When simple becomes limiting: Moving beyond SmartyGrants
Workflows hit automation limits
SmartyGrants handles basic workflows. Most grant processes need conditional approvals, weighted assessments, automated task routing, or multi-stage decisions. Without this, your team manages complexity manually with spreadsheets, workarounds and manual tasks.
Finance tracking happens in spreadsheets
No FMIS integration means double-entry for payments, manual budget reconciliation, and tracking funding status across separate systems.
Contracts live outside the system
Funding agreements, variations, and compliance monitoring exist in document folders rather than integrated with grant data.
Reports need constant rebuilding
Pre-built dashboards don't answer board and ministerial questions. Every request means exports, analysis, reformatting.
Workflow automation that matches your needs
OmniStar provides a workflow designer with 185+ configurable steps, conditional logic, and full task automation. Build approval chains once, automate handoffs between assessment and contracting.
Direct finance system integration
OmniStar connects to enterprise finance systems through standard finance import/export and documented REST APIs. Automated journal creation, real-time budget tracking, synchronized payment status. No spreadsheets.
Integrated contract management
OmniStar manages the complete contract lifecycle in-platform. Generate templated agreements, route approvals, capture signatures, track variations, monitor compliance.
Custom reporting and dashboards
Build dashboards with temporal analysis and geospatial views that update automatically as grant data changes. Answer board and ministerial questions instantly.
OmniStar vs SmartyGrants: Capability comparison
See how OmniStar Grants empowers you with advanced capabilities across the complete grant lifecycle.
| Category | Feature | OmniStar | SmartyGrants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity and Scalability | Unlimited applications, grants, rounds, forms, users, workflows, reports, submissions and internal users | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow and Automation | Drag‑drop Workflow Designer (185+ steps) | Yes Full designer, conditional logic, task and data automation | No |
| Status change and escalation rules | Yes | Yes | |
| Task and data automation | Yes Task creation, data create/update/delete | No | |
| Form Builder (SmartForms) | SmartForm Designer (Form Builder) | Yes | Yes |
| Conditional pages/sections | Yes | Yes | |
| Formula fields, form pre‑population, autosave | Yes | No Limited pre‑population | |
| On‑screen signature, input masking | Yes | No | |
| Grants Opportunity | Program budgeting and forecasting, single/multi stage round, round documents and materials, configurable rounds and stages | Yes | Yes |
| Portfolio and program definition | Yes | No Program only | |
| Round Notifications and Reminders | Yes | No | |
| Collaboration and Review | Real‑time collaboration (comments, notes, packs) | Yes Notes, comments, meeting packs; collaborative workflows | Yes |
| Conflict‑of‑Interest, Non-disclosure Agreements | Yes | No | |
| Weighted and bulk reviews | Yes | No | |
| Decision and Approval | Digital multi‑stage, bulk approvals, assign decision, linked and quorum approvals | Yes | No |
| Contracting and Variations | Templated and tokenised funding agreement, funding agreement and schedules, agreement sharing and notification, status tracking, agreement compliance | Yes | No |
| Finance and Payments | FMIS / GL integration | Yes ERP/FMIS; GL and journals; export/import | No |
| PO tracking, partial/full payments | Yes | No | |
| Monitoring and Reporting | Interactive dashboards and report designer | Yes Custom dashboards and reports with role-based access | No Pre‑built dashboards |
| Temporal data | Yes | No | |
| Geospatial visualisations | Yes | Yes | |
| Compliance and Security | ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes |
| IRAP certified | Yes | No | |
| SSO, MFA, advanced data encryption, audit logs, and penetration testing | Yes | No Audit log only | |
| Role‑Based Access Control | Yes | Yes | |
| WCAG compliant | Yes | Yes | |
| Disaster recovery | Yes | No | |
| APIs and Integrations | Documented, public REST API | Yes | Yes |
| Standard DocuSign, GrantConnect, ORCID, Teams, Finance system integrations | Yes | No | |
| Global Functions | Configurable homepage/tiles, favourites/recent | Yes | No |
| Multi‑language support, mobile access | Yes | No | |
| Bulk document download | Yes | Yes | |
| Document preview | Yes | No | |
| Data import/export | Yes | No Export only | |
| Document Generation | Excel, Word, PDF, XML | Yes | No PDF only |
| Support and Onboarding | 12/5 Support and optional 24/7 Support | Yes | No 12/5 Support |
| Dedicated account manager onboarding | Yes | No | |
| User Help and Training | Learning hub, Interactive Q&A | Yes | Yes |
| Video tutorials, live webinars, in person training | Yes | Yes | |
| Online Wiki, knowledge base, page and field level help | Yes | No | |
| Web, phone and email support | Yes | No |
Trusted by industry leading organisations
National Breast Cancer Foundation
The National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) was able to streamline its three separate grants management systems into one user-friendly solution using OmniStar.
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Testimonials
The level of ongoing customisation and support gives us peace of mind in our investment. We now have a one-stop solution: streamlined processes, great user experience and transparency.
Cindy Liew
Senior Executive
Sunway University
OmniStar had the ability to combine our three systems into one to make everything easier from an administration perspective but also from an applicant and reviewer perspective.
Samantha Oakes
Director, Research Investment
National Breast Cancer Foundation
We couldn't persist in a paper environment. We were looking for a solution that could cover the pre-award and post-award requirements, and we wanted a system that could do ethics as well.
Laila Simpson
Director of Research Operations
The University of Western Australia
It's very accessible to users and administrators with clear processes to follow. It's also flexible allowing you to build your own forms, which are straightforward, and for which you don't need to understand code.
Anna
Research Development Senior Coordinator
Cancer Council WA
The ability to customise the OOTB functionality of the system to align to our specific grant program processes and framework. Pre-award functionality provides for easy and efficient application submission.
Amanda
Senior Project Officer
Department of Resources
It has made our work so much more effective and efficient, especially as we adapt to a hybrid working model, post-Covid.
Michael
CEO
Soil CRC
Easy integration. Great user experience for grant applicants and for the grant management team. Fantastic support from the OmniStar team - very responsive and end to end complete solution.
Adam
Head of Foundation
Plenty of features to use to manage grants and grant processes.
John
Manager
Frequently asked questions
OmniStar Grants delivers the most powerful end-to-end solution for grants management - streamlining workflows and ensuring transparency and accountability across the entire lifecycle.
To get started with OmniStar Grants, contact our team for a personalised demonstration and to discuss your organisation's specific needs
Absolutely. OmniStar Grants is fully configurable, allowing you to adapt workflows, forms, and reporting to suit your department’s unique objectives and operational requirements.
Common indicators include staff maintaining spreadsheets alongside the system, manual processes for contracts or payments, difficulty meeting reporting requirements, or limitations preventing process improvements you want to implement.
OmniStar Grants offers proven migration pathways that ensure your existing data, workflows, and configurations transfer securely and seamlessly, minimising disruption during implementation.
Discovery workshops map your workflows and data structures. Historical data transfers with validation. Workflow reconfiguration into OmniStar's automation capabilities. Timeline depends on complexity but typically ranges 4-16 weeks for organisations.
Yes. OmniStar Grants is delivered as a secure, scalable cloud-based platform, providing easy access and reliable performance across teams and locations?
Yes! You can book a demo to explore how OmniStar Grants can support your needs.