Lately, OMB has been spending a lot of money to figure out how to attract more people to eGov initiatives like Grants.gov and Regulations.gov. The fact has been that the government has spent millions of dollars to build eGov services....but not many people are using them. Grants.gov is certainly an exception, and the fact that it's a nominee for an innovation award is further testament to that. Agencies should take a leaf out of Grants.gov's book when it comes to outreach.
Right from the start, outreach was a component of the initiative's strategy. A contract was let to IBM to provide outreach services before the systems development RFP was even released! Through their outreach efforts, the Grants.gov PMO has done a fantastic job of organizing relationships with agencies, grantee stakeholder groups, and customers, with regular stakeholder meetings, participation at grantee group meetings, newsletters [PDF], advertisements, and webcasts. They're also not shy about blowing their own trumpet; Grants.gov has already wonn a slew of awards, and their e-mail updates are (most often) timely.
This isn't to say that all in the garden is rosy. It's not. The initiative has many challenges still unmet. But when it comes to outreach, Grants.gov has done an excellent job, and OMB should be looking to it as a model for all IT modernization initiatves whose aim it is to increase usage and customer adoption.
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