The software and services company Granicus is focused on growth, because increasing its footprint means helping drive a broader impact for government.
Overseeing this goal from a financial and mission-driven perspective is Amir Capriles, the company’s chief revenue officer.
“There’s so much going on in the world, but there’s also so much going on in the public sector, in government, and we want to help organizations through that digital transformation,” he says.
The company created the chief revenue officer role in March 2022 when it hired Capriles. This new position highlights the company’s focus on business growth and expansion. Granicus ⏤ which does business in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand ⏤ was experiencing organic and acquisition-based growth, and the role intends to help drive a consistent approach to business.
It’s also a role Capriles was well-prepared for. He’s been in the IT industry for over 30 years, and most of his career has been in the public sector. Before joining Granicus, he was North American enterprise sales vice president and general manager for public sector at Pegasystems, a global CRM software company. Before that, he held sales leadership roles at Salesforce and Microsoft, where he led public sector sales for over a decade and helped launch Microsoft’s government cloud offering for business applications.
“My passion has always been in public sector,” he says. That passion is largely what drew him to Granicus, along with the company’s mission.
“We are a global leader in customer engagement and in customer experience, technology and services,” he says. “That whole transformation, that mission ⏤ helping government organizations deliver on their mission, serving their customers and delivering on those programs ⏤ it was incredibly attractive to me.”
Capriles refers to this marriage of mission, market and growth as “doing well, while doing good.” Granicus is doubling down on driving transformations of large, federal organizations with permeating impacts that span partner agencies, and ultimately, influence state and local priorities.
“We’re trying to work with the federal government’s highest-impact service providers to raise the standard of customer experience and customer service across government,” Capriles says.
That commitment aligns with the White House’s Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government.
To do that, Granicus has doubled the number of trusted advisors in the space to expand coverage and resources, and is heavily focused on incorporating customer service and experience in its federal IT modernization work.
For Granicus, increasing resources means upping the number of service offerings. The company provides technology products and services as well (think implementations, integration services and digital services).
“We bring both together and bring those together to our customers,” Capriles says. “The capabilities from technology standpoints are there, but we also deliver the services.”
In fact, Granicus has an in-house digital agency that goes beyond just supporting implementation and helps agencies engage with constituents.
“That ability to bring both to bear to an organization is incredibly powerful,” he says.
That communication piece is crucial. The federal government is one of the largest service providers in the world, and Capriles believes the effectiveness and efficiency of these programs only go as far as the awareness and communications around them.
”If the citizens, the constituents, are not aware of these programs, they can’t take advantage of them. They’re not as effective,” he says.
Granicus’ focus on customer engagement and experience is a “multiplier” for the effectiveness of federal programs it supports.
“Our work and what we do is to drive that awareness, to drive that engagement, to drive that visibility,” Capriles adds. This outreach also helps agencies reach underrepresented citizens in hopes of closing digital, health and overall federal service gaps.
“I’m a firm believer that our contribution, our impact, and the passion that we have as a company allows us to help the government to deliver on their mission, deliver on those programs more effectively,” Capriles says.
Looking ahead, Granicus plans to work off the momentum it garnered over the past year. The company has invested in organizational, systemic and process-based changes recently, and spent the time and resources to prepare for growth this year and beyond.
“We see ourselves continue to help our customers in more ways and to continue to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives, but we are seeing more and more focus around customer experience across the federal government,” Capriles says.
Whether that’s through funding requirements or budgets, he sees an earmarked component to focus on customer experience and customer service, especially in a post-pandemic world where citizens’ expectations are high.
There’s a push toward transparency, self-service and digital accessibility. Citizens want to find information without having to go to a government building. They want a commercial-like experience.
Capriles says there’s an opportunity to effectively engage with government agencies through transformation, and a focus by federal agencies to deliver on that customer experience expectation ⏤ and that’s what Granicus is working on.
“Frankly, there’s no reason for governments to not provide that,” he says. “We’re excited about the continued adoption of best practices around customer service and customer experience, and our ability to continue to support those.”