Sacramento-based digital agency invites non-profits to apply for multiple grants up to $10,000 by April 28

Sacramento-based digital agency Capitol Tech Solutions is giving up to $40,000 of digital services to local non-profit organizations.

Leaders of the digital transformation agency, headquartered in Midtown, encourage non-profits in the Sacramento area to apply for the Sacramento Non-Profit Digital Grant Program for up to $10,000 of user experience, web design, and online advertising expert time. The firm will award grants in May to coincide with the Big Day of Giving on May 4, 2023. The application deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, April 28, 2023.

“We have a proven track record of helping non-profits in Sacramento achieve a greater degree of recognition, including our long-time client KVIE, the Rotary Club of Sacramento, and the Metro Chamber Foundation” said Bobby Reed, CEO of Capitol Tech Solutions (CTS). “One of this company’s core values is Community, and we believe this grant program is a natural extension of that.”

Reed said a common misconception he has seen representing non-profit clients in the past is how powerful a user-friendly website and competent digital ad campaign can be to bolster an organization’s name recognition and outreach efforts.

The grant recipients will join non-profit clients ranging from The Atrium and Wellspace Health to UCP, Allegiant Giving, and KVIE.

Over the past year, Capitol Tech Solutions has donated around $125,000 worth of digital services to the non-profits. That’s more than 750 hours of dedicated staff time spent helping local non-profits, according to company records.

The CTS team will tailor digital services through the Sacramento Non-Profit Digital Grant Program to the specific needs of each organization, including web design and development, graphic design for social media and other marketing materials, and online advertising to reach target audiences. The grants will also include training and support to ensure the non-profit organizations can maintain and update their websites and other digital assets at the program’s conclusion.

Applicants must be based in the Sacramento area and have a valid non-profit status to be eligible for a grant. Applications will be evaluated based on the organization’s mission, target audience, and potential impact of digital services. Evaluators at CTS will prioritize non-profits in the sustainability and health & wellness space, youth programs aiding underserved communities, and organizations with limited access to resources for creating and maintaining an online presence.

Reed founded Capitol Tech Solutions in 2004 after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company’s mission is to understand each of its clients’ unique business goals to create tailored solutions that not only meet but exceed their goals.

CTS bolsters a team of credentialed, experienced professionals in user experience, web design, online advertising, graphic design, and software development. The average employee has been with the company for more than 3 years.

“Our grant program is a valuable opportunity for non-profits in the area to improve their online presence for free with the help of an expert staff,” Reed said. 

He said the established criteria will help evaluators find the most in-need non-profits out of the many deserving applicants to maximize CTS’ impact in the community.

For more information or to apply to the Sacramento Non-Profit Digital Grant Program.

Related Articles

The digital transformation firm assisted the state agency in its application for the California Awards for Performance Excellence Eureka Award

With the help of Capitol Tech Solutions, the California Council For Excellence (CCE) named the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) State Water Project as its 2021 Prospector Recipient. CCE will present DWR with its award during a dinner and ceremony on May 4.

The CCE recognizes organizations based on the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence for outstanding commitment to sustainable excellence through innovation, continuous improvement, and visionary leadership.

“DWR feels honored to receive this recognition that acknowledges the work the State Water Project has done to document its business practices,” John Yarbrough, DWR’s Assistant State Water Project Deputy Director, told CTS. “DWR looks forward to reviewing their assessment on the organization profile of the SWP.”

The CTS team designed the layout and graphic design elements, secured assets, and copyedited the 40-page application on behalf of the state agency. Creative Director Dawn Dais, marketing content writer Patrick Groves, and user experience specialist Kevin Olson worked in tandem on various application pieces.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, examiners for the CCE could not conduct an on-site visit of the State Water Project, a requirement for applicants to receive a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Eureka Award.

CCE Spokeswoman Jennifer Cunningham said California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) applicants do not compete against each other but are evaluated against the Baldrige Framework and its criteria for performance excellence.

“If an organization applies for the Eureka and does not qualify for the award, then they still receive recognition as an organization who is on their journey to excellence,” Cunningham told CTS.

The CAPE Eureka Award process is modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award established by Congress to promote improved quality of goods and services in U.S. companies and organizations. The goal of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987 was to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, according to the Baldrige Foundation’s website.

