Business Information Services (BIS)

WINNER OF GOVERNOR'S 2008 SWaM INNOVATOR AWARD FOR ONE-ON-ONE* SALES GROWTH COUNSELING PROGRAM! AWARD WAS ANNOUNCED AT 20TH ANNUAL PUBLIC PROCUREMENT FORUM.

Every business in Virginia--all 200,000+ of them--and everyone who wants to start his or her own business is a potential customer for the BIS Team. They cover the Commonwealth of Virginia geographically and functionally.

The Team

Wayne Waldrop leads the BIS Team as its Director. He is based in Richmond, leading the 7 team members based there and one team member based in Abingdon. In addition to leading his team, Wayne is responsible for the Business an Expansion Forum and the Entrepreneur Advisory Board.

The Existing Business Team covers the state geographically with Kathy Dolan (Hampton Roads), Tammy Farmer (Southern Virginia), Dave Fuller (Central and Northern), and Sandy Ratliff (Southwest, Abingdon Office). Existing Business delivers Entrepreneur Express programs for the Business Formation Team, Business Sales Growth programs, and one-on-one on-site sales growth counseling. They also coordinate with local economic developers and business resource providers in their territories.

*Contratulations! Kathy and Tammy were members of the team recognized for their innovation in outreach to SWaM (small, woman and minority-owned) businesses. Tiffany Taylor-Minor and Serwa Lee, formerly of VDBA and BIS, were also members of the team recognized by the Governor.

The Business Formation Team, Heather McDonough and Jim Witherspoon, operate the Virginia Business Information Center (VBIC) and support the Virginia Business One Stop and Virginia Business Portal.

The BIS Team is supported by Tongela Wright, who maintains the team's continuous improvement survey program, scorecard, and administrative functions.

BIS Accomplishments

In fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008), the BIS team:

+ Answered 16,047 business inquiries through VBIC

+ Conducted 59 Entrepreneur Express events, serving 1750 participants

+ Held 189 Procurement events

+ Successfully rolled out Business One Stop on May 12, 2008

+ Achieved National and Regional recognition for program excellence

+ Awarded Governor's 2008 SWaM Innovator Award