Ally vs Crowded

Ally perfectly meets our needs for OKR management. My team uses it to ensure that we are making progress on our quarterly objectives and regularly check in—at minimum, once a week but often more frequently. The only misuses at my company are due to user error, notably when people incorrectly use it for task management rather than measurable goals.

Crowded is very well suited for fraternities, or any non-profit community groups really, that have a centralized fund and rely on members purchasing equipment and materials individually. Any company that requires reimbursements and has to manage dues from numerous members should take advantage of this free application, as it provides a really easy way to manage the finances of an organization

• Visualizing the hierarchy and relationship between objectives and key results. The nesting and double alignment functionality are especially helpful, as they can't easily be expressed on, say, a simple worksheet or Confluence page.
• Reminding the team to make regular check-ins. What gets measured gets done. This prevents the common pitfall of setting goals and not revisiting them until the end of a project (when it is too late).
• Integration with external sources for automated check-ins. Why do this manually when it can happen behind the scenes?

• Good customer service.
• Easy-to-use, free software.
• Useful features.
• A sufficient product for its target market.

• It would be great to have a direct integration to Sigma.
• Sometimes the UI is a little buggy/weird (e.g. re-ordering and adding objectives is not the easiest).

• Collaborating more with fraternities to sponsor events.
• Making payments to nationals even easier.

Ally and Sigma are very different tools. However, they are both integral to my team's daily work and success. One of their common strengths is the responsiveness of their support team. I always feel that my questions are being answered in a clear and informed way. Another shared strength is the knowledge bases that these tools have built out, which is very helpful for onboarding and answering questions self-serve.

We were using GreekBill before to manage our funds and dues, and it was very outdated and unhelpful. Crowded was much more simple, easy to use, and had way more functions.

• It definitely helps the product team stay focused on the quarterly objective and not get distracted by other "noise."

• It has allowed us to keep track of all our finances and not lose track of funds.
• It has allowed us to lower dues because of this increased accountability and organization.
• No more reimbursement forms and Venmo payments!