Yarbrough said applying for a CAPE Eureka Award was important for the State Water Project because it allowed outside expert organizations to conduct external assessments, which provides DWR with a more holistic view of the state water storage and distribution initiative.

“Using this nationally recognized framework for excellence, DWR is identifying areas in the SWP for further improvement moving forward,” he told CTS. “DWR plans to apply in the future to inform us through external assessments of how well we are doing with our improvement efforts.”

Reed said he and his team hope to assist DWR when they reapply for the CAPE Eureka Award.

Founded in 1992, the California Council for Excellence is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping California-based organizations achieve world-class results based on the Baldrige Excellence Framework.

The CCE will hold a Celebrating Excellence Dinner and Awards Ceremony to honor the 2020 and 2021 CAPE Eureka Award recipients on May 4, 2022, in Irvine, Calif.

CAPE Eureka Award Assessment Timeline

CCE Spokeswoman Jennifer Cunningham provided CTS with the evaluation timeline for DWR’s 2021 CAPE Eureka Award submission:

• DWR submitted an Intent to Apply in April 2021.
• DWR submitted its written application to the CAPE Program on June 1, 2021. The written application is the organization’s response to the Baldrige Framework and its Criteria for Performance Excellence.
• July-September: A team of trained CAPE Examiners, who are volunteers, evaluated the organization’s written application using the Baldrige Framework and its Criteria for Performance Excellence. Examiners evaluated the organization’s response for the six process categories (Leadership, Strategy, Customers, Measurement, Analysis, Knowledge Management, Workforce, and Operations) and reviewed/evaluated results presented in Category 7, Results. The final product of the CAPE Examination team is a feedback report consisting of Strengths and Opportunities for Improvement.
• The team’s feedback report was then sent to a team of Tech Editors for final edits.
• The final feedback report was sent to the organization on December 21, 2021.

Related Articles

If you’re sitting at your computer poring over article after article about digital transformation, digital transformation strategy, etc., trying to figure out if it’s for your organization but not entirely understanding what it entails, believe me, you’re not the only one.

While researching digital transformation, I had several head-scratching moments myself. There’s a lot of information about what digital transformation is and how you can implement digital transformation strategies into your business models.

With the help of the User Experience Team at Capitol Tech Solutions, we’ve pinned down how we help implement digital transformation initiatives that fit your business or organization.

We’ve also highlighted our picks for the Top 5 Benefits of Digital Transformation.

What Is Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all business processes. It changes how you operate and deliver your customer experience.

It’s also an organizational culture change requiring leaders to continually rethink old operating models, experiment more, and develop the agility to respond to their customers quickly.

Enterprise-wide digital transformation will enhance your organization’s ability to improve customer relationships by embracing emerging technologies.

Our Top 5 Benefits Of Digital Transformation

1. Improved Efficiency

When you embrace digital technologies, your efforts will be rewarded with improved operational efficiency.

When you streamline processes and increase automation of menial tasks with digital technologies, your employees will be able to contribute to larger-scale projects. With data analytics and automated workflows, you’ll be able to track your customer’s lifecycle to ensure you’re meeting their needs at every stage.

2. Cost Savings

When you embrace digital transformation, you can reduce costs by retiring legacy systems and products and launching new technologies. You will see additional savings from the improved processes and problem-solving capabilities.

As mentioned above, when you automate information-intensive or menial processes, you free up your employees’ time. You’ll see a greater return on investment as your staff are able to accomplish high-level projects with the time saved by automation.

We’ve helped our clients automate lead generation to the point where sales teams are notified when a potential customer is the most receptive to becoming a customer, allowing them to close more deals and generate more revenue for their companies.

3. Data-Driven Decisions

You can better understand your customer and create a more customer-centric business strategy using data. By combining personal customer information (structured data) and website or social media engagement (unstructured data), you can make more informed business decisions.

Data visualizations can help you see key performance indicators in real-time, allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your digital transformation efforts and user experience strategy.

At Capitol Tech Solutions, we deploy PowerBI dashboards for our clients that allow stakeholders to see changes in project management as they happen. We’re able to pull data from various sources into one easy-to-view metric tracking dashboard.

4. A Better Customer Experience

A byproduct of digital transformation and the increased efficiency of your team is creating a more seamless and intuitive customer experience.

