Fluent has never been a company to blow its own trumpet, and we have quietly gone about our business, establishing a firm foothold in the grants management sector over a number of years. However, we want to change things up a bit and its high time we emerged from our shell and made a bit of noise about what we do and offer. In this particular blog post we want to focus on why partnership matters to us and the wealth of experience and expertise that we bring to the table.

We are passionate and committed to helping our current and future clients support their grant giving activities through use of our product Flexi-Grant and the additional professional services we offer throughout the lifetime of our relationship together. 

From the outset, we place emphasis on working in ‘true partnership’ with our clients, standing shoulder to shoulder with you, so that we intimately understand your pain points, and in doing so provide solutions to address most (not all, let’s be honest here) of the challenges presented to us. A key ingredient of our success is our people, and we receive very positive feedback with regard to our responsiveness, understanding your needs and building solutions that meet and even surpass your requirements. And believe it or not, we go the extra mile – perhaps a little too often at times!

Our goal is to work intimately with you over a shorter period of time so that you are fully operational and independently managing your system as quickly as possible, rather than spending endless months working together. This latter approach always results in project fatigue, and can lead to a dampened enthusiasm for the system by the time you are operational. We would like to think you would agree with us that this is not a desirable outcome for either party, and something we are keen to avoid.

We make no bones about it, working with you to configure a solution to manage your grant giving is going to be intense. We make no apologies for that, and we are transparent about this fact from the start. 

We can’t build your solution without you – hence the importance of working collaboratively in true partnership. You are a ‘vital cog in the machine’, and we would like you to recognise that and stay the course, bringing your passion and enthusiasm to the fore each and every time we engage with you. It will be worth it in the end! 

Don’t let the relationship descend to the typical client vs supplier, were we are seen as the ‘spare’, who deserves a good shoeing from time to time. We don’t particularly like it when that happens, and sadly it does happen from time to time. Remember, we are people too, trying our very best to develop and support the best possible product to meet your needs. We are well intended, and never doubt our integrity – we have your best interests at heart – always. 

However, like any new relationship, there will be bumps in the road. If I was to use an analogy to describe the course of some of the relationships we experience, it would be along the lines of the following. During procurement (‘courting’) and discovery (‘honey-moon’) phase of the project, everything is rosy in the garden as we first get to know each other and cement the relationship. After a while, we become familiar with each other, and that’s when things can get a little more interesting, as extra demands (not always reasonable, and more importantly in scope of the project – let’s not lose sight of that) start to materialise, and sadly the true partnership relationship we embarked on at the start turns to the typical client vs supplier scenario.

So why do we think we are different and what is it exactly that you are getting from us? 

Simply put, you are not just procuring a product, you are tapping into a wealth of experience and knowledge that you just can’t place a value against. 

For example:

• We have intentionally gone out of our way to recruit members to our team who have domain knowledge within the sector, having worked at the coal face of grants management, working for reputable community, research and healthcare organisations across the UK. We speak your language!
• Our team has implemented Flexi-Grant for upwards of 100 clients over the past decade or so, for public bodies, charities, trusts and foundations, in the UK, Europe and Overseas.
• We have seen it all before – both good and not so good – your grants management application form and processes are not unique to us despite what you might think. We respect and admire the passion you bring – don’t ever lose it.
• Because our team has had such broad exposure and implemented so many solutions, we have a very strong sense of what works vs what doesn’t work. 
• We not only understand the capability of Flexi-Grant, we also understand grants management, and I can confidently state we have probably come across many more nuanced grant applications and processes than most if not all clients that we work with. Trust us, we’ve got this!

We are more than just a product, and if you are interested to find out more about us and what we offer, please contact us at: info@fluenttechnology.com

Written by Dr Alexander Thomson, Operations Director