Noting a growing portfolio that cuts across the VA, USDA, HUD and USAF, OS AI sat down with Millsapps, Ballinger & Associates (MB&A)’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joshua Millsapps, and Chief Operating Officer, Alex Morrison, to better understand how this SaaS development and consulting firm is making good on its commitment to bring better solutions to bear for federal clients and why empowering federal employees is better for government.
Bringing Better Solutions to Bear
Noting that products offer a unique opportunity to bring value to customers, MB&A has focused its offerings on exactly that. “We’ve got really smart people here and even when a customer has been doing something for decades and feeling like they are succeeding, we can help them find a better solution.”
Building and growing its deep understanding of since 2011, MB&A began to explore options, including Oracle and AWS but quickly turned its attention to Salesforce. “Salesforce at the time was really interested in bringing companies aboard into the app exchange space to help accelerate what they were delivering to customers in and around their platform.”
Over time that evolved to a suite of products that augment standard Salesforce offerings, that build on the advances Salesforce continues to make, particularly around its public sector solutions. “As Salesforce continues to innovate so do we, to ensure we are getting our customer to market rapidly, that we are meeting that goal of bringing better solutions to bear for our federal clients.”
Facilitating Empowerment
Noting that government should be able to do things for themselves, to satisfy their own business requirements, MB&A looks with an eye to how it can make clients as self-sufficient as possible, how they can empower them to understand how to get the most out of Salesforce to evolve their own solutions. “Where there are gaps, where we have accelerators, or app exchange products that can help them get a little bit farther, or other app exchange products. We try to bring those in to keep within that low code/no code kind of ethos that we have and then we glue it together with our professional services. We help get them the last mile.”
Proof in the Delivery
Having exceeded expectations with clients including the VA, MB&A’s commitment to and focus on Salesforce breeds confidence in clients. “Resisting the urge to move into other spaces we are able to really focus, to keep that time to market promise we make our customers. We help them feel comfortable as they move through the process, in part because of our in-depth knowledge and expertise, and in part because moving quickly we are able to get and respond to feedback quickly, are able to mitigate risk and meet expectations.
Being clear in its focus, the company is able to attract talent that is interested and focused on the same area. “People know there is an opportunity to grow to whatever level they want within their chosen specialization, to grow within the organization. They know they won’t be asked to be one thing one day and something completely different another. For our clients, that means they get more SME level expertise, more seasoned talent.”
Those who enjoy working with the end customer to help them solve critical challenges will find the opportunity to apply their expertise and focus exciting. “Whether you’re supporting USDA as the last line of defense for food safety or ensuring Veterans can access the benefits they need, you get to understand what goes into delivering for citizens.”
Doubling down on certifications and educational opportunities, MB&A team members are able to go deep, to get as far as they can take their knowledge, and then can continue to build on that.
Use Cases
The Federal Government uses this common framework for collecting, managing and understanding data. Whether from inspections, or digital forms, there are ample opportunities to gather information.” We have tools at the front end to help you gather the information and a lot of expertise on how to support intelligent data collection, whether that be, how do you ask questions to how do I build effective data models that allow me to perform analysis. Salesforce is an exceptional business process automation tool set so we’re able to help take that information, flow it through their business process.”
Noting that Salesforce is at the forefront of both AI and safe utilization of data it meets the demands of government in meeting its obligations. “There can be a lag in public sector when it comes to the adoption of new technology and it is due in part to those security and privacy considerations. The way that Salesforce has looked at that last mile, the understanding piece is really going to be a differentiator in how they go to market.”
Building on its work in inspections, audits, compliance, permitting and so on MB&A leveraged its history in the product space during and post-COVID to hep clients meet changing demands, to collect data that was meaningful to them under challenging circumstances and to adapt business processes.
Empathy
Noting that empathy is part of what has helped this team succeed, whether it is developing their own skills or looking outside of the box for clients, it all comes down to caring. To caring about each other as a team, caring about the customer, and about the citizens they serve.
“If we are empathetic about what our customer mission is and who their stakeholders are, we should be the same internally to each other. We have to be that way with our clients. We really push our staff to be that way to each other.”
Understanding that success is heavily dependent on having really talented senior people and creating beautifully crafted, bespoke solutions, MB&A didn’t want to lose the quality it was delivering a deliberate focus was invested in understanding the right way to onboard, the right way to prepare people to deliver for customers.
“To prepare ourselves we’ve ensured we had the operational capability to be able to continue to do what we’ve done over the last five years and accelerate the number of missions that were able to impact as we do it. It isn’t about adopting another platform, but we’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing exceptionally well for more folks.”
Expertise Brought to Bear
For potential partners, what MB&A brings to the table is clear – Salesforce experience that has spanned hundreds of efforts, and supported tens and hundreds of thousands of users across an expansive array of use cases.
“One of the stories we are proud of is our work with the VA, where we came in at what was really the beginning of their Salesforce journey. Helping get the VA’s Digital Transformation Centre going, we were there at the start and have been ever since. We have also been change agents at HUD, and within Air Force who are engaged with us in some really transparent conversations focused on solving their complex challenges and empowering them to further solve evolving challenges on their own.”
“There are times we have seen something and realized it was built on something we initiated. There is someone at USDA for instance who has configured something like 60 additional processes. We are proud to have created the tool but the person who then takes that and dives in and makes it what they need is what we really celebrate.”
Looking to empower more of the really smart people in government who are passionate about what they do, are driven to make a difference, MB&A will continue to move the needle, to provide the starting tools innovators need to succeed.
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