I’m frankly pretty proud regarding what we accomplished this quarter:

Business License

The business license module went from running in parallel in Q1 to now fully live at the end of Q2.  While we were at a ‘Minimum Viable Product’ stage with the product in February, daily usage (as expected) revealed a lot of changes that were needed as well as a number of new features that needed to be added to give it feature parity with the existing software, including:

• Create a process to handle refunds.
• Setup memo accounts for each customer to track their progress
• Allow documents to be attached
• Bank Deposit consolidation and handling
• Reporting

Most excitingly we started allowing credit card processing through the system in April, which allowed staff to take cards and payments over the phone.  This quarter we processed over $75,000 in credit card transactions.

In Q1 we worked with Lynn Cyr on our overall UI/UX flow and then with Krit to build the form controls for our usage.  We started integrating those controls and the overall structure of the newer pages  into the software this quarter.  

Cemetery

We also released our cemetery management module to our first customer.  This has seen more modest activity and feedback as the COVID 19 pandemic has largely shut down the operations of the department that would normally be using the module.  We’ve added the ability for photos to be uploaded and stored to make it easier to identify and track the sites.

We also spent some time in response to an RFP for a major city,  The opportunity was large and the municipality was frankly outside our target market, but I saw it as a good chance to do work that didn’t scale to go through our process and compare our offering to the stated requirements.  In the end, the insurance and liability requirements of the RFP were something to which we couldn’t commit but it did allow us to flesh out some of our roadmap for the product in the future.  

Marketing

We worked with 99designs to perform a logo competition and while the process was a slog (we had over 100 designers submitting over 300 designs, variations, and iterations), we’re pleased with the final results. 

We leveraged the new logo and design work to launch our new website.  As part of the launch we’ve released a blog series on business licensing.  

Q3 Planning

General

1. Interface Redesign: Complete the navigation and checkout redesign.
2. Workflow v1:  Workflow for reviews, etc., is critical for almost every module we plan to create.  The system must be built in robust enough of a manner to handle complex workflows yet be easy enough for a user to configure.  This first version is focusing more on the core architecture with the goals of:
   1. A programmer may programmatically configure a workflow in the system without code.
   2. The workflow allows for:
      1. Serial review of the item by single consecutive persons
      2. Triggering of processes at any point in the review.

Cemetery

1. Complete Customer Feedback:  Receive feedback from customer and prioritize timeline based on their needs.

Business License

1. Forecasting: Especially with the passage SC House Bill H4331 and the ability for business license departments to adjust their charges to stay revenue neutral, I firmly believe that forecasting is a key feature.  This will be a priority over the next few months.
2. Auditing:  We created an early version of the auditing tool as a proof of concept that was well received.  It’s time to refresh that with our learnings from this year and bring it back into the system.
3. Interface Improvement: With the last three months of daily usage by our customer we’ve recorded a series of interface improvements that are desired.  A good portion of the next three months will be dedicated to making those changes.