Client case study From manual process to modern system Family Business Australia uses Award Force for improved seasonal awards management Reviewer:Sarah Herft,Education and Awards Program Manager Reviewer: Sarah Herft,Education and Awards Program Manager Fast facts about Familly Business Australia Industry: Business awards Location: Melbourne, Australia Award Force client: Client since 2019 Employees: 1,000-5,000 employees Background Promoting success, fostering sustainability Family Business Australia is a non-profit organisation working to help family businesses succeed. The organisation creates and manages programs and products that are developed to build stronger families and healthier businesses. Family Business Australia creates tailored solutions to family business members through facilitating and engaging resources and channels that promote success and foster sustainability. About the program Highlighting remarkable achievements The Family Business Awards highlight and celebrate the remarkable achievements of individuals and businesses within Australia and New Zealand’s family business sectors. The awards program accepts submissions for five categories: Leading Women in Family Business Award, Sustainable Development in Family Business Award, Emerging Generations Achiever Award, Accredited Advisor Award and Distinguished Family Business of the Year Award. Entry is free. The program uses a score-based judging method. Program challenges before Award Force Time-intensive, manual process Before moving to Award Force, the Family Business Awards program accepted submissions manually, via paper forms and emails. They needed a solution that would allow them to accept nominations virtually and for their nominees to easily upload documents, videos and other files. While managing two seasons per year, Family Business Australia was looking for awards management software to help them easily copy categories and content from one season to another. Old process Manual, time-intensive Paper forms Out-of-date system Award Force Modern Online awards management Easy copying of categories and content Streamlined, time-saving system The Award Force choice Time-savings with powerful copy feature “From the time I took over this project and had to build our first major set of awards to copying the info for the next season, and setting up the judging – I am sure I have asked ALL the questions,” said Sarah Herft. Award Force is award-winning cloud software for awards organisers to manage entry, nomination, judging and award of results, online. Designed for performance and function, it’s fast, secure and a great experience for entrants, judges, and managers. The winning feature for Family Business Australia was the ability to copy the entry form and associated content from one season to another quickly and easily. A huge time-saver. Favourite features Entry form, judging modes and broadcast Help tab “Although the team (I have worked with Carl, Ben and Cil in particular, but others as well) pointed me in the direction of the help videos, they also always take the time to show me, and sometimes fix my issues. I find the help tab useful when I need a quick refresher on how to do something. “ Copy existing season “I particularly like that you can link different content to specific categories within the same season, then copy across when you run the same awards again (we run two seasons per year, with minor changes). It’s easy to see duplicates, and for the nominees to upload docs, files, videos and more,” Herft said. Copy existing season “I particularly like that you can link different content to specific categories within the same season, then copy across when you run the same awards again (we run two seasons per year, with minor changes). It’s easy to see duplicates, and for the nominees to upload docs, files, videos and more,” Herft said. Pre-launch check “The pre-launch check is also fantastic as your team sees things you miss. And, during the last time, the Award Force team provided me with a useful report of other things I could do to improve my launch.” The Award Force results Friendly and fast help Increased entries Improved comms Program growth “The help and service is always fast, friendly and efficient. Nothing is ever too much trouble. It’s a great platform to work with!” Help centre The Family Business Awards have experienced growth in their program, Herft said, noting that “the number of entries submitted have increased exponentially. “I’d say this is because it’s a user-friendly platform compared with form filling. We are also able to send effective comms with the relevant links.”. Read more testimonials