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CATALYST Abstract Management

Reviews of CATALYST Abstract Management

4.4 (17)
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Pros

  • Omnipress is wonderful to work with. Their team is quick to respond and act and my experience has been pleasant all-around.

  • We have had a great experience with CATALYST and use it for a handful of clients. The staff is knowledgeable and always very helpful - great customer service.

  • What I like most about this software is that is its ease of use, appearance, and can be customized to fit my organization's needs. I like that its reports and schedule feature.

  • So far, my experience with Catalyst Abstract Management has been very good. It is nice to have support when needed.

Cons

  • There are places where it's not obvious how to get from one place to another. So for a beginning user, it could be a little frustrating.

  • The dashboard format can be confusing to navigate at times.

  • The way additional speakers are added is very confusing.

  • Users had a hard time adding co-presenters. Also, the way the information exports it isn’t easy to track the presenter’s company name, address etc.

Showing Most Helpful

Showing 17 of 17 reviews

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Teshia P.
Publications Coordinator
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
3.0
Value for Money
3.0
Likelihood to Recommend
8/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 1, 2019

"New to the World of Abstract Management"

Overall: I am new to the world of conferencing and events, so the system of managing abstracts was foreign to me. CATALYST and Representative has been a tremendous help in learning the system. When I tell you I was new, my entire concept of what I was using the tool for was off. Now, I feel confident and I am looking forward to actually putting our conferencing events and using CATALYST next year, we are even looking into the app designed for interfacing with our event for next year. This will assist us in streamlining that portion of our process and also saving us time in the long run. I really have nothing else to compare CATALYST to as I am completely new to the industry, but I will say, that it’s a great system to have to compare in the future.

Pros: I like the ease of use. It is very intuitive and I am curious to work with the new app.

Cons: Some features that I would like to have were not available. This could be due to the lack of understanding by the person working to create the functionality required for our needs.

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: N/A

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 7, 2019
Hello Teshia! Thank you so much for the feedback you provided on your review of CATALYST Abstract Management. We value your input and strive to provide the best customer experience possible. We are always looking for customer input for future releases of CATALYST. I would love to talk more about some features you'd like to have that may not be available today. If you're open to it, please reach out to me at the email provided. Again, thank you for your feedback, Teshia. We're looking forward to working with you for next years conferencing events!
Gayla T.
Deputy Executive Director
Non-Profit Organization Management, 1-10 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 7, 2019

"Great product!"

Overall: My overall experience over the past 4 years has been great! The software accomplishes what we need it to, it allowed the full process to be in one place, and the customer support and timeliness of requests is the best I've experienced from any vendor I've ever worked with. I would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for an abstract management system.

Pros: For us, the main benefit was how much it cut down on staff time to manually create custom webpages of our own with the necessary information, first for the actual Call for Papers and then separately for the Reviewers. All the way from the Call for Papers to the review process was tedious and took many hours between 2 staff members. This product put everything in one place and offered easy completion for the applicant and easy access for the reviewers and cut staff time to very little.

Cons: There are places where it's not obvious how to get from one place to another. So for a beginning user, it could be a little frustrating. But once you're oriented, it's very easy.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 9, 2019
Hello Gayla! Thank you for taking the time to write this review- it's great to hear CATALYST has been a time saving solution for you and your staff as well as making the submission process easier for your applicants and reviewers! Additionally, I'm delighted to hear about the great experience you had interacting with our customer support team! As far as the frustration for beginner users and navigation of the site- we'll be releasing a new landing page for applicants (submitters) and a redesign of the dashboard in Q4 2019. This should eliminate any frustrations of new users. Thank you again for the review Gayla!
Diane L.
Vice President / COO
Mental Health Care, 1-10 employees
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
3.0
Ease of Use
3.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
3.0
Value for Money
3.0
Likelihood to Recommend
3/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 3, 2019

"Good but confusing to users "

Pros: Overall it is wonderful how some items be customized.

Cons: The way additional speakers are added is very confusing. Users had a hard time adding co-presenters. Also, the way the information exports it isn’t easy to track the presenter’s company name, address etc.

