World Business Chicago (WBC) is a public-private, non-profit partnership that drives inclusive economic growth and job creation, supports business, and promotes Chicago as a leading global city. One of the programs of WBC is Chicago Anchors for a Strong Economy (CASE), which matches local minority and women-owned businesses with large anchor institutions in the city.
The team at CASE use a scoring system to determine the readiness level of small business to work with large institutions. This process involves interviewing business leaders, reviewing their capabilities, and assessing financial stability. Until recently, this process has been highly manual and has relied on complicated spreadsheets coordinated by multiple people.
Tandem engaged with CASE with the mission to build a custom web application to support this process. Our user research and strategic consulting teams worked with CASE to design the ideal implementation. This involved interviews with anchor institutions, small businesses, and the stakeholders at CASE. Using our design-thinking methodology we arrived at an impactful feature roadmap and implemented the custom solution.
Today the CASE team is able to move more businesses through the system. And, they are given new tools to match anchor needs with highly-qualified small businesses to meet those needs. And the platform enables the mission of CASE to create new jobs and support inclusivity in the city.