Digital technologies allow customers to get what they want precisely when they need it. By combining customer expectations with digital trends, business leaders can innovate new products and services.

Offering digital tools to your customers makes your business more attractive and keeps you relevant. Firms with a clunky, outdated user experience will have difficulty competing with those that stay up to date with technology in the digital age.

5. Encourages Innovation & Use of Technology To Problem Solve

Digital transformation helps business leaders solve business pain points while improving the customer experience.

When you deploy new technologies, your company will be able to identify and resolve internal and external issues before they become problems. This is partly due to the increased collaboration between different teams within your organization and your customer data.

Digital product managers can notice if a campaign or product is not engaging customers and adapt business operations as needed to meet customer demands.

As digital technology constantly evolves, so too must your digital strategy. A part of embracing digital transformation is being open to innovation. Informed by your data, your organization will be able to adapt to create new business models to meet your goals.

Capitol Tech Solutions Specializes In Digital Transformation Projects

Our team will help you deploy digitalization efforts that turn interactions, communications, business functions, and business models into an omnichannel for customer service.

We’re accredited experts in automation software solutions, like HubSpot, and we leverage our fluency in off-the-shelf and custom-built software services to enhance your digital transformation initiative.

Decrease your costs while increasing your revenue with automated ticketing systems, custom workflows for repetitive tasks, and a database of contacts and customers.

Related Articles

The Sacramento-based Digital Transformation firm’s commitment to community drives company-wide support of local nonprofits, like the American River Parkway Foundation

Staff from Capitol Tech Solutions cleaned up about 100 pounds of trash as part of the firm’s ongoing commitment to the American River Parkway Foundation.

The volunteer event held on March 18, 2021, saw a turnout of leadership and employees from the digital transformation agency who worked together as they descended upon the Sacramento and American riverbanks to clean up refuse.

The American River Parkway is a 4,800-acre, 23-mile waterway in the heart of Sacramento.

American River Parkway Foundation Executive Director Dianna Poggetto told CTS that volunteers are essential to the conservation of the American River Parkway and ensuring it’s kept free of litter.

“Every year, the American River Parkway Foundation works with thousands of volunteers to clear trash and debris, maintain hiking and equestrian trails, remove invasive plants, repair infrastructure, and more,” Poggetto said. “Collaboration with groups like Capitol Tech Solutions helps boost those efforts.”

CTS Director of People Justino Santana, who organized the gathering, previously served as the community engagement manager for the American River Parkway Foundation.

Heather LaVergne, a CTS account manager, said she volunteered because keeping local waterways and parks clean for wildlife and visitors is important to her.

“It was a great opportunity to do something positive for our community with my team,” LaVergne said.

Alongside LaVergne, CEO Bobby Reed braved steep drop-offs from the park to riverbanks below in their search for trash. He said he envisions using kayaks to access secluded beaches where garbage accumulates just out of reach of even the most daring of volunteers.

“Community is a core value of Capitol Tech Solutions,” Reed said. “We believe in giving back to the Greater Sacramento Area through trash clean-ups and the sponsorship of local nonprofits.”

The Sacramento-based digital agency selects a different local nonprofit to support each month and offers an employee donation matching program. In addition to the American River Parkway Foundation, CTS supports the Breathe California Sacramento Region, Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps., Sacramento Rotary Club, and Friends of Sacramento Arts.

Capitol Tech Solutions’ Core Values

In October 2021, CTS personnel met in person for the first time in nearly two years to decide upon five collective values of personal and professional importance.

These core values include:

• Community
• Flexibility
• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Innovation

CTS’ statement to potential clients defines what community means to the company as:

“Our digital agency is proud to be headquartered in Midtown Sacramento to serve our local community. We improve collaboration and outcomes with our proximity to our customers. We treat each of our customers as valuable members of our community, and we strive to make a joint impact with our new community partners.”

The firm offers user experience services, web design and website migration, and custom software solutions.

Related Articles

User Experience Team Obtains HubSpot Certifications To Provide Top-Tier Service To Clients Seeking Certified HubSpot Partner

To become the leading HubSpot partner in Sacramento, Capitol Tech Solutions tasked its User Experience Team with becoming fluent in the customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

CTS staff possess five HubSpot Academy certifications, allowing our team to leverage that knowledge to create lead-generation funnels for clients like eFundraising Connections, a political and nonprofit credit card processing solution, and CREtelligent, a real estate technology company. 

