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Revitalizing Team Collaboration

Posted on November 25, 2024

During the pandemic, like many organizations, Catalyst had adapted quickly to a remote work environment. In doing so, the company tapped into a much broader talent pool across North America. This shift brought in top talent from various regions, resulting in a stronger, more diverse team.

However, as the world reopened, so did the opportunity to bring these exceptional individuals together in person, which Catalyst embraced. Last week, Catalyst brought one of its teams—who support the custom development portfolio for the Washington State Patrol—into Chicago for collaborative sessions. These inperson meetings were not just an opportunity to share ideas but a way to elevate collaboration to the next level. The team engaged in strategic whiteboarding sessions, refined key initiatives, and built rapport. The energy that came from being physically present in a room together was unmatched.

The Benefits of In-Person Engagement

While the company’s remote operations had proven effective, in-person sessions offered unique advantages by fostering enhanced communication through dynamic conversations and non-verbal cues that made discussions more productive and solutions more accessible. Strategic planning sessions benefited from spontaneous brainstorming, encouraging innovative problem-solving. These gatherings also strengthened client engagement by enabling focused discussions on improving portfolios and service offerings, building a solid foundation for future success. Additionally, being physically present fostered stronger interpersonal relationships, with team-building activities and shared moments boosting morale and longterm productivity.

Catalyst ensured that work travel to Chicago was both productive and enjoyable, providing a seamless balance of work and leisure. The team engaged in a range of activities after productive workdays, including savoring the city’s culinary delights, which offered opportunities to relax, connect, and recharge. The Chicago office was equipped with top-tier technology and comfortable meeting spaces to facilitate seamless collaboration, while thoughtful accommodations and convenient transportation options ensured that staff could focus on their tasks without distractions.

Bringing the team into Chicago wasn’t just about meetings and work sessions; it rejuvenated collaboration, connection, and creativity. Catalyst looks forward to hosting more of these in-person engagements to continue growing, delivering excellent results across teams, and strengthening client relationships.

Together, Catalyst proved to be stronger—both virtually and in person—and Chicago served as the perfect place to make it happen.

Washington State Patrol Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Groundbreaking Firearms Background Check System

Posted on September 3, 2024

Catalyst Consulting Group is proud to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Washington State Patrol’s (WSP) centralized Firearms Background Check (FBC) system. This milestone marks a year of significant achievement, where technology has played a crucial role in enhancing public safety
and operational efficiency across Washington State.

Over the past year, the FBC system has transformed the process of conducting firearm background checks, managing over 600,000 checks annually with newfound consistency and accuracy. By unifying data from federal, state, and local sources through our innovative “Federated Query” system, WSP has been able to close critical loopholes and significantly reduce processing times, enabling law enforcement agencies to focus on what matters most—keeping our communities safe.

The system’s impressive 40% auto-adjudication rate, surpassing the initial goal of 25%, has led to a 15% reduction in staffing needs and a substantial increase in daily processing volumes. Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) can now process up to 300 checks per day, a significant improvement from the previous 50, thanks to the seamless integration of retail POS systems and the digitization of standard forms.

This anniversary is more than just a celebration of a successful system launch; it’s a reaffirmation of our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology to solve complex challenges. We are honored to have partnered with WSP on this journey and look forward to continuing our work to support public safety initiatives across the nation. As we reflect on the past year, Catalyst remains dedicated to innovation, collaboration, and the continuous improvement of solutions that make a tangible difference in the communities we serve. Here’s to a year of success and many more to come.

Catalyst Consulting Group Wins 2023 Salesforce Partner Innovation Award for Education

Posted on September 8, 2023

The Catalyst team is honored to announce we have been awarded this year’s Salesforce Partner Innovation Award for the “Education (Consulting)” category. Our team is being recognized for its research-driven implementation of Salesforce Marketing Cloud for the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). The award will be presented at Dreamforce in San Francisco, California on September 11, 2023.

This marks Catalyst’s fourth Partner Innovation Award win, previously taking home honors in the Public Sector category in 2019 and 2022, and Transportation in 2020.

This award-winning engagement exemplifies Catalyst and Salesforce’s shared commitment to driving innovation in education. Focused on Arkansas’ statewide Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (R.I.S.E.) campaign, Catalyst leveraged Marketing Cloud to deploy customized emails and text messages to nearly 170,000 Arkansas families. This mass outreach aimed to direct parents and caregivers to the R.I.S.E. website for early literacy resources.

In partnership with the ADE and academic researchers, Catalyst systematically tested how different communication strategies influenced family engagement with the R.I.S.E. website. Key findings showed adding text messaging, beyond just email outreach, increased click rates to the website by over 6 percentage points. The research also revealed gaps in digital access correlated to economic disadvantages, underscoring the importance of accessible means of communication, like texting.

“Government technology takes many shape, and our various Partner Innovation Award wins over the years reflect such possibilities.” said Arvin Talwar, Founder and CEO of Catalyst. “It’s an honor to contribute to an initiative centered around something as critical as early literacy and sparking a love for reading.”

We thank the ADE for the opportunity to work together, and we send our gratitude to Salesforce for the recognition. This win speaks to the nimbleness and innovation we as a small business bring to the Salesforce Partner ecosystem!

Can’t Get This from a Textbook!

