Award Force Erfahrungen

Great support, intuitive, submitters and judges love it!

Kommentare: This company really gets the importance of support. When onboarding, it's easy to get overwhelmed, worried, stressed, and panicked. We did not experience any of that when onboarding with AF. Our rep was with us the entire way. Our millions of questions (and sometimes duplicate questions a week later) were happily answered, she listened and used our particular nomenclatures when responding. I also love the "sanity check" that is offered when a new program is added. Having someone review our program before we go live is invaluable.

Vorteile:

I love that is is easy for our members and judges to use. That ease of use helps with them participating in the awards program in subsequent years.

Nachteile:

Nothing major comes to mind, but I have a couple of minor dislikes. I wish there was better sorting capabilities on the screen views. Not all columns can be sorted. Also, some times our I need to provide reports to our board that the system doesn't provide. Luckily I can download everything into excel and create my own "ad hoc reports when needed.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen: OpenWater

Warum Award Force gewählt wurde: Their product was buggy and difficult to use. The final straw was they raised our pricing more than 300% in one year (with no change in subscription offereings.)

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Award Force: Award Force is very intuitive and user friendly. It offered better scoring options, and methods for creating judging teams. Also, during our due diligence, we spoke with other AF users about their feedback from submitters and judges, and all raved about the feedback. We are now one of those ravers as well. Our members and judges love AF! So do we.

An Amazing Option for Project Management

Vorteile:

It's amazing! It looks great, the forward facing aspect has gotten many compliments. You can customize and tweak so much that you can make it work for almost anything! And the price is great! Customer service is very responsive and so helpful! They clearly know their stuff.

Nachteile:

-The built-in spreadsheet function is not great. -You can't have a submission from an anonymous source or without requiring a login. -If you want to have a lot of programs/ applications open at once, that tab view can get pretty cluttered and overwhelming. It would be nice if you could hide them by category or something.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen: SurveyMonkey

Warum Award Force gewählt wurde: To get a better interface and improved functionality at less cost!

Zuvor genutzte Software: WizeHive

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Award Force: This had it all in terms of what we needed and looked great. I would definitely choose this again.

Great Program!

Vorteile:

This program is very nice to have. Worth the money.

Nachteile:

It takes some time to catch on to this program.

Best Innovators contest

Kommentare: Good follow up of the contest during the different steps.

Vorteile:

People working on the plateforme are really professionnal

Nachteile:

I would like to make a REX (Return on experience) meeting with people involved.

Award Force is superior software

Kommentare: Very positive experience overall. Other award platforms I have seen are just pale copies of Award Force!

Vorteile:

The software is super easy to use and adapt to your program's needs. The help features and videos are best in class, and the customer service agents are patient and knowledgeable! Super fast turn around times too!

Nachteile:

I wish there was more data around my applicants and submissions and the Full Report by Nomination type could be refined more.

Value for Money - Award Force : Awards competition Management System.

Kommentare: Over all experience If I say, the security measures and data protection features of Award Force are the best I found.. Emphasize how it safeguards sensitive information and ensures the integrity of the awards process., which is in fact very high in quality and confidentiality kept tight.

Vorteile:

While introducing I begin your review with a brief introduction to Award Force, mentioning its purpose and significance in awards management. You can also include any context about how you came across the software. Discuss the user-friendliness of the software. Mention if the interface is intuitive and if it's easy for both administrators and applicants to navigate.: Absolutely it is intuitive and easy to navigate. Features and Functionality:Detail the key features of Award Force that you found valuable. This could include aspects like customizable application forms, scoring systems, reporting capabilities, or any unique features that set it apart. All are very good and excellent I found.

Nachteile:

There are certain things of course to be improved. Like reporting part, I could not find any easy way to get the scoring sheet and scores together to be converted to a pdf format.

Best customer service... maybe ever?!

Kommentare: It's good but it could be better. The terminology isn't as straightforward as it could be. It would be great if there could be a website widget for nominations just to make life easier for nominators. (I manage the website)

Vorteile:

The team are insanely helpful and lovely. I spent years working in CS so I really appreciate good service!

Nachteile:

The ease of use could be better. There seem to be multiple places to edit the same content which is just weird. Overly complex in places.

New to Award Force but liking it

Kommentare: I have had some really anxious moments trying to set up the awards I am working with. Being able to call for urgent help outside of our organisation, for complex issues is an enormous benefit.

Vorteile:

We have access to an extraordinary expert user when we run into trouble. Having a trusted consultant like Cil, means that I can work on a new platform confident that I have her to turn to when I hit difficulties that I can't trouble shoot myself.

