Submittable

Kommentare: Try me another day...I am out the door to a meeting.

Vorteile: Making the decision to shift our application process to online, I was concerned that it would meet the needs of the artists and writers applying and also ease transition for a middle to senior aged office team with varying degrees of electronic saavy. Needless to say we continue to remark on an almost daily basis how we LOVE Submittable. Ease of use was foremost and the Submittable staff are always right there with customer support. Any concerns or suggestions were addressed and often appeared as Submittable staff tweaked and updated the software. Likewise input from customers is often solicited. This open process continues to make the software better and better as new features are added and functionality is streamlined. Over the years Submittable continues to be software service and customer oriented. From staff and applicant feedback, I understand that Submittable greets anyone from neophyte to expert electronic guru users with the same degree of respect, patience, expertise and professional service. I especially appreciate the ease in navigating the software features. Ease in accessing and reviewing all areas of our applications, accessing correspondence with applicants and reviewers, sending out requests for character statements automatically, controlling access to all areas of the application and processes as needed have streamlined the time and task of handling actual materials. No more incomplete applications. Electronic deadlines hold fast.

Nachteile: Do I miss having USPS delivering stacks of applications for weeks on end around deadlines, when apps just pop up on the list in Submittable? Do I miss the file prep for each application as materials dribbled in little by little and were sometimes incomplete even after the deadline due to weather etc. when that is all tracked by the software? Do I miss handling over and over sections of the application and loosing track when interrupted in the process when a click of a mouse brings me right back? Do I miss being stuck at my desk surrounded by stacks of applications when I now access the applications anywhere there is wifi...even 12 time zones away which is what I did for the last batch of applications? Do I miss being burdened by attempts to streamline or simplify a labor intensive process only to discover all the benefits of using Submittable? Do I realize how staff are freed up to manage more productive tasks in the office than pushing files and paper? Do I realize that the staff team are excited to see applications appearing on their screens, versus groaning when the USPS truck drove into the parking lot? Do I realize how much more economical Submittable is versus staff time and energy factored in with hand processed applications? Do I realize how much more fun it is to problem solve around tailoring the software with Submittable staff to address a need? Do I wish our staff team had transitioned to Submittable sooner? Yes, no regrets we are HUGE Submittable fan

Kommentare: In my opinion, user experience and interface matter. Submittable has a clean look that is welcoming to users. It's not a perfect platform and we've had to work around it. The team is very responsive, however, and seems open to improving their product. If only they could move a bit faster.

Vorteile: Submittable is easy to use and intuitive. With drag-and-drop options, creating an application takes minutes. Logic branching also helps when you want to gather more info based on an applicant's response. The file upload features are also very helpful. Once your application is live, you can track and label applications as they come in. This is helpful since a quick perusal of an application can determine eligibility. One quick label and you can filter it out during the full review process. The reviewer portal is equally intuitive. With side-by-side views, your reviewers can read and answer questions or rate the application without having to switch screens. You can also set certain application fields (such as name, gender, etc.) to blind so that there is no bias based on these questions. Overall, Submittable is a great application portal and get your money's worth.

Nachteile: Recommendation letter request emails don't get sent out until AFTER the applicant submit their application. This is fine in most cases but you do have to offer a small grace period to recommenders. It would be great if applicants can enter a recommender and hit a button "Request Letter." The forms can also become rather long if you have a lot of questions. It could affect completion rates. Finally, just as you are able to remind reference letter writers through the portal, it would be great to be able to remind those with incomplete application about the upcoming deadline. Right now, you can request a list of incomplete applications but you only get name and email addresses. It would be good to see some of the data that the applicants have completed so far.

Kommentare: We save time.

Vorteile: What we like most about Submittable is that it allows us to manage submissions more efficiently. I'm not a fan of documents and tasks "living in email." Having a robust product like Submittable saves us time in reading and replying, as well as offering a way to capture and analyze submission data. I cannot imagine handling hundreds of submissions at a time via email, especially with a large reading panel. The built-in tools, such as sorting, labels, varying permission levels, templates, etc. allow us to customize it for our needs. I should add that any time we had a question, customer service responded right away, sometimes within minutes. Even over holidays. What did we do before Submittable? Seriously! What. Did. We. Do?

Nachteile: There aren't any major cons with Submittable. I'd love some more robust reporting and sorting features and maybe custom permission levels, as there are a few things I'd like to do, but cannot. For example, I'd love to see team member data by specific category, not just by a duration of time. But these are more feature ideas, nothing that I'd consider negative about the existing product. If I had to say one thing, since our reading panel (the ones who use the software) has a varying level of comfort with tech tools that maybe some of the icons could be more intuitive.

Kommentare: I enjoy my work, and Submittable gives me confidence to stay organized and productive. I will learn to do more with it as I proceed and learn how to utilize what's available that I haven't tried yet (e.g. blind readings, running contests, etc.) The experience has been a very good, and as we grow our journal's submission rate which correlates to our growing readership, Submittable, I believe, will be an excellent tool for me as managing editor and the people who assist me.

Vorteile: I am able to manage my submissions quite easily with Submittable. It has many sorting options, and several tools to make reading a large amount of work manageable. Working collaboratively with other editors is possible and efficient because of the filtering functions (such as the use of labels, storing submissions, ordering them by date, alphabetically, etc.) and team management tools (such as the assigning of certain tasks to certain individuals, easy messaging, dissemination of work, etc.) I like the basic look/visuals of Submittable, as it is relatively intuitive to use. Furthermore, when I encountered troubles or had questions, I was given friendly and quick help over the telephone, as well as through their chatlines. Editing our site is also very easy.

Nachteile: I don't like that some services are offered to certain levels of subscriptions and not to others. I'd rather have a good, fair price for the use of Submittable's full functions. It's not always clear to me what I have in my subscription, even though not too hard to check, I suppose. Also, to "test" how forms will look to submitters seems a little complicated, but not too bad once going through it. I feel a little "blind" when sending out ACCEPT/DECLINE. Not sure what the solution is, however, and really does not present any real trouble for me.

Vorteile: Submittable is convenient. As a submitter, it provides efficient mechanisms for making submissions and efficient tracking of those submissions. As an editor, it provides me with notices and updates to allow me to process submissions quickly and efficiently. Submittable is practical. As a submitter, a single page allows me to keep track of active submissions to several publications. As an editor, the features for reaction and response to submitters makes my job much easier. Submittable is uncomplicated, easily used, and easy to understand. As a submitter, these qualities make submissions tracking manageable. Submittable is used widely enough to be familiar to virtually all writers and artists who submit work for publication.

Nachteile: Our current package allows only 5 of our team members to have access to submissions. I could wish for more relaxed limits in that regard.