Platform, features + security

We have REST APIs for data input and output, and configurable webhooks.

Developer documentation is available at:

Creative Force provides the option to store all your data in your choice of region, to support your data protection compliance requirements.

Learn more:

We‘re continually improving the Award Force and Good Grants software and adding new features. 

We practise continuous delivery and deploy features and improvements to production several times a week. Updates and new features are immediately available to all accounts.

New features are implemented and prioritised based on popularity and potential benefit to clients.

Release notes are published monthly:

Creative Force is Software as a Service (SaaS), which means we take care of all the hosting technicalities for you. There are no separate hosting costs or data fees (excluding additional high volume video viewing minutes— please enquire).

We use the Amazon cloud for hosting Award Force and Good Grants. Amazon Web Services is a global leader in cloud hosting infrastructure and provides proven, reliable and distributed infrastructure.

Most importantly, it is massively scalable– which is why it’s used by some of the world’s biggest and most popular online services and applications, such as Netflix, Adobe, AirBnB, Pinterest and of course, Amazon.com.

We have architected our use of Amazon’s cloud services so that our application capacity automatically scales with our clients’ load requirements, handling traffic spikes comfortably.

All our clients’ data is professionally secured and managed with multi-tier backups in place for disaster recovery.

For detailed information about our plans and pricing, please refer to:

For detailed information about our privacy, security and compliance credentials, please refer to:

• Award Force: www.awardforce.com/security
• Good Grants: www.goodgrants.com/features/security

This is a non-exhaustive list of core software features and capabilities. Award Force and Good Grants share many of the same features— where a feature is available on one platform only this is indicated below.

User registration and login

• Users self-register so they can return to log in and edit their entries at any time
• Password reset functionality sends an email with a link to create a new password (passwords are stored with one-way bcrypt hashing)
• User registration data collection fields can be configured as required
• Social authentication supported (Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter)
• Registration can be limited to users with specified email domains
• Mobile registration and authentication supported
• Account confirmation via email link or code via SMS
• Optional Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), can be enforced by role
• Secure password policy
• SSO integration plugins for WordPress and Drupal
• SAML SSO feature available
• Custom SSO supported via our APIs

Online entry / application 

• Entrants / applicants create one or many entries / applications, selecting their category and completing criteria and fields for that category
• Categories, criteria, fields and tabs are all configurable
• WYSIWYG drag’n’drop form editor makes form editing quick and easy
• Entry is saved ‘in progress’ after completion of the initial tab
• Entries autosave whilst entrant works, preventing data loss
• Impose word or character count limits (minimum and/or maximum) on written entry criteria
• Entrants upload file attachments according to your file size, type and quantity limitations. There are no technical limitations on size, type and quantity
• Fields are all validated according to your configured requirements
• Once complete, entrant ‘submits’ their entry to indicate they’re done
• Entrant can return and edit their entry after submission, until entry deadline
• Entrants can download a PDF copy of their entry
• Entrants may duplicate (copy) their entries to modify and submit to another category

Category, criteria and data field configuration 

• WYSIWYG drag and drop form editor
• Categories created and managed by program manager
• Entry and judging criteria fields created and managed by program manager
• Configurable input fields to supplement data collection on entries and users
• Advanced field types including e.g. data tables

Content management

• Contextual info and hint content placements throughout the software
• Content management interfaces for program managers
• Create additional “about“ pages
• Editable user interface text elements
• Sophisticated support for multilingual content

Contract management 

Good Grants exclusive feature

• Configure contract templates
• Associate contracts with applications for e-signing

Domains 

• Use our white-label vanity domains or your own custom domain
• All TLS secured with SHA-2 certificate

Feedback for entrants / applicants 

• Set-up a feedback round after judging or after winners announced for entrants / applicants to log back in and review scores and comments from judges
• Choose between score only, comment only, or both score and comment visible to entrants / applicants

Funding allocation management 

Good Grants exclusive feature

• Configure and manage multiple fund sources in multiple currencies
• Apply and track multiple fund allocations per application

Judging / review modes 

• All judging modes can be configured for invited judges to log in to review entries allocated to them, or for public access judging.

