Guest Mindsetter™ Dr. Carriuolo: How Commerce Corp is Making RI More Business Friendly

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Guest Mindsetter™ Dr. Nancy Carriuolo

The old adage that the “customer is always right” isn’t one that is often associated with government bureaus. But at the August 10 meeting of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation’s Board of Directors, Liz Tanner, executive vice president of Client Services, gave an insightful presentation that demonstrated the importance of our government putting its constituents first—in effect, treating them like customers. 

Overall, RICC is making great progress in becoming more business friendly, and one important piece of that work is the strong effort of Client Services. This small but vitally important division is actively listening to problems and working with other state and municipal agencies to make setting up and running a business in the Ocean State as simple as possible.

SLIDES: See RI Commerce Corporation's Recent Client Services Presentation BELOW

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Tanner’s group is making a significant dent in the backlog of issues related to business friendliness by being—yes—friendly in the truest sense of the word. Her team is working with businesses across the state to understand the needs of business and then adapt state and local processes to meet those needs better.

Over 150 business groups have heard of Commerce’s programs and services and had the opportunity to express their concerns. The Client Services team has methodically addressed each concern raised. According to Tanner, “By listening to members of the business community, we have received extremely valuable feedback that gives us the opportunity to address each and every issue they present.”

Lowering Wait Times

Working together across state and municipal government, LEAN processes have been used to shorten wait times for many permits, licenses and other types of permissions that businesses need to operate in Rhode Island. For example, the Division of Taxation dropped the average wait time to obtain a letter of good standing from 97 days to 30 days. Similarly, using LEAN principles, the Department of Transportation plans to be able to reduce the average from 150 days to 75 days or less to secure approval for a physical alteration permit (look for that improvement in the next four months). 

Client Services also has helped government to use its resources to understand and serve businesses better.  Lisa Konicki, President of the Ocean Communities Chamber, contacted Client Services to share the following story. On a rainy day, Lisa went to the Department of Administration to conduct business that included documentation that needed to be notarized. She was told no notary was available. She moved onto the credit union and was told no notaries were available to her there. She found a notary at the state house and then marched back in still heavy rain to the Department of Administration.  In response to experiences such as this one, the Department of Revenue now makes available a list of on-staff notaries at its first-floor customer service window.

Regulations set forth in antiquated laws present more issues that affect small businesses, such as an out-of-date regulation that requires an IT company to obtain a license for each computer it installs. The Commerce Corporation is working with the Governor’s office and others to review such laws and identify ways to reduce these types of unnecessary burdens on businesses. This work provides a simple, cost-effective way to improve Rhode Island's business climate. 

Perhaps most telling is the response from a business co-owner, Felicia Smith, regarding her experience with one of the advisors in the Business Navigation Center: “This is a huge burden lifted because as a business owner starting out, you have no idea where to go and at times are very overwhelmed.  It’s great to have a provider like you to walk us through the process and make connections with others on our behalf.”

Tackling Barriers, Big and Small

These are issues that have been identified (and solutions provided) because Client Services is living up to its name—listening to clients and working to ensure that our government is serving them in better, less cumbersome ways. Overall, Governor Raimondo has been tackling not only big, but also small, irritating barriers to doing business in Rhode Island. 

In that vein, Tanner has taken her show on the road and traveled to nearly every chamber, merchant association, rotary club and BNI in the state and 32 of 39 municipalities. She is now going back again to speak with trade groups and business associations regarding their specific concerns. Hair salons and barber shops, often epicenters of where opinions are formulated and shared, are coming up on her list. Tanner says, “I see the future as more listening, reviewing and acting. I am pleased to say the number of complaints dropped after Jan. 1, and I hope we see that whittling away of the problem continue.” 

We believe that Tanner and her team are on the right track to make that happen, and we at the RICC are working to make sure she continues to have the right tools to do so. By the way, any Rhode Islander can attend the RICC Board of Directors meetings, and I am confident that any who attended that August 10 gathering left extraordinarily proud of the work we are doing to help our small businesses grow and thrive in the Ocean State.

Carriuolo is a member of the Board of Directors of CommerceRI and the VP for Advancement at New England Institute of Technology. 
 

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Related Slideshow: Client Services Board Presentation

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