“There are three main hubs that you work within HubSpot,” said Kevin Olson, the user experience specialist leading HubSpot initiatives for clients. “You have the service hub, the marketing hub, and the sales hub. At the center of it all is the CRM system. They all work collaboratively to really achieve an organization’s goals.”

Capitol Tech Solutions expanded its commitment to customer satisfaction when the digital transformation agency enrolled in the HubSpot Solutions Partner Program in May 2021. The program allows partners to differentiate themselves based on their expertise and credentials.

The User Experience Team’s HubSpot credentials include Solutions Partner, email marketing, social media marketing, Service Hub Software, and Marketing Software.

“Whether you’re new to user experience or have been doing it for a while, these courses will teach you something that you didn’t know before,” Olson said. “HubSpot does a great job at providing resources that you can utilize for future clients.”

How CTS Helps Clients Optimize Their HubSpot Accounts

HubSpot offers a full suite of software for marketing, sales, and customer relationship management, each supported with a “hub.” The three hubs Olson consults clients on how to operate and automate include:

• Marketing Hub
  • To attract and engage new customers by creating relevant personal marketing
• Sales Hub
  • Build efficient processes to engage prospects and turn them into customers
• Service Hub
  • To connect with customers, exceed their expectations, and ultimately have them become promoters of the organization

“These three hubs work together to achieve that common goal of turning a user from an anonymous person to eventually a promoter of your organization,” Olson said. “It works best when all the tools are being utilized. To have one hub going and not the others, it works, but it would be best to have all teams involved.”

The automation that HubSpot offers streamlines business processes, tracking everything from identifying a lead to when a company salesperson closes the deal. HubSpot houses it all, including email correspondence, documentation, and support ticket tracking.

The User Experience Team creates custom workflows within the CRM platform and trains organization leadership, marketing staff, and salespeople on how to use these workflows to be more efficient.

“Our job is to set up your hub or hubs, get them ready and running smoothly, and train your team in person, virtually, and with video tutorials to the point where you can manage your HubSpot account, and we’re there to support if needed,” Olson said.

Related Articles

Where do you start when you’re looking to optimize your business’ workflows and processes? You want to generate more leads, but the old-fashioned way bogs you down to just a few wins.

As the leading HubSpot Solutions Partners in the Sacramento area, we might be a bit biased in saying that the customer relationship management experience offered by HubSpot is your best option.

Several HubSpot Academy-certified staff at Capitol Tech Solutions can vouch for the HubSpot CRM. We’ve highlighted our favorite features that we’ve seen significantly help clients and that clients love.

What is HubSpot, Again?

First, a bit of background – HubSpot offers a full suite of software, called hubs, including the marketing hub, sales hub, and service hub. At the center of these three hubs is the CRM.

According to data collected by HubSpot, businesses average three service providers, which adds unnecessary complexity. With a CRM system, a HubSpot partner or service provider, like CTS, can help your marketing and sales teams focus on customers with a single suite of specialized apps at their disposal.

Our Top Five HubSpot Features

1. Lead Generation Optimization

The HubSpot platform can identify your Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads to build your database of contacts and customers with the HubSpot CRM.

You can identify leads and categorize them based on their level of interaction with your ads campaign, website forms, and web content so you can concentrate on the most valuable leads.

HubSpot marketing automation scores potential leads based on their interaction with your site’s content. For instance, if a potential customer watches a product overview video, the system adds 7 points to their engagement value.

Once a user interacts enough with your website, email marketing campaigns, or social media posts to become Marketing Qualified Lead, the system automatically moves that potential customer to the Sales Hub for your sales teams to evaluate, make contact, and close the deal.

It’s a data-backed way of connecting with your consumers and then selling them your solution to their needs.

2. Automated Ads & Ad Tracking

With HubSpot, you can create segmented audiences and personalized ads through features like ads optimization events, campaign management, and lookalike audiences.

HubSpot smart marketing and analytics then provides deeper insights into the ad campaigns that increase conversion.

