Inside AWARDS | We Love Feedback!

By Tanya Coraci
September 2, 2015

Between the Quality Assurance, Client Services, and Training divisions at Foothold Technology, we constantly encourage and often collect client feedback on our AWARDS software. This feedback does not fall on deaf ears! Each division has a channel through which they can gather and bring forward client suggestions and requests for enhancements. Knowing our users often have the best ideas, we review these lists of ideas on a regular basis, and work in suggestions when the development schedule allows.

Typically, criteria for which suggestions turn into functionality deployments often include the following:

• Widespread gain – These are items that will benefit the largest number of our clients, as opposed to only one or two agencies, or those that have the most “bang for the buck” in terms of development time.
• Ease of development – Since our development schedule is often filled with regulatory work, housekeeping, and projects in line with the company’s mission and direction, suggested enhancements that are easy to work in will often get the green-light ahead of those needing a more in-depth dive into the code.
• Current development schedule – If we are currently working on a module that we know people have made suggestions on, we will try to work as many of those suggestions into the project as we can. This is similar to saving all your errands for one day and running them all at once, instead of spreading them out. If we are already “out” in the module’s code, we try to get as much done there as possible before coming “home”.

As enhancements are developed and deployed, they are announced to users through our monthly FootholdConnect announcements, documented in our Online Help system, and included in our monthly newsletter, FootNotes.

So, keep those suggestions coming! We love hearing how each agency is using our AWARDS software to meet different needs, serve a wide variety of clients, and report to different funders. Are you entertaining any “It would be nice if…” ideas about AWARDS? Let us know, we’re listening!