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I
am concerned about confidentiality: What
is your privacy policy with regard to the applications? Is any of
the information on the application made public? Will Technology
Managers Forum or the judges contact the nominees?
Applications are not made public and are only distributed to judges
in the category you enter. The only persons who will see your application
are two Technology Managers Forum employees- the director, Priscilla
Tate, and the awards coordinator - and the judges.
The only information made public is the name of the company or companies
that have won, with a brief summary of why the project won that
is included in the October conference booklet and on our website
(see here for past winners). Companies
that are concerned about the summary content can ask to vet the
content beforehand, or we can leave it out of you wish.
While don't ask for confidential information, we do ask about best
practices for solving certain kinds of generic technical problems.
Also, we do not announce the entrants, except for the winners, and
we do not keep any of the applications, once the winners have been
decided.
PLEASE NOTE: Judges may contact any or all contacts listed
on your application (nominees, business references,
IT managers) for more information about the project you have entered.
Are there exceptions to the criteria for entering?
If your candidate has 200 users but does not have the prerequisite
$200 million in gross annual income, then they still may be considered
for an Honorable Mention.
What are the categories?
Click
here to see current categories for this year.
Do we have to pay to enter? No, entering
is free.
How
can we increase our chances of winning?
Our judges are all IT managers, and look for answers that are specific
and concrete, such as examples of what you did, problems encountered
and the results obtained. The more specific you are, the better.
Keep in mind that every question we ask on the form counts 10 points.
So any question that is not answered, or answered incompletely would
knock a candidate down a notch--especially in a field with many
candidates (such as Business Process Improvement or Technology Innovation).
What do judges look for in an application?
Judges look for a competitive advantage and statements that are
supported with data. They want to see how goals are validated with
actual data. Simply writing down your goals on paper without evidence
to support them is not sufficient. Emphasize the business advantage
the technology provides - not just how great the technology is.
For current list of judges, go to our Best
Practice Awards Judges page.
Can
you nominate a project that was developed more than a year ago?
No. To ensure only timely and tested projects
have been nominated, the project or
major phases of the project nominated for the 2007 Best Practice
Awards must have been funded in or after January 2006 and before
April of 2007.
What
type of recognition will the winners receive?
Winners will be announced at Technology Managers Forum's annual
fall conference, Security
Forum, held each October in New York City. Winners will be invited
to send one representative to the event for free. Winners and judges
are invited to a dinner the night before the Security Forum event.
We do publicize the winners and why they won and issue a press release
through the business wires and encourage winners to issue their
own press releases. Any inquires we receive about winners we refer
to our website, or we have them contact the winners directly or
the designated person to accept calls from the press, if they want
more information than is on our website.
Will
we get a plaque or other type of physical award?
Each winner in each category will get ONE award-currently a
fine crystal award in a velvet lined box engraved with the winning
companies' name (s) and category. If there is a shared award between
a vendor and an IT manager, the vendor and IT manager will get ONE
award each.
If you wish to order more awards, you may, though the ordering process
and payment will be up to you. You will be given instructions after
the official event for ordering more awards directly from the manufacturer.
Currently they have agreed to offer extra awards for can pay wholesale
cost for $100 each, a $50 savings over the usual cost.
When
will I find out if we won?
Winners will be notified as soon as all judges have made their decisions.
Usually this is before Sept. 15th. There are first place winners,
and frequently honorable mention winners. When all the winners have
been notified, those on our mailing list will receive notification.
What
format should attachments be in? Some applications ask for attachments,
such as a business user reference letter or a workflow diagram.
Attachments can be sent separately but must be sent by electronically
by email and in a format compatible with Windows: .doc. or .pdf
or .xls. If we receive an attachment that we can't open, that means
our judges probably won;t be able to open it either, and asking
you to reformat and resend could take you over the deadline. So
if you are unsure if your format is compatible please call us at
212-787-1122 before sending it.
Also: no videos please. Running videos could cause conflicts
on someone else’s computer system and all of our judges are
IT managers who work for large corporations and policies and standards
for running videos vary widely. For their application to be complete,
they must submit a workflow diagram and we cannot accept video files.
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