Elements of Microsoft Stimulus360

Microsoft Stimulus360 offers a rich set of content, features and tools for state and local government to track funding, proposals and projects relating to the economic stimulus program.

Many customers have asked me for a brief summary of what Stimulus360 contains, so here is the shortest version ever. I think Stimulus360 boils down to these fundamental elements:

Collaborative tools. Users need a place to share information, collaborate on documents such as proposals and status reports, and view dashboards and other reports. Stimulus360 provides a portal for these purposes.
Data analysis. Managers want to see information in many ways. Stimulus360 provides sophisticated tools to aggregate data, showing totals in multiple dimensions such as geographically, by program type, by agency, and more.
Detailed project tracking. In order to general reports to federal agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget as well as state agencies, Stimulus360 provides a detailed data model and data entry forms to capture the key data elements. It contains reports to help with compliance as well as dashboards and maps.
Transparency. Stimulus360 includes a website template to publish reports to the public and to gather information from constituents and contractors.

I will be exploring these elements in depth with blog entries, articles and videos in the coming weeks. Here is the first video, focused on business intelligence.

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