Navigator Award Finalists: Scott Mayers and Team, Louisiana Secretary of State IT Division
Simplifying and streamlining the process to get a business up and running.
This is the 44th in a series of profiles on the 50 finalists for Route Fifty’s Navigator Awards program. The first 10 finalists were from the Government Allies and Cross-Sector Partners category. Finalists 11-20 were from the Agency and Department Leadership category. Finalists 21-30 were from the Executive Leadership category. Finalists 31-40 were from the Next Generation category. Finalists 41-50 are from the Data and IT Innovators category. Explore our complete list of 50 finalists.
It’s no easy feat to break down jurisdictional silos to create a one-stop online spot for business owners to register with a state government, complete required filings and obtain proper permits, among other necessary bureaucratic steps.
In Louisiana, an effort led by the office of the Secretary of State, Department of Revenue and Workforce Commission resulted in the creation of a business portal called geauxBIZ, which launched last year.
“Making sure that entrepreneurs can access the information they need, in one convenient location and file online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for me was a no brainer,” Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler said in an announcement last year when the portal launched.
In Schedler’s office, IT Division Director Scott Mayers and his team helped make geauxBIZ a reality.
According to a Navigator Award nomination submission for Mayers and his team:
The Louisiana Secretary of State partnered with GCR to develop the site. To fulfill the needs of the agencies, two applications were developed—an Internal Admin Application where the agencies can define their requirements for the business filings, and the geauxBIZ Portal, an external web site where businesses can complete and submit their filings. The Admin Application is used to setup and administer the different filings available from each agency. Through this application, agency users create ”wizards” which, once moved to the web portal, guide external users (businesses) step by step through the filing process. The agency users create, test, and then approve the wizard for production. Once approved the wizard is moved to the geauxBIZ portal web site and is available for use by businesses. The wizard based design allows the flexibility to add other filing types and integrate with other agencies all the way to the local government level.
Route Fifty is pleased to include Mayers and his team in the Louisiana Secretary of State’s IT Division as Navigator Award finalists.
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
