Recognizes the best native artificial intelligence, machine or deep learning solution, platform or product that learns, performs and excels at specific automated tasks.

Judges will be looking for:

• Automation of functions - how well does the solution save the user time and energy, making their job more straightforward, allowing employees to work more efficiently and productively? How well does the AI have the ability to do things humans can't do?
• Ease of implementation - what level of training data or annotation (if any) is required by users in order to make the AI perform as needed?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems or can the content or data within the product be exported?
• Learn - How well does the system grow subject matter expertise in your apps/ systems? To what extent does the system get smarter over time? Does the system have the ability to improve itself over time?
• Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience and use?
• Proprietary - are the algorithms used developed in-house? If yes, rate 10.
• Relevance to a target audience -Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Replication - Can automation be applied to different scenarios? For example, can accounting automation be replicated in procurement?
• Scalability/Time Savings - To the extent that the AI is designed to enable increased scale or time savings, how effectively does it accomplish that?
• Usability - can the user quickly and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Honors the best artificial intelligence solution that excels in analysis, interpretation, and comprehension of complicated medical and healthcare data to improve patient outcomes. The winning solution has the ability to gain information, process it and give a well-defined output to the end-use through machine and deep learning.

Judges will be looking for:

• Automation of functions - how well does the solution save the user time and energy, making their job more straightforward, allowing employees to work more efficiently and productively? How well does the AI have the ability to do things humans can't do?
• Ease of implementation - what level of training data or annotation (if any) is required by users in order to make the AI perform as needed?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems or can the content or data within the product be exported?
• Learn - How well does the system grow subject matter expertise in your apps/ systems? To what extent does the system get smarter over time? Does the system have the ability to improve itself over time?
• Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience and use?
• Proprietary - Are the algorithms used developed in-house? 
• Relevance to a target audience -Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Replication - Can automation be applied to different scenarios? For example, can accounting automation be replicated in procurement?
• Scalability/Time Savings - To the extent that the AI is designed to enable increased scale or time savings, how effectively does it accomplish that?
• Usability - can the user quickly and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the product, tool, or solution that leverages artificial intelligence, machine and deep learning algorithms to enhance their product features, and provide users with a more intelligent, automated, scalable solution.

Judges will be looking for:

• Automation of functions - How well does the solution save the user time and energy, making their job more straightforward, allowing employees to work more efficiently and productively? How well does the AI have the ability to do things humans can't do?
• Content depth and accuracy – Does the use of AI improve the depth and breadth of content available to the user?
• Ease of implementation - Is there any annotation or training data required from the client and user? 
• Innovation - In what ways does the use of AI or other innovative technologies improve the experience for the user?
• Personalization and relevance - Does the use of AI enable additional personalization to deliver more relevant results to the user?
• Time savings - To the extent that the AI is designed to enable increased scale or time savings, how effectively does it accomplish that?
• Usability - Can the user quickly and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the best information solution that helps business professionals with their daily job functions including strategy, business development, sales, marketing, research or other corporate functions. Solutions could include business and industry news, market research, business directories, company/ industry information, executive profiles, financial data, analyst reports, vertical segment information, competitive intelligence, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?
• Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?
• Data security/ integrity – How well protected is sensitive user data (employee related data, usage data, compliance data, financial data, etc.) from unauthorized access? Are sufficient data backup procedures in place or available? 
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience and use case indicated in previous criteria?
• Innovation – Is the product creating value by employing any cutting-edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?
• Platform flexibility & accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate for the target audience?
• Relevance to target audience - Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the best tool, platform or service that allows users to sort through vast amounts of content and present it in a meaningful and organized way. Solutions allow users to arrange, display, collect, organize, co-create, share and manipulate content.

Judges will be looking for:

• Automation - How well does the platform let you automate certain activities?
• Collaboration - How well does the platform allow you to collaborate with other curators or co-create content?
• Customization / personalization - Is the level of customization appropriate to the audience?
• Extensibility and integration - How easy is it for an enterprise to enhance the platform and/or plug it into existing content creation/distribution platforms?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Platform curation flexibility - Is the platform capable of curating anything with a URL or is it limited to a few different tools? 
• Share - Does the platform make it easy to share and manipulate content?
• Usability - Can the user easily achieve their desired results?

