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Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

Partner with the organization to thrive post-pandemic.

  • Will funding from COVID-19 stimulus opportunities mean more human and financial resources for IT?
  • Are there governance processes in place to successfully execute large projects?
  • What does a large, one-time influx of capital mean for keeping-the-lights-on budgets?
  • How will ARP funding impact your internal resourcing?
  • How can you ensure that IT is not left behind or an afterthought?

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Seek a one-to-many relationship between IT solutions and business problems. Use the central and overarching nature of IT to identify one solution to multiple business problems that span multiple programs, departments, and agencies.
  • Lack of specific guidance should not be a roadblock to starting. Be proactive by initiating the planning process so that you are ready to act as soon as details are clear.
  • IT involvement is the lynchpin for success. The pandemic has made this theme self-evident, and it needs to stay that way.
  • The fact that this funding is called COVID-19 relief might make you think you should only use it for recovery, but actually it should be viewed as an opportunity to help the organization thrive post-pandemic.

Impact and Result

  • Shift IT’s role from service provider to innovator. Take ARP funding as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create future enterprise capabilities by thinking big to consider IT innovation that can transform the business and its initiatives for the post-pandemic world.
  • Whether your organization is eligible for a direct or an indirect transfer, be sure you understand the requirements to apply for funding internally through a business case or externally through a grant application.
  • Gain the skills to execute the project with confidence by developing a comprehensive statement of work and managing your projects and vendor relationships effectively.

Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding Research & Tools

Use our research to help maximize ARP funding.

Follow Info-Tech's approach to think big, align with the business, analyze budget and staffing, execute with confidence, and ensure compliance and reporting.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.0/10


Overall Impact

$662,499


Average $ Saved

8


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services

Guided Implementation

10/10

$1.26M

5

Town of Snowmass Village

Guided Implementation

8/10

$64,999

10


Workshop: Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Think Big

The Purpose

  • Push the boundaries of conventional thinking and consider IT innovations that truly transform the business.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • A list of innovative IT opportunities that your IT department can use to transform the business

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Discuss the objectives of ARP and what they mean to IT departments.

1.2

Identify drivers for change.

1.3

Review IT strategy.

  • Revised IT vision
1.4

Augment your IT opportunities list.

  • List of innovative IT opportunities that can transform the business

Module 2: Align With the Business

The Purpose

  • Partner with the business to reprioritize projects and initiatives for the post-pandemic world.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Assessment of the organization’s new and existing IT opportunities and alignment with business objectives

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Assess alignment of current and new IT initiatives with business objectives.

  • Preliminary list of IT initiatives
2.2

Review and update prioritization criteria for IT projects.

  • Revised project prioritization criteria

Module 3: Analyze IT Budget and Staffing

The Purpose

  • Identify IT budget deficits resulting from pandemic response and discover opportunities to support innovation through new staff and training.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Prioritized shortlist of business-aligned IT initiative and projects

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Classify initiatives into project categories using ROM estimates.

3.2

Identify IT budget needs for projects and ongoing services.

3.3

Identify needs for new staff and skills training.

3.4

Determine business benefits of proposed projects.

3.5

Prioritize your organization’s projects.

  • Prioritized shortlist of business-aligned IT initiatives and projects

Module 4: Plan Next Steps

The Purpose

  • Tie IT expenditures to direct transfers or link them to ARP grant opportunities.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Action plan to obtain ARP funding

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Tie projects to direct transfers, where applicable.

4.2

Align list of projects to indirect ARP grant opportunities.

4.3

Develop an action plan to obtain ARP funding.

  • Action plan to obtain ARP funding
4.4

Discuss required approach to project governance.

  • Project governance gaps

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.0/10
Overall Impact

$662,499
Average $ Saved

8
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 6-phase advisory process. You'll receive 11 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Think big.
  • Call 1: Discuss what ARP means for IT.
  • Call 2: Discuss business drivers for change.

Guided Implementation 2: Align with the business.
  • Call 1: Align opportunities and initiatives with business goals.
  • Call 2: Review project prioritization criteria.

Guided Implementation 3: Analyze IT budget and staffing.
  • Call 1: Identify project categories.
  • Call 2: Discuss business benefits and project prioritization.

Guided Implementation 4: Build the case for funding.
  • Call 1: Identify opportunities for direct and indirect funding.
  • Call 2: Review template to draft business cases or grant proposals.

Guided Implementation 5: Execute with confidence
  • Call 1: Review vendor management strategy and identify pain points.

Guided Implementation 6: Ensure compliance and reporting.
  • Call 1: Discuss project governance framework.
  • Call 2: Identify project portfolio reporting requirements.

Authors

Hannes Scheidegger

Shannon Reid

Teodora Siman

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