All businesses and organizations are unique, and not all technology products solve the company’s exact needs out of the box. For years, companies have turned to custom developing applications for their scope of work. This process is long and drawn out because of the core foundational and functional work that developers have to do.  Ultimately, the final solution involves features that are no longer valid and intense technology support.

Organizations are now turning cloud platforms to get custom app development done quicker, with more features and less development cost. Salesforce, the number one enterprise cloud platform, helps companies get their applications developed 50 percent faster than custom application development. Here’s our story about how Galvin helped Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) get their grant management system developed 75 percent faster then when it was previously developed with .NET and SQL Server.

Christian Theological Seminar originally had a grant management system custom built on .NET and SQL Server. It was full of ongoing problems and never fully built out. The project itself took 15 months and 1,155 man hours to complete. Issues with the hosting environment, constant change orders to add new features and continual support to manage each situation added complexity and a lot of stakeholder frustration to the project.

CTS needed an upgraded grant management system that reliably met their new needs and brought in Galvin to help. We understood the problems common to custom development and recommended enhancing the grant management system by utilizing Salesforce going forward. CTS agreed, and we created a new grant management system that was more user-friendly and feature-rich than their original application.

They also got all of the functionality that Salesforce brings to the table. Sales contact management, call center management, small business customer relationship management, mobility, automation and workflows and anytime, anywhere access are a few of the features that Salesforce brings to the table. CTS can also expand their grant management system further by utilizing Salesforce Community Cloud which allowed external users to interact, develop and manage the complete grant application process. The app building tools included in Salesforce are user-friendly platforms that allow for drag-and-drop development ease.

The best part was completing the project in two months and 289 man hours compared to the 15 months and 1,155 man hours it took to develop previously on .NET and SQL Server. We cut their development time by 75 percent compared to the previous custom project.

Over 600 organizations apply to CTS for grants each year. The applications require a lot of information to complete and are intensive. In addition to the Salesforce Sales Cloud Galvin utilized the Salesforce Community Cloud to design a gorgeous online user interface that allows applicants to log in and work on their grant application.

Since it takes weeks to complete this process, users could log back in later on to continue filling out the information. They could then review the grant and submit it to CTS. The system automatically sends status updates on the application, so they stay up to date. This feature improved applicant satisfaction and saved CTS countless hours. In the past, CTS personnel would spend countless hours replying to phone calls and emails about grant statuses, and now the applicants have a self-service option eliminating the hours for grant support.

The grant management system also needed to accommodate for various users who had different roles and responsibilities within the system.  These included readers who are responsible for reviewing the grants, applicants and administrators. As a result the application included automation, workflows and triggers that moved each grant seamlessly through the process ensuring that every grant was accurately moved through the process

Other technical features incorporated into this application include PDF generation, Apex development in communities and navigation with jQuery versus VisualForce Components.

Now that the grant management application resides on the Salesforce platform CTS has an enterprise foundation to build onto as they continue to grow and expand their business processes.