1. Grants Center of Excellence (CoE) GrantSolutions
Grants Center of Excellence (CoE) GrantSolutions.gov HHS Administration for Children & Families October 30, 2007

2. Presentation * Solution Description * Benefits
* Status of the Consortium (current partners, timelines)
* Current Service Offerings/Key System Features
* Potential Service Offerings/Key System Features
* High-level Description of Interfaces
* High-level Technical Architecture
* Costs
* Candidate Consortium Partners
Presentation agenda

3. Solution Description: CoE Services
Comprehensive Life Cycle Processing Including continuous process improvement to all 14 GMLoB grant award processes
Information system services
Discretionary Grants and Cooperative Agreements
Competitive and non-competitive
Research grants
Entitlement Grants
Formula Grants
Block Grants
Solution Description
Full life-cycle grants management system processing for all types of grants

4. Solution Description: CoE Partnership
Culture of partnership
Proven experience supporting agencies with many processes similar to yours
Currently partner with 9 Agencies serving over 80 programs with thousands of internal users & external clients
Partners may elect to be managing partners by providing a full time person to the project management team. This provides daily direct influence on all change management and business services.
Enhancements
Continuous process improvement
Partner specific requests
Solution Description
Partnership options: (Managing Partners; Service Partners)
Governance (COE Executive Board; COE Uses Group; COE Project Team; Change Control Board)
Partner participation responsibilities:
Sign and fund Inter-Agency Agreement(s) (3 types available: Fitgap MOU, Migration MOU, Operations & Maintenance MOU);
Participate in the determination of their own fit-gap analysis;
Assist with preparation of historic data preparation for migration, if any;
Assist with setup of data related to programs, agency organization and staff, financial/accounting/payment, grants/grantees, and role/access/signature authorities/titles;
Assist with review, setup and monitoring of any system-to-system interfaces;
Identify and support Agency staff and grantee populations who will use the system modules.
Physically or financially provide 1st tier training and help desk support (COE supports train-the-trainer approach; and 2nd tier help desk referrals.) Work with COE throughout staff/grantee training and setup processes.
Managing partner responsibilities
Provide at least one FTE on the COE Project Team. Not necessarily co-located but must participate actively in weekly team meetings and take on some level of responsibility in system development and design. This can be a combination of staff and can be Federal staff and/or contractor staff with knowledge of Partner Agency systems and business requirements and ability to serve as a liaison to the partner agency.
Provide a high-level executive member to the COE Executive Board (meetings 2 to 4 times per year) with ability to make business and financial commitments on behalf of the Partner Agency. The COE Executive Board must approve any changes to the annual operations funding algorithm.

5. Grants Center of Excellence
Solution Description : CoE Evolution
2008
Grants Center of Excellence
GrantSolutions.gov
Web-accessible Discretionary Module
Standards Development
PPR
Sub-grantee Information
Our history of building streamlined and broad-based technical solutions began in the early 90’s with the creation of ACF from the former FSA (Family Services Administration) and OHDS (Office of Human Development Services). At that time a full Grants process re-engineering resulted in the original GATES designs that were implemented in 1996.
Since the year 2000 we have continued to add services:
Post-award reporting for mandatory grants through OLDC
in taking on other agencies we added flexible numbering schemas for grant and application numbers, rolled out the announcement system and tied to Grants.gov. Implemented unified “sign-in” procedures and developed Enterprise Reporting.
in becoming a GMLoB lead and partnering with OPHS we began to adjust system components to be able to support better desktop views of pending work and grant-related tasks and flexible templates for grant reviews and for terms and conditions.
and 2008 we began transitioning agencies to GrantSolutions.gov on the web. We will be participating in government-wide efforts related to standard performance reporting and readiness for the Federal Financial “Transparency & Accountability” Act (FFATA). We are moving into Service Oriented Architectures with more features to track actions, status of submissions and tasks and automated electronic notifications.
Pilots
FFR
FM to GM
Funds planning with “caps”
SOA features for pending actions, status & notification
FFATA Ready