Reasons for Switching to CATALYST Abstract Management: We work with Omnipress and they started using catalyst so we had to switch.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 7, 2019
Hello Diane! Thank you for finding the time in your day to give us your feedback! I am happy to hear that the software is wonderful overall with the customization options available! As far as room for improvement- I'm sorry to hear about your experience with how additional speakers are added as well as adding co-presenters. We are working towards creating a better user experience specific to speaker management. If you are open to providing your input on how to make that experience better I'd love to hear from you at the email address provided. Thank you again for the review!
Devin D.
Meeting Planner
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 11, 2019

"Catalyst review"

Overall: Less labor Great support Quick turnarounds Mass emails This software has made the whole collection of abstracts a lot easier for our group. I can't even imagine going back to the way we used to do it.

Pros: We lost an employee due to retirement and then picked up this software, which made it easy to transition from our old manual process to a new, online process - with less labor.

Cons: The fact that you can't have several collections running at the same time. They are all lumped into one collection, even though we are collecting several different types of abstracts at different times.

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: We choose Catalyst, because we work with Omnipress on other things.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 14, 2019
Hello Devin! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review- I'm glad to hear the move to CATALYST from your old manual process has made your collection process easier! In addition to your note about running several collections at the same time- CATALYST does allow for several collections to be running concurrently. Your dedicated Project Manager is happy to discuss the pros and cons with you regarding multiple concurrent collections when planning for your future events. Thank you again for the review!
Debbie R.
Accreditation & Programs Manager
Medical Practice, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
September 30, 2019

"Great Product"

Overall: We have had a great experience with CATALYST and use it for a handful of clients. The staff is knowledgeable and always very helpful - great customer service.

Pros: It is adjustable for each of our clients needs and requirements - and they are varied. The information we collect can be put into journal ready documents that look great.

Cons: The fact that you can't print out just the abstract contents on a page (for reviewers and submitters). The affiliations section isn't very intuitive.

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: In addition to the product, the staff is great. It is nice to have a project manager assigned to you who you can actually talk to when you need to and not always get a voicemail.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 1, 2019
Hi Debbie! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review- we appreciate you giving us feedback on CATALYST! I'm glad to hear that the software is working for your clients' needs and that we're providing great customer service! As far as the ability to print out just the abstract contents on a page- I've passed this over to the development team along with your comment on affiliations. We're always making improvements to the software and this helps. Thank you again for the review Debbie!
Phillip K.
Senior Principal Research Engineer
Research, 51-200 employees
Used the software for: 6-12 months
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
2.0
Value for Money
3.0
Likelihood to Recommend
6/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
December 4, 2019

"Basic Functions for Managing Conference Paper Review Process - More Functions Desired"

Pros: The customer support was very good, with a project manager from Omnipress assigned to us who was very responsive. The submission process was also relatively easy for paper authors and paper reviewers.

Cons: I have used other conference paper submission and review software tools and found them to be much easier to use - from an administrative side. For example, the process of adding reviewers to the system, assigning reviews, and viewing results is a very manual process. Significant automation of these tasks is needed, along with improved visualization of the reviewer scores for each paper. I provided Omnipress with a long list of recommended improvements many of which I believe they are working on.

Reasons for Switching to CATALYST Abstract Management: We switched to Omnipress because of their ability to produce a USB stick with conference proceedings. While the USB stick worked well, many other features were not as good as those provided by the prior software used.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on December 6, 2019
Hello Phillip! Thank you for writing this review- we appreciate you finding the time in your day to give us your feedback! I'm glad to hear the customer service provided by the project manager was very good and responsive! As far as room for improvement from an administrative side- we appreciate you providing the list of recommendations as we are continuously improving CATALYST based on customer feedback like yours! Thank you again for the review!
Katy R.
Associate Director
Education Management, 1-10 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
9/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
September 27, 2019

"Great proposal management system "

Pros: I appreciate the support we get from our contact at Omnipress, the ease of use, the flexibility in getting things set up, and that it has all the functionalities needed for a smooth call for proposals process.