Nachteile:

It is a complex program for a new user. I am only two weeks into working with it and trying to run multiple awards. It is a little tricky to learn. I do not necessarily find it intuitive but the more I work with it the more it makes sense to me.

Useful tool for project applications

Kommentare: Good overall but too many bugs this year (started in Sept. 2023) compared to 2022

Vorteile:

Easy to set up and prompt support available in any timezone

Nachteile:

There can be some bugs to the system that prevent from making progress when setting up things. The support that needs to be email than a zoom call. I had around 30 email exchanges with support this year which is not efficient on our side - Last year was much better, two zoom calls resolved my issues

Global Support is Worth It!

Kommentare: Very positive experience from top to bottom. Pleased we made the transition!

Vorteile:

We enjoy that the support team is global and that means quick responses on the wide variety of questions that we have on a rolling basis. We've never had a question go unanswered or unsolved. The platform is easy to use and customize for anyone seeking an events management platform.

Nachteile:

There are times where it would be nice to have a dedicated support person vs. a wider team, but it hasn't interrupted or kept us from developing the platform. It's just another way of working. The main events admin says that she would have liked to speak to someone vs. emailing. I suppose that goes along with the challenges of a global team. Email is easiest, but sometimes conversations can solve things in a different way.

Award Force Customer Service is top-notch

Kommentare: I run multiple competitions for schools around the world. This system is relatively easy to us for a builder and for the manager.

Vorteile:

The representatives are available 24/7 all over the world to solve problems and propose solutions.

Nachteile:

The emails from AF often go to someone's SPAM folders and we have to keep tracking them down.

Fantastic Produce

Kommentare: This product has made taking our Awards completely online, so much easier than anticipated. The product is well thought out, detailed and the support team solve every question easily and quickly.

Vorteile:

System is easy to use and can be as simple or as complex as you like., The support team are highly responsive, knowledgable and lovely!

Nachteile:

Gets better all the time but I will look forward to being able to have multiple search criteria in the future hopefully!

The support on Award Force is the best I have EVER experienced

Kommentare: I inherited an open Award season to manage and was able to come up to speed fairly quickly due to the intuitive nature of the platform and the SUPERB support I got from Award Force e.g. one on one training calls, common help tips embedded in the platform (ie don't have to go to another screen and back and forth but can take action in the platform with the tips right there on the same screen), and extraordinarily fast responses to my emails asking how to do certain things. I am managing our 2nd season and it is going very smoothly and I am digging deeper into the functionality that is available. This is our team's second year using the platform and it works extremely well for the needs that we have and I highly recommend the SW if you need to manage an Awards program.

Vorteile:

The program is fairly intuitive so the learning curve is not too steep. And for the times when I have needed help, the response time and quality of support is unparalleled in my experience. I send an email, within a few hours no matter what time of the day or night I send it, someone from around the globe answers me. If further assistance is needed e.g. a call with someone, it can usually be set up within a day or two of my request. And the quality of the support is excellent. The staff are extremely knowledgeable of the product and understand the questions from a user or functionality perspective vs providing technical-speak. It seems that often times tech support for other SW I have used is staffed by technical wonks who write the code and make the bells and whistles but don't have a real understanding of the business or user function so the support comes from that perspective rather than understanding what I am trying to do and then providing a solution. Another thing that I use all the time is importing to excel to run reports. In this way, I can always have a user friendly aggregated view of what is on the platform depending on what I am needing. I love this ability to have offline access and I know some of our judges have also made good use of being able to download PDF versions of entries that they can review on the go and then come to the platform to enter their scores and comments.

Nachteile:

I have come across some small functionality that I would like to have such as a bit more ability to "pretty up" my email broadcasts or filtering by 2 different dimensions to randomly assign entries for judging. With that said, the SW really addresses so many of our main needs that these issues are not an issue and I have been able to create workarounds if needed.

Award Force has been a life saver

Kommentare: Despite a few glitches here and there, Award Force truly has been a lifesaver for me and my organization -- it has streamlined the award process so much for us, which makes life easier for our users/nominators, and also frees up my time to do other important work, including giving feedback on submissions to increase the overall quality we're seeing. Keep up the great work!

