Awards Software Your Way: SMPS Merged Technology and In-Person Judging to Create a System All Their Own
After 10 years of managing a nearly 40 year old awards program, you arrive at your in-person judging day. Over 80 people have flown in from all over the country to review the entries, and it’s the first year your program’s application and scoring process has moved completely online.
To say the least, you’re nervous and you can’t help but worry: “What if the database crashes?” or “What if all the entries aren’t here?” Just in case disaster strikes, you resolve to bring enough paper and pencils to run the whole process with paper and pencils.
The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) puts on the Marketing and Communication Awards (MCA) annually. According to Molly Dall’Erta, the program’s manager, it is “the largest and longest running awards program for architectural, engineering, and construction firms for marketing pieces.” Now in the 39th year of the program, “Our entire purpose is to capture the best practices of marketing today. The competition is about the marketing pieces that sell design rather than the designs themselves.” The program reinforces what Molly refers to as “the greater good of the profession,” creating a living, breathing guide for what is happening in the marketing of design today.
Molly knew their process for running the awards needed an overhaul. Entrants were still mailing in physical paper applications along with copies of printed marketing materials, DVDs and CDs. The process for running this system took weeks of work and the backlog meant entrants wouldn’t hear back about their submissions for months.
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Molly felt that moving the program online “was a big step, albeit one we wanted to take.” But she worried that moving to an online system would destroy the in-person judging experience that was among the most treasured components of her program among judges and entrants like.
Judges loved coming together to review the submissions with their peers, learning and connecting in person. “We have dozens of judges who fly in from all over the country on their own dime to judge the submissions in person,” said Molly. “When I began floating the idea of making the transition online I got email after email from past judges checking to make sure weren’t going to stop doing in person judging.”
The search for a system that could both streamline the existing process and maintain the in-person judging led Molly to OpenWater’s award platform. The system seemed an ideal fit, and already was running dozens of programs with live in-person judging. Molly connected with Zack Schwartz, who heads up OpenWater’s customer success team to directly set up SMPS’s program.
With the new system, entrants could easily submit their entry form and questionnaire online: No more paper forms and processing payment in house.Come judging day, iPads loaded with digital entries such as videos, web sites, and e promos, replaced the piles and piles of paper – a welcome change for all involved. The entire process was more efficient for everyone involved and made SMPS look technologically savvy, even environmentally conscious for not killing all those trees.
This was the theory, at least. But would it work in reality?
No More Going it Alone
Although the system was working well with no down time in the days leading up to judging day, Molly grew increasingly nervous that the system would crash come Saturday. She kept calling Zack at OpenWater to make sure things were working. “Zack kept telling me not to worry, and told me everything was fine. Then just to put my mind at ease he gave me his personal cellphone number to call if anything happened on judging day. Even on a Saturday he was ready to be there if I needed him.” Though even with that reassurance, Molly still brought her piles of paper and pencils.
The paper and pencils went untouched. The system worked flawlessly, and judges quickly adapted to using the iPads to review and rank the submissions. As Molly put it “Everyone loved it. And the only call I had to make to Zack was the following Monday to thank him for all his help in making it happen.”
SMPS is Working in Real Time With a Focus on the Future
Moving online has freed Molly and SMPS from much of the tedious work of running a paper-based process. “It used to be months before we could get back to all the entrants about their submissions. I used to literally get emails asking if the packet had been lost in the mail. Now I get back to people in a few days. It’s awesome.”
The online system has helped Molly and SMPS streamline their existing processes, but has gotten her thinking about ways to enhance it as well. As the 40th anniversary of the program approaches, Molly is exploring using OpenWater’s gallery function to make a full showcase of all the winning entries.
Molly’s goal of using the annual award program to create this living, breathing guide for her members could finally be realized. Members from around the country could quickly see this year’s best practices of marketing in the landscape, architecture, construction, and engineering fields. With a mix of vision and technology, Molly is helping to position SMPS award program to make the next 40 years even more impactful than the last 40.
With OpenWater fueling the way, there are no limits to what she and SMPS can accomplish.
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