Posted on July 28, 2023

Today we are celebrating National Intern Day! Our Catalyst 2023 summer interns have proven to bring enthusiasm, eagerness to learn, and fresh perspective to our workplace, and we are happily recognizing their value and contributions to our team.

Our 6 interns span a variety of functions within our organization.

Introducing our Catalyst 2023 Summer Intern Team:

Sam Summers – Marketing and Branding Intern
Jeremy O’Connell – Financial Analyst Intern
Kayla Schroeder – Marketing and Design Intern
Cara Verzoni – Market Research Intern
Andrew Smith – Software Engineering Intern
James Dempsey – Software Engineering Intern

At Catalyst Consulting Group, our team members actively learn from one another, regardless of years of experience and titles. This National Intern Day, we realized an opportunity to support the crucial role that mentorship can play in shaping the careers of young professionals.

With our continual growth, we have prioritized onboarding experienced leaders who can apply their knowledge, expertise, and strategic thinking to provide valuable guidance and mentorship throughout our organization. Our most recently hired senior leaders, Denise Horton, Adrian Buckley, and Stephanie Perrin, have filled our director-level team. As they have come into their roles, we have witnessed their efforts to progress the growth and development of their respective practices, as well as our young talent.

This week, our intern team prepared a series of interview questions to lead a conversation with our directors and receive advice as they embark on their careers. We also wanted to hear from the interns – what they have learned, what took them by surprise, and what they are looking forward to in their upcoming post-grad careers. They have given us some thoughtful insight into what their time with our team has taught them. In this feature, we are sharing some of their insights and recapping our director-intern conversation that encouraged personal development and nurturing confidence.

Beginnings and Futures – When You Were in My Shoes.

Our intern team prompted Denise, Adrian, and Stephanie to reflect on their own careers – their paths that brought them to Catalyst, what they have learned along the way, and if they felt there were pivotal, game changing decisions that ensued career, or life lessons.

What I needed to do within my career itself, and within my position at every company I’ve been at – something that was really beneficial for me and what my career now is molded after – is being really comfortable with ambiguous situations where you don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to do, or what’s the best course of action, or how to handle a situation, or where someone hasn’t told you step-by-step instructions for how to do your job.

Reflecting on their beginnings, their college-aged selves, evoked some laughter, and Denise summed it up, “Well, my career started at a crossroads of just not really knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up.”

Although our interns have their sights set on their nearing career aspirations, our directors intimately know what career pivots and redirections feel like.

Considering where her career began, Stephanie shared that she most importantly learned that “there weren’t always instructions, or everything wasn’t clear cut.” She now knows the confidence that she lacked early on and encourages our interns to get outside their comfort zones to foster that necessary confidence.

“What I needed to do within my career itself, and within my position at every company I’ve been at – something that was really beneficial for me and what my career now is molded after – is being really comfortable with ambiguous situations where you don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to do, or what’s the best course of action, or how to handle a situation, or where someone hasn’t told you step-by-step instructions for how to do your job.”

“If you’re proactive and can make something out of the ambiguity, that’s where you can go even further that just the confines of your role.”

This is something that Sam Summers has experienced first-hand in his internship. He provides, “In the classroom a lot of my learning is done by the book or notes teachers have already mapped out ahead of time. What I have realized on the job is there is no rubric or “perfect way” to do a job. Often it requires creativity and new twists on collaborative ideas.”

As for those critical career decisions, the ones that were game changing?

Adrian weighed in, “I think throughout your career, if you’re lucky, you’ll get somewhere between three and five big opportunities to do something special. If you don’t recognize it and you don’t jump on it, you might not see those opportunities in your career again.”

“You might feel very uncomfortable taking that chance and doing it, but I think you have to take those chances to be successful and do something that you love.”

Denise recalls such an opportunity that she was given, a risk.

“I left a job that I absolutely loved, people that I absolutely loved working with, and took a huge leap of faith to go to a company where I knew I was going to be a very small fish in a really giant pond, but it was well worth it.”

She valued the opportunity and believed in what the future could bring with the new offer. Her instincts were spot-on.

Ultimately, Denise says, “I learned so much. I had so many awesome experiences and it led me to the role I have here at Catalyst.”

A New Classroom

A universal, instrumental piece of advice for our interns? Be curious and be committed to learning!

We’re proud to say that our interns have proven that this is a strong priority of theirs.

I have a stronger grasp on asking good questions. In both the classroom and the workplace, there are going to be people around me with more expertise, and maximizing the guidance I can get from them will help me to grow my skills.

Our intern team noticed there are a significant number of differences between the typical classroom learning and what they have learned on the job. Jeremy O’Connell noticed the biggest difference for him as a Financial Analyst Intern is, “…the actual hands on and interaction with live data.” Since coming onto the team, Jeremy has been given the opportunity to dive right into the material he has been studying at school by getting hands-on experience.

Adrian emphasizes the importance of being curious, “In our industry, whether you’re on the marketing side or whether you’re a developer, it moves so quickly. There’s so much happening all the time that if you’re not curious, if you’re not going to look to learn, you’re going to get left behind.”

As our team’s software engineering interns, James Dempsey and Andrew Smith, have embraced not only curiosity, but also mentorship and their new workplace learning environment.