Vorteile:

I run an awards program that gets more than 4,000 entries a year, and before we found Award Force we were allowing people to submit by just sending us a PDF. It was a huge effort to collect them all, a waste of paper to make a "packet" for judges to read, and a colossal pain to notify the winners and losers using a mail merge. Award Force is like a godsend in that regard -- it allows me to keep all the entries in one place, have the judges evaluate them right with in the system, and then I can notify winners and losers right from the system as well. The software allows me to program my questionnaire so submissions are automatically separated into the appropriate category, easily assign judges, and help users from the back end.

Nachteile:

The software can have a steep learning curve for new users (I onboard new judges all the time as we hire new people and it can be confusing at first). I wish some of the language was more intuitive. The system also sometimes can run slowly if I have a lot of tasks running at once on a big set of entries. And I think this is a problem on the end of my users (they work in places with very strong spam filters), but sometimes the notifications I send don't arrive where they're supposed to. I suspect they're getting caught in quarantine, but it causes some extra work for me on the back end having to look up individual submissions.

Great All round system and support

Kommentare: Award Force for me is the complete package, ease of is second to none and the options available within the system will cater for awards small or large, simple or complicated. Level of support is brilliant with personal service and quick turnaround. Which is a must for Award event & program managers.

Vorteile:

The software can be customised to suite various award types as a result is versatile. It's certainly great for awards programs with multiple awards under different categories. It is easy to use and modify even after set up. Good reporting capabilities and great dashboard. Many options for judging of awards and can include different rounds as well. Good branding opportunities within the system, whether it be for your own awards program or your sponsors & partners. From the research I have done this system is the best and is priced well. The level of support available is great whether and you get to speak to a real person, from initial set and an ongoing basis. Many others don't offer this level of support.

Nachteile:

There really isn't anything I don;t like about it. It more than suits my needs.

Review - Rina Park

Kommentare: It's been really good overall, especially because the support team has been super helpful and friendly. Award Force allows us to execute all the awards we have, in the complexity that we want (we can customise the settings to match each award). It's also straight forward and easy for the jurors to use and judge the entries, which is a big plus point.

Vorteile:

The product is versatile and the support team is TOP! Whenever I had a question (simple one or complex), the support team got back really fast and was very helpful and friendly. It's also great that we can request for short Zoom call to solve the problems. I find it very helpful and efficient, than to send numerous emails back and force.

Nachteile:

It takes some time to learn the system. There are so many features (which is good), but it also makes it harder to learn the functions. Now that I'm used to using the system, it's not a problem, but in the beginning the interface was a little confusing (e.g. you are able to access the judging from the judging menu and also settings > judging, only "one" form editor for all awards)

The customer support is wonderful. They are very prompt, and accept numerous inquiries.

Kommentare: The customer service was wonderful, and it spoke to salesforce well overall, despite the hiccups we experienced collectively.

Vorteile:

I like the fact that the layout of the content is organized and visually appealing. (concept tabs for example) Also, the dashboard, side panel with all the features, and checklists are helpful.

Nachteile:

The foreign DOB text box is not conducive to many of the US teams we work with. Also, I wish the videos were more directly accessible and embedded within the software so I was more likely to use it instead of constantly asking the team for support.

Loving this program!

Kommentare: It is easy to use. The help articles and videos are also really good.

Vorteile:

We used a different program for three years for my association. It became harder to use each year. After helping two other associations on judging their awards, we got to work on Award Force and really loved it. So when our three year contract was done with the other program, we switched to Award Force. We love how easy it is to work with and also how all of the content is arranged for the administrators. We only started the process in 2020. We created our awards program, opened the awards and people started submitting their entries. Then COVID hit and we cancelled the awards. But up to that point, we did not have any problems. Oh - and our other program did not have a shopping cart. For our members, this was a game changer.

Nachteile:

Nothing so far. We are just starting our second year with the program and did not get to the judging part last year due to COVID. But many of us have been on the judging side for other associations who also have Award Force and it was easy.

Exactly what I hoped and more!

Kommentare: We were using a competitors awards platform for nearly 4 years with mixed results. We were not happy with the customer service, the price and the platform in general. After researching alternatives, I discovered Award Force and I am glad I did! From day one, Award Force has been outstanding in all aspects. From client support, to functionality to pricing/value. What I am most impressed with is the customer support and very quick response time.

Vorteile:

Very easy to set up and use! I am extremely pleased with Award Force on so many levels. As an awards administrator, it offers everything I need and more. Our users, both entrants and judges, have no complaints and are pleased with the platform.

