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Laine Edwards, President
From her experience, Laine knew that the organization of information is the key, as licensing touched almost every department in a company, be it legal, operations, finance, accounting, marketing, construction or real estate. For Laine, all this information gathering gradually went from a “who to call list” to her own informational and ready reference “encyclopedia,” and further into a standard operating procedure (SOP) manual specifically for licensing. “With each position, I continued adding information,” she says. Somewhat unknowingly, she was creating the foundation of what would eventually become PermitPros: a one-stop-shop to organize all the information—be it leases, corporate structure, licensing fees, licensing agencies, or officers and directors’ information.
The Birth of One-of-a-Kind License Management Solutions (LMS)
While many companies offered LMS, Laine found that some systems were cumbersome, and others didn’t track everything that was needed. Although a few could be customized, they came at a fairly high cost. “Did you know there are over 72,000 licensing agencies in the US? Now consider that one business location typically has about five licenses and then, throw a wrench into how the monkey works—there is nothing standard about licensing. Every state, every county, and every city will have different requirements depending on the type of license,” she says.
"We have the ability to scale nationwide, to quickly expand personnel depending on what resources clients need for their licensing demands"
Having worked on both sides of the fence—state government and private corporations—Laine knew that there was an opportunity to optimize the licensing process. First, it has to be made easy for the licensing department, and second, it has to be painless for the licensing agency. This meant gathering accurate information from the company and timely filing with the licensing agencies.
“It took some time after reaching out to several IT folks for their ideas, and after some false starts, I finally landed with a Product team who took my vision, re-imagined and built the 200 Proof Solution,” mentions Laine. Ninth Street Bridge Development Inc., a division of PermitPros was co-founded by Manohar and Ravi to develop the new LMS along with Mark and Laine. PermitPros’ LMS system intuitively solves the multifaceted challenges in the licensing ecosystem. The 200 Proof Solution is built on two factors. First, an intuitive tracking system that is quite simple in design, but deceptively robust. “Our system was built using Design Thinking putting user experience at core and prioritizing value to customer,” says Manohar Theruru, the CIO of PermitPros. Access to information was centralized coupled with instinctive navigation. “You no longer have to open multiple pages to access information and then close them out to get back to the beginning unlike in some of our competing products” he adds. The PermitPros experience allows easy back and forth access. And for those who love Excel, the solution gives an option to export their search to Excel with just one click. The second factor involves yearly budgets. “It used to take me hours upon hours to prepare annual budgets. Now clients can prepare their budgets in minutes using the LMS features available to them,” says Laine.
Adding on this, Ravi Theruru, the VP and Head of product sales at PermitPros mentions how PermitPros navigates the licensing world and pivots quickly depending on its client’s particular needs. “Unlike some of our competitors,we quickly evolve our system depending on their needs,” he mentions. For instance, recently, one of the clients asked for the ability to assign specific locations to specific personnel. PermitPros was able to quickly develop a way to assign or reassign personnel to access only their designated business locations while allowing the corporate office to see the entire system.
Manage and Track Business Licenses While Staying Compliant
One of the key features of the PermitPros LMS system is instant information access. For example, a few years ago, a company President asked Laine how much the liquor license costs each year. The company was looking to expand and needed budget information. There was a line item for the licensing department as a whole, but no line items for various expenses, much less isolating just liquor licenses. It took Laine days to work with the accounting department and come up with a general cost analysis. This is where PermitPros’ LMS can help. With the solution, companies can track not only the licensing costs but break them down by spend categories. They can have instant access to line-item specifics. It also helps companies to figure out where each dollar is being spent when it comes to the licensing department’s costs and processes. “There are several more features to the LMS that can help control costs and track expenses. One of the “ah-ha” moments come when a client, for the first time, sees where profits are flying out the window,” remarks Laine.
PermitPros LMS system is designed to capture information from a sole proprietor to a multi-faceted, multi-location business
PermitPros LMS system can allow various levels of such secure access. For example, one may want the C-level offices to have access to view and run reports, but not change anything in the system. PermitPros LMS system is designed to capture information from a sole proprietor to a multi-faceted, multi-location business.
Mark Edwards, the CFO of PermitPros, informs, “While other companies have focused solely on the hospitality sector, our LMS is not limited to any industry. A license is a license, whether associated with a business or an individual working at a business location. We cover it all.” The solution can track one license or tens of thousands.
PermitPros is more than just a business license management product company. The company provides personal services to help clients with new license applications, renewals, liquor licensing brokerage, and license valuations. “None of our competitors offer these services. We have the ability to scale nationwide - to quickly expand personnel depending on the resources that clients need for their licensing demands,” adds Josh Spar, the VP and co-founder of PermitPros.
Your 200 Proof Solution
The powerful capabilities of its solution have helped PermitPros carve a unique niche in the LMS space. So, how do they keep track of the right ingredients to build the relevant solution portfolio? Spar answers, “Think of a recipe. You take measurements of the ingredients, toss them together and hopefully something good is produced. If not, then you start again from scratch and then fine tune the process. When we built the new product, we approached it from a user standpoint. The more information it gathers, the more visibility a company has. This transparency now leads to better awareness, which facilitates more informed decisions.”
Above all, it is a powerful team that supports PermitPros as the company makes the way toward covering everything for its clients. While Spar supports the company by providing liquor brokering services, Mark brings many years of experience as a CPM. “Further, both Ravi and Manohar have more than three decades of expertise in the technology sphere, which adds immensely to the design and focus of our solution,” Laine says.
Currently, PermitPros has offices in Texas and California, and for the future, the company plans to continue its focus on LMS development while providing one-on-one personal services. “Our competitors may be able to offer forms on their websites, but we would rather let our clients have direct access to each licensing agency. Forms can change overnight, and we prefer to get this directly from the horse’s mouth, rather than spending time and money for people to continually check on any form changes,” says Ravi.
“Licensing is a wild child, and the only way to tame it is through a combination of licensing knowledge and a way to track it,” says Laine. PermitPros has undoubtedly got this combination right. “We help the client navigate their way without having to charge them for research that they may not need,” Laine adds. “As technologies like Artificial Intelligence develops, we can see a time where our LMS system can be used to auto-populate licensing forms. So, stay tuned! In the meantime, let PermitPros be your 200 Proof Solution.”
October 22, 2019
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