Case Study: City of Norwalk

City of Norwalk extends special events platform to support grant applications in wake of Federal ARPA funding

March 07, 2021
Versatile special events permitting vendor, Eproval, used by Norwalk for street vendor licenses, film permits and now grant applications

Cities scrambling to find a simple and effective way to satisfy the allocation and reporting requirements of ARPA may wish to follow Norwalk’s lead and take a closer look at Eproval. The special events platform that features quick, easy, centralized reporting was reconfigured in less than two weeks to automate Norwalk’s grant application process.

The City of Norwalk plans to use some of its $39M in funding to offer public grants to businesses and non-profits. Grants create a challenge for cities because the vetting process must be streamlined and transparent on the government side and user-friendly enough for funding recipients to upload compliance documents such as receipts, photographs and records.

IT Director, Joyce Liu and Chief of Community Service Lamond Daniels reviewed Norwalk’s software licenses to determine if any of their online platforms could be reconfigured to help satisfy the Federal ARPA reporting requirements. Eproval was a candidate because the flexible platform offers unlimited applicants, unlimited internal and external reviewers and the ability to rapidly deploy new application types. It also features a centralized records management system and a process to allows applicants, reviewers and approvers to see where they are in the approval process. The functionality looked right, the only catch was it had to be up and running within 15 days.

City of Norwalk: a client of Eproval

City of Norwalk

POPULATION 88,755
We looked at all of our available software packages and determined that Eproval best met our needs, Eproval supports an equitable, fair and transparent process without being onerous on applicants. Eproval’s process was a proven concept for us so we knew there was flexibility in the platform, we just didn’t know if it could be done in two weeks.
Joyce Liu
Director of Information Technology

When Liu reached out to the folks at Eproval to see if would be possible to reconfigure the platform for a fourth application type – this time to process grant applications – she was pleased to find that rapid set up would not be an issue.

“I wasn’t surprised we were able to meet Norwalk’s aggressive timeline,” said Jonathan Thompson, Managing Director of Eproval, “A key aspect of our value proposition is product extension for applicants, reviewers and the numerous ways in which our platform can be used.”

Residents will now be able to apply for ARPA Community Recovery Fund by February 25th, 2022, thanks to the innovative efforts of Norwalk Community Services, Norwalk’s IT department, Federal funding and the nimble efforts of Eproval.

Highlighting the nimbleness and versatility of the platform, Thompson added, “We are a special event permitting platform with a cost-effective solution, considerable expertise in government workflows and document collection. We invite cities looking to process grant applications for ARPA funds to take a closer look at our platform.”

Check out the City of Norwalk’s Eproval System.

For more information, please contact:
Jonathan Thompson
1-855-787-2228
jonathan @ eproval.com