Grants-Tracker™
The end-to-end management tool automating all workflow, documents and processes associated with the management of a grant
Its approach to grants management recognises each grant program has its own workflow and data requirements. At the core is a configurable workflow engine which allows you to customise the application to keep up with changing business requirements, policy, and legislation changes.
Grants‐Tracker™ caters for the full life‐cycle of a grant, from strategic planning and workflow-based assessment of grant applications, through to acquittal
Grants‐Tracker™ is configurable, allowing it to cater to many different grant programs, within which there may be different grant types (which also may differ), and which may vary according to funding sources. An organisation’s grant process may also vary from year to year, in accord with updated requirements – Grants-Tracker’s configurability effectively ‘future proofs’ the organisation, as the level of detail to which customisation can be made is limitless.
- Grants‐Tracker™ gives Grants Staff the flexibility to configure the entire grant process. All aspects of the grant process and its related workflow can be customised
- Applicants are given the ability to apply, track and plan their applications via their own secure public portal
- External Reviewers can collaborate with Internal staff to complete the review and assessment process through the public portal
The web interface makes it user friendly – this ensures high level of user acceptance, as it has the same look, feel and features of a normal web browser – with which nearly everyone has had exposure
Being a ‘thin client’ lowers the cost of IT support, as no software needs to be loaded onto PCs at the client side. As long as the user has access to a web browser, they can access the system.
Grants-Tracker™ can be hosted within your own infrastructure or in a secure external environment based on your preference.
The hardware requirements are completely scalable depending on the volume of concurrent users and size of the information store. Since Grants‐Tracker™ is a web application, its architecture does not impose any physical limitations.
Benefits of the system include:
- Simplification of the entire Grant Application process for Grant Staff and Applicants
- Reduction of complexity involved in administrating a grant, saving time and money
- Improved communication by allowing staff to collaborate across multiple locations, both within and outside the funding body
- A single point of access for Grantors, Grantees & External reviewers
The modular Grants‐Tracker™ approach allows the system to easily integrate with your existing enterprise systems. This includes, but is not restricted to:
- Existing GIS data and GIS applications
- Financial packages for the purposes of budgeting and controlling disbursements of grants, as well as tracking of purchase orders and expenses incurred during the process of administering grants programs
- Authentication providers such as Active Directory
- Document management systems
- Customer Relationship Management systems
Case study –
Melbourne Water
Melbourne Water is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the Victorian Government, responsible for the provision of wholesale water supply and sewerage services to the retail water companies – City West Water, South East Water and Yarra Valley Water.
Currently administering $26 million in grants, Melbourne Water is focused on programs which improve the health of land, biodiversity, waterways and bays. These programs include:
- River Health Incentives Program (corridors of green, community grants, and stream frontage management)
- Community Education and Support (young water care grants)
- Storm Water Quality (living rivers program, litter strategy)
The challenge
As part of its grant management process, Melbourne Water offers successful grant recipients ongoing support for administration, development, promotion and on-ground river and creek works. This creates significant management issues.
To support this and the internal management of the programs, a combination of Microsoft Access databases, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Word documents were used.
Melbourne Water identified the urgent need for a consistent, structured and integrated system to allow it to more easily plan, prioritise, recruit, monitor, track, and report on the various programs and grants which it administers.
It wanted a Grants Management System which would assist with its strategic planning, recruitment and application, evaluation and offer, grants management and reconciliation, and reporting.
The solution
The ICS grants management software product, Grants-Tracker™, proved to be the only off-the-shelf, web-based product available that fulfilled the precise needs of Melbourne Water.
Initially Melbourne Water expected it would have to use software development companies for a custom development, however, ICS delivered all the functionality required.
Grants-Tracker™ is an end-to-end Grant Management system with the flexibility to incorporate all workflow, documents and processes associated with the management of a grant. All staff are able to store information in a secure and robust enterprise database application, which is far more reliable and efficient.
Grants-Tracker™ has allowed Melbourne Water grants staff to effectively administer and track the various Grants programs, by:
- recording, tracking and prioritising grant applications and associated workflow
- allocating appropriate time frames for acting on applications
- allocating and tracking tasks to individual staff members for actioning
- attaching documentation such as agreements, letters and photographs
- tracking phone calls, contact with customers, and effectively recording financial information and track budgets
Grants-Tracker™ has vastly improved Melbourne Water’s staff productivity, taking the number of grants processed from 300 per annum to 1000 per annum – an increase of more than 200 per cent.
“You are setting the benchmark high and putting pressure on other systems!”
“This database is absolutely awesome. A vast improvement on current processes.”
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