The council has become a victim of its own success since launching its in-house corporate bidding database five years ago – the first product of its kind in the UK.
As word of the system got around, members of the authority’s economic development team have had to travel the length and breadth of the country to give presentations about it.
Four other councils have already acquired the program – now sold under the name of GRANTtracker – with several more considering doing so.
Following the signing of the licensing deal with Grantfinder, responsibility for the marketing and development of the system now switches to the Worksop-headquartered company.
East Sussex County Council lead cabinet member for economic development, Councillor Peter Jones, said: "The system was built in-house by our information and communications technology team and has been a huge success. At the time it was a unique product in the marketplace and, not surprisingly, attracted a lot of attention. Although others have since been launched, ours is still regarded as the best.
"However, it has got to the stage where we can no longer justify the time we are spending going around the country to talk to other authorities about it.
"We decided that we should enter into a commercial partnership in order to carry the product forward and, after careful scrutiny of the market, decided to link up with Grantfinder.
"The company is the UK market leader in financial support provision information so is ideally placed to take our product to the next stage. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with them.”
John Dilworth, Managing Director of Grantfinder Ltd, said: "The grant tracking database is an important and exciting development to the services provided by Grantfinder. Our working partnership with East Sussex County Council has ensured that GRANTtracker proves to be a practical and effective tool for use by our clients throughout the UK.”
Already the partnership is bearing fruit, with the East Sussex system now being web-enabled to allow password-controlled entry across the authority.
Grantfinder was established 20 years ago to advise and guide industrial, professional and public sector clients on all matters relating to grant aid. The company is used by many of the best-known UK blue chip companies as well as Learning & Skills Councils, government departments, local and regional authorities and government agencies.
The company is thought to have at least 50 organisations interested in GRANTtracker in addition to the leads supplied by East Sussex County Council.
Reference:
05/269/DB
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