Grants Administration 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
609-799-7715 ext. 310

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:

  1. The size of your organization
  2. The nature of your methods and procedures
  3. How closely your methods match standard practice
  4. 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, NT, or XP.