Streamlining 101

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Erica Schaffel

Here at WizeHive we spend all day, every day helping clients streamline their application processes. That’s why I love Project Streamline !

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Project Streamline is an organization dedicated to helping grant makers and non-profits maximize the resources that are spent on mission-based activities. Much of their research focuses on how current application and reporting practices, which are meant to increase the effectiveness of grant making, actually minimize that effectiveness. But not to worry, their website is full of great tips, tools and recommendations for streamlining! To understand Project Streamline at a glance, here are their four core principles:

1. Start Fresh

Really take a look at your organization’s application and reporting requirements. Is all the information you collect important to your grant making decisions? If not, eliminate it. Grant seekers should clearly understand why information is needed from them and be able to provide that information in a meaningful way.

2. Right-size Grant Expectations

The effort grant seekers put forth should be proportionate to the size of the grant. It’s ok to have different application and reporting requirements if there is a major difference in the size of the grants being given. Once a grant seeker becomes a grantee their information should be stored in a way that it can be used in the future, so that the grantee can provide updates rather than re-submitting the same material multiple times.

3. Relieve the Burden

Take advantage of technologies like online application management tools to minimize the time and money spent by grantseekers. Just keep in mind that going online doesn’t necessarily mean you’re streamlined. Make sure you pick a well-tested, well designed system that’s a good match for your organization’s needs. Another great way to eliminate unnecessary administration is to avoid it completely. Many grantseekers report routinely submitting time-consuming application materials when it’s unlikely that they will even receive funding. Adding filters like letters of inquiry to the application process will help non-profits avoid that time all together. Remember, less administration will allow the non-profits you fund to better support their cause

4. Improve Communication

If you really want to learn about the impact of your funding you need to regularly communicate with and seek feedback from grant seekers and grantees.

Want to know how your organization measures up? Take this survey.  If your organization didn’t score as highly as you would like, check out the Guide to Streamlining series, which can help your organization apply those principles.

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3 Ways To Use Contests As A Business Tool

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Kamaila Sanders

Contests are a powerful way for businesses to engage and build their audience. But if you’re only using a Contest to collect entries and votes to giveaway a prize, you’re not realizing their full potential!

You can easily use a contest to meet a variety of different needs for your business.   We’ve outlined three ways you can use WizeHive contests as a powerful business tool.

Collect Email Addresses For Email Marketing Lists & Newsletters

One of the most common ways to use your contest as a business tool is to collect email addresses (and other demographic information) to grow your email marketing list. To do this create a simple sweepstakes contest.   On the form create a pre-ticketed checkbox which gives you permission to add them to your marketing list. The key is to keep the entry form short but to also collect enough data from leads and customers so that you can segment them and send them targeted emails with content that is relevant to their interests. Run these contests weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly so that leads always have an incentive to get (and stay) in touch.

 

Get Feedback From Your Customers

Customer feedback is important but it’s often hard to get. However, if you give your customers an incentive to tell you what they really think they may be more receptive.   Run a WizeHive essay sweepstakes contest where the entry form acts as a survey asking clients about a recent experience with one of your products or services. In return for the feedback, offer them a chance to win a prize. Provide customers with even more reason to enter by offering anyone who submits an entry a discount.

Crowdsource Your Customers Ideas And Talent

Working on a new company logo or t-shirt design?

Let your customers participate in the action by allowing them to help make big decisions.  Or better yet, crowdsource your customers talent to let them come up with ideas and content. This shows that you care about what they think and will help to create brand loyalty. It can also be a great way to save money on graphic design or other services. You can utilize any of our four contest types to crowdsource your customers for any type of input you would like.

If you have any questions about how you can get started using WizeHive contests to enhance your business or if you would like to consult about any of the concepts you have read about here today be sure to email me at kamaila@wizehive.com.

Get started building your WizeHive contest now

 

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The Dos and Don’ts of photo-sharing contests

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Sarah

We read this great blog post on Mobile Marketer by Chantal Tode about photo-sharing mobile contests. While the post was specifically about mobile contests, Tode brought up some really good points that are important to all photo contests, not just mobile ones.

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Something that really stood out in the post was the idea to not make the request for posting photos too specific or hard for consumers to capture as it can result in lower participation and submission levels. This is great advice to follow when thinking about the best way to engage your customers.

With a photo contest, you want to hit that magical formula of something your customers are very interested in and a picture that is easy for them to capture and share.

If you are looking for more than engagement, running a photo contest to gain insight into your customers, for example, the voting and rating side of the contest becomes more important than the contest entries. Consider a contest without user generated entries, where your customers have to vote on their favorite product.

 

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The Cost Benefits of Online Application Management

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Erica Schaffel

GMN paper dietOrganizations usually want to move their application process online because of the time it will save them. For a quick refresher, read what I wrote in January about the time savings associated with online application management.

Although we all know the saying “time is money” and saving time inherently saves money, that’s not always enough to prove why organizations should be moving away from paper.  Not enough, even though 60% of employee time in a typical organization is spent working with documents!

