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Installing Award Management

This content applies solely to Award Management, which must be purchased separately from the Appian base platform.

Introduction

The Government Award Management (AM) solution is built on the Appian low-code platform and helps your organization monitor, track, and complete the activities, actions, and workflows associated with your award contracts.

This guide provides how-to instructions for installing the Award Management (AM) solution, which consists of six main steps and an optional step:

  1. Download the software package.
  2. Deploy AM plug-ins to the Appian environment.
  3. Create the database objects in the business data source.
  4. Import the AM application into the Appian environment.
  5. Import and configure robotic tasks into the Appian environment.
  6. Set up SAM.gov integration (Optional)
  7. Upgrading from AM 1.7 or earlier

Before starting the installation process, review the System Requirements to ensure all minimum requirements are met.

System requirements

  • Appian version 24.1 for AM 1.9.0.
  • A supported version of a MariaDB or Oracle database as a business data source.
    • Note: Instructions below are tailored for MariaDB databases. The SQL scripts used in Step 3 will need to be modified for use with other databases.
  • A supported web browser.

Step 1: Download software package

To install AM, you'll need to download the software package that contains the following files you'll use in the remaining setup steps.

  • 01.AwardManagementv1.9.0.sql: SQL script for creating the database objects needed for the AM application.
  • AwardManagementv1.9.0.zip: Application package to import into Appian.
  • AwardManagementv1.9.0.properties: Import customization file for configuring the application package.
  • GSAeLibraryContractorLookup.zip: GSA robotic task package to import into Appian.
  • ContractDirectorySearch.zip: Contract directory robotic task package to import into Appian.
  • SBALookup.zip: Small business robotic task package to import into Appian.
  • GAM-IE11-WebDriver.zip: The driver package to the robotic task configuration for IE11.

To download the software package:

  1. Go to the SUPPORT tab on My Appian.
  2. Click the DOWNLOADS tab.
  3. Click SOLUTIONS.
  4. Find and open Award Management V1.9.0.
  5. In Downloads, click the Download Award Management link.
  6. Click PROCEED to agree to the License Agreement.
  7. Click Download Award Management v1.9.0 to download the ZIP file.
  8. Unzip AwardManagementv24.1.1.9.0.zip to access the software installation files.

Step 2: Deploy plug-ins

You must deploy the Appian Solutions, Content Tools, and Advanced Document Templating plug-ins for the AM solution to work. The steps for deploying plug-ins differ for an Appian Cloud or self-managed environment. Be sure to note which deployment steps you need for your environment.

Appian Cloud Environments

To deploy the plug-ins for an Appian Cloud environment:

  1. In the target environment, log in as the deployment user.
  2. Navigate to the Admin Console.
  3. On the left side of the console, click Plug-ins.
  4. Click ADD PLUG-INS.
  5. Search for and click Appian Solutions.
  6. Click DEPLOY.
  7. Search for and click Content Tools.
  8. Click DEPLOY.
  9. Search for and click Advanced Document Templating.
  10. Click DEPLOY.

Self-Managed Environments

To deploy the plug-ins for a self-managed environment:

Step 3: Create database objects

To create the structure for the database tables, views, and other objects that are a part of the AM application, you will need to run a DDL script in your database.

To create the database objects:

  • In your database, run the 01.AwardManagement1.9.0.sql DDL file downloaded in Step 1.

  • Note: This DDL file is optimized for MariaDB or Oracle databases. If you are using a different type of database, the DDL file may need to be modified.

Step 4: Import the application

The next step needed is installing the AM application by importing the application files into the target environment.

To import the application:

  1. In the target environment, log in as the deployment user.
  2. Navigate to the Appian Designer.
  3. Click IMPORT.
  4. Click UPLOAD and choose the AwardManagementv1.9.0.zip file downloaded in Step 1.
  5. Select Include related import customization file.
  6. Click UPLOAD. Select the AwardManagementv1.9.0.properties file downloaded in Step 1.
  7. Click INSPECT.
  8. Review the inspection results. If there are no issues, click IMPORT PACKAGE.
    • NOTE: The import may time out due to file size, but the import will continue in the background.

Note:  If the business database is not called Appian, a warning will occur when importing the data stores. After the import completes, open each data store object and update the Data Source dropdown list to fix this issue.

Step 5: Import and configure RPA

The final step required is to install the robotic tasks for the AM application into the target environment.

To import and configure RPA:

  • Follow the Setting Up RPA instructions, which show you how to import and configure the RPA files downloaded in Step 1.

Step 6: Set up SAM.gov integration

Step 7: Upgrading from AM 1.7 or earlier

Award Management 1.8 introduced a new way to manage document folders, which requires a migration of the existing data. If you are upgrading from Award Management 1.7 or earlier, you have the choice to allow the system to migrate the data automatically or run a manual migration at your convenience.

Note:  Complete all deployment steps for AM 1.9 before migrating the existing data.

Before deploying AM 1.9, you need to decide which data migration option works best for your organization, automatic or manual migration, then follow the steps in this section that correspond to your chosen migration path.

Automatic data migration

To allow the system to start the data migration automatically at 12 AM ET:

  1. In the import customization file, enter a value of true for the AS_AM_BOOL_SWITCH_DB_FOLDER_MIGRATION constant.
    • Note: After successful deployment of AM 1.9, the system will automatically run the migration process at 12 AM ET. This means, if you successfully deploy AM 1.9 on a Tuesday at 12:01 AM ET, the system will automatically run the migration process the next day (Wednesday) at 12 AM ET.
  2. To verify that the migration was successful, check that AS AM ZZZ 1.9 Award Folder DB Migration completed without error.

Manual data migration

After successfully deploying AM 1.9, if you want to manually start the migration process:

  1. In the import customization file, provide a value of false for the constant AS_AM_BOOL_SWITCH_DB_FOLDER_MIGRATION.
  2. After successful deployment of AM 1.9, go to Appian Designer and start the AS AM ZZZ 1.9 Award Folder DB Migration - MANUAL process model.
  3. To verify that the migration was successful, check that AS AM ZZZ 1.9 Award Folder DB Migration - MANUAL completed without error..

After the deployment and migration are complete, manually set the value of AS_AM_BOOL_SWITCH_DB_FOLDER_MIGRATION to false. This ensures that the scheduled migration process will not unintentionally restart.

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