InitLive

The self-scheduling feature has drastically lowered the amount of time we spend on tedious and repetitive scheduling tasks.

The software is not well-suited for scheduling tasks that require numerous detailed changes.

The end to end management of people and the program within the Web interface.
You can see at a glance, in the web interface, where there are openings in the program staffing.
Signup to roles and shifts is easy, though some of the older volunteers found it challenging.
Visually it looks good, especially for the administrator. So I like the interface.
In the device app it is nice that it informs the administrator instantly of staffing problems in the current shift.
The various reports were useful, especially after the event when compiling the conference reports.
The volunteer app seemed almost trivial to operate. The young people, especially, took to it very well.
Volunteer communications pop up as notifications, so the admin can address them immediately.
It works well as a central communications hub for all volunteer communication before, during and after.

When constructing the schedule, the lack of cut and paste or duplication of program elements across multiple days made that process very laborious.
The volunteers see the shift selection schedule as one long list. It would be good to delineate it, perhaps with tabs, into days.
There are some fundamental controls missing such as enforcing minimum and maximum shift selection, and cutting off when changes may be made by the volunteers.
In the mobile app, there wasn't a clear way to tell at a glance if there are upcoming staffing problems - not attendance, but staff bookings. This is possible in the web app.
For the administrator the mobile app filter features make it very powerful, but it also makes for a shallow learning curve. I.e., some features are not obvious to find.
The mobile app is optimized for smartphones but not tablets. It will work on tablets, my preferred device, but emulating a phone.
It notifies you when people cancel from the event, but not when they join. This should be selectable.
Many volunteers select multiple roles up front which can quickly saturate the overall maximum role signup setting. Beware of this. It can block additional signup for a role despite shifts still being available.
Email broadcasts from the web app don't have customizable subject wording. That risks them being ignored or channeled to spam.

Increased of in-the-field communications with volunteers. Volunteers have quicker access to schedules and info pre-event and on site

Requirement of unique e-mails instead of a login name

We used this software to organize our student orientation volunteers. Previous to using the software, we used a pen & paper approach. We wanted to solve our scheduling issues but moving to a digital solution. In the end, we got so much more. What did I like most? That everything was now contained in one place - we could allow our volunteers to select their own shifts, change them as needed, see gaps in our schedule, and COMMUNICATE with volunteers from the app. It was a remarkable.

We had some hiccups on the human side during our implementation. It was somewhat challenging to introduce a new process for 100 volunteers.

There is a discrepancy between the app and the web version of the software. A few features are only available on the website for the early stages of setting up user's schedules. We've reported this to InitLive in hopes it can be changed for future releases.