Recognizes the best platform, service or provider that supports the efforts of organizations (business, government, academia) to educate employees about specific knowledge that aids in the successful execution of an employee's job. Includes applications that educate on internal processes, practices, expectations and objectives of workplace assignments. The successful platform helps organizations train, develop, and engage their staff from onboarding through talent development, coaching and mentoring, often offering certifications and/or badges for completion.

Judges will be looking for:

• Assessment - To what extent are the assessment tools useful and functional for the user?
• Career ladder - Does the solution offer suggestions for related learning?
• Customization - Is the learning solution customizable for different types of content areas, courses, user needs and education outcomes?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the users?
• Feedback - Do learners with diverse learning styles and abilities receive appropriate feedback and reinforcement in the process of building their skills and strategies?
• Innovation - Does the solution incorporate recent research on learning, innovative approaches to learning, or access to new tools with high student interest?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration - Does it provide straightforward methods for bringing in curriculum, third-party content, social media tools, internal data or standards information?
• Platform flexibility - Is the solution optimized to be used on various platforms (e.g. desktop, tablet, mobile, broadcast) and deliver various types of content (text, images, audio, video)?
• Positive impact - Could use of the solution produce a positive impact on course development and implementation and/or the learning process?
• Reports - Will the solution produce useful reports for the organization and the user?
• Usability - How easily and efficiently can the user interact with the product features and the content to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the best software solution designed to expand a company's knowledge about, and relationship with, its current or potential customers and/or partners. Includes CRM, PRM, SFA, marketing automation, personalization products and services.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration of data sources – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources?
• Mobile access – Is the tool available on mobile devices? How easy is it to use while on the go/ to view on a small screen?
• Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Speed of updates – Does the solution provide timely and speedy updates?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and visually appealing to the user?

Recognizes the best tool, platform, or service that helps businesses enhance their customer service and support. Includes help- desk services, live chat, social media tools, technology enabled service providers, etc. Note that it is helpful to provide solution access to the judges during the review period for this category.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use –How well does the product or service allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use? Users can be employees, customers, administrators, managers, etc.
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily, cheaply, and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration of data sources – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources?
• Mobile – Does the product provide support for mobile web and mobile SDKs for app integrations?
• Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, scalability, and reliability? Is it able to site statistics proving speed, security and reliability?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?
• Support – What level of support does the tool provide?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Recognizes the best solution for managing customer development, upselling opportunities, improving retention rates and reducing churn.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration of data sources/ peer solutions – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources/ solutions?
• Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?
• Support – What level of support does the tool provide? Does the product have an administration console?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Honors the best customer training or extended enterprise LMS that help users engage with the product and elevate customer engagement.

Judges will be looking for:

• Customization - Is the system customizable to meet user needs and educational outcomes?
• Design flexibility - Does the solution offer a similarly feature-rich user experience regardless of the platform?
• Integration - Does it provide simple methods for effectively integrating the platform with a company's other services and data?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Positive impact – Does the system either include assessment capabilities or integrate easily with assessment tools? Does the tool increase customer experience and increase ROI?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of education users? Does the LMS recommended learning based on past activity?
• Ease of use- How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Access - Is the platform accessible from devices with out-of-date operating software? Is there offline support for consuming content? Can company control amount of access the user has?
• Reports - Will the system produce useful reports for intended users? Are these reports customizable, exportable, and flexible?
• Security - Is the customer data and information secure? does the product offer SSO, individual or group access?

Recognizes the platform that best enables organizations in developing, deploying, operating and managing a big data infrastructure/environment including deep analytics, AI and machine learning.

Judges will be looking for:

• Data I/O performance – How quickly and reliably is the data transferred to/from devices or resources?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Flexibility- How flexible is the tool/platform for re-factoring the data schema over time?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features? Does the platform take advantage of AI tools and Machine Learning?
• Performance management – How well does the platform allow you to track, monitor and drive performance?
• Real-time processing – Does the platform or tool have the ability to process the data and produce results within certain time constraints?
• Scalability – How well can the system adapt to changes in demand or size of data?

