Vendor of the Year

Open to all vendors, this standalone award will go to the vendor who can demonstrate outstanding performance in terms of market penetration, revenue growth, customer feedback and the launch of innovative new products.

2021 key criteria

Crucially, the vendor must clearly demonstrate a commitment to workplace diversity as well as IT excellence. They will have set up schemes to encourage and promote equality amongst staff, with opportunities provided to the most talented individuals regardless of their personal attributes or beliefs.

The organisation will be able to demonstrate a solid record of both innovation (whether that's in their products, working practises or processes) and investment in the UK IT industry. Evidence of youth training and recruitment programmes, and charitable works will also be considered.

The awards in this category will be judged against four key criteria:

Excellence

Consistently able to demonstrate leading performance in terms of market penetration, revenue growth, product launches and / or customer satisfaction.

Diversity

Encouraging and promoting diversity of all kinds in the workplace, both in terms of recruitment practises, and staff opportunities, training and retention policies.

Innovation

Demonstrating a true commitment to innovation, with the aim of providing the latest technology and services to customers, creating new products or even new marketplaces, and / or creating new routes to market and fresh ways to engage and communicate with the IT community.

Investment

Able to give strong evidence of investment in the UK, whether that's in terms of new hires, investment in research and development, opening new facilities and / or charitable works and donations. At its root an answer to the question: what have you done to make the UK a better place to live and work in?

Entrants should provide:

A maximum 500-word explanation for how they meet each of the four criteria, plus a maximum 250- word summary of why they believe they should win this award.

Each entry, therefore, requires:

  • Organisational overview (80 words), which can be used for PR purposes
  • Four sections detailing achievements against each of the four criteria above (up to 500 words each)
  • A summary statement (up to 250 words)

All sections of the form must be completed.