Qualifying

• • Yes / No judging mode to support a group of assessors evaluating whether entries qualify

VIP judging / Scoring

• • Configurable scoring criteria, per category
  • Record / share judges’ comments

Voting

• • ‘Public’ voting on selected entries
  • Guest voting, or limit voting to verified registered users
  • Flexible voting options, e.g. vote limits, multiple votes per entry, display/hide vote count, etc
  • Gallery view of entries for display of images, embedded video, embedded audio player, etc

Top pick

• • Judges allocate preferences to the field of entries
  • Single Transferable Vote (STV) algorithm used to evaluate winners

Judging / review panels 

• Configure unlimited judging panels to associate groups of judges with groups of entries with a given judging mode
• Judges and entries may be in multiple panels
• Configure chapter-based panels

Judging manual / random assignment 

• Granular control to manually assign individual judges to individual entries
• Randomly assign groups of judges with groups of entries

Judging / review progress and leaderboards 

• Sort and filter score and judging status tables

Judging auditing 

• Review score breakdown for individual entries via score matrix or score export

Multi-account 

• Account owners and managers who are members of more than one account can centrally manage and oversee all their programs

Multi-chapter 

• Entries may be submitted by chapter (e.g. city, region, state, etc)
• Manage start/end dates, judging and rounds by chapter

Multilingual 

• Support for multilingual awards
• Program managers can select languages that their awards account will support
• Entrants can choose their preferred language when they register
• Program managers have editor control to manage and translate all account-specific content
• Additional languages supported by request

Notifications 

• Configurable event-based email and SMS notifications
• Manage email content and trigger events
• Merge tags to include personalised information

Online payment 

Award Force exclusive feature

• Accept payment if applicable
• Pay to start an entry, or pay on entry completion
• Integrated with a range of popular payment gateways (listed here), or offer payment on invoice
• Entry fee can be varied per category, chapter, volume, entry field value, etc
• Configure currency and local tax requirements
• Receipt automatically provided to entrant

Payment reconciliation 

Award Force exclusive feature

• Program managers have access to transaction records and receipts
• Export (Excel/CSV) transactions for accounting reconciliation
• Use webhooks and/or API to pass transaction info to your other systems

Reporting and export 

• All data tables can be filtered and sorted for reporting purposes
• Create custom views and exports
• Filtered tables can be exported as Excel/CSV file

Rounds 

• Round configuration facilitates automatically imposing start and end dates to program stages (entry, judging, feedback)
• Limit access periods differently by chapter
• Multiple judging / review rounds with separate score averages

Seasons 

• Archive entries and scores for a completed season
• Program managers have direct access to archived season data
• Quickly configure a new season by copying configuration from a prior season
• Users persist across seasons

Social 

• Social sharing features (optional)
• Social authentication with Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or Twitter (optional)

Sponsor support 

• Provide sponsors visibility to entrants and judges across the software
• Special visibility for category and chapter sponsors

Tagging 

• Tag entries to assist administration and filtering
• Configure judging panels based on tag
• Automatically apply tags based on event triggers

User, role and permission management 

• Program managers are able to list, filter, search, sort, create, export and bulk import users
• Typical user roles include Guest, Entrant, Judge, Chapter manager, Program manager
• Special roles can be configured based on permission requirements

Webhooks 

• Configure webhooks based on large selection of platform events
• Facilitates live data transfer to your other applications
• Integrate using Zapier, Integromat or your custom development

White label 

• Interface theming configuration for header and footer brand bars, logo, colour palette, etc

Creative Force consistently exceeds 99.9% uptime.

Typically, any downtime is for scheduled maintenance which is communicated well in advance and we allow for no more than one scheduled maintenance downtime event per month.

Maintenance events generally take about one hour and are performed during the quietest period of the week, either weekends or a Monday.

We publish public status pages of uptime, response times and incidents: