The “DNA” of Grant Management Processes

Alex Sirota

A Story

• Summer Company is yearly entrepreneurship experience for 15-29 year olds.

– www.ontario.ca/summercompany • Business Process Reengineering began in 2002 • Now in v9 – eService Business Consultant wrote requirements with program input – Economics and Business Cluster implemented code – Yearly project charter < $100,000 – Total budget spent - $400,000 over 5+ years – Summer Company Registration, Eligibility and Evaluation Network (SCREEN) is result • Reusable internally by other clusters

The problem

• Fix program mechanics & measure results – Lead time for applications too short – Not enough applications to fill 300-600 grants – Incomplete and non-standard applications – Identifying “successful completion” – Reporting measures of success

The solution

• Yearly continual iterations to improve • Build Front and Back Office together • Workflow built in based on grant best-practices • Easy to learn and use • Provide access to pre- and post-approval application processes for ALL stakeholders • Rudimentary Reporting and Integration with Finance to Disburse Cheques – https://stage.ontariocanada.com/screen (Front Office) – https://stage.ontariocanada.com/screen_bo (Back Office)

Status Quo

• All paper applications have been deprecated – SCREEN has processed over 15,000 applications since 2003, over 2000 approved applications.

• Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) completed by OCIPO with 10 recommendations to continue to remove private information from all existing paper-based processes (disbursement requests to Finance) • Organizations have recently approached us to use the code and model – Issues: Liability, timing, support, open-source, making system a generic platform, cost not usually an issue

In short…

• Success in grant management is *much* more than effective processing and administration • Important to properly address: – Privacy – Complete applications – Provide control to proponents during pre/post-approval – Relationship management – Measuring financial forecasts/actuals – Tracking the “story” of the project – Measuring success – Reporting longitudinally – And Privacy, again

Agile Guiding Principles

• Individuals and interactions over – processes and tools • Working software over – comprehensive documentation • Customer collaboration over – contract negotiation • Responding to change over – following a plan

A proposal…

• Approach in incremental steps, implementing only shared, common needs and functionality • Work from a “strawdog” approach, testing a standard logic model • Leverage an “open source” model of development both from a business process and a code perspective – Build an abstraction layer to benefit all who use the system • Build a strong community of practice with process and code as the backbone

Benefits of Proposal

• Incremental approach will yield quick wins for organizations that can adopt proposed grant model • Creating a shared grant logic model will make it easier for others to install-and-run • Open-source will make it easy for organizations in the BPS to contribute and receive benefits from code library • Learning from each other’s successes and failures in a community of practice centered around the “project”

How unique are grant processes?

• Is there a shared “DNA” between different grant processes?

• Imagine: – An easy to configure, scalable, inexpensive grant management process that is available to anyone in the OPS or the Broader Public Sector.

True or False?

• We have plenty of time to get this right?

– Culture change takes 5+ years, not 1 or 2, consultants are always available to “help” – Government collects and spends money, we are good at collecting, but spending effectively and measuring outcomes?

• Technology solutions are the answer?

– Appear to solve the mechanics problem (20%) • We know how to measure performance and outcomes?

– Program measurement, performance and outcomes are not usually addressed effectively (80%)

One “DNA” strand for GM

• A logic model: – Eligibility Check – Application Inquiry (aka Part A) – Authentication – Formal Application (aka Part B) – Submission – Recommendation – Evaluation – Approval/Initial Disbursement(s) – Project Monitoring – Successful/Unsuccessful Completion – Project/Outcome Reporting

References

• Lawrence Lessig “Code is Law” – – – harvardmagazine.com/2000/01/code-is-law.html

• Agile Methodologies – www.agilemanifesto.org and www.agilealliance.org

• Independent Blue Ribbon Panel “From Red Tape to Clear Results” www.brp-gde.ca

• Project Streamline report from foundations in US www.projectstreamline.org

• Open Proposal Appraisal http://sourceforge.net/projects/opa • Vista – Veteran’s Administration open source solution, runs Mexico’s health care system

TODO

• Create mapping of SCREEN modules to Common Process Model/Workflow – Intake, filtering, funding provision, monitoring & closure – Agreement Management, Financial Management, Information Management, Operations, Performance – Information & Referral, Client Advice, Community & Industry Advice, Service Development & Monitoring, Governance, Framework Management, Integrity Management need to be worked out

Explore ROI of Build vs Buy

• Solutions for grant management are immature, long term cost for support could be a lot larger than you think – customization is always hidden cost • Building your own, deployment on cloud computing systems like Google’s “App Engine”