As a result of his internship, James provides, “I have a stronger grasp on asking good questions. In both the classroom and the workplace, there are going to be people around me with more expertise, and maximizing the guidance I can get from them will help me to grow my skills.”

Andrew echoed Adrian’s advice, reflecting, “Being a software engineer requires the skill to be able to learn new technologies while completing your tasks. I use completely different languages and frameworks here at Catalyst compared to school, but having the skill of being able to learn on the job has helped me tremendously.”

Our Catalyst interns have gained confidence. Kayla Schroeder, our Marketing and Design Intern, says, “I have experienced what it feels like to work hard and diligently to meet deadlines and communicate thoroughly with those around me. I also feel that I have become more confident in myself while being supported by a great team!”

Such confidence is paramount according to our director team. Lacking confidence is not foreign to our senior leaders, as they all recall instances where they benefitted from mentorship and advice on honing your role and skillset.

“It can feel like there’s so many people who know so much more than you do, but, when you’re working with clients, you are the expert to them. So, go in with a certain level of confidence in every situation. Then, if you pair that confidence with also being competent at your job, that’s when you feel like you really grow and become a really good employee,” Stephanie shared.

Denise’s secret to gaining confidence? It may seem unconventional or unique. She suggests, “Take an acting class or take an improv class, because there is no better way to get comfortable in your own skin. You’re going to have to present and talk in front of people and feel uncomfortable.”

(Looks like we’ll be adding that to our next intern program agenda!)

As Their Internships Conclude

Whether it was logistical day-to-day advice, such as learning how to prioritize and break down their workloads into manageable sized tasks, checking email first thing in the morning, or more strategic advice on understanding a company’s plans for the future, our director team provided impactful mentorship in their interview. Celebrating National Intern Day not only recognizes the place internships have in our organization, but also the importance of mentorship in the workplace.

The intern team has expressed what such mentorship has meant to them, and we’ll close with their words.

“Catalyst taught me so much about the culture I should look for in my next job. Everyone at Catalyst was so welcoming and willing to help, which helped me feel at home here!” – Cara Verzoni

“I think what surprised me most was the level of communication from top to bottom. In class, they made it seem like there was a direct division between levels, but, since working here, the top of the command chain is always available to talk or ask questions.” – Sam Summers

“I was surprised at how friendly and welcoming the “real world experience” workplace could be. As a college student, we are always told that the “real world” is so overwhelming and serious, but I was very happily surprised at how welcoming, kind, and understanding everyone is here at Catalyst.” – Kayla Schroeder

As their time as interns is coming to an end, we are encouraged by all they have learned and feel strongly about their potential. Interns, we hope you take a moment to reflect on your achievements and the progress you’ve made. Your futures are bright, and we’re happy to be a part of your career stories!

Celebrating 31 Years In Business During AAPI Heritage Month

Posted on May 31, 2023

In May 2023, Catalyst Consulting Group celebrated 31 years in business. Officially over 3 decades of revolutionizing organizations’ abilities to best serve their operations and their constituencies, our 31 years of experience has taught us a thing or two. We sat down with our founder and CEO, Arvin Talwar, to recap what the 31st anniversary has meant to him, specifically during May’s observance of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. As an Asian-Indian American, Talwar’s heritage classifies Catalyst Consulting Group as a minority-owned enterprise. However, the minority-owned-business categorization was never Talwar’s leading value proposition or opening selling point. In fact, he prefers the contrary – that the diverse identities of those at Catalyst, including his own, are of latter consideration to their qualifications, work ethic, and character.

Our conversation took us back in time – pre-Y2K, when Catalyst was awaiting the technology boom, a time when Talwar had multiple ongoing business ventures.

When considering his heritage and its place in the identity of his business, he provided, “When I started out in business 30 odd years ago, everybody was trying to do the right thing. But they were driven by business value and not just by what I believe would be to pander to a certain community. They would really say, let me get the best of breed. If it happens to be with a minority business, better yet.”

However, the tone shifted in the mid-90s, when Corporate America was compelled to take the public sector’s lead in developing viable minority and women-owned enterprise supplier programs. Large companies realized benefit in highlighting their strong cadre of suppliers that were owned by minorities and women entrepreneurs. Quickly, such supplier programs became a priority for the boardroom, purchasing departments, as well as marketing.

Talwar recalls the first opportunity in which establishing his business as a minority business enterprise was of interest. He had developed a strong relationship with a large consulting firm, and Catalyst was included in one of their proposals. After our team won and had landed the opportunity, a question was posed. “Aren’t you a minority business enterprise?” And Talwar recalls saying, “John, what’s that?”

It was a bonus for the partnering firm to partner with minority business enterprises. Talwar said that the experience led him to a sales channel that he hadn’t previously realized.

He recalls, “We then started seeing an aggressive transformation in Corporate America. Back in the late-90s and even early-2000s, Corporate America figured out that having a thriving minority and women-owned business supplier program was good for business.”

It was then that Talwar was inspired to develop an idea of his, one that would merge several components of his background and expertise. This business idea became Castlerock Group. With Corporate America more focused on viable minority suppliers and the trend toward strategic sourcing, Castlerock Group identified suppliers that competitively “made the cut” of strategic sourcing and were potential acquisition targets. Castlerock Group was equipped to acquire non-minority suppliers as well as support minority professionals with their expertise and capital. With this endeavor, Castlerock Group was able to support suppliers in contracts with large companies of Corporate America, such as Ford Motor Company, Ameritech, Eli Lilly, among others.

