Adrienne Akers: Streamlining the Business Process

In 2007, Adrienne Akers left a thriving, 34-year career at Utah State University to start her own company, Dynamic Screening Solutions, which offers web-based systems to streamline the completion and processing of paperwork.

Dynamic Screening Solutions took root when Akers witnessed how difficult it was for families to sign up for state assistance programs like Head Start or Baby Your Baby. Applicants had to fill out a different set of paperwork for each program.

Akers received a state grant to develop a program that would streamline much of the information asked of applicants and allow them to input it in one place. From there, it would be automatically imported to each application. That made the process easier for families, and state agencies “got their information back in a complete, legible format—in the way their workers are used to seeing forms—instead of a scrawled paper application with jelly stains on it.”

Akers launched the program in the form of Utah Clicks, which is now used by the state of Utah. This program met with immediate success and inspired Akers to form her company as a spinoff.

Four years later, Dynamic Screening Solutions has expanded into the private sector with 321Forms. This system aims to reduce redundant paperwork for smaller companies by streamlining human resources documents presented to newly hired employees or employees going through open enrollment for benefits.

“One of the beauties of the system is we automate the repetitious part of the process, but we are not trying to eliminate the human element,” Akers says. Instead, the products offered by Dynamic Screening Solutions allow companies to put the focus back on people instead of paperwork.

A number of companies have adopted 321Forms including the Sports Academy and several McDonald’s restaurants in Northern Utah. Dynamic Screening Solutions is beta testing new products to reach additional business sectors. “The idea of simplifying paperwork goes across so many industries that we’re expanding into them one at a time,” she says.

The Cache Chamber of Commerce recently named Akers as the recipient of its 2011 Woman in Business Award to recognize her leadership in the local business community.

“I am a forever optimist,” she says. “The economy is just starting to turn around. Hiring is starting to pick up. I’m just hopeful our products will continue to expand and we’ll have a great year.”