Cons: There are always reporting functionalities that would make things easier! We make it work (and our Omnipress contacts help quite a bit) but if it were possible to merge reviews in with each proposal in a report, it'd be great.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on September 30, 2019
Hello Katy! Thank you for writing this review- we really appreciate you finding the time in your day to provide feedback! I'm happy to hear that you have found the support as well as the functionality of the software beneficial for your organization's needs. As far as the reporting functionalities, your dedicated Project Manager will be contacting you to discuss how merging reviews with each proposal into a report can be accomplished. Thank you again for the review!
Susan L.
Education Manager
Non-Profit Organization Management, 1-10 employees
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
8/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
September 27, 2019

"Good system depending on your reporting needs"

Pros: It was easy to use as an administrator and visually looked good for reviewers and submitters.

Cons: Abstract reviewers could not print their assigned abstracts with corresponding graphics in line with the text. As an administrator I could not get a report in Word format of all the accepted abstracts for our print publication.

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: Colleagues had good experiences with other Omnipress services, and they seemed like their system would be a good fit.
Reasons for Switching to CATALYST Abstract Management: Needed a better system.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on September 30, 2019
Hello Susan! Thank you for writing this review- we really appreciate your feedback! I'm glad to hear our software was easy to navigate and that the look and feel was pleasing for submitters and reviewers! As far as room for improvement- I'm sorry to hear about the reviewers experience with printing and the administrator report not being available in Word for you. I've passed your comments along to the development team. Your feedback is much appreciated and will be used to address future releases of CATALYST. Thank you again for the review!
Vanessa V. avatar
Vanessa V.
Senior Manager, Marketing and Events
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
9/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 16, 2019

"Simple and Effective"

Overall: I have been working with Catalyst for over three years and I love I don't have to worry about the functionality and customer service. There's a lot to learn but it's so simple and user friendly, it's quick.

Pros: -Usability including training for evaluation and application function especially with the ongoing changes of volunteers who evaluate programs

Cons: Pulling reports! I wish there was a clearer way to do this as it doesn't seem as simplistic as it could be.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 17, 2019
Hello Vanessa! Thank you for being a CATALYST customer and writing this review- we really appreciate you taking time out of your day to give us feedback! As far as pulling reports- I encourage you to reach out to your dedicated Project Manager. They will assist you in capturing the information you require at any point during the collection process. Thank you again for the review Vanessa!
Lauren C.
Director of Meetings
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
September 27, 2019

"Poster/Scientific Session Abstract Mgmt"

Overall: The overall experience has been great. Our poster presenters and session chairs love it. The customer support we receive from OmniPress is also wonderful.

Pros: I like the ease of use. I use it but so do the Chairs of my sessions. Once we started using Catalyst, we no longer received calls/emails from users needing help.

Cons: At times, the system is slow w/saving info and/or updating info. We've been told that is due to the number of companies that we have in the "Institution" pull-down screen.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on September 30, 2019
Hello Lauren! Thank you for taking the time to write this review- I'm happy to hear the overall experience has been a great one! As far as the system being slow with saving information and/or updating information- I've passed this along to the product development team for research and future resolution. Thank you again for the review Lauren!
Rebecca D.
Marketing and Communications Manager
Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
July 20, 2021

"Highly recommend Omnipress and the Catalyst Product"

Overall: Omnipress is wonderful to work with! Their team is quick to respond and act and my experience has been pleasant all-around.

Pros: This is a very robust program but it's pretty simple to navigate and deploy.

Cons: The display application is slow to load but I know Omnipress is currently developing solutions to improve the load experience.

Filomena P.
Director of Operations
Non-Profit Organization Management, 1-10 employees
Used the software for: 1-2 years
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Value for Money
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
9/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 3, 2019

"Catalyst - Great Abstract System"

Pros: Very user friendly. Great search engine.

Cons: Little complicated for issuance of reports

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: It was being used by OmniPress who is my management supplier for our abstracts. Great company.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 7, 2019
Hello Filomena! Thank you so much for the feedback you provided on your review of CATALYST- it sounds like the software is working well for you overall! As far as the issuance of reports being a little complicated- we're always looking for input to help improve the software for all users. Please feel free to reach out to me in the email provided or reach out to your Project Manager to discuss how the reporting features and functionality could be improved upon. Thank you again for the review Filomena!
JoDee S.
Communications Director
Dairy, 1-10 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 3, 2019

"CATALYST review"

Overall: My point person at Omnipress is SO helpful.