Recognizes the best tool for supporting collaboration between Development and Operations. Can include tools for logging, performance monitoring and measurement, automation, security, configuration management, testing, collaboration, release management, database management, deployment, event managers, alerting and other software development tools.

Judges will be looking for:

• Auditing/History - Does the platform track all changes made to its configuration?
• Automation - How well does the platform let you automate its activities?
• Collaboration - How well does the platform allow you to collaborate with other curators or co-create content?
• Customization / personalization - Is the level of customization appropriate to the audience?
• Extensibility and integration - How easy is it for an enterprise to enhance the platform and/or plug it into existing content creation/distribution platforms?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Platform curation flexibility - Is the platform capable of curating anything with a URL or is it limited to a few different tools? 
• Security - What is the security implementation involved in the product.
• Share - Does the platform make it easy to share and manipulate content?
• Storage - Does the platform have any data storage needs? If so, how the data is protected.
• Usability - Can the user easily achieve their desired results?

Recognizes the best software solution designed to facilitate the conversion, or purchase, of products and services online. Includes eCommerce platforms, personalization solutions, shopping carts, comparison bots, order forms, delivery/shipping management systems, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• Availability and scalability –What is the uptime percentage and does the system scale up/down as needed (ex. during peak eCommerce periods)?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Innovation – Does the product apply cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Management and administrative tools – How easily can you manage your products, customers, etc.?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?
• Security – Is the information secure and appropriately backed up? Does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Recognizes the best cloud platform for collecting, storing, managing and interpreting data from many business activities. Can include but is not limited to finance, inventory management, HR functions, product planning, purchasing, manufacturing, and service delivery.

Judges will be looking for:

• Access - How well does the solution provide anywhere access from any device?
• Customization – Ho strong are the customization capabilities?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Interoperability - Can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?

Recognizes the best software solution that automates financial accounting and money management including accounts payable/receivable, general ledger, budgeting, resource allocation, reporting, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• APIs/Integration - How extensive is the public API?
• Disparate data sources - How well does the solution pull from disparate data sources?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Global support – How well does the solution support multiple languages, currencies, etc.?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Manipulation of data – How well does the solution allow for manipulation of data for reporting?
• Mobile access – Is the tool available on mobile devices? How easy is it to use while on the go/ to view on a small screen?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Recognizes the best solution for passing authorization, payments, and settlement data between a merchant’s website and the merchant’s processor. Category may include digital payment products and blockchain.

Judges will be looking for:

• Billing – does the solution provide adequate billing options
• Consumer data -How well is consumer data stored, processed and managed and can consumers delete data if they choose to?
• Currency Support – Can the solution support multiple currencies? 
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use? Aside from desktop, are mobile and tablet views supported (via app or browser)?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?
• Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability? What performance and security metrics does the company gauge the system against?
• Reporting – the ability and ease to report transaction data.
• Security - Does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk? Is it compliant with top security standards/ procedures?

Recognizes the best business solution that automates any aspect of managing project-based business activities. Includes estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• Budget Management - How well does the tool allow you to manage the project budget
• Collaboration capabilities – How well can project members collaborate seamlessly on any device, regardless of location?
• Customization - How well does the tool be customized to match the unique requirements of the teams and the organization?
• Document management – How well does the tool allow you to share files and documents with other project team members?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Overall performance - How well does the solution rank with regards to overall speed, security, and reliability?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Resource Management - How well does the tool allow you to allocate and manage the project resources?
• Task management – how well does the solution allow users to define a task, assign it, create a deadline and ensure completion?

Recognizes the best application that aids collaboration, communication, file sharing and the process of managing, engaging, empowering and problem solving for teams working together over geographic distances.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Flexibility of deployment – How well does the solution reach any work, in any location, on any device, over all networks?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration with other systems – How well does the solution integrate into the current infrastructure?
• Reliability – How reliable is the infrastructure?
• Scalability – How well can the solution scale up and down?
• Security – How robust is the security of infrastructure?
• Storage efficiencies – Does the infrastructure provide efficient storage capabilities?