You simply toggle on the auto ad tracking, allowing HubSpot to attribute contacts to specific tracking parameters added to the end of your ad URLs. After you link your Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, or LinkedIn Ads accounts, HubSpot will track ads that are currently active or pending review.

HubSpot allows you to see which ad campaigns work and how well they turn prospects into customers. You can use the data housed within the CRM to build custom lists to target visitors at different stages.

As HubSpot puts it: “Better targeting means more relevant content, more helpful customer experiences, and better return on ad spend.”

3. Email Marketing Automation & Analytics

Using contact insights stored in HubSpot generates more of your emails opened and links clicked because they’re unique to each subscriber.

Our HubSpot email experts can create custom email campaigns based on subscribers’ lifecycle stage, list membership, and any information in your contact records to populate the most relevant content for each audience.

HubSpot offers a user-friendly email feature that allows you to drag and drop designs, CTAs, images, and links into ready-to-use templates to create personalized individual emails or mass newsletters to your audience quickly and efficiently.

Combine the ease of design with smart rules and personalization tokens, and HubSpot will adjust your email marketing campaign to the email recipient based on data stored in the CRM — from the subject line to the content of the email and its CTAs.

After your emails are sent, HubSpot provides you with reports and dashboards to track your audience’s engagement with your emails, allowing you to understand which topics are of most interest to your potential customers and the times and days that get the most successful engagement.

4. Social Media Integration & Management

HubSpot integrates with a range of social media platforms, which will allow you to connect your multiple accounts and simply draft, schedule, publish, and track post engagement with one tool. Like email, you also have insight into the best times to schedule posts.

The platform empowers you to create keyword monitoring streams so your team can review key interactions, going so far as to automatically send your sales team an email alert when a prospective client mentions a specific keyword.

Social interactions in HubSpot are linked to the people in your database to provide you with a greater context when determining a Marketing Qualified Lead from a Sales Qualified Lead. You’re able to associate your social media posts with various marketing campaigns for you to measure the entirety of your marketing efforts and which facet of your inbound marketing is generating the most revenue.

As is the theme of HubSpot, you’re also able to compare the performance of a campaign against your different social platforms and publishing time, allowing you to see the visits, leads, and customers your social media marketing is bringing to your business.

5. Automated Workflows

Our top four choices all branch from this primary function, which showcases how versatile and time-saving HubSpot automated workflows can be.

Our experts can help you create workflows to automate your marketing, sales, and service processes based on your parameters to improve your teams’ efficiency. We can create workflows for quotes, ticketing, conversation, and custom object at more advanced levels, such as professional and enterprise.

HubSpot allows users to build both internal and external workflows, with an external example being tailored content for readers based on “if/then” branches. Depending on the content that the user engages with, they can be given specific content that provides them with more information about what service of yours interests them.

Once a lead nurturing funnel is created from triggers, conditions, and actions, HubSpot can reel in customers to your sales team.

Additionally, HubSpot’s workflows integrate with multiple business apps, allowing you and your team to work as efficiently and productively as possible.

CTS: Leading HubSpot Partners In Sacramento

You don’t have to search the HubSpot Partner Directory of HubSpot Agency Partners to find marketing services in Sacramento.

Capitol Tech Solutions is a digital transformation firm that offers content marketing, marketing strategies, web design, and more. We’ve been a part of the partner program for nearly a year, so we have experience growing businesses with the HubSpot CRM platform.

It’s time you moved to one platform that will bolster your sales and marketing teams by choosing the right agency to help you convert leads and pin down potential clients with a customized strategy. Don’t settle for other user experience agencies.

We do more than just set up your HubSpot account. Our team of experts is here for continued maintenance and training. We offer training to help your sales teams identify and evaluate leads generated by your custom parameters while maintaining and optimizing your current HubSpot workflows and improving processes.

Related Articles

The Sacramento-based digital transformation firm added six awards to its award-winning track record in Q4

Independent organizations recognizing digital excellence honored Capitol Tech Solutions in 2021- 2022 for the digital transformation firm’s work in government web design, nonprofit web design, and social media videography.

Capitol Tech Solutions (CTS) received a Best of Industry MobileWebAward, two gold MarCom Awards, a silver Davey Award, a silver w3 Award, and a Viddy Awards honorable mention in the company’s final business quarter.

