Case Study: National Electrical Contractors Association achieves 72% increase in award applications with OpenWater

How the National Electrical Contractors Association boosted submissions by 73%

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), a non-profit representing the $225 billion electrical construction industry and 4,418 members, faced a frustrating awards process: non-technical staff couldn’t create or update the Project Excellence Awards site without coding, reporting was inadequate, email notifications and judging changes required manual work, and the clunky submission experience kept application numbers low. NECA selected OpenWater’s application management system to address these challenges.

OpenWater implemented a no-code, easy-to-customize awards site with automated emails, flexible category and judging management, and integrated reporting dashboards, plus templates and responsive support. As a result, NECA—using OpenWater since 2017—saw a 72% total increase in applicants and an average 33% year-over-year growth, while significantly reducing manual work and improving the submission experience for members and judges.

National Electrical Contractors Association

Karina Forti

Marketing Manager