Managing a public support programme requires much more than receiving applications: calls for applications, evaluation, payments, and reporting. In five years, the digital base built with the Masterlink Platform has kept pace with the growth of the Fundo Ambiental, with more than 100 calls launched and over 300,000 applications managed. In this video, Daniel Gomes, General Manager of Masterlink, explains how.
In Summary
- According to Daniel Gomes, before the Masterlink Platform, much of the Fundo Ambiental’s operation was spread across different platforms, emails, Excel spreadsheets, and parallel tools.
- In five years: over 100 calls for applications launched, more than 300,000 applications managed, and the first calls published in just 10 days.
- The operation grew from a very small initial scale to billions of euros in budget.
- The lesson of the case: when information is structured, teams follow up better, data is more reliable, and reporting requires less effort.
The Fundo Ambiental Challenge
For Daniel Gomes, the Fundo Ambiental is one of those cases that clearly demonstrates the difference between digitising a task and transforming an operation. The challenge was immense: managing different programmes, different calls, different rules, thousands of applications, evaluation teams, payments, and reports, with a vast amount of information that had to be accurate.
Because managing public support is more than just receiving applications
When discussing public support, receiving applications is not enough. It is necessary to know who submitted, when they submitted, the status of each process, who evaluated it, what decision was made, what payments exist, and what information can be reported.
What happens when the operation grows
Before the Masterlink Platform, much of this reality was scattered: different platforms, emails, Excel spreadsheets, parallel tools, and significant manual work to gather information. Daniel Gomes explains that this may work when the volume is small, but it is no longer sufficient when the operation grows: data fails to reconcile, reports take longer, the team wastes time consolidating information, and management loses a clear view of the operation.
The introduction of the Masterlink Platform
The Fundo Ambiental needed a common base to manage different programmes and calls without having to start from scratch every time a new need arose, as each call could have its own rules, deadlines, fields, criteria, and evaluation flows. A rigid solution was not suitable, but creating yet another isolated tool made no sense either.
That is where the Masterlink Platform came in, as a digital base to manage the entire cycle of the calls: publication, application submission, evaluation, monitoring, payments, indicators, and reporting.
The numbers over five years
Over the course of five years, this base has supported the growth of the Fundo Ambiental itself:
- more than 100 calls for applications launched;
- more than 300,000 applications managed;
- first calls published in just 10 days;
- an operation that grew from a very small initial scale to billions of euros in budget.
What changes when information is structured
When information is scattered, everything requires more effort. When it is structured, teams follow up better, processes become clearer, data becomes more reliable, reports are generated with less effort, and decisions are supported by solid information. At Masterlink, says Daniel Gomes, what they seek to build is not just another portal or another application, but a common base where different processes can grow consistently.
The lesson from the Fundo Ambiental case
Today it might be one call, tomorrow another programme, then a new rule. For Daniel Gomes, the organisation should not have to start from scratch whenever the context changes: it should be able to evolve on an existing base. When scale increases, improvisation is no longer enough. Structure, flexibility, and control are required.
Managing one application is one thing. Managing hundreds of thousands of applications, multiple programmes, teams, payments, and reporting is something completely different. This is where technology stops being just a tool and becomes an execution capability.
Frequently asked questions
Managing different programmes and calls, each with its own rules, deadlines, fields, criteria, and evaluation flows, with thousands of applications, evaluation teams, payments, and reports, and with much of the information scattered across different platforms, emails, and Excel spreadsheets.
Over 100 calls launched, more than 300,000 applications managed, and the first calls published in just 10 days, in an operation that grew from a very small initial scale to billions of euros in budget.
The publication of calls, application submission, evaluation, monitoring, payments, indicators, and reporting.
According to Daniel Gomes, because it shows that the same base can serve different programmes and calls, without rigidity and without having to start from scratch whenever the context changes.