MobileWebAwards

Founded by the Web Marketing Association in 1997, the MobileWebAwards is a standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks for the best mobile websites based on seven criteria:

• Creativity
• Impact
• Design
• Content
• Interactivity
• Ease of Use
• Use of the medium

“The goal of the MobileWebAwards is to provide a forum to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective websites on the Internet today,” the Web Marketing Association website states.

Judges for the Web Marketing Association deemed CTS’s redesign of the California Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission as the Best Government Mobile Website, a Best of Industry MobileWebAward.

MarCom Awards

MarCom Awards recognize outstanding achievement by creative professionals involved in the concept, direction, design, and production of marketing and communication materials and programs.

According to the organization’s website, judges evaluated more than 6,000 entries from around the world with winners selected from over 300 categories in print, web, video, and strategic communications.

The before and after difference and final version of the California Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission website won CTS two gold MarCom Awards in the Digital Media Website categories of redesign and government.

The MarCom Awards are sponsored and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, a 25-year-old international organization with several thousand creative professionals.

Davey Awards

The Davey Awards is an international award focused on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small businesses worldwide.

The Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA) oversees and judges the Davey Awards. Entries are judged on their merits based on a standard of excellence determined by the AIVA, considering the category entered to determine gold and silver winners. Gold winners receive a score of 90 or above, and silver winners receive a score between 79 and 89.

Capitol Tech Solutions received the silver award in the general self-promotion category for sites designed to promote a business.

w3 Awards

The w3 Awards celebrate digital excellence and honor outstanding websites, marketing, video, mobile sites and apps, social and podcasts created by interactive agencies, designers, and creators worldwide. The awards are also sanctioned and judged by the AIVA.

CTS’ work on the nonprofit Sweet Dreams Foundation website garnered the firm the silver award in the nonprofit category for the Best Use of Video Or Motion Graphics.

Viddy Awards

Founded as the Videographer Awards in Dallas, Texas, in 1995, the awards adapted to better reflect video’s constantly changing technology, platforms, and uses, becoming the Viddy Awards today.

The Viddy Awards are administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

CTS received an honorable mention in the 2021 Viddy Awards for its Social Media Videos submission.

Related Articles

Director, content writer finish Q4 with enhanced knowledge to better serve clients

The Capitol Tech Solutions User Experience Team finished out Q4 with a project management professional (PMP) certification and a Content Marketing Institute University credential.

CTS has an established history of empowering its employees to become experts in their fields by facilitating learning opportunities, conferences, and certification opportunities.

“The key to our success is our lasting relationship with our clients and our expertise,” said CTS CEO Bobby Reed. “Staff with a commanding knowledge in their respective fields afford our clients the best services.”

The Sacramento-based digital transformation firm’s User Experience Team specializes in search engine optimization, social media marketing, web design, and more.

Director of User Experience Obtains PMP Certification

Director of User Experience Sara Menton passed her PMP exam in November 2021 after completing 18-months of coursework and 60 hours of exam preparation. Forty percent of people who take the exam fail it the first time.

Menton, who’s worked for Capitol Tech Solutions since 2017, leads the user experience team in private and public-sector projects.

Menton said project management principles provide a reproducible methodology to handle simple and complex projects, ensuring clients receive the best product CTS can deliver.

“There is value to our clients, as the methodology of project management results in efficiencies, a reduction to waste in rework and missed requirements, and improves the quality of our work products,” she said,

The certification is accredited through the Project Management Institute.

Marketing Content Writer Graduates From The Content Marketing Institute University

Marketing Content Writer Patrick Groves graduated from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) University during Q4. The 20-hour program identifies methods for content writers to plan, write, and measure lead-generating content.

The CMI University coursework included 10 modules taught by Robert Rose, an SEO expert who’s consulted Facebook, Salesforce, NASA, Hewlett Packard, and Microsoft.

In addition to the 10-module core curriculum, Groves completed more than 20 electives taught by content marketing practitioners, authors, and educators hand-selected by the CMI team to participate in the program.

“Content writing is constantly changing, and by leveraging what I learned through CMI University, I can provide better-written, tailored copy for our clients’ websites, newsletters, and other marketing campaigns,” Groves said.