6. Benefits: Partnership – shared technology evolution
Single-face to grantee
Flexible technology supporting agency uniqueness
Predictable capped costs
Appropriate financial stewardship & results assessment
Consolidated data reporting
Lessened burden (Security Plan, COOP & disaster recovery, system & financial audits, Exhibit 300’s, and compliance with PMA and E-gov goals)
Benefits
Partnership
Single-face to grantee
Flexible collections and mechanisms for processing that support program/agency uniqueness in flexible technology solutions
Consistent costs capped while providing a broad-based solution with progressive technology evolution
A high degree of appropriate financial stewardship and the ability to process and deliver grant funding and assess program results and effectiveness
Consolidated data reporting for Departmental and Government-wide requirements
Lessened burdens in technology support (Security Plan compliant, COOP, disaster recovery, system and financial audits, Exhibit 300’s, Compliance with PMA and E-gov goals including Grants.gov)

7. Consortium Status: CoE Partners
Partners Award ¼ Trillion Dollars in Grants Annually
- Administration for Native Americans
- Office of Head Start
- Admin. for Children Youth & Families
- Office of Community Services
- Admin. for Developmental Disabilities
- Office of Refugee Resettlement
- Office of Child Support Enforcement
- Administration on Aging 2004
- Office of Family Assistance 2000
- Indian Health Service 2005
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 2005
Office of Public Health & Science 2006
USDA Food Safety & Inspection Service 2006
Health Resources & Services Admin. 2007
- Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions 2007
Denali Commission 2007
Veteran’s Administration (MOU pending)
Corporation for National Service (MOU pending)
Environmental Protection Agency (exploring fit)
Social Security Administration (exploring fit)
________________________
ACF was selected in 2003 as an HHS Grants Center of Excellence. Our partner base expanded from the ACF program offices to include other HHS Operating Divisions (AoA in 2004, IHS and CMS in 2005, OPHS in 2006 and HRSA in 2007).
By FY 2006 the Grants Management Line of Business (GMLoB) efforts lead to our selection as a consortia lead to service other Federal Agencies. The National Science Foundation was selected to lead a consortia for research agencies and the Department of Education is building a new system and capabilities.
The USDA Food Safety Inspection Services began using GATES in 2006, Treasury CDFI and the Denali Commission signed agreements in 2007 and we are in discussions with a number of other Federal agencies including VA, CNS, EPA and SSA.
________________________

8. Consortium Timelines
Currently structure to bring on one agency per quarter.
Can be expand if backlog develops
Simultaneously support agencies in parallel stages
Time-line must work for Partner agency & depends on:
Readiness to participate
Natural technology life-cycle of legacy systems
Analysis of “fits” & “gaps” and needed solution
Preparation of data and staff for transition
Appropriate interface points and transition times
Acquisition and approval of funding agreements.
Active partners with “good fits” on board in 6 to 9 months
Accounting and payment systems interfaces are critical in parallel with other efforts.
Status of the Consortium (Current partners, implementation timeline)
COE can bring on up to one agency or sub-agency per quarter; and can simultaneously support multiple agencies in parallel stages and timelines;
Typical agency time-line depends on the Partner agency readiness to participate and a timeline that works for the Partner agency. This is likely to be affected by the natural technology life-cycle of retiring legacy systems, determining the technology fits and gaps, and preparing data and staff for transition, determining the appropriate interface points and transition times, and acquiring and approving funding agreements.
Service partners with reasonably good business “fits” can come on-board in as little as 6 to 9 months with active participation and data that is easily made ready to pass stringent edit system checks.
Interfaces to accounting and payment systems are critical to proper financial stewardship and must be emphasized from the beginning and in parallel with other efforts.