Recently, the Grant Managers Network came out with a report called The Paper Diet. In this report, the authors detail several paper processes that if moved to paperless, would help organizations significantly cut down on costs. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest culprits is the paper-based application and review process.

Here are some highlights from the report:

  • The average four drawer filing cabinet costs about $25,000 to fill and $2,000 per year to maintain.
  • Each lost document costs $350-$700; between 3 and 5 percent of an organization’s files are lost or misplaced.
  • 15% of an organization’s revenues are spent creating, managing and distributing documents.

Want to know how much money your paper process is costing you? Check out this paper cost calculator.

For more information on the paper diet, including tips to get buy-in from your organization, access the full report.

Many thanks goes out to the Grant Managers Network for their continued success in providing learning materials to the grant-making community. 

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Online Contest and Promotions Provider No Longer on Fire? Get Things Buzzing Again with WizeHive.

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Sarah

extinguish

Just yesterday, Wildfire (now owned by Google)  announced they will be moving away from their roots and will no longer offer their contest and promotions builder as a stand alone product.  While the move furthers Wildfire’s strategy of being one of the leaders for Social Marketing Suites, it leaves a number of their former customers searching for a way to run individual contests and brand campaigns.

We will offer any former Wildfire customer a 2 for 1 deal on do-it-yourself contests just for making the switch. We will also offer $1,000 off to the first 100 Wildfire clients looking to build and run a custom contest.

As a  company focused on making smart, social apps that drive online engagement through the intake and organization of data, we have a simple yet powerful do-it-yourself contest builder as well as custom contest system for large brands and agencies needing a high degree of flexibility or payment intake.   We’ve run hundreds of contests and promotions over the last three years, working with customers such as the American Humane Society, Driscoll’s Berries, JCPenney, Galaxy Note, Toyota, Discovery Communications and iVillage.

Wildfire was a pioneer with their early online contests and promotions and we have a huge amount of respect for how they have grown their business. We wish them all the best in their transition, and are looking forward to providing the customers they are no longer able to service with the power and flexibility of WizeHive.

Wildfire customers looking to take advantage of this offer should go to http://beta.wizehive.com/webform/wfpromotion  to sign up.

 

photo by: Auntie P

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How WizeHive Helped a Fashion Blog Partner with Marie Claire

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Kamaila Sanders

When I’m not working at WizeHive I write for a  fashion blog called Philly Fashionistas. It’s a fun hobby that allows me to meet awesome people, attend cool events, and help women to look and feel their best.

Recently, a photographer from Marie Claire reached out to us asking if we could help him to find some stylish girls for a photoshoot they were doing in Philadelphia for their July Beauty Roadshow feature. As you can imagine we were happy to help.

Rather than just have the girls email us their photo and contact information we decided to use WizeHive to automate the process.

I created a workspace just for Marie Claire using the Job Candidates app to build a form that helped us to collect the girls’ contact info and where they could easily upload their photos.

Using WizeHive to manage this application process was great because it allowed us to easily and efficiently do the following

1. Make it easy for applicants to enter for their chance to be featured in Marie Claire

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2. Publish a link people could click to access the application

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3. Promote and share the opportunity through our social media accounts
4. Have one central space where everyone from Marie Claire could view and review the applications and photos and make a decision about which girls would be selected to be featured in the story

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Using WizeHive took a process that would have been painful and uncollaborative in email and made it simple and fun. Next time, I would like to get really fancy and set up workflows that would automatically email anyone who was moved to the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ folders.

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WizeHive News: WizeHive Welcomes New Addition to its Board and Closes Seed Round

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Sarah


With more than one million transactions per month, WizeHive strengthens team and adds local investment

WizeHive, a productivity tool that makes it easy for anyone to build and deploy powerful online business applications, is pleased to announce the closing of a seed round from Philadelphia’s growing venture capital community, and the addition of a Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of search engine Duck Duck Go to the board. Mr. Weinberg will join Dr. Michael Zisman, former CEO of Lotus Development (Lotus Notes), as investors and board members of WizeHive.

WizeHive kicked off 2013 announcing that 2012 revenues nearly doubled, fueled by a 95% year-over-year renewal rate of its current customer base. The company is now processing over one million activities a month for clients that include Discovery Communications, The Smithsonian, the Canadian Red Cross, CEA, Northwestern University, Global Health Corp, F&W Media and the American Humane Society.

“This is a very exciting time for us. We are experiencing tremendous growth and customer satisfaction, which continues to validate WizeHive’s value proposition – that we can make it easy for organizations to streamline and automate their business processes while increasing online engagement with customers, employees and others that matter most to their organization,” said Michael Levinson, CEO of WizeHive. “Adding Gabriel Weinberg to our board adds to a dynamic and talented team we have been building and we are honored to have him aboard”.

“WizeHive has begun to carve out a niche for itself in the enterprise app marketplace as a leader in group productivity tools, especially in instances where the collaboration needs to occur around data”, said Gabriel Weinberg, CEO of Duck Duck Go, “I am glad to be able to add additional value and insights to help them grow.”

