Arbiter, et al
 

Has anyone else noticed an Arbiter exodus by their assignors? In the past month I've had two flip to ZebraWeb and one go to Blue Zebra. Last season I had to worry about closing dates in three programs (Arbiter, Presto and RefTown). This season I have four (Arbiter, Blue Zebra, RefTown and ZebraWeb).

Nope!!

I wish the would but we pay for it.

Peace

I've picked up several over the last few months, some coming from Arbiter....they're thrilled with what they're finding! :D

What do you have that Arbiter doesn't? (aka feature comparison)

I'm curious as well to see the differences between the various programs on the market.California is and always will be an Arbiter state.

I think lots of assignors left after that server mess-up last month where everyone lost all their games.

Ahhhhh, that would explain it. I remember seeing something about a server problem but I didn't have an issue with the games on my schedule. I did have a problem receiving notification about some games. One of my supervisors put up two assignments but I never received an email/text. I happened to see them because I went to Arbiter looking for something else.

We did not have any such problems. And we have the largest group in the country in both basketball and football from what I am told. I wish that had happened, but we didn't. Daaarrrnnnn!!!!

Peace

I don't actually use Arbiter. All orgs I officiate with use Reftown. So, my comparison with Arbiter's specific content is not form direct knowledge but from what I've been told it has or doesn't have. I like to keep it that way so I can't be accused of copying something they have.

I have a lot of things related to running an organization beyond the basic game assigning stuff. I offer a lot of flexibility in how you can do things and customization options in how things work, apparently more than is commonly found.

There are several communications options such as feedback/evaluation forms, surveys, ballots, some basic media support. We have payroll calculations with true direct deposit and 1099 creation/e-distribution. We have several export/import options including the ability to export many types of data out to Excel, modify it in mass, and then bring it back in.

While it isn't a full featured web site hosting system, we also provided a way for you to customize the site's content in a way that it can replace a general website for many organizations. You basically make your own pages with whatever you want on them.

You can keep past season's data around while not being restricted on how you change your configuration for a new season.

More than anything, what I often hear is how much easier it is to use, even from people that are new to it after coming from from another system they have used for a few years. The site organization is, according to what I hear from customers, far more intuitive that others. The ability to move around the site from one piece of data to another is extensive....things are heavily cross linked. The workflow is efficient and orderly.

I've also been told that our pages load faster. That isn't a big deal for the average official but it is for an assignor.

AND...we're a LOT cheaper.

R.I.P., AssignByWeb. Anyone remember it? I thought it was better than Arbiter (still do), but it didn't have the working capital to keep up and eventually folded.

That left Arbiter with a monopoly and they have not handled it well (not enough servers, issues with security, frequent outages and data loss, etc.). No surprise that competitors have flooded the market in the last few years.

The OhioHSAA is moving toward using Arbiter for all contracts at all levels, both regular season and post-season) within the next two years.

MTD, Sr.

Reftown, from what I'm told is, in style, is similar to AssignByWeb. I picked up a bunch of the AssignByWeb clients....even a couple that went to Arbiter first then left. I don't think I've lost any by their choice. Most found the transition very easy.

I welcome anyone to give us a try....no hassle, no obligation. Those give us a try almost always stay and are very happy.

“Always” is a long time :)

What do you mean Rut?

Let me know how we stack up. We are always working to improve and make things as easy as possible for officials and coordinators. Appreciate any feedback you have…drop me a line at [email protected]