An 8-year veteran of the newspaper and magazine publishing industry, Groves uses his background as a general assignment reporter, investigative journalist, and feature writer to distill a client’s “shop talk” into easily understood concepts that convey their vision accurately and succinctly.

“The Content Marketing Institute University curriculum taught me how to adapt my previous storytelling skillset and apply it in a manner that will increase our clients’ organic search traffic,” he said.

Related Articles

Sacramento-based Website Developer, Alex Wright, Completes edX Front End Web Developer Certification

Capitol Tech Solutions Web Developer Alex Wright will deploy her edX Front End Web Development certification to use the latest processes in constructing client’s web applications.

Wright, who’s been with the Sacramento-based digital transformation firm for three years, completed the edX courses to obtain her certification during the past five months.

The edX curriculum features instructors from Intel and the World Wide Web Consortium, the organization that develops and maintains web standards and guidelines.

Wright’s coursework included all aspects involved in programming the user interface of a web application, including:

• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• JavaScript

By completing these advanced edX multi-course modules, Wright received hands-on training in the most up-to-date front-end coding practices that combine HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.

Wright said she learned new HTML5 and JavaScript techniques for building complex web animations, web forms, and video controls to create more enriching web experiences.

Capitol Tech Solutions Fosters a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Capitol Tech Solutions empowers its employees to obtain certifications when they join the company.

“I believe encouraging and facilitating the professional development of CTS employees allows our firm to expertly help clients maximize their digital online presence and grow their business,” said CTS CEO Bobby Reed.

The Front End Web Development certification is the fourth Wright has received while working for Capitol Tech Solutions.

Last year, Wright completed the multi-week certification course “Transforming Divi with CSS & jQuery” to become a Certified Divi Frontend Developer.

She also possesses a CSS Fundamentals Certificate from W3School and a Google Analytics Individual Qualification.

“It’s great to work for a company that values the professional growth of its employees,” Wright said. “It creates a culture of continuous improvement and gives us the expertise we need to serve our customers better.”

Capitol Tech Solutions Recognized as the 15th Fastest Growing Company in the Greater Sacramento Region

Capitol Tech Solutions grew 89.03 percent from 2018-2020, earning it the 15th spot on the Sacramento Business Journal’s 50 Fastest-Growing Companies list for 2021.

The publication noted that the Sacramento web design, user experience, and software development firm had a 2020 revenue of $2.74 million.

How the Sacramento Business Journal Creates Its List

For agencies to be eligible for the Sacramento Business Journal’s ranking of companies, independent account firm Moss Adams LLP must verify each nominee’s finances to ensure double-digit growth over the specified years.

To be considered, the Leadership Team at CTS submitted a nomination form to the Sacramento Business Journal answering:

• If the company was independently owned without a parent company and for-profit
• If the company headquarters were in Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, or Yuba County
• If there was a 3-year financial history with revenue gains from 2018 to 2020
• If there was a revenue of $200,000 or more in 2018
• If the business was in operation for at least 9 months in 2018
• If there was double-digit revenue percentage growth over the past three years (10 percent or greater)

According to the Sacramento Business Journal, the award’s goal is to send a message of success to employees, recruits, and competitors, allowing a company the opportunity to recognize workers for their contributions.

“Capitol Tech Solutions has served the Greater Sacramento Region for almost 20 years,” said CTS CEO Bobby Reed. “We thank our employees and clients for helping this company grow into the best digital transformation firm in Northern California. We look forward to our continued expansion as we hire more software developers, web developers, and digital marketers to serve a greater range of business and government customers in our community.”

Related Articles

Everything you need to know about preparing a Scope of Work to get your next software development project underway

At Capitol Tech Solutions, we use a metaphor that compares software development projects to remodeling homes. Before hiring contractors, a person must consult existing architectural plans and bring the house up to code.

Software developers, like contractors, can give a rough cost estimate. Still, they can’t provide an accurate price tag until the architecture review is complete and the work template is defined.

Our Sacramento-based web design and software development teams need to understand the nature of work, your expectations, requirements, and the users who will benefit from the finished product.

In this blog post, Capitol Tech Solutions will provide an in-depth overview of:

• What a Scope of Work, also known as a Statement of Work, entails
• Why you should have one before embarking on your next upgrade
• How to optimize your Scope of Work for the CTS software development team

What is a Scope of Work? Is it a Statement of Work?

