Requirements Management Plan

Customer Request for an eGrants App

The state government currently has a variety of grants management systems across several agencies. The individual agencies sought an enterprise approach to meet their requirements that includes a single application for all agency grant management programs and that meets the legal requirements of PA Management Directive 107.3. The Governor’s Office created an inter-agency Grants Management Advisory Group to re-engineer agency grant management processes into one streamlined state-wide approach to provide a single, secure, simplified and paperless process that local governments, businesses, non-profits and individuals can use to learn about and apply for grants online.

The new system will include a grants management portal (a web site) that will serve as an entry point to all grants management applications and information about grants maintained within the individual customer state agencies. The system will further automate much of the traditional manual and time consuming handling of applications by enabling the SMEs in each agency to separately apply their own business rules using standardized templates and scoring mechanisms to evaluate and approve the automated applications. This system will not include any federal grant programs or funds. The web site should be user-friendly and intuitive so citizens can navigate to find what they are looking for quickly with just a few clicks of the mouse (the text on the web pages should accommodate the needs of the visually impaired). A citizen should not have to be an IT expert to find the information he or she needs.

Then, upon approval of the completed applications made and recorded in the system, grant funds can be awarded electronically to a successful applicant, which will shorten the time an applicant has to wait to learn about his or her application status and finally receive the grant money. If possible, this should be done through some kind of secure, encrypted electronic funds transfer into the applicant’s bank account within 60 minutes after the grant application is approved. The evaluation and approval of grant applications must be able to be audited by state quality inspectors and federal oversight officials.

Postscript

Ten years after the eGrants project was conceived and initiated, then started and stopped under several administrations, Erich Loych – a former colleague of Ed Uravic, HU Corporate Faculty – created a solution that worked. This was a bottom-up solution led by one of fifty state government agencies that came to a successful conclusion after top-down approaches from the Governor’s Office had not worked.

Harrisburg, PA, May 22, 2017 – Governor Wolf today announced the recipients of the Governor’s Awards for Excellence and praised all state employees for their dedication to public service. The awards were presented today at a ceremony in Harrisburg.

“The employees being recognized have gone above and beyond their job requirements to provide outstanding service and make government more responsive and effective,” said Governor Wolf. “Their accomplishments are truly exemplary and inspiring. We are fortunate to have such outstanding public servants working for the people of Pennsylvania.”

Erich Loych – Department of Community and Economic Development

For overseeing the expansion of the IT system used to manage the department’s grants, loans and tax credits for use by other state agencies, allowing them to abandon inefficient paper-based processes without having to buy or build their own systems. The Department of Environmental Protection was the first to adopt the system and other agencies are preparing to come on board.