OpenWater Application and Review Cloud Reviews & Product Details

We use OpenWater to manage our application process, and it has significantly streamlined our operations. The platform allows us to maintain our organization's branding while providing a seamless experience for applicants - they simply click a link on our website and are directed to our customized application portal.

What I like best about OpenWater is its comprehensive functionality. We can collect applications, process payments, and conduct multi-stage reviews all within one system. The filtering and sorting capabilities are particularly useful when handling large volumes of applications. Being able to generate detailed reports about submission status and reviewer progress has made tracking much more efficient. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some of the default terminology doesn't align perfectly with our specific needs, which required additional training for our team to get everyone comfortable with the system. We've also noticed that the portal can occasionally run slower when processing large amounts of data. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use OpenWater to judge awards. It is easy to use and the customer support is excellent. Questions are answered quickly and accurately. I have been using it for four years now. The judges also mention the system is very user friendly. We use it for three programs. It is easy to convert the submissions into PDFs for review. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only issue I have had is when people submit documentation that is not a Word doc or PDF. Some use Pages or other programs that don't upload as easily. I have been able to convert most attachments and resave them as a PDF to make it easy for the judges. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I pushed for my organization to adopt use of Open Water for our fellowship nominations and grant application needs. It's been a game changer for us as it allows us easily create nomination forms that have multiple layers of review and approval processes. What I like most about using it is that we can easily integrate it with our AMS system in order to seamlessly confirm qualification criteria (such as having a membership in our oganization) when needed. I also like one of their newest features, which is it continuously updates the application form with data from our AMS with each login. For example if a particular status is needed before proceeding with a form, the nominee can log out of the platform, update their information in our AMS and then login again for the newest updates to be recognized. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I enjoy use of the database update feature when integrated with our SSO. I would like it to be easier to initiate two way updates. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The OpenWater application has been great for our team. Our original process was having students mail in their application, which would then need to be scanned by an employee - saved into the correct folder and renamed. When you get hundreds of applications, this can be quite time consuming. Then, we would have to organize the applications into specific categories for our judges to be able to go through. A spreadsheet was used as their scoring rubric, and a judge would need to open each individual PDF and enter their scores into the spreadsheet. Someone would then have to cross check all of the scoring and formulas to make sure everything came over corrected, and then enter each applicants data into a spreadsheet. We would use this spreadsheet to compare data year over year. As you can imagine, this took countless hours for an employee to do - OpenWater has saved us hundreds of hours of work!

In addition, implementation was quick and easy. The platform is very easy to use and all of the HELP guides are easy accessible. Whenever I have a question, there is a chat feature to get into contact with our Customer Service Rep. The best part - if our rep is out of the office, it doesn't go unanswered - others quickly chime in and help with any issues!

Overall, our entire team has been very satisifed - from the Admin, to the judges, to the users! It has been a much better member experience than before! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only downside that I have found to OpenWater so far is that I don't always find the things I'm looking for where I intuitively think they would be. It makes sense on the back-end as to why they would be there, but from an admin user standpoint it seems hidden. This has been felt by my admin coworker as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

OpenWater makes collecting a lot of data very easy, both for the administrators and for the end users. I use OpenWater to collect entries into a complex competition, with several rounds of judging and dozens of categories. My entrants rarely have issues uploading their data and navigating the submission portal. Once I receive the data, I can easily sort it and assign it to judging panels. The export functions to send judging data to Excel is extremely helpful when calculating final results. Overall, OpenWater makes running this competition vastly easier than any other software option I've tried. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

OpenWater lacks several automation features that would save me time during my competition administration. There is no efficient way to advance round winners to future rounds automatically, which means I am forced to do it manually over several hours. It takes me a very long time to navigate the administrative portal to make any changes. The portal can also be slow at times when dealing with large amounts of data. A lot of the menus are also confusingly and sometimes conflictingly named, leading me to select the wrong options frequently. This is very powerful software, but the user experience is not as strong as it could be. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's easy to use, intuitive, and malleable. Tech support is also great! I love that you can clone your awards each year and make changes as needed. Having a public website is a fantastic feature as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing really. All of the things I listed previously are true.one thing I'd change is being able to change the open/close dates for each section at once rather than individually. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

OpenWater is a straightforward and easy-to-use platform for managing all aspects of running an online contest, from administration, entry management, payments, public brochure site, judging, and winner selection. Their onboarding is fantastic, and their support team is a quick chat away. I love how we can impersonate users to be able to support them on their submissions, too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Overall, the site design feels dated and old, especially regarding the public-facing website as part of our contest. OpenWater would undoubtedly benefit from refreshing its design experience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The features of OpenWater make it very easy to track information and pull reports that tell me exactly what has taken place in our competition. Information is updated in real time. The tutorial helps me insure that our competition is accurate and administered with integrity. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The only downside I can think of is that some of the time, when I need to make a change or add some information, there are so many layers of where the information is stored that it gets difficult to find where the change should be. Some of the changes, such as adding an entrant, require going to multiple tabs to update information. I worry I will overlook getting something changed. But, we are lucky that our changes are very infrequent. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ability to give system users within my organization different levels of access or access per scholarship program. The developers have thought out and implemented feedback from users to make it a flexible system for the needs of different types of organizations.

The customer support is great. I have always received prompt and courteous responses from our account rep through the chat function. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The reports function is challenging to understand at first, and even then, it is not as easy to create different types of reports for the data we want to pull. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love that there are so many robust features on the OpenWater platform. It even allows you to set up unlimited coupon codes to be used with many different "conditions." We use this platform multiple times a year. It is the perfect platform for collecting submissions for various programs such as awards and scholarships. Their customer support is very helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The formatting capabilities are somewhat limited and the public view is not as intuitive as it could be. However, after someone has used the platform once successfully, they usually have no issues going forward. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.