For twenty years before Gina Della Porta, DHSc, MHS, arrived at Yale University, managing the Limited Submissions process manually required one staff member’s full-time efforts. That was also prior to Yale appointing its first ever Vice Provost for Research, who began his tenure by benchmarking systems and processes used at other research institutions and thus learned about the widespread usage and benefits of InfoReady.
Fortunately for Yale’s Office of Sponsored Projects – where Gina is the Program Manager of Funding Opportunities – InfoReady arrived at the same time she did. The result today is that even with an increasingly robust and comprehensive limited submissions program, she can perform the same functions as her predecessor in about half the time. Gina attributes a significant portion of that time savings, and resultant productivity increase, to InfoReady’s automated, cloud-based platform and its rapid acceptance by researchers, reviewers, and administrators. In her words, “people were pretty happy from early in the InfoReady process.” But she’s also quick to point out that Yale’s unique and proprietary processes for scoring and reviewing, plus having standing committees of reviewers, played a role in making the Limited Submissions process more efficient.
“I saved so much time through InfoReady that I’ve been able to take on other initiatives. For example, pretty quickly the VP was able to assign me to some research development activity here at Yale.”
Gina’s additional responsibilities are clearly a win for the University and its budget. Faculty members now have a better structure for improving research proposals. And, Gina is better able to utilize her extensive skill set and deep experience.
While Yale has its own unique systems and processes, its already notable success with InfoReady is a common one across the spectrum of research-focused colleges and universities – a primary reason for its use at more than 150 institutions globally. Common, too, is Gina’s personal experience with the platform and the InfoReady staff: “Everyone at InfoReady has been very responsive and very helpful.” InfoReady’s extraordinary responsiveness – a key differentiator among competitive platforms – is especially critical because the transition from manual to an automated process tool can create uncertainty and anxiety among users. By focusing as much on “high touch” as “high tech,” our dedicated support team engenders confidence in the product and trust in the Company.
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