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OpenWater is a software platform for application and review program management. Below is our recent interview with Timothy Spell, CEO at OpenWater:
Q: Could you tell us something more about OpenWater Scholarships?
A: OpenWater Scholarships is scholarship management software built from the ground up to serve organizations and Foundations that distribute scholarship funds. Our platform assists with every aspect of scholarship program management. Administrators use OpenWater to promote a scholarship, attract applicants, review applications, distribute scholarship funds, and track the effectiveness of the scholarship program year over year. Our platform saves them time and provides a birds-eye view of the entire process.
As you can imagine, many scholarships have thousands of applicants and multiple reviewing rounds to distribute funds to worthy students. OpenWater securely manages the entire process, making the experience better for everyone.
Recommended: Q: Can you give us insights into your features?
A: OpenWater’s all-in-one system is a feature rich software platform that contains three main portals:
● Application Portal: Customizable online forms, Auto Save, File Uploads, Letters of Recommendation
● Reviewer Portal: Reviewer Scores, Reviewer Teams, PDF Export
● Administrator Portal: CRM, Email Marketing, Advanced Reporting, Automation
Integrations with third party systems and enterprise level security comes out of the box with OpenWater.
Q: How does OpenWater Scholarships work?
A: To start, each client is assigned a dedicated support team. We provide agency-style service so clients have a consistent working relationship with OpenWater. This is different than most software platforms and a key to our retention.
Our support staff helps the client set up the platform for their specific needs. We also offer training and technical assistance. The process varies from client to client.
Once the platform is customized we assist the client from marketing and promoting, through applicant review, and on through program evaluation once funds are distributed. Clients save an enormous amount of administrative time and really value the data-driven insights of the platform.
Q: Why should a scholarship granting organization use cloud-based software?
A: Cloud-based software is superior, hands down.
Cloud technology is more scalable than paper-based scholarship management. In addition to being able to access your information from any device, anyone who has dealt with a paper or PDF based submission process knows the pain of having to deal with Excel, email and incomplete applications. OpenWater’s cloud-based software for application and review simplifies this burdensome process.
From an organizational standpoint, an all-in-one cloud based software platform is also superior to using a variety of online tools to manage our program (commonly referred to as the MacGuiver method). This approach is typically a mish-mash of vendors. These vendors may be cloud-based and inexpensive, but, cheap always comes with a cost. That cost could be as simple as the time sunk into using and updating multiple programs, or, as costly as a major data breach.
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Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: We continue to work on integrations with commonly-used third-party software. We will also continue to invest in our CRM (customer relationship management) component to our Growth Stack, to ensure we remain the top option for organizations who are looking for the best scholarship management software.
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