Recognizes the best solution to help companies manage all aspects of the subscription lifecycle. Subscription management includes onboarding, assisted or unassisted subscription sales, pricing and packaging, recurring billing, auto-renewing, paywall management, invoicing, reporting, and financial management.

Judges will be looking for:

• Administrative tools – How robust are the administrative tools?
• Business Model Support – How well does the solution support sophisticated business models that include one-time, subscription, and usage-based billing?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Global support – How well does the solution support multiple languages, currencies, etc.?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration – How easily does the solution integrate with other systems?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Scalability – Does the solution have the ability to scale up or down?
• Security – How robust are the security features?

Honors the best digital tool that allows users to plan, track, organize, and review both projects and non-project tasks to improve business results and team performance.

Judges will be looking for:

• Access - How well does the solution provide anywhere access from any device. Can multiple team members access cloud-based systems simultaneously?
• Accessibility - is the technology device agnostic?
• Automation-  How well does the solution automate data syncs, updates, and alerts. 
• Customization – Can you customize to meet your team’s specific needs?
• Dashboards/ reporting– How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction?
• Functionality – How well do key addributes function? Includes but not limited to: Task assignment, Scheduling software, Geolocation, Gantt charts (and dependencies), Document sharing, etc.
• integration- Can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?
• Real-Time Updates: Maintain version control with one central information hub that updates across devices in real time. 

Recognizes the best solution for reporting and analyzing actionable intelligence from massive data sets containing a variety of data types.

Judges will be looking for:

• Analytics - Evaluating and providing insights into business processes. May include, drill down, ‚data exploration and multi- dimensional analysis.
• Customization – Is this solution customizable?
• Data performance – How quickly and reliably is the data transferred to/from devices or resources?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration – Can the solution easily integrate data from a variety of sources?
• Performance management – How well does the platform allow you to track, monitor and drive performance?
• Scalability – Is the infrastructure scalable?
• Security – Does the solution offer adequate security features? May include user privileges, fraud detection/prevention, regulatory compliance and more.
• Visualization - Reports to help organize data insights into a format that can be easily configured, shared and interpreted.

Recognizes the best solution that supports decision making in a business process by providing analysis, information delivery and platform integration.

Judges will be looking for:

• Analytics - Evaluating and providing insights into business processes. May include, drill down, ‚data exploration and multi- dimensional analysis.
• Customization – Is this solution customizable?
• Data performance – How quickly and reliably is the data transferred to/from devices or resources?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration – Can the solution easily integrate data from a variety of sources?
• Performance management – How well does the platform allow you to track, monitor and drive performance?
• Scalability – Is the infrastructure scalable?
• Security – Does the solution offer adequate security features? May include user privileges, fraud detection/prevention, regulatory compliance and more.
• Visualization - Reports to help organize data insights into a format that can be easily configured, shared and interpreted.

Recognizes the best search technology that delivers added context to end users and drives a more productive, intuitive search experience by leveraging ontologies, taxonomies, semantic analytics, text data mining and industry or application specific concepts across data, text, geography and time for both structured and unstructured content sets. The category includes enterprise search, insight engines, knowledge discovery, enhanced discoverability, and cognitive computing.

Judges will be looking for:

• Content set and data Integration - Is the solution easy to integrate with a range of content and datasets?
• Customization / personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?
• Faceted search capabilities - Does the system allow you to explore information by applying multiple filters?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience and use case indicated? (Consider: multi-language support, stemming, truncation, and other advanced search features, etc.)
• Flexibility & accessibility - Is the product optimized to be used on various platforms? Can the platform deliver various types of content?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Relevance to target audience - Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Search results display - Does the product offer options in terms of how results can be displayed?
• Search results relevance - Does the product delivery offer superior search relevance compared to its competitors?
• Taxonomies – Is the product able to leverage taxonomies to drive search relevance and offer users refinement and filtering capabilities?
• Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the Best CDP marketer-managed system that offers a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems. The winning CDP should create a comprehensive view of each customer by capturing data from multiple systems, linking information related to the same customer, and storing the information to track behavior over time. The CDP contains personal identifiers used to target marketing messages and track individual-level marketing results, offering marketing teams relevant insights needed to run marketing campaigns.

