Client Success Story: Robotic Process Automation

How MGCC Distributed ~$700 million to 15,000+ Small Businesses in ~4 Months

Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation (MGCC) was charged with standing up a new program to quickly deliver an unprecedented amount of relief to small businesses across Massachusetts impacted by the pandemic.

Background

Since 2020, MGCC has proudly been the administrator for multiple pandemic relief grant programs and loan funds for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This amounted to almost $800 million in grant funding which MGCC would ultimately disburse to over 16,000 small businesses in the Commonwealth.

The process involved the following components:

• Receiving applications from business owners
• Collecting evidence and paperwork related to applications
• Reviewing qualifications and determining whether to issue funds
• Checking applicants for specific Federal disbarments
• Acquiring signed agreements from selected business owners
• Disbursing funds into bank accounts of eligible business owners

Obstacles and Challenges

MGCC received approximately 18,000+ applications over the course of the first four months. The team had to review baseline eligibility and compare each individual application against the government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list. (Each round of applications can have hundreds of possible flags that must be investigated.) Once exclusions were weeded out, MGCC had to carefully track the paperwork and approval process and distribute funds to the thousands of eligible applicants.

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MGCC distributed approximately $800 million to 16,000+ small businesses in about four months, during some of the most difficult months of the pandemic.

“The importance of the time saved cannot be overstated,” said Neil. “We got the bulk of this money in the hands of small businesses from February to April 2021. It could have been May to July without the solution AAFCPAs helped put in place. Obviously, that couple of months made a significant difference to the state’s hardest hit businesses and their employees.”

Other key benefits of the Solution:

• MGCC distributed approximately $800 million to 16,000+ small businesses in about four months, during some of the most difficult months of the pandemic.
• Because the human element was reduced, keystroke errors were eliminated, and clerical issues were reduced.
• MGCC was able to easily identify and follow-up with applicants who qualified for the funds, but who had accidentally input their email address wrong. They could correct the error and get them the relief they needed.
• Personnel assigned to perform the manual tasks were freed up to perform higher value tasks and improve their work efficiencies. The solution eliminated tedious, repetitive, manual, and boring tasks that would have led to frustration in an unprecedented high-stress time.
• MGCC would have had to hire, train, supervise, and pay hundreds of temps to achieve anywhere close to the speed they realized with the automated solution.

“AAFCPAs is our auditors, plus” added Martin. “It’s been valuable to be able to tap into the additional resources they have in-house, including business process, robotic process automation, data analytics, and IT security. We call on them and say, ‘here’s the challenge,’ and they say, ‘here’s a solution.’”