Who will be CIO of the year?

What are the makings of a great CIO?

At iTnews we’ve set ourselves the task of defining leadership in technology excellence, with the launch of the inaugural Benchmark Awards.

Open for submissions today, the Benchmarks seek to recognise chief information officers – and their wider technology teams – for executing projects and strategies during 2012.

The awards will be presented at the Gala Dinner of the CIO Strategy Summit at Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on February 26, 2013.

Award categories

In designing the awards, we have endeavoured to compare projects along industry lines with similar challenges. The penultimate 2012 CIO OF THE YEAR will be chosen from five other award winners:

• CONSUMER SECTOR
  (RETAIL CIO OF THE YEAR)
  Chosen from IT projects in FMCG, retail, tourism & hospitality.
• FINANCE & LEGAL SECTOR
  (PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CIO OF THE YEAR)
  Chosen from IT projects banking, financial services, property and insurance.
• INDUSTRIALS SECTOR
  (INDUSTRIALS CIO OF THE YEAR)
  Chosen from IT projects in mining and resources, manufacturing, construction & transport.
• PUBLIC SECTOR  
  (GOVERNMENT CIO OF THE YEAR)
  Chosen from IT projects in healthcare, education & defence.
• UTILITIES SECTOR
  (UTILITIES CIO OF THE YEAR)
  Chosen from IT projects in telecommunications, internet, gas & water.

Submit your entry today.

Award criteria:

To ensure CIO performance can be judged in a consistent and measurable way, the Benchmark Awards focus on IT project excellence.

Submissions will be based on an IT project that commenced or concluded during 2012; and based on the following criteria:

• The strength of the business case for the project.
• How executive sponsorship was sought.
• Project delivery – evidence of agility, creative applications of IT, competencies developed, change managed – all whilst keeping within targeted scope, deadline and cost.
• Whether new ground was forged – in terms of new technologies or processes.
• How risk was managed.
• Return on investment – projected or measured.

Who can nominate?

We acknowledge that a successful CIO needs to be backed by a great team and form productive partnerships with the wider industry.

Submitting on your organisation’s behalf is an opportunity to showcase the excellent work your team has accomplished during 2012.

CIOs can self-nominate in one of the five categories. Members of their staff can also nominate on their CIO’s behalf, as can business partners.

Applications close on December 1, 2012. Head along to our awards web site  - the submissions process takes little more than 10-15 minutes.