Calvert County Uses Infor Technology to Quickly Distribute CARES Act Funding to Constituents

Calvert County goes digital in four weeks to distribute CARES Act grants

NEW YORK – June 3, 2021 – Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced the success Calvert County has seen with Infor’s cloud-based public sector solutions. Calvert County in Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., needed a new technology solution that could help its teams quickly distribute funding received through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Intended to support businesses and nonprofits in navigating the pandemic, Calvert County had to quickly create a brand-new, public-facing process that was easy to navigate, able to facilitate a solid audit trail for funds attribution, and ready within 11 days in order to complete allocations to businesses in need. Using Infor Public Sector solutions, Calvert County was able to create a new program within four weeks to support its constituents in need.

An Infor customer for 13 years, Calvert County had been using Infor Public Sector applications to manage licensing, permit requests, onsite inspections, and various back-office functions. At the beginning of 2020, Calvert County had no online presence for processing business grants, and with the physical permit office being shut down and unable to perform normal business functions, an urgent solution to collect applicants’ forms was needed. An upgrade program was already underway with Infor Services when this urgent project emerged, and the Infor and Calvert teams immediately switched priorities to get the program up and running to promptly assist the businesses of Calvert County.

“We have entered the 21st century in Calvert County with this CARES Act grant funding program. We didn't have weeks or months to fine tune this process, and we had to do things right. We couldn't have done it without software, or we would still be processing paper as we speak,” said Danita Boonchaisri, deputy director of economic development at Calvert County. “Infor was able to give us a place to start when we didn’t have a playbook for this type of situation. We were frontline dealing with business owners whose entire lives were wrapped up in this crisis, trying to counsel our business community, and trying to help them as best as possible. When we received the funds allocation, we wanted to distribute it as fast as possible to people in need. With Infor, we were able to make this program work efficiently with our small staff.”

Infor CloudSuite Public Sector is a complete suite of applications built for state and local government. The purpose-built software (Community Development and Regulation) includes solutions for planning, permitting, projects, licensing, and case management. In addition, Infor Rhythm for Civics is uniquely designed to enable governments to deliver a constituent-centric experience and robust self-service portal. A single intuitive interface provides businesses complete visibility into their projects, from planning and applying for renewals, to paying fees, scheduling inspections, to tracking reviews in real time. The platform helps boost regulatory and code compliance and removes the need for citizens to understand the agency structure and navigate multiple departments. Citizens are enabled to initiate new projects and track progress seamlessly.

“Infor continues to innovate to help state and local agencies modernize with government software applications that deliver full transparency, keep up with changing regulations, and provide efficient services that constituents require,” said Bob Benstead, industry director of Infor Public Sector. “More than ever, this last year has shown us that data, visibility and cloud technology are at the center of the way we work, keeping us moving when things have stopped around us. Infor’s government solutions aim to change the way government agencies interact with their constituents, moving them out of customer service lines and into a more convenient online system that empowers them in a much more meaningful way.”

Parallel to this project, the Infor team helped Calvert County utilize the Infor Field Inspector application, which delivers more functionality in the field to allow its teams to resume operations promptly and more efficiently, even during the pandemic lockdown, providing better service to constituents.

About Calvert County
Calvert County is Maryland's smallest county in land area with 213 square miles. It is home to more than 92,000 people and has one of the highest standards of living in Maryland. There are more than 5,200 businesses in the county, and a labor force of at least 1.8 million resides within a one-hour drive. Major industries include defense contracting, information technology, tourism and administrative services. Visit https://www.calvertcountymd.gov/

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For more information:
Christina Ledger
Infor
Christina.ledger@infor.com
312-662-2135