Pros: It easily collects a lot of information and is understood by people who do not necessarily communicate with English as their first language.

Cons: The dashboard format can be confusing to navigate at times.

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: It was highly recommended by people I trust.
Reasons for Switching to CATALYST Abstract Management: Recommended by Omnipress staff.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 7, 2019
Hi JoDee! Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to write this review- It's great to hear that CATALYST collects the information you need and works well for your members. We truly pride ourselves on exceeding customer expectations with our customer service, so thank you for that comment! As far as the dashboard being confusing- we're launching a new dashboard configuration in approximately one month. Please reach out to your Project Manager to find out more details! Thank you again for the review!
Jill R.
Director of Conferences
Government Administration, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: 2+ years
Overall Rating
3.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
1.0
Value for Money
2.0
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
October 11, 2019

"Omnipress CATALYST Review"

Pros: It provided us the information we needed -- but difficult to extract that information.

Cons: I found it clunky and difficult to navigate. Not user-friendly.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on October 14, 2019
Hello Jill! Thank you for taking the time to write this review- we appreciate you giving us feedback on our product! We're always looking for ways to better improve CATALYST based on customer feedback. In the very near future we will be releasing a major redesign of the dashboard as well as an event landing page. These updates will make the software more user-friendly and easier to navigate! As for the difficulty of extracting information- I encourage you to reach out to your dedicated Project Manager. They will assist you in retrieving the information you require at any point during the collection process. Thank you again for the review!
Sara R.
Senior Program Coodinator
Public Policy, 11-50 employees
Used the software for: Less than 6 months
Overall Rating
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
7/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
September 27, 2019

"Review of CATALYST Abstract Management Software"

Overall: So far, my experience with Catalyst Abstract Management has been very good. It is nice to have support when needed. The hands on/hands off approach with our contact at Omnipress works well.

Pros: What I like most about this software is that is its ease of use, appearance, and can be customized to fit my organization's needs. I like that its reports and schedule feature.

Cons: TBD as I have yet to really experience the software as an user. As software administrator, the thing I like least about the software is that we are unable to customize the letter templates more (i.e. include images like our logo).

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on September 30, 2019
Hello Sara! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to write this review- we appreciate you giving us feedback on CATALYST! I'm so happy to hear that you have been happy with the features and functionality of the software. As far as the customization of letter templates (i.e. images like your logo), your dedicated Project Manager will be in contact to discuss how to achieve this. Thank you again for the review Sara!
Vivian T.
Manager
Hospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees
Used the software for: 6-12 months
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
9/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
November 9, 2020

"Helped make this course a success!"

Pros: The ability to hand off the work we used to do pre-course and trust it was all taken care of. They created the site to mirror our company and had constant communication and follow-up to our requests and changes.

Cons: I had no issues with it and was so pleased to have a tool to collect our abstracts/presentation materials for the faculty.

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on November 10, 2020
Hello Vivian! Thank you so much for the feedback you provided on your review of CATALYST- it sounds like the software was a success for AAP's course! Thank you again for the review, Vivian, and for being a CATALYST customer! We're looking forward to working with you and your organization in the future!
Cheryl P.
Director- Programming
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 51-200 employees
Used the software for: 6-12 months
Overall Rating
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Customer Service
5.0
Features
5.0
Value for Money
5.0
Likelihood to Recommend
10/10
Reviewer Source
Source: Capterra
November 12, 2020

"Excellent Product, Great Value "

Pros: The software was easy to use and navigate. The process was very simplistic for our team and users. The vast array of customizable reports was a life saver. The customer service was awesome. Our rep was very responsive and helpful through the entire process. They were able to make changes very quickly.

Cons: We didn’t find any issues while using the software.

Reasons for Choosing CATALYST Abstract Management: Value and ease of use

Vendor Response

By Omnipress on November 18, 2020
Hello Cheryl! Thank you so much for taking the time to provide your review of CATALYST. We're happy to hear the software and process worked smoothly for your team and users! We strive to provide excellent customer service from onboarding to the close of the collection site. Thank you again for the review, Cheryl, on behalf of the entire Omnipress Team!