The 2021 iTnews Benchmark Awards are now open. 

What are the awards?

The iTnews Benchmark Awards see large end-user organisations nominate their IT staff or project teams nominate their work, to showcase the ways they've innovated and added value.

The deadline for entries has been extended to December 4, 2020.

Who can enter?

The awards focus on projects by large end-user organisations, which are invited to nominate projects.

Technology companies/contractors can also nominate client projects, but they must have approval from their client to nominate the project and to submit information about it. This is a client-focused awards program, focusing on the client’s challenges and how a project helped them. So the client must also be prepared to accept an award and speak about the project publically (finalists will be invited to speak on video about their project). The client will also be invited to attend the iTnews Benchmark Awards event (pending COVID-19 regulations) if their project is a finalist. 

This year, there are eight project categories:

• Best Federal Government Project - Projects conducted by federal government departments or agencies that result in either internal efficiencies or improved citizen services.
• Best State Government Project - Projects conducted by state government departments or agencies that result in either internal efficiencies or improved citizen services.
• Best Local Government Project - Projects conducted by local governments that result in either internal efficiencies or improved citizen services.
• Best Industrial & Primary Production Project - Projects across all classes of industry – agriculture, resources, manufacturing – that demonstrably improve productivity or product delivery.
• Best Education Project - Projects conducted by or for educational institutions at all levels – from childcare to University to adult education – that deliver either internal efficiency or better experiences and outcomes for students.
• Best Health Project - Projects conducted by any organisation delivering health services that demonstrably improve staff productivity and/or service delivery to patients.
• Best Finance Industry Project - Projects conducted by participants in the financial services industries that either improve internal operations or result in improved products and/or service delivery to corporate or retail customers.
• Best Mass-Market Project - This category is for projects that serve consumers in activities in which the end-user is a member of the public going about their daily lives. We suggest this category for companies focused on retail, media & entertainment, telecommunications services, tourism, transport and automotive. Projects should demonstrate improvements to internal operations and/or result in improved products and/or service delivery to corporate or retail customers.

Lastly, one project from among the category winners will be selected as Australian Technology Project of the Year.

Enter the Benchmark Awards

The entry process is straightforward: Fill in the online entry form, which should take 10-15 minutes to complete (you can also refer to this PDF or Word doc, but use them for reference only and do not send them to us. You must fill in the online entry form.)

Who judges the Benchmark Awards?

Finalists in each category are chosen by iTnews’ award-winning editorial team and expert advisors. The Project of the Year is decided by a panel of external judges, working with the iTnews team. Event sponsors including KPMG have no involvement whatsoever in the judging process, soliciting entries or writing entries. Category finalists are revealed to sponsors before the event, but category winners are not known to anyone outside iTnews' publisher nextmedia, and judges, before the awards night.  

The finalists will be selected on the following criteria:

• The strength of the business case for the project.
• The project’s delivery – evidence of agility, creative applications of IT and competencies developed, whilst keeping within targeted scope, deadline and cost.
• Whether new ground was forged – in terms of innovation and new technologies or approaches, and how this risk was managed.
• Return on investment – anticipated or measured.

Announcement of finalists and winners 

Finalists will be announced on December 14 on iTnews.

Winners will be announced in a video awards ceremony published online by iTnews on March 25. Or, if government COVID-19 restrictions allow, at a series of dinners in March 2021 at the KPMG offices in Barangaroo in Sydney.

Questions?

For questions or clarification, please contact us here.