Designed to keep track of the US economic stimulus

May 6, 2009 10:38 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft Stimulus360 is a solution designed to permit public sector organizations to keep a close eye on the US economic stimulus funds. The Redmond company indicated that Stimulus360 would increase the level of transparency and collaboration among governmental entities. An integral part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act from February 17, 2009 involves not only the obligation to wisely allocate $300 billion in funds, but also to manage the resources, track them and provide reports on the evolution of funded projects. This is where Stimulus360 comes in.

"Stimulus360 provides a tool that governments can immediately use to meet the specific and often complex requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," said Gail Thomas-Flynn, general manager of Microsoft's state and local business. "It helps manage the details and coordination required while, most important, allowing leaders to focus on implementing projects that will create jobs and promote economic recovery."

Stimulus360 is based on SharePoint, Microsoft indicates, and brings to the table capabilities such as tracking, measuring, and sharing information related to stimulus-funded projects. In order to make the solution user-friendly from the get go, the software giant has also opted for a graphical user interface similar to the visual style and associated UX of the Office System. The Redmond company revealed that the solution was available to public sector organizations in the US both as an on-premise offering, as well as hosted on Microsoft's databases.

The Redmond company stressed the need for organizations across the US to start deploying Stimulus360 even before they will start to need the solution to handle the stimulus funding. In this context, Stimulus360's geospatial features allow organizations to bridge data with mapping capabilities, and to have a clear, visual perspective over the status of funded projects. The solution provides performance metrics and analytics capabilities, but also a complex view of the legislation and regulations organizations will have to comply with.