American Association of School Librarians

The AASL holds a national conference every other year where the national meeting offers 140 sessions for 3,000 attendees to help school librarians with the latest best practices.

Bottom Line: Let Omnipress do the work while providing great customer service.

Website: American Association of School Librarians

Lack of Service Meant it was Time for a Change

The previous abstract management vendor wasn't responding because the account representative was overwhelmed, outside requests to senior managers for additional resources were ignored, and call for proposal sites were opening four weeks later than planned. The only reason deadlines didn't slide even further was because AASL stepped up to do it themselves. They took stock of the situation and determined the customer service was unlikely to improve anytime soon.

The Vendor System Wasn't Making Matters Any Easier

The vendor's abstract management system was clunky and non-intuitive. In addition, AASL was paying significantly for two large services they didn't even need or use. When they asked the vendor if cost could be negotiated because of this situation, they were informed it would not be possible.

The final straw was when a glitch in the system was allowing presenters to see other presenters' confidential information. With the position they were in, AASL knew they had to search for an alternative.

Here Comes the Cavalry

AASL found Omnipress and could tell from the first phone call that obtaining great customer service wasn't going to be a problem. Omnipress' online abstract management and review system was intuitive and flexible enough not only to handle AASL's call for proposals, but also their concurrent session collection and their poster collection, even though it had to be three forms with different questions and different deadlines.

The icing on the cake was that Omnipress could also build AASL's awards collection site too. Since Omnipress did all of the heavy lifting configuring the sites according to AASL's specifications and provided support to both AASL and the site users, AASL could kick back and focus on what they're really good at  - providing service to their own presenters, attendees and members.

"I was impressed from the beginning. First impressions mean a lot and I felt that there was always clear, quick and honest feedback. For me, the total value is in the fact that I don't need to set up the call for proposals. This is done by Omnipress and I just approve and edit the work. This is a huge time-saver for me. I was so impressed that we signed a contract for Omnipress to handle our awards database as well."

Melissa Jacobsen, Manager, Professional Development for AASL