COE Partners have seen their grants management support costs drop by up to 75% upon joining the COE. For example the Office of Public Health and Science grants management support costs dropped from $1.2 million to $229,600 when they joined the COE. In FY 07 the Partners' grant processing cost dropped an additional 20%, double what was projected. The Administration on Aging and the Administration for Children and Families saw their FY 06 contributions to the COE drop in FY 07 from $258,000 to $212,533 and from $3,585,000 to $2,990,000 respectively. Every time a partner joins the COE, grant processing costs drop and services increase because of the low incremental costs of servicing the new partner. Due to economies of scale, the prior client server architecture was converted to a web enabled Services Oriented (SOA) system, at no additional cost to the Partners. The COE Partners have also seen the percentage of electronic grant applications increase from 33% in FY 06 to 60% in FY 07. Grantee reporting electronically increased 40% in FY 07 from the previous year. Electronic applications and reporting significantly reduce the resources required to review and respond to the applications and reports. The President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recognized not only the millions of dollars in annual savings for the COE Partners, but also the improvement in quality and timeliness of information.
The applicants and grantees receiving grants from the COE Partners have also seen their grant management costs drop dramatically as they begin to interact with a single electronic "face" to the grantors. The impact of these savings are felt immediately by those being served by the grantees, as the Grantees spend fewer dollars on administration and thus more money is available for services.