Challenge: The Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) is a Federal credit program designed to enhance small business access to capital by stimulating and supplementing the flow of private equity capital and long-term loan funds. The program is managed by the Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA’s Office of Performance Management (OPM) needed to conduct a study to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the SBIC examination process and identify areas to streamline the process using technology available.
Solution: SBA engaged SP Group to conduct a business process review (BPR) of the SBIC examinations process. SP Group designed an extensive data collection methodology to conduct a thorough evaluation that included conducting a comprehensive literature review, collecting data through surveys and interviews of internal and external stakeholders, and analyzing trends and patterns through historical data. SP Group created logic models of the program and prepared detailed value maps to break down each task and activity performed in the examination process. The quantitative and qualitative analysis helped identify a few issues that pointed to certain areas for improvement in the examination process and possible options for technology to be leveraged. We prepared our findings and recommendations in detailed reports and presented them to executive management at the SBA. Our evaluation report can be accessed here on SBA’s website.