Award Force 2024 in review: Key updates and future plans

by | Dec 30, 2024 | Articles

It’s been an eventful year at Award Force in 2024! Our team has worked diligently to create even more value for our clients across the globe.

This year, we introduced 19 new features and implemented 127 product enhancements—all tailored to ensure Award Force continues to exceed your expectations and support your success.

Security remains at the forefront of everything we do. We’re thrilled to share we’ve been recertified to the latest ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standard and successfully passed the Cyber Essentials (Montpellier) assessment. These achievements reflect our commitment to keeping your data safe and secure, so you can focus on running amazing programs and celebrating excellence.

We also introduced the Trust Centre, your go-to hub for requesting detailed information about our security practices and compliance efforts.

Let’s take a look at some highlights from 2024 and what’s coming in 2025.

2024 New product features and improvements

Work smarter and save time

1. Invite team entries with powerful new entry collaboration

Entry collaboration now enables teams or a group of entrants to securely collaborate on an entry in real-time and without shared logins or additional workflows. Entrants simply start an entry and can invite one or more collaborators to help complete the submission. Available for Premier account owners.

Read more about entry collaboration

 

Award Force interface showing that the program manager ca access the integration marketplace in the settings menu under Integrations.

2. Simplify your workflows with new integration marketplace

The integration marketplace in Award Force is available for all Plus and Premier plan accounts and boasts several ready-made integrations, with many more planned for the future. It’s easy to use! You can leverage supported triggers and events in Award Force to quickly configure integrations with just a few clicks—no coding required.

Read more about the Award Force integration marketplace

3. Streamline account configurations

Managing multiple accounts just got easier! You can now copy configurations between accounts, saving time and reducing the chance of errors. Setup has never been smoother.

4. Automate tagging for entries

Say goodbye to manual tagging! With auto-tagging for checkbox lists, radio fields, and dropdowns, entries are automatically organised based on your criteria. It’s a great way to keep things tidy and efficient.

5. Set video length requirements

Program managers can now set the minimum and maximum video length for both single file uploads and attachments in seconds. For limited review time, video length settings are especially helpful, since they let judges evaluate content efficiently without feeling overwhelmed. In addition, setting video length limits makes it easier for judges to compare submissions fairly.

Find out more about Award Force’s high definition video streaming

6. Do more with the Award Force API

In 2024 we’ve added new API endpoints that let you:

  • Create, recuse, unrecuse, and delete assignment
  • List score set, Get score set, List rounds and Get rounds
  • Programmatically trigger a review stage based on something other than entry submission
  • Set, update, or remove entry deadlines
  • API endpoints have been added for “list assignment” and “get assignment” to help API users track judging progress automatically.

View our API documentation

7. Automatically gather references with the Referee tab

Automate reference collection using the Referee tab, ensuring timely contact with referees and prompt submission of essential details. Make the entry evaluation process faster and easier by collecting all needed references before the deadline.

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Judging tools to help you make the right choices

8. Streamline the voting judging process

Judges love the new “Show my votes only” toggle! It helps them quickly find and manage their selections, and it’s already been used over 45,000 times.

9. Launch reviews with more flexibility

Launching review stages has never been more versatile. Whether it’s triggered manually by the program manager, during entry submission, through another review stage, through API, or by the entrant, you now have five different ways to get started.

10. Tailor comments to scoring criteria

Focus feedback like never before! You can now enable comment boxes for individual scoring criteria, making reviews more targeted and actionable.

11. Make it even easier for judges with our new judging layout

We’ve updated the judging layout so there is more space for entry content, making it easy for programs to showcase images and videos. The layout provides a seamless way for your judges to view visual entries quickly, and reduces the need for judges to scroll up or down to leave scores or comments.

Learn more about the Award Force’s judging suite

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Expand your program’s reach and accessibility

12. Make your program multilingual

This year, we added Malay and Catalan languages, bringing our total number of natively translated languages to 36, helping enhance global communication and allowing users from diverse linguistic backgrounds to engage with the platform seamlessly.

View the full list of supported languages

13. Manage notifications on the go

Keeping track of notifications has never been easier. There is now a description field for notifications so program managers can add detailed notes on each notification.

Learn more about Award Force’s communication options

14. Stay up to date with our new Updates centre

Never miss a thing! Our new Updates centre keeps you in the loop with product news, feature updates, and important announcements.

Award Force Updates Centre

15. Enjoy more choice in where your data lives

We’ve added Hong Kong as a data residency option, giving you more control over where your program data is stored.

Learn more about Award Force’s data residency options

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What’s in store for 2025

Award Force is gearing up for even more exciting developments in the future. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s next:

  • Organisation resource
    Formalise the relationship between users and their associated organisations and gain a bird’s-eye view of entries, users, payments and reporting at an organisational level.
  • Auto-captioning for videos
    Automatically create captions for uploaded videos. Once enabled, captions will be generated during the video upload process and can be turned on or off in the video player, making it easy to enhance accessibility without modifying the original video.
  • Plus so much more! 

As we look back on 2024, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made to help you run exceptional award programs. From simplifying workflows to introducing powerful judging tools and expanding accessibility, every improvement was designed with you in mind.

We’re excited about what’s ahead in 2025 and can’t wait to continue supporting your success!

 

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Want to learn more about the Award Force software and how it can help power your awards to new heights? Watch our demo videos, take a self-guided tour or book a call to learn more.

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