Awardco vs Submittable

Awardco has something for everyone. I have employees in a variety of age groups and some want to travel, some want a tangible item, and others feel like they don't really need/want anything so they choose a gift card so they can use it how and when they choose. Awardco allows that flexibility. Also, if the individual isn't ready to make a selection right away, they can save their points to use at a later time. If an individual would like to select an item larger than their award amount, they are not able to add dollars to their personal account, which may cause some frustration to an individual.

It is well suited for programs that have a simple review structure. The reviewer functions are very user-friendly. It is also a good option for applicants. Submittable is not well suited on the back end for managing various aspects of those submissions and processing payments.

• Every employee has an account.
• There are multiple ways to use your points.
• All points are stored in one place & easy to find.

• Submittable is mostly user-friendly for applicants, and the application process goes smoothly. It is easy to set up an account and start applications, and the application forms are easy to read and fill out.
• Submittable is user-friendly for reviewers. It is easy for volunteers or staff members to access all applications and submit their scores on the platform.
• The ability to use internal forms makes due diligence processes or other internal reviews easy for staff to complete. It's helpful that these reviews can be automatically assigned upon submission and that they are easily accessed while reading through forms.

• I would like the system to be able to send email notifications to more than the employee and the HR Manager. It would be great if we could include the manager and the GM as well. Now I just forward the message to the others.

• Labels shouldn't be an option for all reviewers, we had a reviewer for our Florida applicants create labels like "1" "2" "3" which confused my reviewers in California.
• Running reports across multiple grant projects is tedious and clumsy. Our grant project had 15 regions but it was the same application, we had to compare applications across regions, but could only have a set amount of winners for each area. It would've been easier to create 1 application and 1 opportunity but have filters for the # of applications for each region instead of creating 15 separate applications.
• Reviewers also found the review forms difficult. There should be an easier way to run a report on their pending reviews in an excel format, or just a better functionality to review. Even with onboarding, our reviewers were confused and didn't use the review function.

I don't see how we could continue to operate our program without Submittable. It is also the industry standard - our submitters are used to and familiar with the platform. We put a lot of work into transitioning from a mail-in submission model to a Submittable-supported one and it just wouldn't make sense to "go back."

Again, Submittable is familiar to me and to many within the industry - how to use it both as an applicant and as a developer. We tested the application with users on mobile phones, pads, and desktops, and it works on all platforms reasonably well. For those who are new to the process and online applications, the platform is intimidating and does discourage participation from certain generations, those who have not had formal education with computers, and non-native English speakers. In terms of review, the review process is quite functional, with multi-layered reviews, rubrics, and weighted scales. The reporting is more complex, as there is tension between what is easy for the applicant and what is typical for data collection.

I am giving a "middle of the road" rating of 5 because I don't have experience with Awardco support. I have never had to reach out to the support team for anything, so I don't have any substantial feedback in this particular area. The program is so easy to use, so I've never needed to contact the support team.

I think that they are good at answering our questions and solving our problems. We occasionally get reports from applicants about problems the Submittable team has not solved, but I do not know what the applicant has done to get the problem solved.

I have only used a few other award programs and selections have been extremely limited. There is nothing worse than receiving a catalog with 10-15 items to choose from and you don't really want any of the items. It is even worse when the company spends two to three times the cost on a gift that can be purchased elsewhere for much, much less. The employee has an idea how much something costs and as a result feels like the company didn't appreciate them by giving an inexpensive gift. Awardco gifts are dollar for dollar.

For the price, Submittable offered the features we need in terms of accepting multiple file types, large files, unlimited submissions and participants, and user-friendly design. Other products may limit files, file types, file sizes, or other components that would not work for our uses.

• We are a company that thrives on competition & rewards. Awardco has helped us simplify that rewards process, and it's much easier for us as we create competition prizes.
• Our employees are much more engaged in the competitions because they know they will win points that can be used on just about anything.
• Since we've started using Awardco we have hit record numbers in sales in a month.

• I do think the applicant experience has improved. Submittable is used by many organizations, so it's nice for people to have all their submissions in one place.
• As an organization, we are also able to be more efficient than before with Submittable.