EntryEeze (EE) vs. Event Management System (EMS)

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Earlier this year, I used both EntryEeze (EE) to US Figure Skating's Event Management System (EMS) for a competition that had a mix of Excel, Compete USA, well-balanced, solo dance and showcase events.  Due diligence required looking at a lot of earlier competitions that used one or the other. 

EMS just seemed too complex for the Compete USA events, but it was required by US Figure Skating for the Excel events.  I talked to a few LOCs/officials about using EMS for first-time skaters' families and they said that those families really struggled to get the skaters registered properly.

EE management suggested using EMS for Excel and having everyone (incl. the Excel skaters) register in EE to manage practice ice, music, Planned Program Content (PPC) and communications.  Two other competitions did this successfully and, after checking a few references, that's what we decided to use.

The accountants didn't really like the mix-and-match.  It was cumbersome to switch back-and-forth for events during the same competition.  I'm not sure how much more work was involved, but I could see their point.  Perhaps it would have been easier if we had grouped all the events by Excel/judging system, but it didn't really seem to cause any delays.  We were fortunate to have experienced officials, thankfully, so they made it work.

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SUPPORT NEEDS:

EE is familiar and, while not perfect, it is less confusing for less-tech savvy people to use.  Plus, the coaches and other skating families can help anyone who gets stuck - EMS is still new to many people, so there isn't as much informal support.

EE provides more admin abilities for the organizers, so they can help individuals who are "stuck" more easily and faster than EMS.  I used those privileges a few times to assign practice ice sessions quickly and the family just had to go in and pay.  Easy-peasy.

REPORTING FOR ADMINS/TREASURERS:
EMS has very good reports, one of which is a comprehensive workbook that has several useful tabs: skater registration info, event registrations, coaches, seeding, etc.  It's easy to export/download this to your computer and have a variety of information in one file.  As a bonus, the reports are consistent in the choice and order of fields within the spreadsheet, which allows for easy lookup or formulas.

EE offers multiple comma-delimited files that must be exported/downloaded one at a time.  Opening them in Excel works, but you have to watch things like zip codes, which often lose their leading zeroes when imported as a number.

Some of the EE exports don't include the skater's USFS/LTSUSA number, which makes it difficult to match events to skaters.  Fields aren't in the same order, consistently; sometimes a report will have LastName then FirstName, others are reversed. 

You really have to be computer literate to make EE work for comprehensive reporting.

EVENT SETUP / REGISTRATIONS:
EE has very complex rules that must be set up correctly from the very beginning.  Fortunately, we paid EE to do the setup based on our announcement, so they put the correct rules on each event. I have done this myself in the past and it's worth $25 to let EE do the work.  I know it's probably easy for them, but it's worth my time.  For example, a skater who self-reports that they passed Basic 4 should be able to register for Basic 4, Basic 5, Beginner, high beginner, No Test, or Pre-Preliminary free skate events. 

Somehow, EMS has built those rules into their system, which is great. You do  have to add every event you wish to offer at the competition and those events are gender-specific, so you have (at least) two of every lower-level event. ex: Girls Basic 5, or Boys Basic 5.  If the gender is missing on LTSUSA or US Figure Skating's membership files, those events are skipped.  There's no warning or error message - it took me hours to figure out that problem.  (As an aside, Excel Series events have very-specific event titles and there's no merging events with both boys and girls into a single event.  US Figure Skating sent out a reminder to Excel competition to make sure the events were correct.  Fortunately, we only had female skaters enter the Excel events, so didn't have to do anything.

On both systems, the skaters have to self-report their highest test level, which can create difficulties for parents who don't know the correct level or have to update the highest test passed and can't figure out where that can be found in each system.  (In EE, it's My Account > Personal Info; in EMS, it's appx. six "Accept / Continue" clicks along from the "Competition Registration" menu option.)

MUSIC:
EE allows skaters or coaches (or admins) to upload music for a particular skater. 

I usually upload everyone's music on their behalf since I keep copies on my computer and can upload at high speed.  It's a bit of nannying, but it saves skating parents time and frustration and it's pretty easy once you know how. 