9. Current Service Offerings: CoE Grant Process
Grants Management Process Flow
Program planning
Announce & Publish
Find & Apply
Authenticate & Intake
Status update
Review & Decide
Certify & Generate
Process status
Fulfill award
Notify (Electronic)
Track reporting
Electronic file
Record site visits
Automatic date due
Audits & Adjustments
Grantor & Grantee
Reconcile funds
Debt collection offset
Account for property
Archive file
PREAWARD
POST-AWARD
CLOSEOUT
AWARD
GrantSolutions.gov
Extranet
On-line Data
Collection
Discretionary
& Mandatory
Award &
Post-award
Grants.gov
FIND &
APPLY
Interfaces
Other
External
System
Interfaces
Current service offerings include the full life-cycle of grants management.
These are typically displayed in a start-to-finish life-cycle from Pre-Award through Award, Post-award oversight and final closeout.
From a systems point of view, however, they are composed of many inter-locking modules sharing commonality while at the same time offering and extending new functionality.
The system offers continuous improvement and incorporates new modules and new, improved processing as our partners bring on new capabilities and requirements. For example:
The current discretionary award module incorporates improved funds control and accounting interfaces utilizing the development designs of an existing module and enhances it with full interfaces to accounting and payments systems
The extranet for collection of all types of grantee submitted forms and reports allows the collection of any type of OMB-approved agency or program-specific form or report without revising the database. It includes pre-population and validation of those forms from the back-office database and routing, review and approval of the submissions within the internal awarding agency.
The Pre-award Review and Reviewer Management Module was able to be integrated within a 3-month period. It can be used as a stand-alone or an integrated module, and can support off-site reviews and reviewer self-nomination and reviewer and panel management.
Two agencies’ capabilities are being integrated for pre-planning and forecasting announcements and program budgets for automated development, routing, review and approval of program guidance and funding opportunity announcements. This includes full interface with Grants.gov for competitive opportunities and posting electronic continuation applications with pre-population and validation capabilities for existing grant projects.
Enterprise-wide reporting supports user access for data reports that are easily formatted and exported.
Single sign-on capabilities are being enhanced for reusability of grantor and grantee login capabilities across systems and modules.
The system is poised to move to true Service Oriented Architecture with underlying shared system services being able to be used across system modules.
Program
Announcement
& Pre-Award
Review
Secure
Sign In
Enterprise-
Wide
Reporting
Accounting/
Payment
Interfaces
Shared Service Functions
Retrieve from Push to Notify/ Update System Views
External Systems External systems Track Status & Reports

10. Service Offering Highlights
Integrated funds control
Optional commitment accounting; Obligation within available funds;
Flexibility in designs & templates:
Number generator
Review criteria & checklists
Award notices, budget line items, terms & conditions
Extranet “On-Line Data Collection”
Supports standard forms as well as agency-specific forms and edits
Submission of grantee reports saves partners thousands of hours
Shared Oracle schema
Modular connection and open architecture
Enterprise-wide data reporting
Quick turn around & ability to export information
The COE has standard operating procedures for financial interfaces and is interested in partner assistance in developing common US funds control interfaces to accounting and payments systems. We have met with GSA members of the FMLoB task force. The system has interfaces for funds control including optional commitment accounting and obligation within available funds.
Flexibility has been a lesson learned in taking on new customers. This has led to a flexible numbering schema generator to accommodate new customers requirements for their own grant numbers, application numbers, log numbers, obligation and commitment numbers and funding opportunity numbers. In addition the system supports agency-specific templates for review criteria and checklists, and for notices of award, budget line-items and terms & conditions.
The extranet for collection of all types of grantee submitted forms and reports allows the collection of any type of OMB-approved agency or program-specific form or report without ever having to revise the database. It includes pre-population and validation of those forms from the back-office database and routing, review and approval of the submissions within the internal awarding agency.
A shared Oracle database schema allows external modules to connect to other modules for sharing and reuse of information.
The Enterprise-wide reporting not only enables quick turn around but is also used to export information into other systems.

11. Service offerings under delivery and expansion
Mandatory grant module maintains statistics and allocations for formula & block grants
Batch award for discretionary & mandatory programs
Pre-award planning & announcement module
Web-services and portal technologies
Workflow
E-authentication
Audit Tracking
Performance Reporting matching with planned activities and results. Using metadata names.
Mandatory pre-award module for allocation determination and maintenance or import of the statistics related to the formula calculations are designed in a web-accessible module.
Batch award capabilities that have allowed a small grant staff to award thousands of grant actions for billions of dollars are being extended to discretionary grant programs to assist staff with routine award processes and provide more time for oversight and performance monitoring.
Pre-award setup and planning modules are being developed for announcement forecasting, budgeting, and planning of program guidance and announcement creation, review, editing and approval.
Web-services and portal technologies are being expanded and incorporated.
Work-flow -- Integration of additional work-flow capabilities are targeted using Oracle technologies.
E-authentication solutions are being upgraded to support re-use of single sign-on for pre-identified/pre-approved grantors and grantee populations. As the OMB draft policy comes in place, the Central Contract Registry will be used for grantees to manager their user access and maintain address information.
Audit Tracking – ACF currently uses an audit tracking module with an interface to the OIG for information on submitted reports and findings. It is used to track finding resolution and produce OIG Clearance Documents. This is a potential future offering if your agency OIG can provide status interfaces.
Performance Reporting capabilities for legacy systems are being married with grantee entered performance reports for improved intake of the reporting and to enable matching of planned activities with results. The usage of metadata names will increase the ability to compare results across programs, agencies and over time.

