Is It Time to Rethink Your Grants Management System? A Guide to System Assessments

Is Your Current Grants Management System Still the Right Fit?

If your grants management system feels less intuitive, more complicated, harder to maintain than it did a few years ago, or no longer supports the way you need to work, it can be tempting to assume that the technology itself is the problem. The truth is, sometimes it is, but often, the answer requires a deeper look.

Over time, organizations invariably evolve, leading to changing programs, more complex processes, increased reporting needs, and the introduction of new technologies. Different teams may begin using the system in ways that may not have been anticipated when it was originally implemented.

Technology itself evolves as well; new platform capabilities become available, older configuration approaches may no longer be the most effective, and opportunities emerge to simplify how work is done.

As a result, even a system that was well designed at launch can become disconnected from the organization it was built to support.

The question, then, isn’t simply whether your existing system can be improved. It’s whether investing in it still makes sense for where your organization is today and where it needs to go next.

Start With the Assessment, Not the Solution

A strong system assessment should not begin with a predetermined answer.

A reporting problem may actually stem from how information is being captured or structured. A user experience problem may be caused by an overly complicated workflow. A request for more automation may reveal that the underlying process should be simplified first.

reSolved’s system assessments start by understanding your organizations goals, pain points, processes, and current use of technology before recommending what should change. The objective is to clarify the gap between the current state and the desired future state, and then determine the most practical way to close that gap.

With more than 20 years of experience helping funding organizations improve how their systems support their work, reSolved’s Advisory Services bring together an understanding of people, process, and technology to identify opportunities and help organizations determine the right path forward.

This path may involve optimizing what you already have, rethinking specific processes or parts of the solution, leveraging underused capabilities, or making more fundamental changes to the way the system is structured.

When Does a System Assessment Make Sense?

Not every systems challenge requires an assessment.

If you already know what needs to change, such as adding an integration, creating a new form, or updating a defined workflow, you may be ready to move directly into scoping and implementation.

Already know what needs to change? Explore how reSolved can help with system enhancements and configuration. 

A systems assessment becomes particularly valuable when the problem is less clearly defined.

Some common signs include:

• Staff, reviewers, applicants, and grantees finding the system difficult to navigate, and teams are increasingly completing work outside the system.
• Manual processes and workarounds have accumulated over time, while workflows, roles, and permissions no longer reflect current business processes or how people actually work.
• Data often needs to be exported, manipulated, or validated outside the system before it can be used, and reporting is not providing the information the organization needs.
• Different teams have competing views on what should be improved, and while the organization knows the system could be working better, it is unclear where investment would have the greatest impact.

   

These symptoms matter, but they do not always point directly to the underlying cause. A system assessment helps separate the issues users experience from the reasons behind them.

What Does a System Assessment Look At?

A system assessment should look beyond individual configuration issues to understand how the overall solution supports the organization.

Depending on the objectives and scope of the assessment, this may include:

• Business processes and workflows – how work moves through the organization and where unnecessary complexity, duplication, or manual steps may exist.
• User experience – how staff, reviewers, applicants, grantees, and other stakeholders interact with the system.
• Data and reporting – whether the right information is being captured, structured, and made available to support operational and management reporting.
• Automation – opportunities to reduce repetitive activities while ensuring that automation supports an efficient underlying process.
• Roles and security – whether access structures continue to reflect the organization’s responsibilities and governance requirements.
• Integrations and the broader technology ecosystem – where users are moving information between systems manually or where connected technologies could work together more effectively.
• System configuration and maintainability – whether configuration that has accumulated over time remains appropriate, scalable, and supportable.
• Platform capabilities – whether newer or underused functionality could improve the way users work.
• Architecture and data model – where appropriate, whether the underlying structure of the solution continues to support the organization’s current and future needs.
• Future scalability – whether today’s solution can reasonably support the organization’s direction over the coming years.

Importantly, these areas should not be evaluated in isolation.  For example, a reporting challenge may originate in the data model; a user experience issue may be caused by workflow complexity; a manual process may exist because two systems are not connected. Understanding those relationships is one of the most valuable parts of the assessment.

From Assessment to a Practical Roadmap

The outcome of a system assessment should be more than a list of issues or potential improvements. The assessment combines what is observed in the system with what the organization is trying to achieve, then translates those findings into recommendations and a practical roadmap.

That roadmap should help the organization understand:

• What should we address first?
• What changes could provide immediate or the highest value?
• What improvements can be made within the current system?
• Which recommendations depend on other changes being completed first?
• Where would further investment in the existing configuration provide diminishing returns?
• Which areas may require more fundamental redesign?
• What should the future-state solution ultimately support?

The goal is to prioritize immediate, mid-term, and longer-term opportunities so your organization can approach change deliberately rather than addressing issues one at a time as they arise.

The Outcome Isn’t Always a New System

One of the biggest misconceptions is that every assessment ends with a major redesign or new implementation.

In many cases, organizations can achieve significant improvements by optimizing their existing system through optimized configuration, streamlined workflows, improved reporting, stronger automation, or enhanced user experiences.

In other cases, the assessment may reveal that years of customization, evolving business requirements, or changes in how the organization operates have created enough complexity that a more fundamental redesign or fresh implementation is the better long-term investment.

Neither outcome is inherently better. The right answer depends on your organization’s goals, budget, priorities, and future plans.

Make the Decision with Confidence

Technology should evolve alongside your organization, not hold it back.

Whether the right path is to optimize what you have, rethink parts of the solution, or pursue a more significant change, the best decisions begin with understanding your current environment and your immediate and longer-term needs.

A system assessment removes the guesswork, providing a clear picture of where you are today and a practical roadmap for where to go next.

Talk to our team about a System Assessment and discover the right path forward for your organization.