Indigov taps Zendesk for trusted data security

Indigov offers a constituent relationship management software suite, working to advance the future of representative democracy across the United States, from federal and state legislatures to mayors and county councils.

Since its inception, Indigov has been leveraging Zendesk to digitally transform government processes and thereby improve citizen and employee satisfaction. Partnering with Zendesk gave the company a head start with state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure, security, validations, controls, SOC reports and more – leaving time for the Indigov team to focus on the user experience.

Indigov’s CRM product is built on top of Zendesk, making it a crucial support tool for employees and clients. Additionally, the Indigov team leverages Zendesk chat (renamed Ask Abe) as a go-to channel for state and local officials seeking support.

Built-in compliance enables more agility

Indigov’s federal customers require Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), a United States government-wide compliance program that empowers agencies to use modern cloud technologies, with an emphasis on security and protection of federal information.

In this highly regulated space, Indigov was pleased to have a CX platform with data privacy and security features already built in.

“One of the big advantages was that we inherited a lot of the compliance controls out of the box from Zendesk”, recalls Vivek Chopra, Indigov's VP of Engineering. “That enabled us to go sell into federal government environments, where FedRAMP is required.”

Those tools also made it possible for Indigov to stay agile and advance the team’s CX goals faster than expected. “Being able to build on top of Zendesk meant that we could focus on developing end user and staffer value rather than building a security and compliance program from scratch. It accelerated our time to market while creating confidence in our customers”, Chopra says.

Establishing trust with new clients

Using Zendesk put Indigov in position to deliver strong data privacy and security right out of the gate, which helped them establish trust with new clients.

“For almost every RFP, there’s a significant section around the security and compliance controls of the product”, Chopra says. “We leverage Zendesk’s SOC 2 and FedRAMP certifications for these RFPs.”

Clients are looking for security, reliability and functionality, which Chopra’s team can deliver using Zendesk. “Our solution uses Zendesk’s robust Single Sign-On (SSO) support to integrate with customers’ Identity Providers (IDPs) to meet their needs.”

Zendesk data “in the eye of the owner”

Another key player in Indigov’s success is Dean Macris, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). He believes “an important aspect of data security is understanding the user’s interpretation of the value of their data, whether or not it’s something that we agree with, because value is in the eye of the owner”.

It says a great deal that government offices entrust Indigov and Zendesk to keep their constituent data secure.

“Our customers consider the data that we store in Zendesk to be ‘moderate impact data’”, shares Macris. According to the FedRAMP, that applies to data where a loss of confidentiality, integrity and availability would result in serious adverse effects on an agency’s operations, assets or individuals.

“From a defence contractor perspective, it’s on the same level that government agencies consider acoustic data for nuclear submarines”, Macris says. “And from a customer standpoint–the look, the feel, the shininess – none of that is as important as the security aspects.”

A strategic partnership to build on

Indigov sees Zendesk as a true partner in protecting constituent data and privacy for its customers. “From a security compliance standpoint, Zendesk got us from zero to 60 relatively quickly to be able to break into highly regulated markets”, says Macris.

“We’ve been able to leverage Zendesk security and privacy infrastructure to support our business. The [Zendesk] team that works with us to provide answers for clients like the U.S. House of Representatives is extremely valuable.”

Macris has many cybersecurity goals for Indigov, beginning with rapid continual improvement. “That means Zendesk and Indigov together are continually moving forward with the changing threat landscape, implementing new controls, new technologies in a transparent way.”

To get the job done, Indigov will rely on some frequently used Zendesk aspects, including access to SSO and API integration for configuration management.

The future of data trust and security

Macris knows that Indigov will always be adapting to new security challenges. “We’ve seen cyberattacks evolve over time, from the government to financial institutions to Fortune 500 companies. Now we’re seeing attacks on small or medium-sized mom-and-pop businesses that are getting ransomware for $50,000.”

He’s committed to identifying new threats and anticipating the client’s needs. Macris predicts that “in the future, we’ll be looking for partners that are able to rapidly adapt to the changing requirements that we’re facing on a day-to-day basis”.

Streamlined processes lead to higher productivity

From enhanced data security to smarter workflows, Indigov is driving change and transforming the customer experience with Zendesk on a massive scale. The 570,000 elected officials in the U.S receive around 5.1 billion constituent messages every year.

On the federal government’s decades-old legacy system, it used to take congressional staff 58 clicks to respond to a piece of constituent mail. With Indigov’s technology suite built on Zendesk, staffers can now respond in just three clicks, and the response time has dropped from 80 days to less than 8 hours.

As Indigov’s CEO and founder Alex Kouts observes, “offices powered by Indigov regularly receive thousands of incoming messages a week across a variety of channels. Even with such a high volume, they are now able to get to zero inbox everyday. That means better outcomes for constituents across the country and in turn accomplishes our mission of strengthening U.S. democracy”.