By Susan Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY—Secretary of State John Merrill’s Office has developed a new solution to shorten the window between when a new business filing is received and when the business’ information first appears on the SOS website.
“During my time working to earn the People of Alabama’s trust to serve as their 53rd Secretary of State, I was made aware that when someone wanted to form a new business in the State, it would take 5 to 7 months or longer from the time the Secretary of State’s Office received certain business filings for them to be placed in the online State business filings database available to the public, banks and the business community,” said Merrill.
He said that after gaining a better understanding of the process, it became clear that a “dramatic restructuring” was needed including, new leadership, establishment of certain financial controls and employee accountability measures. Merrill said these were necessary to meet the high expectations of the business community.
After implementation of this new internal structuring, filing for a new business, from beginning to end, will take no longer than one business day.
“Once our team met this new and high standard they were then reminded that we may have tied the game but the clock is still ticking. I have instructed our team to communicate with each other at the end of each week and the beginning of the succeeding week to ensure that we stay on track,” Merrill said.
Merrill says he continues to emphasize to the staff, that their duty as public servants is to be a resource to new and existing businesses.
