1. Reduce administration and save time
Lifecycle management software streamlines the process of managing applications, assessments, funding and measuring impact for grants, scholarships and other funded projects. It will reduce time and effort spent on managing tasks that are repetitive and that can be automated. It de-clutters your day and this leaves more time to focus on the things that matter: generating positive community outcomes and engaging with your stakeholders.
By eliminating manual processes and minimising the need for paperwork, organisations can increase their capacity to deliver quality services and respond to community needs more quickly. This, in turn, can help to build trust and credibility with stakeholders, enhance the organisation’s reputation, and attract more future funding and support. Overall, lifecycle management software can help organisations work more efficiently and effectively, delivering better outcomes for their communities while reducing the burden of administration.
2. Lifecycle management software improves transparency
Lifecycle management software improves transparency in several ways. First, it provides a centralised platform where stakeholders can access real-time data and information related to a project or program. This makes it easier for everyone to stay informed and up-to-date, reducing the risk of miscommunication or misunderstandings. With a more transparent process, stakeholders can better understand how decisions are made, how resources are allocated, and how outcomes are measured. This helps build trust and credibility with stakeholders, increasing their willingness to support future initiatives. Working with cloud-based software, like Enquire, to manage the funding lifecycle and contracts allows all information and communication to be stored in one place. This increases transparency and creates one source of truth, enabling everyone to look at the same information with data updated in real time so everyone across your organisation is on the same page and the data for reporting is reliable.
Lifecycle management software also helps organisations comply with regulations and standards, ensuring that they are operating in a transparent and accountable manner. By providing a clear audit trail of actions taken and decisions made, lifecycle management software helps organisations avoid regulatory violations and legal disputes – especially so in contentious decision-making processes such as government grantmaking.
3. Increase efficiency
Workflows and automations, part of lifecycle management software, are valuable tools to help keep you on track. They will remind you, your team and external stakeholders of important tasks and milestones. This streamlined approach means there are structured processes in place, so everyone is informed and there is less room for errors, double handling or things slipping through the cracks. Workflows also enhance collaboration, with comments and tags to assist throughout a range of business processes, including application amendments and assessments.
Integrations with financial systems can also improve project efficiency by streamlining financial processes and reducing administrative burdens. With lifecycle management software to manage grants, scholarships and other funds, financial data can be automatically synced with the project management platform, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the risk of errors. This ensures that financial data is accurate and up-to-date, and that resources are allocated in the most effective way possible.
Furthermore, integrations with financial systems can also provide real-time visibility into project costs, allowing project managers to make better decisions based on the financial health of the project. This can help identify areas where resources are being over-allocated or under-utilised, enabling project teams to make adjustments quickly and efficiently.
4. Collaboration
Enquire’s communication capabilities allow for streamlined interaction between funders and beneficiaries. This enhances collaboration, which enables an integrated approach to develop and execute strategies to make the desired impact. Comments and notes features within the Enquire software provide an excellent platform for internal collaboration.
Email alerts can be set up to notify team members and external parties when there is new information, a task has been or needs to be completed, or there are any changes to the project plan. This helps ensure that team members are always up-to-date on the status of the project and can quickly take action when necessary. With email alerts, project teams can minimise delays, keep everyone on the same page, and make sure that important information is not missed.
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A portal for external parties to access adds to the efficiency of projects. It allows external parties, such as applicants, clients or contractors, to action the task they’ve been notified of immediately via the external portal. Or other stakeholders can access the project data they need without having to go through project managers or other team members. This saves time and reduces administrative burdens, as well as improve communication and collaboration with external stakeholders. With an external client portal, external parties can easily view project updates, provide feedback, and submit requests, enabling project teams to respond more quickly and efficiently.
Finally, comments with time stamps can help enhance the efficiency of projects by providing a clear record of discussions and decisions. With comments, team members can collaborate in real-time, asking questions, providing feedback, and sharing ideas. Time stamps on comments ensure that the entire team has a clear understanding of when a decision was made, and what was discussed at the time. This reduces the risk of misunderstandings, improve accountability and auditability, and streamline decision-making.
5. Evaluate and measure impact
By storing all information, data and communication in one transparent and efficient system, visibility on the relationship between actions and outcomes increase an data becomes more reliable. The status of grants, scholarships and projects is visible at a glance, so you can track progress at any given time. Enquire’s advanced reporting capability makes it easy to generate customised reports and interpret information, per project or across entire programs. This enables you to focus on community outcomes with the ability to continuously adjust the process to improve overtime.
Configurable reporting metrics allow project teams to create custom reports that track the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are most important to their specific project. This ensures that the team is measuring what matters, and that they can quickly and easily generate reports that are tailored to their needs.
Stakeholder reporting is also a key feature of lifecycle management software, allowing project teams to create reports that are specifically designed to meet the needs of different stakeholders. This ensures that stakeholders are receiving the information they need, in the format they prefer, and in a timely manner. With stakeholder reporting, project teams can improve communication and collaboration with stakeholders, and demonstrate the value of the project more effectively.
Finally, data warehousing linked to business intelligence and data visualisation tools helps project teams make sense of the data they are collecting. With data warehousing, project teams can store and analyse large amounts of data, and link this data to business intelligence and data visualisation tools. This is a powerful feature to help project teams identify trends, patterns, and insights that might not be immediately apparent, and make informed decisions based on this data. With data visualisation tools, project teams can easily communicate this data to stakeholders, making it easier to understand, and helping to drive better decision-making.
6. Make better decisions with lifecycle management software
An organised process, with one source of truth and all related processes integrated, leads to clean data. With easy access to customised reports, you can review the exact information you are interested in. This makes the foundation of your processes being reliable and continuously optimisable, allowing you to make informed decisions which in turn leads to better outcomes.
Manage grants, scholarships, awards and other funded projects
- spending less time on it,
- more transparently,
- more efficiently,
- more collaboratively,
- with easy reporting and clear insights,
- to make informed decisions for continuously improving outcomes.
Put these 6 reasons to the test and raise your grant, scholarship or project lifecycle management to the next level.
How about a free tour of Enquire, the leading lifecycle management software for social impact organisations?
Or book a demo and see how much better your lifecycle management can be today.
