement, infrastructure deployment, process automation, bot testing and deployment, metrics tracking, and support for a citizen development model. At VerticalApps, 100% of our consultants are Agile Certified Scrum Masters (CSMs) and our RPA developers are UiPath-certified to ensure consistent quality delivery across our programs and projects.
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