12. Grants Function Interface Points
“Front Office” – the customer view
PRE - AWARD
AWARD
POST - AWARD
Find ID
Apply
Notify
Fund
Report
Closeout
Funds
Progress
Disburse
Review
Intent /
Pre-program
Auth
Oversight
In addition to the FIND, APPLY and “Authenticate” interface points of Grants.gov, this slide demonstrates the front-office available to grantees and applicants and the back-office functions used by the Grantor agencies.
In addition to the interface points between grantors and grantees there are two additional interface points within the back-office system: (1) the point between the review and the decision to fund and award; and (2) the point between the production of the notice of award and the payment and disbursement of funds. Both of these interface points are currently supported in GrantSolutions.gov.
The interface between review and decision to fund and award is support in both the interface for the Review/Reviewer Module and in the interface between the determination of the mandatory grant allocations and the batch award process. This opens up some possibilities of utilization of the batch award process for discretionary as well as mandatory grants from the point of a decision memorandum or approval list. It also opens up some future possibilities for potential partners to interface complex pre-award review modules to an award processing module.
The interfaces between the award module and the accounting/payment systems have been in production for nearly twenty years and are well documented and tested.
The point for electronic disbursement of funds is outside of this architecture and would be supported by the agency’s payment system.
The other interface points (electronic notice of award, post-awarding reporting download and upload or retrieval and submission of forms and electronic closeout transmission to accounting) are available through GrantSolutions.gov
Decide/Award
“Back Office” – internal business processes

13. Consortia Lead Interface Pilots
Grants.gov Find
Grants.gov Apply
PPR Pilot
GrantSolutions.gov
Accounting
Uniform Financial Management System (UFMS)
Payment
Payment Management System (PMS)
Departmental Reporting
Congressional Liaison Office (CLO) & HHS Departmental Reporting System (TAGGS)
FMLoB – GMLoB Interfaces
We want to mention currently available capabilities and coming pilots:
In addition to Grants.gov FIND and APPLY and accounting and payment systems, we ship grant award data Departmental reporting systems and to Congress liaison offices. Data can be made publicly available for viewing.
This year we are participating in some pilots
The Federal streamlined Performance Progress Report (SF-PPR) was published in April 2007 and is in final OMB clearance now. It is targeted for usage and electronic collection during 2007.
The Payment Management System has piloted the SF-FFR (financial report) with an increasing number of grantees. OMB is expected to sponsor this collection and have it approved in final in the near future.
We are ready to work toward standard interfaces between Financial Management Lines of Business and Grants Management Lines of Business.
FFR Pilot

14. GrantSolutions.Gov 2008 Architecture Overview
Secure Sign On
EXTRANET to grantees
For correspondence & tasks
EXTRANET to grantees
Discretionary & Mandatory
Award Modules
(Pre-award, Award & Post-award
Management)
Forms
Submission
& Management
On-Line Data
Collection
(OLDC)
Grantee Report Results
Shared Services
& Shared Data
FIND & APPLY;
Notification &
information reports;
Funds control ;
Payment
Notification
Review
& Reviewer
Maintenance
Program
Announcement
(summary & full
announcement)
Routing & Status
GATES
Client-server
OPEN ENTITLEMENT AWARDS
AUDIT TRACKING
(After 2008 only
ACF residual usage)
Former GATES client-server capabilities have been migrated to GrantSolutions.gov.
GrantSolutions’ interfaces complement Grants.gov interfaces with feeds to post the announcements through a system-to-system interface and for automatic intake of new applications and new applicants.
Accounting/payment system interfaces support full funds control, automated transaction processing, reconciliation and closeout.
The modules and data are integrated from the pre-award announcement and review processes through the decision to fund, award and post-award oversight.
Single sign on capabilities will make movement from one module to another unapparent to system users.
The forms submission and management module for grantee reporting and continuation applications include capabilities of pre-population and validation of grantee submissions. Over the past 5 years, this module has taken in, prepopulated and validated 41,000 submissions from grantees for 52 forms. These have been routed electronically for Federal review and approval.
Accounting
&
Payment
Systems
Grants.gov
External
Reporting
Dept, Govt-wide
Congress
Web
E-authentication
External system
Client-server
EXTRANET to grantees

