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OpenWater Review

OpenWater
Our score: 8.6 User satisfaction: 90%

What is OpenWater?

OpenWater’s Grant Management Software is an all-in-one system intended to help process government, non-profit, and university grants. The cloud-hosted system effectively manages grants from start to finish – from gathering applications, to reviewing entries, conducting follow-ups, and closing.

OpenWater’s Grant Management Software has customized web-based solutions designed to help staff focus more on core competencies, boost non-dues revenue, and enhance membership value. Users can customize everything – templates, to reports, and email features – in order to maximize branding.

Aside from the Grant Management module, OpenWater also has solutions for managing awards programs, abstract submissions, and conferences. The program manages everything – from submissions, registration, review, scoring, and payments.

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Overview of OpenWater Benefits

OpenWater’s Grant Management Software boasts of a branded applicant portal that can be integrated into a program’s official site rather than on a third-party webpage. This keeps the focus on the organization and lessens navigation to other sites in order to submit entries.

The program is customizable to help increase productivity, starting with forms that can be set up to cover only the data fields that are relevant to the organization. The look and feel may also be personalized, so as to maintain a unified branding. Some clients go a step further and extend functionality using back-end integration tools. Features may also be customized – such as messaging, which helps avoid the burden of answering commonly asked questions.

OpenWater’s Grant Management software is designed to make submission much more convenient for grant applicants.  Administrators can also be more productive with the help of tools to save time communicating with applicants and coordinating with reviewers.

Reviewing applications can be less tedious compared to outdated and complicated submissions via printed forms – and even email, that tend to get all tangled up. With OpenWater Grant Management platform, reviewers simply need to log in to get started. Since the system is cloud-hosted, users are not restricted to just one desktop unit, as information is readily available anytime and anywhere that there is an internet connection.

OpenWater’s Grant Management prioritizes centralized admin control, as administrative personnel are provided with various tools and resources to make their program a success. The system also presents a complete overview of the grantmaking workflows. The admin panel presents an extensive overview of the entire grant application, review, and selection process, allowing admin to quickly and securely share insights with stakeholders.

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Overview of OpenWater Features

  • Compliance Management
  • Contract Management
  • Grant Award Tracking
  • Grant Opportunity Search
  • Online Applications
  • Self-Registration

OpenWater Position In Our Categories

Since businesses have their own business needs, it is only reasonable that they steer clear of choosing an all-encompassing, “perfect” software. Be that as it may, it would be difficult to come across such application even among well-known software products. The practicable step to undertake should be to set down the different essential aspects that necessitate inspection such as essential features, price terms, technical skill ability of the employees, company size, etc. Then, you must do your product research exhaustively. Read some of these OpenWater review articles and look into each of the software products in your shortlist more closely. Such detailed research ascertain you take out unfit software solutions and pay for the one which meets all the function your business requires.

Position of OpenWater in our main categories:

TOP 20

OpenWater is one of the top 20 Grant Management Software products

If you are interested in OpenWater it may also be sensible to examine other subcategories of Grant Management Software collected in our base of SaaS software reviews.

Organizations have different needs and requirements and no software application can be ideal in such a situation. It is useless to try to find an ideal out-of-the-box software product that fulfills all your business wants. The smart thing to do would be to customize the application for your specific needs, worker skill levels, finances, and other factors. For these reasons, do not hasten and invest in well-publicized leading solutions. Though these may be widely used, they may not be the best fit for your specific wants. Do your homework, look into each short-listed application in detail, read a few OpenWater Grant Management Software reviews, call the vendor for explanations, and finally select the app that presents what you require.

How Much Does OpenWater Cost?

OpenWater Pricing Plans:

Free Trial

Quote-based Plan

Contact vendor

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What are OpenWater pricing details?

OpenWater Pricing Plans:

Free Trial

Quote-based Plan

Contact vendor

Details on SMB and enterprise pricing for OpenWater Grant Management Software are not publicly available. Interested buyers may contact a sales representative to request for a customized quotation.

User Satisfaction

Positive Social Media Mentions 30
Negative Social Media Mentions 3

We are aware that when you make a decision to buy a Grant Management Software it’s crucial not only to find out how professionals rank it in their reviews, but also to check whether the actual people and enterprises that bought it are genuinely content with the product. Because of that need we’ve created our behavior-based Customer Satisfaction Algorithm™ that collects customer reviews, comments and OpenWater reviews across a vast range of social media sites. The information is then featured in a simple to digest format indicating how many people had positive and negative experience with OpenWater. With that information at hand you should be ready to make an informed business choice that you won’t regret.