As time progressed, Talwar decided to direct all his attention to Catalyst Consulting Group, but the experience with his other endeavors provided him with perspective and wisdom as it relates to consideration of heritage in the workplace. Being a minority-owned business provided an advantage to Catalyst without our leadership initially realizing or recognizing its significance, which ultimately is very

telling of the core values at Catalyst. What is most important to our team is not based on what you identify with, but the qualifications you possess and the quality of your work.

While being categorized as a minority owned business, Talwar did not want this to be the reason his company received work. The hard work and dedication of our team is what gets the jobs and builds the strong reputation we have today. Talwar went on record to say, “I would shy away from even saying Catalyst was an MBE until it was absolutely necessary to say so. And my thinking was, if they’re going to hire my firm based on credentials, qualifications, references, the fact that we were an MBE was a collateral benefit.”

Respectfully, this month does hold quite a bit of significance for our team. Throughout his career and since founding Catalyst, Talwar has noticed changes in the business environment and has found new ways for his heritage to have an impact on his work.

It is with this respect that we wish to acknowledge and reflect upon the history and celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. We hope you join Catalyst in honoring the rich heritage, resilience, and contributions of the community throughout history. Let us celebrate those of AAPI heritage who have overcome adversity to make such a lasting impact in society.

Ultimately, the pride with which Talwar speaks about his company and what he has built with his team is rooted in the dedicated and hard-working individuals of the past and present at Catalyst. It is the merit and integrity of our work and those who make our team what it is – not filling quotas or percentages – that fuels his pride. At Catalyst diversity and inclusion are not buzz words and quotas to meet, but instead the celebration of differences beyond heritage. Differences in voices and perspectives, experiences and ideas – it is what enhances the melting pot that we’ve achieved at Catalyst.

Here’s to our 31st year in business!

Women of Catalyst

Posted on March 30, 2023

Thank you to the following women of Catalyst for participating in our round-table discussions hosted in the month of March for Women’s History Month: Nikki Smith, Joy Billington, Ola Chmiel, Janet Gamber, Soofia Khan, Maribel Lopez, Anna Mlodzianowska, Sowjanya Nalluri, Divya Nunna, Allison Plazyk, Amelia Smith, Saikal Asylbekova, Kara Taylor, Tiffany Tsang, Denise Horton, and Stephanie Perrin. Their thoughtful discourse informed the piece below!

Celebrating Women’s History Month at Catalyst has meant taking the time to look inward to the incredible women that hone crucial roles on our team. We are proud of the growth that our firm has embraced in recent years. This growth has resulted in the representation of women at Catalyst increasing by roughly over 5 times in the last 10 years.

At Catalyst, we like to say that we are an employee-first company. Embodying an employee-first environment in our remote workplace entails many considerations. One consideration? Taking stakes in our team members’ lives, encouraging them to voice their perspectives, cultivating idea-sharing, growth, support, and inclusion. This Women’s History Month, we’ve turned to the women of Catalyst. We’ve discussed their careers, the many paths that have led them to our firm, their motivations, and the approaches and perspectives that they deploy on our projects.

The women of Catalyst are Business Analysts, Project Managers, Solution and Technical Architects, Software Engineers and Developers, and so much more beyond these titles. They are mothers, sisters, and aunts. They are first generation Americans and immigrants. They are musicians and performers. They are motivated, insightful, highly accomplished, and dedicated.

In our discussions this month, we’ve delved into what it means to be a woman in tech, how to ensure that the technology we build best serves everyone, how providing solutions to the public sector resonates with their values, and how to encourage the next generation of women in STEM.

A Pivot

Many women at Catalyst found themselves working in tech after a career change, a pivot. Divya Nunna, Salesforce Solution Architect, has been with Catalyst for nearly 3 years. Yet, prior to pursuing Salesforce certifications, she was a financial analyst, CPA, with an MBA, working for Goldman Sachs. Saikal Asylbekova, a Business Analyst, and Sowjanya Nalluri, Salesforce Developer, similarly come from a banking and financial services background.

Team members, Soofia Khan, Tiffany Tsang, and Anna Mlodzianowska also have found themselves in tech after career pivots. Soofia, Salesforce Administrator, was planning to attend dental school when she learned more about Salesforce through extended family members. Tiffany, Salesforce Business Analyst, previously worked for a nonprofit organization, Action for Children, aiding low-income families with Childcare Assistance Programing. She now applies this experience to Catalyst’s public sector projects, notably our work with the City of Chicago’s DFSS. Anna, who is originally from Poland, has a degree in architecture. She shared that her career switch has been the best decision and it has improved her life tremendously. She serves our team as a Software Engineer.

We support training opportunities and promote mentorship from within, giving these women who made a career pivot a network to support them as part of the career change.

While many women on the team have recently stepped into the tech arena, our team also has welcomed several industry veterans, including team members Janet Gamber, Stephanie Perrin, and Denise Horton, who’ve all joined our team within the past year. Their seasoned implementation expertise is and continues to be an immense asset to our team.

Ameilia Smith and Maribel Lopez found their way to Catalyst after working for our client and partner, the City of Chicago and/or their vendors. Maribel provided she was the only Latina, and one of the few women in an IT leadership position at the city.

