Grants
Administration and Tracking System (GATS)
The Grants Administration and Tracking System (GATS),
developed by Strand in conjunction with the New
Jersey State Council on the Arts, is a state-of-the-art
management tool for grantmakers. Designed to be an
optimal cross between off-the-shelf and custom software,
it combines a tried and proven "engine"
containing the core functionality of the application
with screens and data items that can be easily modified
to fit any organization's operational needs.
For further information about the Grants
Administration and Tracking System, please
contact David Krumholz at dkrumholz@strandmanagement.com.
Frequently asked Questions about GATS:
What does the Grants Tracking Engine
include?
What does the customization
process consist of?
What is the implementation schedule?
How much does GATS cost?
What about ease of use and
compatibility?
What does the Grants Tracking
Engine include?
Profile Information for each individual and
organization with whom you transact business or conduct
correspondence. The system enables you to store an
unlimited number of contacts and phone listings for
each, and to place the individuals and organizations on
mailing lists and sub-lists. Organizations, such as
universities for example, can share federal
identification numbers through the use of unique
suffixes.
Application Information for each application
received. The information includes financial budget and
expense numbers for several years, board of director
composition, service population demographics, staff
information and service offerings. Applications can be
categorized by grant type and discipline to facilitate
matching with specific panels of evaluators. This module
also gives you the ability to move through applications
for the same applicant submitted over several years, and
to specify application "tracks" for grouping
grant types that may be available certain years but then
varied as your funding approach varies.
Evaluator Information for application
reviewers. The information includes a biography,
qualifications, special skills, annual assignments, and
site visits.
Evaluation Information, including
scoring and comments by evaluators. The system
calculates the average score for the current application
and averages for applications for one applicant
submitted each of several years.
Funding scenarios allowing you to view the
result of setting awards based upon differing sets of
criteria. You are able to select and then apply funding
based upon a scenario.
Reporting alternatives including a SQL-based
reporting interface with selection and sort criteria.
Output may be sent to either a report, labels,
mail-merge or export file in any of several standard
formats. The system supports integration of any report
writer that supports the Microsoft FoxPro database
format either directly or via ODBC.
User security at the Add, Edit, Delete, and
Read-Only level specifiable by screen.
Administrator Modification: Selection of
applicant and application attributes from
administrator-maintainable lookup lists.
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What does the
customization process consist of?
System Presentation and Kickoff
The first step we will take in tailoring the Grants
Administration and Tracking System to your needs is to
show you the standard screens and data items and
reference the discussions with other organizations that
resulted in these techniques. Alternate methodologies
will also be presented. We will assist you in the
identification and definition of data required for GATS
tables by explaining the use of the data and
identifying, when possible, the sources used by other
organizations.
We will work with a wide range of project personnel
and solicit their input to ensure broad-based user
acceptance. Because this step is so critical, it is up
to you to make sure the right people are involved in the
process. They need the ability to understand the issues
and must be able to develop or determine answers to
questions concerning your methods and procedures in
their respective areas. The efficiency of this team will
materially impact the cost of implementation.
System Modification Specifications
Next, we will discuss your requirements and desires,
and critically evaluate them. We will suggest alternate
approaches and point out possible pitfalls along the
road you have chosen. We will document the resulting
decisions so they can serve as GATS system modification
specifications.
Compilation of Reference Data
Next, we will make changes to the GATS
administrative module to permit you to enter your data.
We will discuss interface alternatives to make data
entry faster and easier.
System Modification Implementation
At this point we will modify GATS to the proceeding
processes.
System Release and Validation
We will release the modified version of GATS. We
will work with your staff to validate the GATS system
and the accuracy of the results. We will expeditiously
correct any errors.
Additional System Modification, Implementation,
and Validation
We anticipate that the specification, modification,
and validation process will occur in several iterations
as GATS is sequentially deployed to additional personnel
for evaluation and testing. The need for additional
modifications may occur because of incomplete evaluation
by pilot participants, new needs arising in the
organization, or the expected benefit of recommended
improvements discovered after detailed use.
System Training
We will provide training for potential GATS users
and management personnel. We will provide initial
training for personnel you identify. We will also
provide training for employees who will in turn train
new personnel after the GATS implementation.
We will make executive presentations, as you require,
helping ensure that management will understand, accept,
and support the undertaking.
We will provide a complete user's manual for the
Grants Administration and Tracking System. We will also
provide a disk of the manual so that you can update it
at any time. We will work with you to modify Help
screens and to create additional Help screens as
desired.
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What is the
implementation schedule?
We work with you to determine a
reasonable schedule. Normally, the full implementation
takes approximately six months, as follows:
| Period |
Implementation
Step |
| Month
1 |
System
Presentation and Kickoff
System Modification Specifications |
| Month
2 |
Compilation
of System Data System Modification |
| Month
3 |
Pilot
Implementation and Validation |
| Months
4-5 |
Additional
Modification Rounds as Desired Release to the
Organization |
| Month
6 |
System
Training |
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How much does GATS
cost?
The annual license cost for using GATS
depends on the size of your grants budget. If your
annual grants budget is over $50 million per year,
there is an annual licensing fee of $8,500. If your
annual grants budget is under $50 million per year,
the annual licensing fee is $4,500.
There is an annual support charge of
$4,500 or $3,000, again depending on annual grants
budget size. The support charge allows a single master
user unlimited questions regarding the operation, use,
installation, and interfacing to other systems of
GATS. The master user may make inquiries on behalf of
an unlimited number of secondary users. Additional
individual users can be supported directly for $1,000
per year.
The cost to modify GATS to your
specifications and other tasks contained in the work
scope will be billed at our standard billing rates as
follows:
David Krumholz - $125/hour
Other Strand personnel - $75 to $95/hour
Travel and expenses are billed at
cost.
Although the total cost of
implementation cannot be defined before we meet with
you, we believe that the following guidelines are
reliable:
| Implementation
Step |
Range
of Cost |
|
| |
Low |
High |
| System
Presentation and Kickoff |
$
2,000 |
$
4,000 |
| System
Modification Specifications |
3,000 |
10,000 |
| Compilation
of System Data |
3,000 |
6,000 |
| System
Modification |
10,000 |
35,000 |
| Pilot
Implementation and Validation |
2,000 |
5,000 |
| Additional
Modification as Desired |
4,000 |
25,000 |
| Release
to the Organization |
1,000 |
2,000 |
| System
Training |
5,000 |
10,000 |
| Total |
$
30,000 |
$
97,000 |
|
|
The cost you can expect depends on
several factors, including:
-
The size of your organization
-
The nature of your methods and
procedures
-
How closely your methods match
standard practice
-
Your ability to quickly gather
information from within your organization
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What about
ease of use and compatibility?
The Grants Administration and Tracking
System has a Windows look and feel which makes it easy
to learn and use. It is built from Microsoft
development tools, and is based on the Microsoft
Visual FoxPro database engine.
GATS is designed to run on Windows 95,
98, 2000, or NT.
|
