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Re: grants.gov/USDepartment of Education John A Brown 13 May 2005 14:06 EST

This all comes from very poor planning by the developers of Grants.gov.
To develop software that is not compatible with mutiple platforms (PC,
MAC etc.) is not only irresponsible, but a major foul up. To assume that
IE is the default browser and develop a software that runs through it is
unacceptable, considering that the opensource browser Mozilla Firefox is
far superior and is pushing IE out the "WINDOW". No pun intended! This
should of been a cross platform system from the start, or they should of
kept it in a Beta test.

The funny thing is, as I read these posts, some mention to have this
done days in advance. Well, we all know we can't get our PI's to submit
proposals within a 48 hour window, let alone 72 hours. At our
institution, we'd be lucky to get it in before 5pm on the deadline day.

So, in short everyone will see that if this is not resolved soon, there
will be major problems.

John Anthony Brown
Associate Trainer, Research Services
Office of Research Administration
Thomas Jefferson University
Martin Building, Rm. 317
201 South 11th Street.
Philadelphia, P.A. 19107
Phone: (215)503-4265
Fax:    (215)503-2365

Laurie Chamness wrote:

> We had the same problem with receiving error messages about
> credentials and authorization, and the grants.gov help desk told us
> the same thing--to open the file from Explorer. Our IT Manager (Robbie
> Lee) advised us to change two of our PureEdge Preferences, which might
> make our submittals next time go more smoothly. We changed the Network
> Access to "Online with Backup (to desktop)," and we changed the Locate
> Browser from "Default" to "Explorer."
>
> The help desk also told us to type in our password very slowly, in
> case the grants.gov password system could not keep up with us typing
> in the password quickly.
>
> Laurie
>
> Francis, Richard A. wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> We had a very similar problem in which the error message was about
>> credentials and authorization, but the real FIX was to close all
>> windows, open the file from Internet Explorer and submit that way.  It
>> was a tense hour, but we made the deadline. And yes, we THOUGHT we had
>> everything lined up in advance...
>>
>> Rick
>>
>> Richard Francis
>> Director, Research Information Systems
>> Office of Research
>> University of Toledo
>>
>> 419-530-6193
>>
>> xxxxxx@utoledo.edu
>> www.research.utoledo.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG] On
>> Behalf Of Audree Hughes
>> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 5:03 PM
>> To: xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG
>> Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] grants.gov/USDepartment of Education
>>
>>
>> The past couple of times we've tried to submit to Grants.gov we
>> encountered problems.  On one occasion, the system would not let us open
>> the Grants.gov file into which had already uploaded all the parts of our
>> proposal. We called the Help Desk, but she didn't know how to help us.
>> So we started from scratch and created another Grants.gov file and
>> uploaded everything into that one.  Then after we hit the Submit button,
>> it wouldn't let us sign back on to authorize the submission.  It kept
>> saying that our credentials were incorrect.  We called the Help Desk
>> again and got someone who did know what they were doing, he told us that
>> our credentials were fine, and he told us to go through Internet
>> Explorer and that did let us complete the submission.
>>
>> On the second occasion, it let us get all the way to hitting the Submit
>> button and then once again said that our credentials were incorrect.
>> After being on hold for the Help Desk for 14 minutes, our credentials
>> once again confirmed, we went through Internet Explorer again, and it
>> worked.  The person at the Help Desk apologized for the delay stating
>> that "we've had so many problem calls today, that it just took a while
>> to get to your call."
>>
>> Now, whenever one of our faculty tells us "this has to be submitted
>> through Grants.gov" we let them know what problems we've had and
>> strongly encourage early submission so we have time for the Grants.gov
>> system to crash and still get our proposals in.
>>
>> If the plan is for most agencies to start using this system, then they
>> should not make it mandatory until have it in working order.  At least a
>> paper submission is something you can count on to work every time!!
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> Audree S. Hughes, Sr. Administrator
>> Pre-Award Services, ODU Research Foundation
>> (757) 683-4293 ext. 604, fax (757) 683-5290
>> email:  xxxxxx@odu.edu
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>
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>>
>

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