“I was the only Latina in an IT leadership position when I was at the City of Chicago, if you can believe it. There were very few of us (women) in IT. So, we always had this sort of sisterhood, we looked out for each other,” Maribel shared.

The sisterhood that Maribel recalls is the type of friendship Catalyst aims to foster within our team.

And for one woman of Catalyst – Ola Chmiel – her venture into tech began at Catalyst as an intern. Excitingly, she joined us again after graduation and recently celebrated one year of full-time employment with us.

In an article from the UN, celebrating International Women’s Day, it was reported that women represent less than one third of tech sector employees globally. In reflection on the numbers and the stereotypes that hold girls back from pursuing careers in tech, the women of Catalyst provided the advice they have for their younger selves. Their thoughts?

I let a lot of expectations that other people had for me, the path that I was supposed to take based on those things, the image that I wanted to project of myself – I let that get in the way. If something is interesting to you, pursue it. It doesn’t matter who else finds that thing interesting. Don’t let these kinds of preconceived notions of what is acceptable or what types of people go into one area or another influence where you want to go.

Embody resilience. Be committed to learning. Exercise confidence and use your voice.

Allison Plazyk, Senior Software Engineer, recounts the discouragement she felt surrounding the pursuit of a career in computer science, dating back to her time in college at MIT. After nearly a dozen years into her professional career, she realized that this is what she wanted to do all along.

“I let a lot of expectations that other people had for me, the path that I was supposed to take based on those things, the image that I wanted to project of myself – I let that get in the way.

Hey, we are in a very male dominated world. We see it in a lot of our meetings. Don’t be afraid to say what you want it to say….don’t be afraid to voice your opinion.

If something is interesting to you, pursue it. It doesn’t matter who else finds that thing interesting. Don’t let these kinds of preconceived notions of what is acceptable or what types of people go into one area or another influence where you want to go,” Allison Plazyk.

Many of our conversations proved to offer a similar theme around confidence. In several discussions, many women recognized that they are repeatedly the only woman in the room or on the call.

“Hey, we are in a very male dominated world. We see it in a lot of our meetings. Don’t be afraid to say what you want it to say….don’t be afraid to voice your opinion,” said Amelia Smith.

Leverage Empathy

When it comes to building technology that meets the user where they are, building technology for people who look like us, the women on our team have got it right! Leverage empathy.

Throughout their careers, the women of our team have engrained how to best serve a client’s needs over the years.

Kara Taylor, Technical Architect, provided, “I always want to design the best solution possible from a technical standpoint, but you can’t put the cart before the horse. Just because a solution is technically the best way an architect thinks it can be, it doesn’t mean that it meets the clients’ needs. Developers and architects almost always think within their technical restraints, but oftentimes we forget about the users’ constraints.”

To the Future Women in Tech

It’s important to believe in yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re in grade seven, grade eight, or if you’re sitting here at Catalyst, just know that you can do anything.

When it comes to thinking about the future generations of women in STEM, the many mothers on our team first think of the affirmations and words of encouragement that they instill and express to their own children.

Joy Billington, Salesforce Business Analyst, and Denise Horton, Salesforce Practice Leader, are both mothers to two daughters. While Joy’s daughters are in grades seven and eight, and Denise’s daughters are in the thick of choosing college majors and career paths, their mothers’ advice is in accord.

“It’s important to believe in yourself. It doesn’t matter if you’re in grade seven, grade eight, or if you’re sitting here at Catalyst, just know that you can do anything,” says Joy Billington.

Many of the women on our team shared who their role models have been throughout their lives, and so many of these role models were women – their mothers, grandmothers, sisters, former managers and teachers. We can’t help but look to the women of Catalyst as role models for excellence in our firm as well as in our industry. We wish you all “Happy Women’s History Month!”

Answering the Call for a Connected Government – The Future of Constituent Experience

Posted on March 7, 2023

Looking back to 2017, The City of Chicago recognized necessary upgrading to their existing 311 system, and Catalyst Consulting partnered with the city to answer the call. Our solution and implementation of the Salesforce ecosystem bolstered unprecedented levels of transparency, accountability, collaboration across departments, and convenience in the service request lifecycle.

In our webinar, in collaboration with the Association of Government Contact Center Professionals, AGCCP, we discuss the CHI311 mobile app and how it will continue to serve as a leading example for the future of constituent experiences with their government, as per its transformation with our latest enhancement project!

Our latest phase of enhancements to the CHI311 mobile app aim to expand the asset as one to the city at-large, beyond 311 servicing. Tune in to hear from our roundtable discussion panelists, Catalyst’s Bradley Stair and Bryon Martin, and the City of Chicago’s Nick Lucius and Audrey Mathis.

Setting a New Standard — the Future of Constituent Experience

Posted on January 26, 2023

Learn how Catalyst, equipped with Salesforce technology, is helping local governments modernize their public services and deliver better experiences for their constituents.

Imagine there are two tasks you need to accomplish in one day, and a good friend offers to take care of whichever you think is harder. The first task is to return a pair of shoes you bought from an online retailer. The second is to notify your local government of a pothole on a major road that has doubled in size in the last two months.

Which task would you give to your friend?

