Entries for the 2020 iTnews Benchmark Awards have closed.

We received a deluge of entries this year, with our new categories covering Diversity and Sustainability proving especially popular.

Entrants will receive confirmation that their entry has been received and is in order during the week of November 18th.

Finalists will be announced on January 13th, 2020. Some will be invited to special pre-event roundtable discussions at which iTnews will explore 2020's top technology trends.

The 2020 iTnews Benchmarks Awards will take place on March 4th, 2020, at KPMG's offices in Sydney, where they'll experience next year's update to the sights and sounds on display in the below video.

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.

This year, the awards fall into three groups and we invite you to enter two awards!  For example, a finance sector project focused on security could enter both categories.

The entry form for the awards can be found here. Entries close on November 11th, 2019.

The first group of awards are sectoral:

• 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 and 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 – 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 mass-market project - This category is for projects that serve consumers, across retail, entertainment, transport or any other 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.
• 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.

Next come the technology awards:

• Best resilience project - Projects that demonstrably improve an organisation's ability to withstand service disruptions, cyber-attacks, to ensure that internal users and/or customers face lesser risk of frustration or data exposure.
• Best internet of things project - Projects that use connected devices to gather and analyse data, then improve operations and/or products and services.
• Best emerging technologies project - Celebrating work in AR/VR, AI, drones, and other leading-edge technologies beyond the IoT.

And finally, the technology & society awards:

• Best diversity project - This category celebrates:
  • Efforts to deliver products and services that are accessible to the maximum number of Australians, regardless of their ability
  • Efforts by IT teams to make their teams more diverse in terms of any or all of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, neurological ability, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies;
• Best sustainability project - The sustainability category recognises projects that reduce resource consumption inside a business or in the wider community.
• Young Leader - This category celebrates a young IT leader – 35 years or younger – who has led significant change in an IT team.

Lastly, one project from among the category winners will be selected as AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY PROJECT OF THE YEAR.

Who judges the Benchmark Awards?

Finalists in each category will be chosen by judging panels comprising iTnews’ award-winning editorial team and expert advisors. We also seek external advice from technical specialists and global CIOs as part of the process.

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.

Awards gala dinner

Winners will be announced at a gala dinner to be attended by over 150 IT leaders in March 2020.

Entry form

The entry form for the awards can be found here. Our practice forms in Word and PDF format as a fine way to get your entry together. Entries close on November 11th, 2019

Questions?

For questions or clarification, please contact the editorial team.

Julian Bajkowski

Editor, iTnews