Q&A with the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission
Esper is proud to announce our latest partnership with the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, our first customer in the state of North Carolina. The NC ABCC is responsible for the regulation of all sales, purchases, manufacturing, and consumption of alcohol in the state, including managing state-run liquor stores where citizens buy alcohol. Its mission is to enhance public safety in North Carolina communities through the proper sale and consumption of alcohol.
Q&A
Esper sat down with Renee Metz, Assistant General Counsel for the NC ABCC (or “ABC” for short) to learn more about the commission’s goals and challenges, as well as why they chose Esper to meet these agenda items head on.
How did you know it was time to adopt a policy & regulation management solution?
For the past six years, we’ve had a part time rulemaking coordinator who’s been managing all of our regulations through a fairly manual process. As he approached retirement, we were definitely worried about the loss of institutional knowledge and the fact that there was a single point of failure for all of our commission’s regulations.
Building a new team was an opportunity for ABC to modernize how we manage our regulatory processes, but there was also the worry about onboarding team members and the administrative overhead of training them on our existing manual process.
We also have a regulatory review requirement currently happening in which we have to review our regulations every 10 years. That is a massive project and we need to be proactive about tackling it. Our alcohol laws have been changing quickly over the past five years, and not only are we managing our existing regulations, we are updating and creating new rules that correspond with the legislative changes each year.
What does the typical rulemaking lifecycle look like for ABC?
There is a ton of preparatory work before we even present a regulation to the Commission. The average rulemaking takes 12-18 months, and that includes internal drafting, collecting feedback from interested parties, and iterating on the content of the rule before getting approval from the Commission and starting the formal rulemaking process.
What are you most excited about with adopting Esper?
I’m usually inundated with emails containing rulemaking drafts that are outdated by the time I open them. I love that I’m able to open up Esper, see the latest changes, and collaborate in real-time with my colleagues. Esper allows me to truly focus on the rulemaking and trust that it’s the latest information. It’s incredibly more efficient than how we’ve been doing it.
If you could give advice to another agency interested in adopting technology like Esper’s, what would it be?
First, know who the experts are in your agency when it comes to technology procurement. Be proactive in meeting with them and understanding the options on the table.
Second, educate people on the importance of making the regulatory process more efficient. We’re fortunate to have a Chairman who is invested in improving our regulatory environment, but the fact that we have an upcoming regulatory review and building a regulatory team was extra motivation to adopt new technology.
For more information on Esper’s product and services, reach out to us for a consultation.
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