Small businesses today face technology barriers, and some governments are offering support to help businesses navigate and overcome these challenges. Connecting small businesses to the broader corporate environment in a community is one solution.
ConnectKS, an online platform launched this summer by the Kansas Small Business Office (SBO), aims to connect businesses in the state to that corporate structure at large, including resources and organizations that will support their work.
The SBO is charged with making it easier for businesses to navigate state resources and programs offering support, and ConnectKS is intended to deliver on that goal according to its director, Taylor Eubanks.
The platform, built in partnership with EcoMap Technologies Inc., aims to connect small business owners to the funding opportunities, connections, and other support to develop their enterprise at any stage.
Because the platform leverages AI, small business owners can stay up to date with the information they need, Eubanks said.
The role of AI within the platform is to manage data, according to the company's CEO, Sherrod Davis; AI helps to identify the industry organizations and resources that exist within the state and categorize them for users.
“We think AI and automation helps to expedite the collection, organization and freshness of that information, so it’s a really critical resource,” Davis said.
EcoMap exists “to power local economies,” whether at the local or state level, Davis said. Technology can help governments more easily map existing ecosystems of the organizations, resources and events that support businesses to centralize this information, thereby making it more accessible to those who need it.
“We think it’s really important that everyone starts to read from the same sheet of music, and then we can play the symphony together,” Davis said of ecosystem mapping.
The platform is transformative for how businesses access information, but also for how state employees respond to their requests. Previously, business owners and entrepreneurs relied on direct communication with state officials like Eubanks to answer their questions. The ConnectKS platform makes the process of distributing information more proactive, rather than “hoping” an individual can find the information they need when they need it, Eubanks said.
SBO staff are also increasing awareness among other state agencies and teams about this resource so that when officials engage with a small business owner, they can direct them to the tool. Now, questions received by SBO staff are more targeted.
“I always say that entrepreneurs have a 3 a.m. problem,” Eubanks said, meaning that people starting a business are typically not operating within traditional government office operating hours. Now, when those problems come up, rather than being left to seek out answers independently, the platform acts as a centralized information hub through which to start their search.
It aims to “allow space for organizations to prioritize their own development,” according to Eubanks, to ensure entrepreneurs are not missing out on funding opportunities.
One source of that is entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs). These organizations can exist within the public, private, education or nonprofit sectors. The Nonprofit Intelligence Dashboard, a new solution offered by EcoMap that similarly works to build out connections within the state’s business ecosystem, is the counterpart to the platform, Davis said.
Essentially, Eubanks leverages an ESO maturity model to measure these organizations’ capacity to offer support; and, Davis said, the EcoMap team adds a layer of quantitative analysis to that model for visibility into potential funding and ESO information sources. The dashboard supports capacity building at the ESO level to help organizations that support businesses in the state — and ultimately, to expand the number of entrepreneurs these organizations can support.
Looking ahead, state officials are working with EcoMap and a Kansas-based company called Cyphr to create a new tool to address loan readiness. The new AI tool will offer an assessment to those seeking loans; and, based on that information, will pull data from EcoMap to direct them to events or organizations that could be useful.
“Then on the back end, it can also help them AI-generate or update their business plan,” Eubanks said, indicating the new tool is expected to launch by year's end.
Ecosystem mapping challenges are typically not unique to a single organization, Eubanks said, underlining the importance of information sharing. For Kansas, the work started with learning from other success stories outside of the state, and convening ecosystem partners within the state, to inform the tool's development.