WizeHive’s seed round included investments from Gabriel Investments and Goldin Ventures. Gabriel Investments focuses on accelerating the growth of early-stage companies in the Philadelphia area. The fund, established by Richard Vague and Scott Tarte of noteworthy success in both the energy and financial sectors, also includes Jonathan Brassington, Founder and CEO of LiquidHub , who will be helping WizeHive explore enterprise opportunities: “At LiquidHub, we work with hundreds of large corporations that deal with online database and workflow processes every day and we see a real opportunity for WizeHive in that market”, said Mr. Brassington.

“As a software veteran, it is exciting to see companies such as WizeHive put all the key elements for enterprise use together in a user-friendly, versatile and robust package,” said Dr. Zisman, “I am thrilled to be part of this team”.

WizeHive is also getting ready to roll out an updated version of the WizeHive platform. The new platform will include a powerful API and has been designed to enable users to quickly customize and deploy tailored business applications including forms, workflows, and automated tasks without any programming knowledge. Currently in beta, the new platform can be accessed at https://beta.wizehive.com.

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Employee thoughts: How I Wized up

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Nate Buckwalter

nate at the showWhen I was offered the job at WizeHive they asked if I would be willing to join my new coworkers in attendance at a conference.  I of course jumped at the offer so on my first day at WizeHive I found myself reporting to the Philadelphia Airport to greet my new team.

As the plane touched down in Tampa there was no turning back.  I was en route to the annual Grants Manager’s Network conference where grant managers and other industry stakeholders gain valuable new ideas, tools, and resources at interactive learning sessions designed to support those new to the field as well as seasoned professionals.  WizeHive has been a contributor to this conference since 2009.

This three day event was much like any other conference that I have attended in the past.  We set up shop in the exhibit room where attendees would flood during refreshment periods throughout their various schedule.  This room was filled with many vendors, that all  provide specialized assistance to grant management professionals.  In addition to having a booth we also were able to host a session.  It was exciting to find that the event participants were extremely engaging and curious.

As I mentioned, this was my first day with WizeHive, so I was flying blind, but eager to learn.  Here are a few of the things that I picked up over the past few days:

No one grants management system is right for everyone, not even WizeHive.  It is the case in many industries where there is a vertical scale of the best companies to the worst.  I found that there seems to be more of a horizontal layout, where you can find many vendors on the same tier but they specialize to one particular need and do it very well.  It is a common practice at WizeHive to have an honest conversation with the potential customer and say, “I don’t think we would be a great fit for one another, we specialise in the application, administration and decision making process and do that very well.  It sounds like you may want to speak with so and so..”

WizeHive’s software is so flexible that sometimes it’s both a strength and a weakness. WizeHive holds the most flexible piece of software I have ever seen and accommodates the widest range of industries, clients, and system types.  For example, our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system here at the office is powered by WizeHive, but that’s not really our forte.  That same software is used by household name clients in many different industries: corporations, foundations, nonprofits, and institutions.  Since it is so flexible, it becomes hard to define our one favorite customer, we love working with everyone!

My first impression of the WizeHive culture is pretty impressive.  There are few better ways to get to know the people that you will be working with than by embarking on a 72 hour business trip.  Spending my first few hours as a WizeHive employee was an eye opening experience..in a good way.  For example, without this experience I would not know that Jeff, the VP of sales is an expert at karate and is on his way towards his brown belt.  Next time you see him, ask him to demonstrate his Kata.

Don’t tell my boss, but I had a really great time, and I probably would have gone even if I wasn’t being paid for it.

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Why Company Cloud Storage is Essential

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Sarah

Why do employees want cloud storage?
Simple, it’s easy.

cloudsThere is no way around it, employees don’t want to store their data on one device. Whether they are getting work done at home in the evenings, wanting to use their own device, or traveling with a lighter laptop, employees want to be able to access their data anywhere. Here are a few reasons why you’ll want your employees using Company Cloud Storage, not their personal cloud accounts, for work.

If employees go with personal cloud storage, your company is no longer in control of its documents. Here are three scenarios of what could happen when an employee leaves, is ill or gets fired:

1. They could do some serious damage by accident. Think about it, an employee leaves a job and wants to delete everything associated with their time there. In an instant, they have deleted every record of working somewhere. What if there are no other copies of what they deleted? Company logos, reports, documents are gone. Although the intent was not malicious, the effects are just as devastating.

2. They could inconvenience the team/the new person. Your star employee is working on a big project. Five months and just shy of presenting it to a client, an appendix goes crazy and your star is out of commission for the next week. If the employee is storing all the research and information in their personal cloud storage solution, does this mean you need to start the presentation from scratch?
3. They could do some serious damage on purpose. If an employee uses personal cloud storage and leaves on bad terms, the company is at risk for serious damage. They could withhold information that they have kept outside of the company network. They could even take private information over to the competition.

Photo by: buck82

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