Video

Technical details

Devices Supported

  • Windows
  • Mac
  • Web-based

Deployment

  • Cloud Hosted

Language Support

  • English

Pricing Model

  • Quote-based

Customer Types

  • Small Business
  • Large Enterprises
  • Medium Business

What Support Does This Vendor Offer?

  • email
  • phone
  • live support
  • training
  • tickets

What integrations are available for OpenWater?

Open Water Grant Management System integrates with the following:

  • iMIS20
  • iBridge for iMI
  • NetForum
  • MemberClicks
  • MemberSuite
  • Anywhere
  • Salesforce
  • Personify
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
  • SAML
  • Aptify
  • Your Membership

OpenWater User Reviews

OpenWater average rating:

Average score
4.5/5 (14 user reviews)
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

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The most favorable review

Edythe

PROS: OpenWater is really fantastic! It is super easy to use and personalize depending on what we demand throughout our operations. Also, the OpenWater user support team is super wonderful because they are always ready to solve our concerns round-the-clock. They know that we handle our own clients that also require support from us, thus they make their services fit such need.

CONS: OpenWater has reasonable pricing, but we need to exert huge efforts in setting it up. Thankfully, however, OpenWater tech support goes through with us when setting up the platform. This is great because we can efficiently and completely personalize the platform.

Reviewed 4 years ago

Read full review >

The least favorable review

Grant

PROS: OpenWater has impressive flexibility since we can fully personalize it using our own HTML and CSS codes. It also solves many of our pains in managing an awards competition for construction intern scholarships. We do not need to handle dozens of different WordPress tools for the competition anymore, such as integrations for voting polls, management for multimedia elements, tedious manual upkeeps, delays when displaying entry contents, etc. The judging system has also become more efficient for us since we do not need to depend on too much survey and excel data. OpenWater has made it easier for our judges to make their verdicts in the competition. On a side note, OpenWater is also smooth to implement, especially that a team of professional support has gone with us through the process. These tech support specialists always answer our dozens of queries efficiently until today.

CONS: There are minor issues in OpenWater that should be addressed or improved, but nothing is big enough to affect the efficiency of its functions. Say, its UI looks similar regardless of the type of user using the platform, such as applicant, voter or judge. This makes the platform somehow confusing for them. Other than these concerns, OpenWater works well for our unique competition process. We intricately fuse traditional scholarship application with a weekly popular voting system, but the tool still satisfies our demands.

Reviewed 4 years ago

Read full review >

More reviews from 14 actual users:

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Latest
  • Latest
  • Most useful
  • Most positive
  • Most negative

Impressive flexibility

Read full review >
Grant
4/5

Overall impression

4/5

Customer Support

3/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 01.12.2021 Company Size: More than 100 Employees Industry: Computer Software

PROS: OpenWater has impressive flexibility since we can fully personalize it using our own HTML and CSS codes. It also solves many of our pains in managing an awards competition for construction intern scholarships. We do not need to handle dozens of different WordPress tools for the competition anymore, such as integrations for voting polls, management for multimedia elements, tedious manual upkeeps, delays when displaying entry contents, etc. The judging system has also become more efficient for us since we do not need to depend on too much survey and excel data. OpenWater has made it easier for our judges to make their verdicts in the competition. On a side note, OpenWater is also smooth to implement, especially that a team of professional support has gone with us through the process. These tech support specialists always answer our dozens of queries efficiently until today.

CONS: There are minor issues in OpenWater that should be addressed or improved, but nothing is big enough to affect the efficiency of its functions. Say, its UI looks similar regardless of the type of user using the platform, such as applicant, voter or judge. This makes the platform somehow confusing for them. Other than these concerns, OpenWater works well for our unique competition process. We intricately fuse traditional scholarship application with a weekly popular voting system, but the tool still satisfies our demands.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Great solution for sophisticated award programs

Read full review >
Mauricio
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

5/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 06.10.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: Sports

PROS: We use OpenWater for our sophisticated awards program that sports several intricate layers. It is stellar in addressing much of our issues right after integration. Easy and convenient to use for members, thus we have successfully used it throughout a couple of seasons of our program. We also love its superior customer service that is very responsive. OpenWater is consistent in solving different problems throughout the program, which is key to how we continuously improve.