EMS only allows the skater to upload music, which isn't ideal.  One of my parents played the music she uploaded and thought it was cut off because you only get a sample of the song online, unless you download another copy. 

I submitted a feature request to allow coaches to upload.  I hope they fulfill it soon because it's really a feature gap.
It would be nice if the competition event organizers could upload as well.

From the music monitors' perspectives, two told me that EE is easier for them to use.  There are some system difficulties, but I didn't ask what they were.

PLANNED PROGRAM CONTENT (PPC):
Planned Program Content is a form that is required for IJS Free Skate events.  The user enters the IJS program elements, in order, so that the Technical Panel has a list of items to watch during the competition performance. 

EE presents a full-page form where you can pick/choose each element on screen and displays the code and the description.
For example: "Jump Combination > 2F-Double Flip > 2Lo-Double Loop" would be shown along with the other elements.
However, if you you leave something out, you have to replicate each element from the bottom-up to make room for the left-out item. 

EMS displays only the codes on the full elements list for a particular program.  For example: "2Lz+2T" To my mind, that shorthand can lead to some data entry errors and the need to have others make corrections later.

Adding an element, triggers multiple new screens with pull-down menus.  Visually, it's more complex than EE, where everything is on one page.  EMS does show both the code and the description on these "add element" screens and at a more detailed level than EE.  For example, to add a combination jump, you have to start by choosing 2-jump combination or 3-jump combination.  (Don't let anyone tell you there's no math in figure skating.  Kidding!)

Of course, only the skater can submit PPC for EMS.  I would like to see coaches and admins able to enter/submit these items.
I'm not sure if skaters can "copy" prior competition PPC to a different competition - that would be a good feature.

I use a scoring estimator app and send a screen shot to my parents, so they enter the PPC into EMS, but as with music, I wouldn't mind entering it for all my skaters in one computer session.

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TEAMS / DUETS / TRIOS
We had one great Showcase Trio enter our competition.  EE kept their information separate - it requires one team leader, who is the only skater available to send email messages, upload music, etc.  There's a completely separate "Teams" registration, report, event, etc.  It was tricky to handle this because if you wanted to email everyone on a team, you had to type in the secondary skaters' emails as a blind cc to the original.  They weren't tracked as individual skaters, so if you wanted to provide a list to the announcer, photographer, videographer or music monitor, you had to add it manually to the list of solo skaters.   

I would hope that EMS handles this better.

PRACTICE ICE / SCHEDULING:
We used EE for practice ice purchases/assignments and scheduling.  It's complex because the practice ice sessions can be split by levels, but if you have a "team" event (like a showcase duet or a synchro team) that's handled completely separately. 

The schedule in EE is difficult to set up and manage.  I used my mad computer skills to upload a spreadsheet as a starting point, but then I had to add ice cuts and practice ice separately. 

One trick I used was to assign the same start/end times to all events/groups that were sharing a warmup.  It eliminated a lot of confusion for the participants and made it easier to track times.

Changing times by a few minutes for a group of events, however, was time-consuming and headache inducing.  You have to edit all of the events, one by one.  Grrr.

The referee/accountant wanted the event numbers go in sequential order on the schedule.  If a last-minute change required a new event, use a suffix instead of renumbering all the events.  For example, the new event comes after 120, so give it "120.5" as the event number, so the schedule sorts properly.

Not sure how well EMS handles practice ice or scheduling, but I'm willing to find out. Maybe next year.

COSTS:
Cost-wise, EMS is a little less expensive up front. There's no set up fee (because you do it yourself) and there's no deposit required. 

EE requires an up-front "paper registration deposit" so that, if an admin registers a skater, the EE fees can be deducted from the deposit balance.  You get back the unused amount after the end of the competition.

There are two fees added to the cost of each registration: a registration system fee (EE or EMS) and a payment processor fee.

Both systems collect a "convenience fee" from the registrants to cover the fees being charged on each registration.  Setup can include/exclude American Express cards, which carry the highest payment fees. 

Both systems will transfer the monies collected to the hosting club, less the two processing fees.  There are reports that detail the transactions in each transfer.  Note that this is for payment reconciliation and some skaters may register for different events or pay for practice ice separately, etc. so the list can have multiple entries for a single skater.

