Trusted by industry leading organisations
OmniStar: Built for today’s grant tracking needs
OmniStar is the modern alternative to legacy grant systems that is purpose-built for today’s research institutions, funding bodies, universities, and compliance-driven organisations.
End-to-end grants management solution
Unlike legacy systems, OmniStar manages every stage of the grant lifecycle from pre-award applications, approvals, to post-award project management, reporting, and compliance.
Transform grants management with OmniStar
The OmniStar grants management solution contains all the features you need today and tomorrow in one, unified, cloud-native environment. With a focus on flexibility, efficiency, OmniStar empowers grant administration teams to move faster, stay audit-ready, and adapt to change without disruption.
Why switch to OmniStar?
Switching from Symplectic Grant Tracker to OmniStar optimises your grant management workflows and unlocks new efficiencies:
- Low-risk migration pathways proven with legacy systems
- Fully configurable approvals, forms, and reporting versus limited customisation
- Document insights - Enables internal users to efficiently process and analyse documents through AI-powered features including document summarisation, intelligent searching, and automated information extraction. This capability reduces manual document review time and helps users quickly access and understand key information within their documents.
- Comprehensive APIs and integrations (DocuSign, ORCID, FMIS, webhooks)
- Rapid deployment: operational in weeks, not months
- A single platform for both grants and ethics application management
Next-gen AI features
OmniStar is more than a replacement for Symplectic Grant Tracker....it’s a smarter, future-ready upgrade.
Interactive help
A context-aware assistance system that provides relevant guidance based on your current location within OmniStar. Users can ask questions in natural language and receive targeted help, reducing time spent searching through documentation and improving system navigation.
Application insights
Offers applicants automated feedback on their draft submissions, highlighting potential gaps, inconsistencies or areas for improvement. This feature helps applicants refine their applications before submission, leading to higher quality proposals and reduced revision cycles.
Review insights
Supports reviewers by analysing applications and identifying key elements that warrant attention. This tool helps ensure thorough assessments by flagging important considerations and potential improving the consistency and efficiency of the review process.
OmniStar vs Symplectic Grants Tracker Comparison
| Category | Feature | OmniStar | Symplectic Grant Tracker |
|---|---|---|---|
Capacity & Scalability | Unlimited applications, grants, rounds, forms, users, workflows, reports | Unlimited | Unlimited submissions & internal users; caps on programs¹ |
Workflow & Automation | Drag-drop Workflow Designer (185+ steps) | Full designer, conditional logic, task & data automation | Multi-stage review workflows; basic admin configuration |
Status change & escalation rules | Automated | Manual | |
Form Builder (SmartForms) | Conditional pages/fields, formula fields, pre-population, autosave | Advanced SmartForm logic | Form designer with conditional sections; no formulas or auto-save |
On-screen signature, input masking | |||
Pre-Award Management | Program/portfolio definition & budgeting | Multi-tier hierarchy, budgeting & forecasting | Program setup; limited budgeting tools |
Public & private (by-invite) rounds | |||
Collaboration & Review | Real-time collaboration (comments, notes, packs) | Enhanced | Collaborative reviews, scoring, meeting pack generation |
Conflict-of-Interest, NDAs | |||
Weighted & bulk reviews | |||
Decision & Approval | Digital multi-stage & bulk approvals | Quorum, email approvals, assign decisions | Multi-stage approvals; basic routing |
Contracting & Variations | Auto-generate agreements & schedules | Tokenised templates, versioning, digital signatures | Contract auto-generation, amendments |
Finance & Payments | FMIS / GL integration | Full integration, export/import, refund/recoup | Claims-, schedule-, milestone-based payments |
PO tracking, partial/full payments | |||
Monitoring & Reporting | Interactive dashboards & report designer | Dashboards allow Internal users to visualise data through the OmniStar system in rich and intuitive ways and share them to External Portal users to be viewed. The web Dashboard Designer enables easy editing and customisation of dashboards, including drag-and-drop actions that simplify complex tasks such as data binding, shaping, and layout design. | Project-specific exports; no designer |
Temporal data warehouse (time-series) | |||
Geospatial visualisations | |||
Compliance & Security | ISO 27001 & IRAP certified | ||
SSO, MFA (TOTP/Email), advanced encryption |
| ||
Role-Based Access Control | Role-based security | ||
Audit log, event log, record-level permissions | Audit trails & version control | ||
APIs & Integrations | Documented, public REST API | Limited public API; basic ORCID & data export | |
Custom integration with external systems via REST APIs or webhooks | |||
Standard DocuSign, GrantConnect, ORCID, Teams, Finance system integrations | Basic ORCID & data export | ||
Global Functions | Configurable homepage/tiles, favourites, search | Full text search; limited UI customisation | |
Multi-language, mobile access | Cloud-hosted, responsive | ||
Data import/export, bulk doc download, previews | Data export; doc downloads | ||
Document Generation | Excel, Word, PDF, XML | ||
Support & Onboarding | Dedicated onboarding, 12/5 + opt. 24/7 support, video tutorials | Standard support until EOL | |
User Help & Training | In-system tutorials, wiki, KB, live Q&A, webinars | FAQs & forum; limited webinars | |
Accessibility & Compliance | WCAG compliant, disaster recovery, penetration tests | ||
Governance & Forecasting | Role-mapped funnel (influencer/blocker/signer) | Enables data-driven deal modelling | Out-of-scope |
Migration support included (plus after support)
We guide you every step of your migration journey, and beyond:
Dedicated Migration Toolkit
Dedicated Migration Toolkit: step-by-step checklist, timeline, feature comparison
Data mapping
Data mapping, ETL scripts, and no-downtime cutover
Onboarding
Onboarding webinars, video walkthroughs, and in-system tutorials
Dedicated Customer Success Manager
Dedicated Customer Success Manager and 12/5 + optional 24/7 support
Post-migration Support
Post-migration training, quarterly health checks, and roadmap previews
Ready to book a demo?
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
We use pre-built ETL scripts and a secure Migration Toolkit to transfer your applications, reviews, contracts, and reporting data with zero downtime.
Factors including the number, complexity, and similarity of grant programs and application forms can influence the deployment timeframe for OmniStar.
For Symplectic Grant Tracker clients, we estimate an average timeframe of 12 weeks to go-livea with OmniStar, including configuration, data migration, and staff training.
Yes. We’ll replicate your multi-stage reviews, conditional form logic, and approval routing exactly as they run today.
You get in-system tutorials, video guides, annual staff training days, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, and standard 12/5 support. 24/7 monitoring is also available.
Yes. Create role-based dashboards, custom email templates, automated reminders, and geospatial/time-series reports, using OmniStar’s inbuilt Designer Tools created with non-technical users in mind.