15. GrantSolutions.gov Current Technical Environment
Complies with Federal Enterprise Architecture
Provides high volume central database
Built with scalable Oracle 10G
Access controls and authorities for 9 different agencies and their sub-agency components
Interfaces with users nationwide
Uses J2EE Web environment [508-compliant]
Offers Web services interfaces with Grants.gov
Batch file interfaces where needed for certain external systems
Data upload capabilities from modules and grantees
FEA compliant
Central database
Scalable 10-G Oracle database
Access controls and authorities to restrict data access and views and authorized functional capabilities for separate agencies and their staff and sub-offices
Available through web-access from off-site locations
Development is done in a J2EE web environment and is “508 accessible”
Web services interfaces supported
Batch file interfaces are available if needed by specific external systems
Data upload is supported from recognized modules and for grantees

16. CoE Technical Compliance
Has an up-to-date Security Plan
Complies with OMB and NIST security policies
Maintains Continuity of Operations-COOP
Tests regularly on established backup site
Concluded recent audits with success
A-123 internal controls audit
Chief Financial Officer financial controls audit
SAS-70
Technical Compliance Burden covered for partners
Security Plan (OMB and NIST compliant)
Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan maintained and regularly tested at back-up site
History of over 5-years of clean audits
A-123 internal controls audit
Chief Financial Officer financial controls audit
Voluntary SAS-70 system audit

17. CoE Costs
The development costs of the current mature system have already been paid
Extensive operational capability for the 14 GMLoB award processes already developed
Often no additional development required to provide a partner with all required services
New functionality Development Costs
Development supporting the 14 GMLoB grant processes is shared among the agencies
Unique agency requirements met at market prices
O&M Costs are proportionately shared based upon each partner’s number of grant actions ($300K Minimum per agency)
Development costs already paid. No payback required.
New functionality development cost shared within the annual fee
Unique agency requirements can be accommodated at market prices
O&M Costs are proportionately shared based upon each partner’s number of grant actions
One-time costs may exist for some for fit-gap and legacy system data migration and for setup of mandatory grant programs and agency-specific forms and.

18. GrantSolutions.gov: a critical component in future cost reductions
Driving Costs Down
GrantSolutions.gov: a critical component in future cost reductions
Costs in 2007 were $200 / discretionary award action; $66 / mandatory award action ($300K per agency minimum)
The definition an award action is a notice of award that may be a new award, a continuation, and amendment including supplements/revisions/extensions and closeout actions.
Annual Operations & Maintenance are based on the previous year’s count of award actions so that agencies can plan for costs in advance. These dropped by 20% in 2007 with the addition of additional partners with a large number of award actions.
Existing costs typically drop 20% with the addition of partners bring in a total of an additional 10,000 award actions per year.
The COE Executive Board must approve any increase in the annual fees
Additional one-time startup costs may be involved related to:
Fitgap Analysis and Migration costs for: a) Data Migration and b) initial setup for Mandatory grant programs; (typical estimate has been around $80K)
Agency-specific forms set-up and grantee help desk support for agency-specific forms
Agencies are expected to:
Participate in their own fit-gap analysis;
Assist with translation, formulation and cleanup of legacy data (up to 5 years typically migrated at agency discretion)
Provide first tier help desk support
Provide first tier training after initial start-up and train-the-trainer training; or pay market prices for out-of-area training assistance

19. COE Candidate Partners
What kind of agency would be a good fit?
An agency with any type of discretionary or mandatory grant program and any type of grant
An agency ready to actively participate
An agency looking for a culture of partnership
The CoE supports all types of grants and all types of programs:
Discretionary, formula, block and open-ended entitlement grant programs
Service, training, demonstration, research and other types of grants
The COE is supportive of those ready to actively participate in this effort. This is a partnership, not a take-over. It will only work well if viewed in the role of an active partner.
The process will only work with partners willing to promote common front-office and common interface standards to launch their programs, grant projects and grantees into an easier way of doing business with the Federal awarding agencies in support of delivery of results from Federal grant programs and funding.

20. Grants Center of Excellence Team Visit www.grantsolutions.gov
“Thank You!”
Grants Center of Excellence Team
Visit
Thank you.
Please visit our site for more information and documentation including for system screen snapshots.