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Thanks for that very detailed review!

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You're welcome.  It was fresh in my mind, so I figured I'd put it down in writing for next year.

[Nate]

I actually liked the EMS system, and definitely prefer it to EE - particularly with every event requiring a different EE account.


I actually would like to see USFS centralize this for Club Membership, as well.

[Isk8NYC]

That's a good point: EE does have a separate security data table for each competition.  It's a pain, but at least it will let you copy over from a prior competition.

The USFS membership system leaves much to be desired, trust me.  They have a centralized LTS USA membership portal, but every club/lts program has to be assigned.
ISI is centralized and the management is much less fussy, but they're not the Olympic/ISU qualifying organization for the USA.

[LunarSkater]

I like EE from the admin side; I'm the ice session contract officer for my club and it's so much better than the system we used to have (Studioware, it was meant for dance studios and it showed).

As a competitor, I can't stand EMS and vastly prefer EE. I had so many problems with EMS at my last local competition and I was far from the only one. I know for a fact that people didn't compete because registration used EMS. My skating partner is a music official and he doesn't like EMS; he starts complaining every time the subject comes up.

Thanks for the write-up; it's nice seeing other sides of EE & EMS that I'm not familiar with.

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Re: EE Contract Ice - I have a million, billion questions!

Do you have a volunteer session monitor at each skating session?
What happens if a skater can't make a session?  Can they "sub" someone else in their place?
Do you allow refunds or apply credits?
Are there "contract ice credits" in EE?
Is it labeled "contract ice" on the Stripe payment list?
Do you use it for things other than "freestyle" sessions?

We're thinking of having a small skating seminar next month, which will require some payments to be collected.  My initial plan was to make it a pseudo-test session in EE, but now, I'm thinking that a single contract ice session might be better.

[LunarSkater]

I have some answers!

1) We have a volunteer ice monitor at a majority of the sessions (usually a parent, and we give them a small discount on contract ice for volunteering their time). For those that don't, either the skaters check themselves off on the sheet or a coach will do it eventually. The ice monitor also plays the music, which is quite helpful when there's a bunch of people waiting for their turn.
2) No, there is no subbing between skaters on sessions, even amongst family. We purchase club ice that's broken down by five different contract periods by year (summer, early fall, late fall, winter, spring) and a maximum of twenty skaters allowed on the ice for safety reasons. So essentially our skaters pay to 'reserve' their spot on a particular session, which helps offset the cost of the ice. Part of the contract, depending on the total amount purchased, we give three trade cards so if skaters miss a session they can walk-on to a different one without having the pay the walk-on price (which we set to be a tad more than the regular price). In pre-COVID times, we also offered Flex cards (pre-purchased walk-ons) for a total amount of six. Walk-ons are now generally run through EE; our old software could not do this. The number of walk-ons is limited to the number of 'free' spaces left on a session after the contracted skaters, so if a skater misses it opens another spot for someone else to use that day.
3) We go credits all the way. Not only is it easier to manage, but it's actually club policy that we don't give refunds except in life-altering circumstances. Our serious injury/illness policy also involves credits because some of the contracted ice has been used already, so a full refund cannot be an option.
3) No, not specifically. But you can set a credit in someone's account that will limit the use of it to contract ice.
4) When I get the email receipt for my own purchases, it tells me that the payment will appear as {CLUBNAME}. So I'm assuming it appears whatever you set up with Stripe (which I don't have access to).
5) Absolutely! We use it for registration for LTS, our camp sessions, and for skating shows. We've done it for skating clinics in the past as well. It's really flexible.

I highly recommend looking into the contract ice for your seminar and I'll be happy to answer more questions if you have them.

[dlbritton]

I used EMS for the first time to sign up for Dogwood and it was very confusing to use. A big issue, and one my coach complains about, is uploading my own music. I'm an IT specialist so no real issue but site navigation leaves a lot to be desired. My coach likes to upload music so she knows it has been done and can keep track of things.

EE is very easy to use. I did not pay for the app to install on my phone. I'm content to use my PC partially because I have a basic phone with limited space.