The standard for customer experience has risen rapidly in recent years. Both B2C and B2B customers expect seamless, personalized experiences from businesses that treat them like real people. Notably, digitally-facilitated customer service is increasingly the norm with technology serving us across many – almost every – use case that is modern, connected life. This has contributed to and has driven the high expectations for digital customer experiences. Public sector and local governments aren’t granted exceptions to these customer service expectations and standards. Yet, in many cases, there’s a significant gap between the experiences customers have versus the ones they have as citizens or constituents of their local governments.

At Catalyst, we’re committed to closing that gap.

We are the 3-time winning Salesforce Partner Innovation Award recipient. Of those three awards, two were awarded in the Government & Public Sector category with one in Transportation & Travel. Our implementations for the City of Toronto, Toronto 311 (2022), Port of Seattle (2020), and the City of Chicago, CHI311 (2019) earned this accolade three out of four consecutive years. Each project drove revolutionary transformation in how these organization serve and build trust with their publics. The work in each project impacted numerous departments and touched several technology solutions, with Salesforce serving as a “glue” or common source of truth. In this article we’ve chosen key details that demonstrate and provide models for constituent-centered government technology. Read on for a closer look at how modernizing technology can improve constituent experiences.

Toronto

In the winter of 2020 alone, the 311 (non-emergency) team for the City of Toronto received more than 10,000 phone calls related to winter weather concerns.

Before modernizing their systems with Salesforce, the processes for receiving, tracking, and resolving service request cases like these weather concerns were very manual and disconnected. Lack of integration between their systems and piecemeal workflows for different kinds of service requests made it slow and expensive to resolve cases, with limited ways to collaborate across departments.

We sent our team of government technologists to overhaul the underlying technology with a revamped CRM built on Service Cloud, equipped with a custom-built public-facing mobile app and web portal. Both the app and the web portal make things simple, easy, and clear for Torontonians with a single intake form that dynamically responds to the scope and variety of the public’s needs with nearly 600 different service request offerings. Requesting city services to address potholes, graffiti, or a traffic light malfunction, is unprecedentedly easy with a variety of channels to best appeal to constituents’ preferences for their 311 experiences. Whether it’s via email, social media, the web portal, the mobile app, or with the assistance of Salesforce Live Agent on the web and mobile platforms, there is no wrong door to access Toronto’s government services.

Constituents can now receive convenient email, SMS, and push notifications with real-time updates on their service requests, which improves transparency and trust in the city government’s abilities to serve its stakeholders. With “Explore”

functionality built into the mobile app and the web portal, existing service request cases surrounding a given address are suggested to be viewed when a constituent types in that given location. This enables stakeholders to opt in for updating notifications, even though they may not have been the individual who originally reported the concern.

And with boosted constituent satisfaction and unprecedentedly easy ways to get in touch with local government, Toronto 311 is on track to receive twice as many cases per year — from about two million to 4.6 million.

Port of Seattle

With more than 50 million flyers traveling through SEA-TAC airport every year, it’s easy to imagine how the slightest inefficiencies in digital operations can have an immense impact on constituent experiences. Before working with Catalyst, the Port of Seattle (which oversees the airport and other critical infrastructure) had a disconnected digital ecosystem spread between siloed platforms, which was impeding on their abilities to offer efficient customer service experience. Across the Port’s domains for Airport Customer Experience (ACE), Commission Services (CS), and External Relations (ER), processing and responding to constituents communications was subject to inefficient technical operations.

Our Catalyst team unified all of the Port’s disconnected systems under the Salesforce Customer-360 umbrella, bringing communications, marketing, event management, and other functions together into a centralized platform. This enables constituents with the ability to contact ACE with questions, complaints, concerns, compliments, and comments about their experience at SEA-TAC through social media, email, text (SMS/MMS), and web form. AI-powered tagging features categorize constituents’ communications, which allows the organization to automatically vet, triage, and assign cases for the fastest follow-up and resolve. With decreased resolution times for airport travelers by more than 16%, constituents get faster, clearer communication.

With our implementation, the airport is also equipped to send SMS alerts to notify travelers of happenings within the airport. Constituents are immediately in-the-know with real-time updates on everything from construction update to airport concessions.

Travelers are also now empowered with self-service options in a mobile-responsive web form, hosted on SEA-TAC’s website, where inquiries are met with informational knowledge articles. This cuts the volume of instances in which an individual would have to contact airport departments.

And the momentum continues, as we’ve just started an additional project with the Port of Seattle to enhance their call center operations!

Chicago

It’s easy to forget that the original digital transformation movement started by turning analog, paper-based systems into digital processes. Before partnering with our Catalyst team, if Chicagoans reached out to the 311 department about a pothole, snow removal, graffiti blasts, streetlight repair, or other non-emergency requests, the 311 employee had to search through physical binders with hundreds of pages to find the information they needed. Callers often had extensive waits on hold, even for simple, purely informational requests like an updated ETA for fixing their pothole.

With a vision for transparency, efficiency, and constituent satisfaction, the City of Chicago partnered with us to usher their 311 department into the 21st century with the build of a public-facing web portal, a best-in-class, modern website, and their first-ever public-facing app. Fitting of modernized government service delivery, Chicagoans can self-serve and access city information, as well as request services via multiple channels outside of calling 311.

