Bob,

Very well put.

Bob

Robert P. Bloomberg
Director, Office of Grants & Contracts
Tufts Medical Center
800 Washington Street (Tupper 10)
Boston, MA  02111
Tel.   617.636.1142
Fax.  617.636.8568

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf
> Of Robert R Beattie 1
> Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 10:01 PM
> To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
> Subject: Re: [RESADM-L] Grants.gov problems, was Adobe Acrobat 9 Runtime
> error Solved (at least for now)
>
> Steve  discovered the "secret"  of Grants.gov submission  problems.  Most
> errors are just random.  Try  one time, and fail.  Try another time and
> succeed.  Call the help  desk and  get  told a myth.  Monday we got  the
> Myth that you had to use just one version of Adobe for downloading,
> filling
> in and submitting.  Today one of our staff got the Myth that you can use
> only Internet Explorer.  Earlier on the listserv I read the Myth that you
> cannot use Adobe 9 for some applications.
>
> I am afraid that  OMB  and agencies think the problems with Grants.gov are
> just server related -- add more servers -- The Big Burst and problems will
> be solved.
>
> Instead, the biggest problem is in the programming.  There are too many
> false errors.   Too many cryptic error messages that lead us to call and
> jam up the help desk, while they take our names and phone numbers and DUNS
> numbers and then give us a myth.  We often think the help we get works
> because we close all of our programs  and restart our browsers and
> download
> a new version of Adobe, or re-do the application and resubmit and it goes
> in.  It would have probably gone in anyway, even with out all that extra
> work.  It's  mostly just random.
>
> We are submitting the same application multiple times thus clogging the
> band width and making it _seem_ as though there needs to be more, new
> servers.  We did not have this problem with PureEdge (but lots of others
> with the forms themselves).  Thus the new problems came with Adobe, and it
> must be, sad to say, with the company  that installed the Adobe based
> system.
>
> This concept is reinforced in our minds when we consider that the Adobe
> system was supposed to be live in April of 2006, but did not come up until
> November, 2008.  Almost none of the 20 some forms management issues that
> have been brought up are yet addressed.  For example, we still cannot
> print
> the whole application, and worse, now, only one budget year gets printed.
>
> Anyway, being in "Help Desk Hold Land" so long this week has given me too
> much time to think about all of this.  I keep thinking that if OMB wants
> to
> fix things, instead of going back in time to the bad old days of "every
> agency goes it own way"  why don't they ever ask us users what we want.  I
> have heard that the current Administration considers Grants.gov to be a
> Bush initiative, and thus needs to be changed.  They are so shortsighted
> that they do not realize it is an initiative of the Grants Submitting
> Community.  We have been seeking this since the Clinton administration, if
> not earlier -- remember the Federal Commons that we all wanted?
>
> Anyway, please do not get down on the idea of One Form, One Portal, and
> One
> System.  Do we want to go back to paper submissions, or even emailing them
> to agencies.  Do we want Education's eGrants, the NIJ system, INSPIRES,
> FedConnet or its evil twin IIPS, or even FastLane unless it lets us keep
> our data.  It is true that we are going through a bad time with the
> current
> version of programming with Grants.gov.  I hope we can just throw out the
> bath water, and get a fresh tub.
>
> Bob
> Robert Beattie
> University of Michigan
> 734 936-1283
> By the way, if any of you have heard any Myths from the help desk, please
> pass them along to me, directly, xxxxxx@umich.edu   I was thinking of
> doing a poster session at the FDP of these.
>
>
>
> On Wed, 8 Apr 2009 15:14:42 -0700, "Hunter, Steve :LPH SUP-LRS"
> <xxxxxx@LHS.ORG> wrote:
> > Thank you to everyone who responded to my plea for help.  Acrobat Pro 9
> > still has some compatibility issues apparently.  However, I took the
> same
> > completed formset to my laptop, and using Reader 9.0 -- that's the
> Reader
> > 9.0 not Acrobat Pro 9.0 --  had NO problem submitting and getting
> > confirmed.
> >
> > This listserv is great!  It's wonderful to be able to tap such a source
> of
> > expertise!  I had lots of prompt responses to my post -- even after 5pm
> > Eastern.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Steve
> >
> >
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