The Elk Awards Platform was developed in conjunction with the WA Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards (WAITTA) over the period 2004-2009. In 2008 the platform was enhanced and ported for use by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) for the national iAwards programme, in 2009 for use by the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) programme, and again in 2010 for the WA Innovator of the Year Awards.

Throughout this series of deployments, the platform has become a mature and comprehensive system for the end-to-end management of an awards programme.

Features

The Elk Awards platform offers end-to-end support for the management of an Awards programme. Specific functionality includes:

• Content Management
  Uses the Elk Content Management System for maintenance of information such as information about the awards programme, how to enter, about categories, FAQ, and feature sponsor links.
   
• Categories
  Categories are recorded in the system with their judging criteria.
  
  Where the system is run across multiple years, the categories can show past winners. This information is drawn directly from prior year’s entries (and their profiles).
  
  Categories can also be assigned an entry cost, which entrants pay online when submitting entries. The system can run with or without cost to enter.
   
• Calendar
  An essential part of an awards programme is the management of dates. The platform allows you to define a set of dates that determine when entries open & close, when judging opens and closes and when finalists and winners are published. There is also the ability to override dates for specific categories or entries since there are invariably exceptions that need t be handled by awards programme organisers.
   
• Entrant Registration and Management
  Entrants can register and are issued with a secure password via email. Once registered and authenticated, entrants have the ability to access entry forms/templates and can proceed to create one or more entries.
  
  The entry process does not require that it be completed in a single session - entries can be part-completed and then the entrant return later to complete and submit. Entrants can even edit entries after they are submitted, as long as the entry period has not expired.
  
  The entry process captures details about the entry plus allows the upload of entry forms and supporting materials. Supporting materials can include videos.
  
  When the system is run for multiple years, entrants can use the same login details in following years.
  
  Although entrant registration and entries are self-service, there remains the need for organisers to provide support for entrants and entries. The platform provides "assume" functionality so that organisers can assist entrants with entries and/or address problems that entrants experience.
   
• Role Security
  The platform uses single sign-on such that all types of users use the same login process. This supports the isolation between role and user such that users can have either single role or multiple roles.
  
  Roles exists for:
  - Entrants
  - Judges, including per category
  - Category Chairs
  - Chief Judge
  - Administrator
  - Committee.
  
  All users have self-service password change and recover features.
   
• Judging
  Judges can login and are presented a list of all entries that they need to judge (and only the entries they need to judge). The judging system allows view of entry forms and supporting materials. Each judge can score each entry against each criterion using a numeric scale, and can record comments about each entry. To make comparative judging easier, judges can view the score they gave other judged entries against each criterion.
  
  The Chair of each category can see the overall judging results. The Chair report also shows progress each judge has made and provides contact details for easy follow-up.
   
• Winner / Finalist management
  Entries are flagged as successful, finalist or winner (a range of values can be changed). This allows a record of successful entries to be recorded and for those entries to be available on the website. As part of the entry process, entrants create a profile such that if their entry is successful the profile displays on the website once winners are published.

The system is provided on a fully hosted, managed and supported basis, and is fully branded to reflect the branding of your event.
 
More Information

For more information on the Elk Awards platform, please contact us.