Fresno Regional Enterprise Zone

The Fresno Workforce Investment Board (WIB) is responsible for providing vouchers to local businesses that qualify for Enterprise Zone Tax Credits, which is a special program created by the state of California designed to create more jobs and profitability in the area. The WIB had begun the process of creating an online platform for processing, documenting, and verifying the eligibility of businesses for the program to streamline it's existing paper process which was extremely slow, tedious, and provided no virtually no data on the efficiency of the program. However, another company assigned to the project was experiencing numerous set backs and a produced a complicated user interface.

The WIB approached us for help, and we gladly accepted the challenge. Through collaborative meetings with the client, we understood several key goals: 1) the software that automates the business logic process needed to be efficient, 2) an extremely user-friendly interface was needed to allow every business owner (regardless of their tech IQ) to easily navigate the system, and 3) the status of the vouchering process needed to be transparent to every applicable county department and organization, and the applicants.

Our solution was to develop a custom software application that featured a geographic indexing function that automatically verifies if applicants' business addresses are located within the Enterprise Zone and that simultaneously creates an account for eligible businesses. The system also walked applicants through the next phase of the approval process. But we didn't stop there. We included advanced reporting metrics which included mapping report technology that illustrates the businesses' locations on a pin map. This information is powerful in enhancing the WIB's marketing operations and saving the agency tons in outreach costs.

Built upon the insight we gained from working collaboratively with the WIB, we provided an automated web software that cut Enterprise Zone's vouchering process from 90 days to two days! Now, it's easier than ever for businesses to take advantage of these special tax credits – creating more jobs and profitability in the region.

If you are interested in using our Enterprize Zone Software, please click here.