CONS: This tool is perfect for users that simply repeat what they do on a certain program season in its following years. Unfortunately, we run a sophisticated award program that is difficult to repeat. This makes me run through a set of similar queries for each season. OpenWater also doesn’t offer a repository of information or data that can carry such queries for its own learning process. That’s why I still need to use my personal copy of such queries for the job.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor
Show More User Reviews (14)

Platform with many perks

Read full review >
Linnea
4/5

Overall impression

3/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

3/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 26.09.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: N/A

PROS: I’m learning much about its features as I try to understand each of them. I’m still new with this, but I see that its features are amazing.

CONS: Improvements with its submission management tool would be great. For now, I want to filter submissions especially when a judging phase is about to finish. Something that lets me select submissions with an only small number of reviews to reach the judges on such instance would be handy. As a workaround, I manually remove all submissions on the line for the judges; and this is certainly a tedious task.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Entire award program has made easier with OpenWater

Read full review >
Caroline
5/5

Overall impression

4/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 28.07.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: N/A

PROS: Our recent award program had run entirely on OpenWater, and we’ve proven that a successful program is easily attainable through the platform. Everybody loves how efficient is the entry parts of the program. It has streamlined the judging processes too.

CONS: We experienced some difficulties in coming up with different group classifications. We also had some problems when preparing the questions that should pop-out on each classification too.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Wonderful combo of efficient tool and customer service

Read full review >
Narciso
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

5/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 08.07.2021 Company Size: More than 100 Employees Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management

PROS: Brings tremendous efficiency to our award program. Before, we need a few months to finish the judging process, but now we can complete it in weeks.

CONS: OpenWater causes us no headaches. It’s very easy to use, highly responsive and has tons of automated features.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Suitable even for handling a few programs

Read full review >
Kevin
5/5

Overall impression

4/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 09.06.2021 Company Size: More than 100 Employees Industry: N/A

PROS: It is easy to manage a few programs through OpenWater, especially that it lets us create and reuse templates for such programs. It enables me to manage various types of programs too, such as focusing on certain sectors, application covering an entire campus, rolling-based application, as well as reporting after award granting processes. The user support services of OpenWater are great in satisfying my demands for help as well.

CONS: The UI is hard to navigate because it may require me to do a lot of clicks to reach one area from another. This pushes me to open multiple windows at once to simultaneously work on them, which is understandably inconvenient. There are too many sections on the UI too, that’s why I often experience confusion when finding specific items.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

OpenWater is really magnificent

Read full review >
Edythe
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 07.06.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: N/A

PROS: OpenWater is really fantastic! It is super easy to use and personalize depending on what we demand throughout our operations. Also, the OpenWater user support team is super wonderful because they are always ready to solve our concerns round-the-clock. They know that we handle our own clients that also require support from us, thus they make their services fit such need.

CONS: OpenWater has reasonable pricing, but we need to exert huge efforts in setting it up. Thankfully, however, OpenWater tech support goes through with us when setting up the platform. This is great because we can efficiently and completely personalize the platform.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Proves to be a terrific and worthy investment

Read full review >
Lorenz
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 13.05.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: N/A

PROS: We’ve decided to use OpenWater for managing calls regarding our event proposals. It is super adaptable that it efficiently serves many other purposes, aside from our initial intended function. The platform works smoothly on other customized tools as well. Aside from the platform itself, the OpenWater user support is also very reliable and responsive in addressing our concerns. I’ve never experienced such kind of quality support throughout the years of my career.

CONS: OpenWater is a robust and adaptable tool. Meaning, it is normal to spend quite a long time learning how to optimize its use. However, the tedious learning process really pays off.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Super professional platform and services

Read full review >
Gerry
5/5

Overall impression

4/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

5/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 17.02.2021 Company Size: More than 100 Employees Industry: Publishing

PROS: Ease of use is the biggest benefit that OpenWater has to offer. After learning its functions, it is easy to create and edit different stuff to make it fit our program. We’ve got nothing but unquestionably superb support service too.

