The Challenge
One of our projects within the state of New Jersey involves the Division of Local Aid and Economic Development, within the Department of Transportation. The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) Division of Local Aid and Economic Development staff members work with county and municipal government officials to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the state’s transportation system. The New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund and the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) legislation provides the NJDOT with the opportunity for funding assistance to local governments for road, bridge and other transportation projects through various grant programs.

Prior to Fiscal Year 2008, the NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development, was using three Microsoft Access databases on a shared server to enter and store information in the grant process. The different databases were used for Federal, State, and application management. The process was very time consuming; all information from an application was entered into one of the databases, and then tracked.

When it came time for reporting, it was difficult to report on all of the information in all three databases. A NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development staff member had to possess excellent knowledge of Access to obtain custom reports. The process was inefficient and the reports were limited.

The Solution
NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development uses the SAGE system (IntelliGrants™) to manage transportation grants to local governments and non-profit organizations. NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development integrated with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJDCA)’s web-based grants management solution, SAGE. This began the process of establishing SAGE as New Jersey’s state-wide grants management system.

When deciding on a system, NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development wanted a solution that was able to house all of the information, instead of housing the information through multiple systems. The solution created efficiency and accuracy throughout the process by integrating all legacy data from all three previously used Access databases. NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development is now able to manage the application, agreements and financial information in one system. The NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development program staff and the grantees benefited from the enhanced response time, not only in the speed of the technology itself, but the overall grant cycle as well.

The Benefits
Before integrating with the SAGE system, NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development was using a manual process that included data entry from paper applications, as well as using multiple databases to house information about the different grant programs. NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development integrated with the SAGE system in 2008 and has since found that by streamlining and automating the grant application and management process, reports that pull information from all grant programs, are easy to use and understand.

SAGE has reduced the amount of data entry and has made communicating to applicants much easier via system messaging and application notes instead of paper.

The system has increased NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development’s efficiency by automating the major grant management functions for both the State staff and the applicants. NJDOT Division of Local Aid and Economic Development is also able to view the status and responsibility for a particular application or action step creating a real time process workflow tool. This information is also available to stakeholders.