Page 44 - GCN, April/May 2018

HOWTO GRANTS MANAGEMENT Deciding whether to build,
buy or configure
A straightforward self-assessment can help agencies select the right grants management solution
BY WAGISH BHARTIYA AND KUMAR ANUPAM
With the recent advancement of the Grant Reporting Effi- ciency and Assistance Transparency Act out of committee in Congress and the 2014 passage of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, federal lawmakers are zeroing in on the need for greater visibility into how more than $660 billion of grant funds are deployed each year.
Legislators want to make reporting on grant outcomes —
Custom vs. COTS self-assessment
measuring the impact of these billions of grant dollars — eas- ier to do and more consistent through the standardization of requirements and the digitization of data.
At the heart of this transformation is IT. The right IT so- lution will not only help ensure that grant funding is prop- erly disbursed to the appropriate grantees, but also improve oversight and reporting to maximize grant results. After all,
To evaluate whether an agency’s needs would be better met by a predominantly custom solution or a predominantly commercial off-the-shelf solu- tion, IT managers should use the following five-point scale to assign a rating of agreement with the “characteristic” statements below, where a 1 indicates great agreement and a 5 indicates great disagreement.
DIMENSION
Standardization of approvals, workflows and operations
Program and process flexibility Time to value
System usage patterns
Role of IT organization
Cost appetite TOTAL
CHARACTERISTIC
Operating procedures are similar across all grant programs.
SELF-ASSESSED RATING
Program and fiscal employees are willing to
modify how they work in order to use a new system.
It is critical that a working solution be deployed within 12 to 18 months or less.
The number of users who will need access to the system is predictable and won’t vary widely.
The agency won’t be relying heavily on its own
IT employees for the hosting, security, maintenance and troubleshooting of the solution.
Budget is limited, and total cost of ownership will be a critical factor.
44 GCN APRIL/MAY 2018 • GCN.COM
Add the assessment scores for all statements.