CONS: Our Company mandates the use of specific templates to fit the branding. This is something that I cannot do on my own, thus I often work with developers for the job.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Best contest and award management tool

Read full review >
Magnus
4/5

Overall impression

3/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 01.02.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management

PROS: https://www.g2.com/products/openwater/reviews/openwater-review-2897460 has great automated features that make it very convenient for use. We also like how responsive its helpdesk support is. They are always active on the line to answer any questions from users.

CONS: OpenWater has a steep learning curve with its features. Customizing OpenWater to make it fit particular standards is inconvenient as well. We also receive feedback about OpenWater format loading poorly on tablets. That’s why we hope that an OpenWater mobile app would become available.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Trustworthy helpdesk service

Read full review >
Freddy
5/5

Overall impression

4/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 15.09.2020 Company Size: 1-10 Employees Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management

PROS: Suitable for transforming our tedious manual processes into intuitive and virtual methods. This is drastically pulling down the working hours that our personnel consume for certain tasks. OpenWater has a trusty team of helpdesk service too. They help us in big and efficient ways.

CONS: The learning phase for OpenWater is difficult. That is a common problem when learning to use a new platform, after all. Regardless, the helpdesk service helps us throughout the entire phase.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

OpenWater has satisfied our members

Read full review >
Thaddeus
4/5

Overall impression

3/5

Customer Support

3/5

Value for Money

3/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 13.09.2020 Company Size: 1-10 Employees Industry: Events Services

PROS: We sync our database to OpenWater, and it works great. When they log in to OpenWater, our members can use the same username and password for their account on our official site. Also, their accounts in OpenWater already carry their details straight from our database. Meaning, they do not need to manually fill a profile.

CONS: Providing a lot of options for opening the judging dashboard and the emails is quite confusing because of the number of access points that we need to take note of. The best solution would be an emphasized feature on the admin dashboard that syncs different information and details from the platform. Moreover, I hope that the “paid” status would automatically reflect on our database.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Superior award program management solution

Read full review >
Orpha
4/5

Overall impression

3/5

Customer Support

3/5

Value for Money

3/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 06.09.2020 Company Size: 1-10 Employees Industry: Architecture & Planning

PROS: Submission is more efficient since the admins can easily make a change on an entry when a contestant notifies about a mistake. OpenWater is a great aid for the judges in doing their job as well. In addition, it lets us simply reuse the details and info that we’ve used a year ago, so we do not need to begin from scratch. Simple revamping of a program would do. The tool is also dependable for generating granular post-program reports such as text outputs, photos, contact details and currency value among other info.

CONS: The only drawback I’ve noticed is its steep learning curve for beginners. However, things instantly become easy once you’ve learned using OpenWater. Fortunately, a dependable team of user support is there to help in explaining to you all functions. Although, I still need to learn a lot of tricks for better usage of OpenWater.

What do you think about this review?

Great Poor

Simplifies our awards program efficiently

Read full review >
Gertrude
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

Ease of Use

Published on: 27.08.2020 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management

PROS: We do not need to rely on tons of messy spreadsheets and surveys anymore. Our awards programs have become easier, simpler and more efficient with OpenWater.

CONS: OpenWater is not that easy to understand and learn. However, it is easy to optimize once you’ve learned using its functions.

What do you think about this review?

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Grant
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Mauricio
5/5

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Published on: 06.10.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: Sports

Platform with many perks

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Linnea
4/5

Overall impression

3/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

3/5

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Published on: 26.09.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: N/A

Entire award program has made easier with OpenWater

Read full review >
Caroline
5/5

Overall impression

4/5

Customer Support

4/5

Value for Money

4/5

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Published on: 28.07.2021 Company Size: 11-50 Employees Industry: N/A

Wonderful combo of efficient tool and customer service

Read full review >
Narciso
5/5

Overall impression

5/5

Customer Support

5/5

Value for Money

4/5

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Published on: 08.07.2021 Company Size: More than 100 Employees Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Jenny Chang

By Jenny Chang

Jenny Chang is a senior writer specializing in SaaS and B2B software solutions. Her decision to focus on these two industries was spurred by their explosive growth in the last decade, much of it she attributes to the emergence of disruptive technologies and the quick adoption by businesses that were quick to recognize their values to their organizations. She has covered all the major developments in SaaS and B2B software solutions, from the introduction of massive ERPs to small business platforms to help startups on their way to success.

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