Overview
Black Marble partnered with Grant Thornton to extend and enhance their Financial Application Management System (FAMS), supporting the delivery of a high-profile public-sector funding programme. Building on an existing platform originally developed for a national sports body, we evolved the system to meet new governance, branding, and operational requirements. This included implementing a refreshed user experience aligned to programme branding, ensuring compliance with privacy and cookie policies, and adapting core business processes to support a new funding lifecycle.
The Challenge
Grant Thornton required a robust, scalable platform to administer a complex funding programme under tight delivery timelines. The solution needed to support high volumes of applicants, while maintaining strong governance, security, and auditability expected of a high-profile funding body. Key challenges included:
- Adapting an existing platform for new programme requirements
- Supporting secure applicant onboarding and identity management
- Enabling efficient handling of application and assessment workflows
- Ensuring compliance with enhanced security and regulatory expectations
- Delivering enhancements aligned to fixed funding window milestones
The Solution
Black Marble enhanced the FAMS platform to provide a streamlined, secure and scalable application management experience. Key capabilities included:
- Secure onboarding: Self-service registration with administrator approval
- Flexible workflows: Introduction of an Expressions of Interest (EOI) process alongside full application handling
- Enhanced data capture: Structured collection of organisation details, registration data, and key contacts
- Document management: Multi-document upload with structured storage and retrieval
- Future-ready integration: Architecture designed to support external validation services such as Companies House In addition, we delivered improvements to align the platform with programme requirements, including branding updates and compliance with privacy and cookie policies.
Security, Performance and Compliance
To support operation within a high-profile, government-linked funding context, we strengthened the platform across several critical areas:
- Platform remediation and upgrades within the .NET stack
- Introduction of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Structured file and data management
- Preparation for independent penetration testing (black box)
- Enhancements to performance, maintainability and operational resilience
Delivery and Outcomes
Working to demanding timelines aligned to funding milestones, Black Marble successfully delivered all required enhancements ahead of key application windows. This included:
- Delivery of an Expressions of Interest capability for initial intake
- Full platform readiness to support live application processing
- Completion of a full data archive and platform reset between funding rounds The result was a reliable, scalable system enabling Grant Thornton to confidently administer funding at scale.
Impact
This engagement demonstrates Black Marble’s ability to rapidly adapt and extend cloud-native application platforms to meet new regulatory, operational and security requirements. The same principles underpin our approach to similar initiatives:
- Secure identity and access management
- Configurable, auditable workflows
- Structured and high-quality data capture
- Low-friction user onboarding
- Scalable, integration-ready architecture These capabilities provide a strong foundation for delivering complex, multi-stakeholder platforms in highly governed environments.