A Scope of Work is a vital agreement that details objectives that prevent ambiguity and miscommunication during the design of your software development project. It also keeps you informed and reassured at every stage — from conceptualization to Go Live.

Scope of Work (SOW) or Statement of Work (SOW) outlines project management, tasks, deliverables, phases, milestones, schedule, payment, responsibilities, and more. In this article, SOW refers to Scope of Work.

The SOW should be the first document you create after gathering information about your operational needs, determining where you’d like to improve, and contracting a vendor to implement your ideas.

Why is an SOW Important?

An SOW provides a layer of detail that cost estimates and project plans don’t typically include, describing what will be a deliverable, what won’t be a deliverable, and in what amount of time.

There is a considerable amount of work involved in creating an SOW. Still, it’ll serve as a good exercise in the project management process, allowing you to adjust your estimate, timeline and pin down proposed items from previous internal meetings and discussions.

The SOW documents will be the client (you) and Capitol Tech Solutions’ guidebook, determining what is in scope and out of scope for the project ahead — allowing you to track the performance and progress throughout the project.

The Capitol Tech Solutions’ Approach to Project Management

When software developers at CTS write an SOW for our clients, it entails:

• Overview
• Scope of Work Statement
• User Types
• Functionality
• Workflows & Processes
• Databases Attributes
• UI Frameworks
• Software Requirements
• Future Phased Development

Let’s break down each of these components so you can optimize your SOWs for CTS:

Overview

An overview will explain your organization’s goals for an application, describing what’s already in place and how you want it to improve.

Here is where you identify the date and location of drafting the SOW to avoid any credibility concerns later, should they arise in the process.

Identify related project manager(s), business development manager(s), and give us an idea of your budget, including if there will be a contingency amount and an allocation for support and maintenance of the application after Go Live.

Scope of Work Statement

The scope of work statement defines deliverables and outlines how Capitol Tech Solutions will complete the project for you.

Here is where you identify your ideal timeline for the project. What deliverables are you expecting? What tasks will be completed by CTS, and which will your organization take charge of?

What are the phases of individual and grouped tasks? What are the project’s milestones?

Answering these questions in detail will provide both you and us with a 30,000-foot view of the project.

User Types

When embarking on an application build, you need to outline the intended users internally and externally.

Describe each user in detail and how you envision they will interact with the application — from client to entry-level personnel to management to executives.

This will create personas and user stories that directly inform the workflows and processes that our team will articulate in the UI Framework.

Workflows & Processes

To optimize the project for the CTS team, describe your vision for the functionality of the project at the completion of work. For example, what will the users’ path from Point A to Point B in the application look like?

This is also known as the business requirements section. Are there specific regulations that your team members must adhere to when using the application?

Database Attributes

We need you to identify the data you want to capture within the application. For example, if data is being fed to the application from a source outside the organization, what is that source, and what type of data do you want the application to collect? A typical example of this is customer billing information.

How will that data be displayed in the application, and how will team members, project managers, clients, etc., utilize the data?

User Interface (UI) Framework

The User Interface (UI) Framework is where you identify and conceptualize in detail the virtual steps you would like a user to take. This is the blueprint view that expands upon the personas and workflows you developed in the previous sections.

A real-world example is online shopping. Think about all the webpages you navigate, from selecting an item to purchase to the confirmation page after checkout.

This is where you tell us the function and design of each screen the user will see — then we can work on frameworks until they align with your vision.

Software Requirements

This section should document the needed equipment to complete the project, including the hardware and software list.

Additionally, you can state that Capitol Tech Solutions will use its hardware to build the application before migrating it to your hardware or cloud-hosting service.

Future Phased Development

In this final step of the Scope of Work, outline a detailed plan for support and maintenance.

If there’s an allocation in your budget for continued support and maintenance of your application, keep us on to fix any bugs that might crop up.

This is where you document in the SOW further improvements to the application that you want to incorporate at a later date.

“Software is always soft, so you’re going to have changes to it,” said Shanmugam. “Either your business processes will change, or the deliverables will require some bug fixes.”

Off and Running with an SOW

The Scope of Work is an essential document between a client and a vendor. By developing a detailed SOW, we can work together to build a high-quality application that will improve your business or organizational processes for up to 10 years.

Related Articles