Now, a comprehensive — yet concise — digital library of over 500 knowledge articles on the website and mobile app provide constituents the information they need to answer their own questions. In situations requiring service request, individuals can remain updated from submission to completion with real-time updates presented in the portal, as well as via push notifications from the mobile app.

With “Explore” capabilities enabling visibility on Chicago’s processing of requests in any given neighborhood, constituents are granted transparency and the means for accountability of their city. This improves trust and rapport between the public and the government entities that serve them through a constituent-first lens. Through

efficient technology, the City of Chicago is now providing greater transparency, faster services, and improved communication with its residents.

In pursuit of better government services

The future of constituent experiences will be shaped by forward-thinking, innovative leaders who prioritize seamless technology operations and a constituent-first approach. Our team of government technologists here at Catalyst are up for the challenge, and as a minority-owned business, we take the responsibility of building technology that works for EVERYONE very seriously.

Our implementations with the City of Toronto, Seattle, and Chicago demonstrate what the future of connected government and public sector organizations can and will offer to their constituents with investment in world-class technology – improved efficiency, no-wrong-door approach with multiple communication and engagement channels, enriched trust, transparency, and equity.

If you’d like to learn more about our public sector technology capabilities, or have any questions for our team, please reach out — we’d love to hear from you.

The Southwest Airlines Meltdown –The Government Technologist’s Perspective On Continual Investment and Attention to an Organization’s Technology Infrastructure

Posted on January 10, 2023

Mistakes cost us money.

It can be argued that a lot of mistakes we make are preventable with proper planning. Perhaps, we speed because we are running late; we forget to cancel the subscription because we don’t set a reminder; we don’t plan a recipe to use the fresh produce. Locking your keys in the car? Well, maybe that one needs a bit more consideration.

Imagine you fail to plan, fail to realize the gravity of a potential mistake, overlook a paramount investment, and it costs you an estimated $825 million. This is what Southwest Airlines is facing in the falling out of their mass holiday flight cancellations. It is being coined a meltdown and a crisis, specifically one of outdated technology, by major media outlets including the New York Times, NBCNews, Dallas News, and many more.

Customer Service Origins and the December 2022 Southwest Crisis

One of the most beloved brands, birthed in Dallas, TX in 1971, Southwest Airlines revolutionized the accessibility of flying with its affordable price point. It’s “Servant’s Heart”, recognizable heart logo and its “LUV” ticker symbol on the stock exchange are symbols of a high regard for customer service and experience. Their employee-first commitment is what they credit for their Southwest difference. It is important to note that SW operates on a point-to-point model, where flights are direct and avoid connection service through the central hub cities airports. This contributes greatly to its appeal of frequent and low-fare trips. However, simultaneously, this plays into the complexity of their scheduling and routing, as well as to their crew staffing. With winter storm Elliott, at the peak holiday travel season in late December, 2022, Southwest was forced to cancel 16,000 flights, drastically outnumbering cancellations from other major airlines. Was Elliott to blame? Not quite.

It has been reported that their internally built and maintained, airline optimization software, SkySolver, is greatly outdated with no front-end technology to input a flight crew’s status to aid in the assigning and crew scheduling. This system depends on a mathematical formula for the computation of the number of routes needed to cover a given number of destinations. So, the perfect storm scattered Southwest crews and pilots across the country, and their only means to report their whereabouts to support the possibility of rescheduled flights? Sit on hold on the crew scheduling phone line, for several hours or more. Imagine the difference digital scheduling options with automation could have made.

Speaking with Catalyst’s Aviation Experts, Mohammed Khan

This fiasco led to reflection and conversation with Mohammed Khan, “Mo”, Managing Director, who oversees all our work with the Chicago Department of Aviation. We discussed the importance of operational technology for large organizations, especially for that of a highly logistical-dependent industry like aviation. This also sparked consideration of in-house solutions, the importance of technology leadership, and how technology infrastructure is a forward investment supporting an employee-first culture.

You might have the software, but you have to think about risk assessment to see: What is the risk?

Mo provided,

“In leveraging the latest and greatest technology, make sure that you have high availability of any infrastructure in redundancy and also contingency. If something happens, how would you move forward? Even with the automation process, what would be the next step?”

“You might have the software, but you have to think about risk assessment to see: What is the risk? What are the risk factors if something happens? Then, what can be done? I think preparing your business with redundancy, risk assessment, and contingency will be helpful to eliminate these types of issues.”

The in-house, homegrown applications are very specific and very directive to the business requirements and might not give the luxury of making modifications on the fly.

As Mo mentioned, embracing the latest-and-greatest alone isn’t enough. Risk assessment is paramount. The media has dated Southwest’s SkySolver, scheduling and routing software, back to the 90’s. Not exactly the latest and greatest, the system was neglected.

“If the application is homegrown or house-built, then there has to be constant changes made to it. There are so many changes that you need to adapt and make happen, so you need to have a continuous process to improve that. The in-house, homegrown applications are very specific and very directive to the business requirements and might not give the luxury of making modifications on the fly.” Mo remarked. Leading up to this holiday cancellation crisis, there were warnings from pilots and crew employees, as well as warnings in previous cancellation episodes. In a public filing published by Southwest in 2022, they addressed their technology initiatives and noted a significant number of technology projects were deferred during the pandemic. Employee-first companies cultivate healthy tech ecosystems, and that is something that SW seemingly recognizes and has marketed.

