Fluent Technology

Action Renewables is a joint venture between the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment (DETI) and the energy group Viridian PLC. Its aim is to promote the use of renewable energy technology in households in Northern Ireland.

Requirements
Action Renewables was selected in 2006 to manage the £8m Environment and Renewable Energy Fund (EREF) Householder Programme. This initiative allowed householders in Northern Ireland, who wished to install renewable energy technology, to apply for grant support. To manage the grant fund effectively it was quickly recognised that an information system was required to both capture details of enquiries from the public and to manage the grant application process. Any system put in place was required to meet all applicable legislation and promote best practice in the delivery of the grant fund to the general public.

Solution
Fluent Technology proposed a grant management system built around their innovative framework BASIS. The system provided the following features:

• A secure and scalable web based system which could be accessed from any geographic location
• Postcode address validation ensured that all address information is quick to input, correct and accurate
• Bank account validation ensured that client’s bank details were entered correctly and that the account accepted BACS credits
• A flexible workflow system which was tailored to match Action Renewables’ grant application process
• Automatic generation of correspondence letters and documents
• Personalised logins enabled users to be granted with different levels of system access
• Proactive notifications which alerted users when an action was required

Value
The implementation of this grant management solution revolutionised the application processing capacity of Action Renewables. The speed and accuracy of data entry and intelligent workflow combined with the organisation’s working practices to deliver a robust and extremely efficient system. This guaranteed the highest quality of service delivery to both the general public and the fund owner. The system has the following benefits:

• Fast and accurate input and storage of client data
• Ability to quickly locate information using the search tool
• Reduction in duplication and inaccurate information
• Facilitated seamless operation with partner organisations
• Increased throughput of grant applications
• Promoted consistent service delivery with automatically generated documents
• Helped to detect fraudulent grant applications and claims
• Real time management reports provided an accurate picture of the performance of the grant fund.

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