This week, I had the pleasure of being on hand when the Financial Times announced the honorees spotlighted in its FT Intelligent Business Special Report.

An even bigger pleasure? Watching the product that a dedicated team and I had created and fine-tuned for years receive its due as an industry benchmark. The ThinkSmart Automation Platform (TAP), was given two prestigious awards.  Its performance was a primary reason why Mitratech, which acquired ThinkSmart and TAP earlier this year, was also honored in the report as a leading legal tech firm.

Mitratech was listed as one of the Legal Tech Top 10 companies having the greatest impact on the practice and business of law, and as part of the FT Intelligent Business Top 35, those companies doing the best job of integrating legal and professional services with data and technology.

But from my perspective, the two honors that made me feel the most like a proud parent were these:

• The FT Intelligent Business Award for Contracting: Shared by Mitratech (ThinkSmart) with VMware, Apttus, and QuisLex, it was a case of technology providers working together to enable VMWare transform its processes. The ThinkSmart Automation Platform, empowers VMWare’s employees to conduct contract approvals from “any device, anywhere,” making that vital process 50% faster and delivering savings of $8.4 million a year. Read about the specifics of this award here.
• The FT Intelligent Business Award for Use of Legal Technology: This recognized the great relationship that ThinkSmart originated with NetApp, as TAP implementation drove remarkable results for them. TAP helped NetApp save $3.6 million a year on NDA processes, and their legal department has developed 42 use cases for six other NetApp departments. That helped Legal stand out as a center of excellence and efficiency within the enterprise. You can read more on this award in the FT report here.
  
  

How is this relevant to SimpliGov customers? The same fundamental technology behind TAP that’s propelling efficiency and cost savings for VMWare, NetApp, and other companies also underpins SimpliGov’s government automation platform. The outstanding performance acknowledged by the Financial Times is just as accessible for the public sector.

Perhaps as importantly? The level of technical ingenuity, customer-centric support, and collaboration that made TAP such a success is behind what we’re doing today for SimpliGov and its clients. The human factor is still very much the same.

Some wonder what the psychological quirk is that compels the “serial entrepreneur” to keep taking new risks and founding new enterprises.  In my case, starting ThinkSmart and launching TAP was fueled by a drive to solve problems and overcome challenges, a drive that hasn’t been dulled even by milestones like the Financial Times awards. If anything, those moments make us feel even more enthusiastic about the next horizon ahead, and I know our SimpliGov customers will only benefit by that.