“The Company continues to focus of the prioritization and execution of its technology investments and is in the process of continually executing an evolving multi-year plan for technology, with the goal of developing a stronger, more adaptable, and more efficient and reliable technology foundation to support the Company’s strategic priorities,” the filing read.

Southwest did undertake technology transformation in a few areas in the last two years, including consolidating all of its aircraft into a single system for aircraft maintenance and record-keeping, implementing Salesforce’s Service Cloud for human resource technology and customer service capacities. These technology efforts and successes are deserving to be recognized for ensuing digital transformation. Unfortunately, the neglect of major operational technology ensued a crisis. Smaller enhancement projects, like that of the Service Cloud implementation, get overshined when there’s such outdated technology enterprise-wide. A holistic approach and commitment to digital transformation on all needed fronts is a survival guide for organizations with stakes as high as a crisis to this magnitude.

Catalyst Wrapped, Our 2022 in Review

Posted on December 15, 2022

Many look forward to the fresh start of a new year as the time to set new goals and start new habits. While this socially embraced, forward-thinking tradition is productive, it sometimes takes the attention away from reflection on the passing year. As we approach the year’s end, we feel it’s important to pause and dive into our most memorable Catalyst moments of 2022!

Introducing Catalyst Wrapped, our highlight reel of reached milestones, celebrating a successful year of challenge met with determination, growth and new heights! Check out the video recap here, and learn more about each milestone below.

A milestone birthday! Catalyst celebrated 30 years in business in May!
Since our beginnings in the basement of our CEO’s first home, we have grown to serve over 500 clients with elegant solutions. We have spearheaded award-winning work for the public sector, guiding governments along their paths to modernization. The last 3 decades have been defined with much success. Our birthday wish? We know we shouldn’t tell, but we hope the next 30 years are as sweet as the first 30 years!

We were in the Salesforce spotlight! Tim, our Managing Principal and COO, discussed our Toronto 311 implementation on a Salesforce webinar with Toronto!

Our trailblazing work with the City of Toronto didn’t go unnoticed. Of the several highlights, Catalyst’s very own, Tim Smith, Managing Principal and COO, discussed the implementation with the City of Toronto and Salesforce on The Salesforce Trailblazer Community Meeting Series.

And the award goes to…. Catalyst Consulting Group! We won our third Salesforce Partner Innovation Award for Public Sector!
Our team’s implementation of the City of Toronto’s 311 non-emergency services center, “Toronto At Your Service”, was recognized with Salesforce’s 2022 Partner Innovation Award for Public Sector. The award marks our third, having earned the PIA for Public Sector in 2019 and for Transportation in 2020.

This year, we’ve flown to new heights…and new places! Catalyst resumed on-site travel in Q3 and Q4!

We are excited to be visiting clients once again, as well as attending industry events, in-person! This year, some of our travel included trips to: Washington State, Houston, South Carolina, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. We feel our client relationships are strengthened when meeting beyond our computer screens, and we are grateful we had the opportunity to travel.

Our team members celebrated double-digit work anniversaries! Those who have been with us the longest celebrated 17 years!

We celebrate all of our team members’ work anniversaries, but 17 years calls for a special highlight. We want to thank Tim Smith and Mo Khan, Managing Director, for their dedication and hard work ethic throughout nearly 2 decades with us. Team members like Mo and Tim are what define
the Catalyst difference.

Hello, fellow government technologists! Catalyst sponsors the Engage311 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona in May 2022.

This conference convenes annually to talk about the power of non-emergency services to help cities and counties thrive. We were thrilled to spend time with leaders across North America to discuss how technology can boost internal efficiencies among staff, while deepening the relationship between public sector and people.

We’ve expanded our footprint! We now have contracts in 14 states, as well as in 2 cities and 1 region in Canada!

In 2022, we had the privilege of completing projects in American states we hadn’t worked in before, including Texas and Massachusetts. Beyond just the USA, we’re proud to share our Canadian presence has extended throughout Ontario, as we undertake 311 projects with the Region of York and Town of Oakville.

Hey, NYC! We’re especially excited to say we signed our first contract in New York City for system integrator services, which will go into effect January 2023.

We’re taking a bite out of the Big Apple, too! Our first New York City contract is slated to begin in January as we’ve been accepted into a Task Order pool as an approved vendor to provide support and enhancements to New York City’s technology ecosystem.

Sweet Home Chicago! We deepened our long-term partnership with the City of Chicago, launching a significant Salesforce CRM solution for the City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services.

There’s no place like home! We are excited to continually serve the City of Chicago, expanding to their Department of Family and Support Services. As always, we are aiming for this project to set precedent for how we could best serve other cities in the modernization of their departments’ systems.

Welcome to the team! We’ve hired 27 team members this year, with 60% of them filling new roles.

Our Catalyst team has welcomed 27 new faces this year, and we are evolving as a company in the functions that we cover, internally and externally! This growth is testimony to the dedication and effort that each team member has brought and continues to bring to their work here at Catalyst and for our clients.
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Thank you all for a great 2022! We like to think of Catalyst as a firm that belongs to its team, and we hope that you all celebrate these milestones as part of your personal achievements for the year. These accomplishments couldn’t have been achieved without you. We are looking forward to 2023 and are excited for what the future holds!