Nachteile:

I really haven't had any bad experiences. I do wish I could mirror a users account to see exactly what they are seeing and currently that is not possible as far as I know. As an admin, when a user is having an issue or question, it would be nice to see exactly what they are seeing so I can problem solve. Award Force takes privacy and security of the users seriously, so I am thinking this is the reason why I cannot mirror a user.

A Program Manager's DREAM!

Kommentare: Award Force has completely revolutionized the submission, review, and dissemination process for several of the programs administered through our office (Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Middle Tennessee State University). We are currently using it for student grant proposals submissions and abstract submissions for events such Scholars Week, Posters at the Capitol, and several conferences. It truly is a program manager's dream software.

Vorteile:

The software is extremely well-designed. It is capable of handling multiple projects/programs at one time and it keeps all the information collected from applicants/entrants organized. The ability to export data to Excel is a great feature. The program is easy to use from all standpoints, including on the entrant side (usually students, in our case), judging side (usually faculty and administrators), and on the administrator side in setting up Award Force and manipulating it to suit our needs and events. Customer service is outstanding!! Seriously, top notch. The help videos are extremely useful, too.

Nachteile:

Truthfully, I do not have any complaints. We have been very pleased with Award Force and I would strongly recommend it to anyone.

Extremely impressive

Kommentare: Our organisation hosts an extremely complex hierarchical awards program with multiple chapters, categories, price points, sets of criteria, juries and numerous staff across Australia. I have been extremely impressed by the functionality and flexibility of the Award Force platform, not to mention the high level of customer service and willingness to provide solutions. My consultant has been very responsive and always willing to help with our program. I could not be happier with the level of service we have received to date, and am excited to launch our program via this new system over the next six months. During our pilot program I received only positive feedback from the entrants, judges and administrators using the platform. It is extremely easy to use, and looks professional to external viewers. I am relieved to have a lot of control over the configuration of the system for our needs, and it means that I can be the main support for the team working on delivering the program. The team at Award Force are extremely capable, responsive and willing to help. The user experience of the system is second-to-none. The system gives our awards program a professional look. I am excited to use the platform and cannot recommend Award Force highly enough.

Vorteile:

Flexible for different needs, easy to use, professional look and feel.

Nachteile:

Not being able to run multiple programs at the same time - we would love to use it for our other Prize programs!

A great platform for creative contests

Kommentare: Exceptional. It is costly for a small nonprofit like ours, but it saves me, our entrants and judges so much time it is worth the cost.

Vorteile:

The AwardForce platform is very intuitive and easy to use. The Tech Support is fantastic and I never fail to have questions or issued addressed very quickly. The one-on-one instruction is very much appreciated. It is easy for our entrants and judges to navigate.

Nachteile:

I had to get Tech Support to help me with connecting our billing platform. That was not quite as intuitive as the rest of the platform.

We used Award Force to run several design competitions successfully

Kommentare: Ease of use, professionally run design competitions and peace of mind.

Vorteile:

Ease of use. Award Force has allowed us to run design competitions with up to 70 entrants relatively easily. Award Force took so much of the onerous sifting through entries and made it so much easier for us as the organizers of the competitions and for the judges to access and review the entries. It also helped when we ran design competitions with several rounds, i.e. Round One being the initial selection of acceptable entries being put into a coherent set of entries and then allowing the judges to easily go through them in order to populate Round Two. The whole experience has been very easy and that is extremely helpful to us as we don't have the time to develop our own system.

Nachteile:

Can be a little bit difficult to look back at previous rounds of a design competition as the competition progresses, i.e. when at Round 2 of the competition and you want to look back at how the entrants earlier work looked it takes some time to navigate and find what you want

Efficient Management of Large numbers of Applicants

Kommentare: Great. Very responsive customer care team. Solved challenges in a timely fashion.

Vorteile:

The ability of tag and sort your applications as they progress through multiple rounds of evaluation. The ability to set up multiple rounds, give needs based access based on who in the team is playing what kind of role - just to read, or evaluate or scoring by a jury member. And how that even looked differently for each user. The option to customise how our information shows up and some basic branding was also good to have.

Nachteile:

Tagging is one feature that could use more nuancing and we shared this with the Af team. A still more intutive interface would be good. Sometimes it takes a while to understand how to navigate what content blocks show up where etc. Front-end editing of this as much as possible would be great.

Makes your life easier!

Kommentare: Great! Fantastic support and support to 'tweak' the software to meet our needs by way of progression and updates.

Vorteile:

Functionality - its intuitive once you get going to set up

Nachteile:

The ability for entrants to add a '£0' when we ask for financial figures - we need proper figures so have to check each entry for this.