Judges will be looking for:

• Data Collection – How robust is the data that the CDP can natively collect? How difficult is it to capture custom audience/behavioral data?   
• Data latency – how quickly does the data get manipulated within the CDP?
• Data Science - in what ways does the CDP incorporate data science concepts like machine learning and automatic optimization? 
• Ease of Use - Can the user easily achieve their desired results? Is the UI intuitive and easy to navigate? Is the platform easy to learn for tech and non-tech users alike?
• Export and Import - how well does the CDP import and export data out of its platform? How many methodologies are available to the marketer to do so?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration - How well does the CDP support/ integrate third party tools? How robust is the customer support in implementing the CDP?
• Persistent IDs - How well does the system associate old and new data for a customer/visitor when there is a change in the associated identifier (email address, phone number, account ID, etc.)? How well does the CDP create and maintain a persistent ID?
• Reporting and analytics – How robust are the native tools for reporting results?
• Scale of Data - What is the scale of data that can be ingested/ orchestrated on an ongoing basis?

Recognizes the best solution designed to integrate disparate applications, operating systems, data, and/or business processes used within an organization in order to simplify and automate their use and eliminate silos of information and functionality through dashboards or other approaches.

Judges will be looking for:

• Configurability - How configurable is the solution?
• Customization – Is the solution customizable?
• Data validation – How much visibility does the solution provide into the data quality?
• Development tools –How robust and easy to use are the development tools?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Product capabilities – Does the solution provide capabilities including bulk data movement, data federation/virtualization, data replication, and / or big data focus?
• Range of connectors – The range of applications, files, databases and web services the solution can connect to
• Range of deployment options – is a range of deployment options offered? For example, on premise, Cloud, virtualized, hybrid, etc.
• Security – does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk.

Recognizes the best platform as a service (PaaS) that increases the speed of development of applications, reduces cost of development, automates deployment, and provides flexibility and scalability. This includes enablement capabilities.

Judges will be looking for:

• Customization – How easy is it to create, configure and deploy the service without requiring programming expertise?
• Ease / speed of provisioning – Can the platform be easily and quickly prepared and equipped for use?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration – Can the platform integrate with web services and databases via common standards?
• Multi-tenant architecture – Is the platform multi-tenant? Can multiple concurrent users utilize the same development application?
• Programmable user interface – Does the solution have the ability to construct flexible user interfaces?
• Programming language support - What programming languages are supported?
• Scalability – Can the solution easily scale up and down?
• Support – What level of support is provided for the development teams?

Recognizes the best emerging technology product, tool or solution that is solving a big problem, changing the status quo and opening up new opportunities. Products must be less than three years old or have put out a new version that includes new technology that is disruptive and/ or relatively underdeveloped in potential.

Judges will be looking for:

• Business Value – To what degree does the technology represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage, extensive adoption and market reach.
• Disruption – The potential to disrupt the market in the future by creating new technology, new delivery methods, new business models or new audience/user community.
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use. The goals should be clearly defined for the targeted market with an examples of new user methods for adopt
• Product/Solution Usability – Do the key attributes function as described? Does the functionality support the attributes in new or disruptive ways?
• Radical Innovation – Are there features not previously observed in systems? Are there new inventions, patents or business methods that support the novelty? These features should be clearly articulated with examples of the disruption to the market.

Recognizes the best solution that creates process applications to automate complex workflows and digital business processes for application development and deployment professionals.

Judges will be looking for:

• Automation of workflows - How well does the platform let you automate certain activities? How well does the solution improve workflow? Does the solution have the ability to automate workflow of frameworks specific to IT service support?
• Data – How well does the solution connect data and documents?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Maintenance/ quality assurance - Does the solution provide adequate maintenance measures?
• Scalability - How well can the solution scale up and down?
• Security - How secure is the tool? Are there adequate security measures? How robust is the security of infrastructure? Does it provide for secure identity and access management?

Recognizes the best IT management solution that allows IT departments to manage all their systems, devices and applications.

Judges will be looking for:

• Automation of workflows - How well does the platform let you automate certain activities? How well does the solution improve workflow? Does the solution have the ability to automate workflow of frameworks specific to IT service support?
• Data – How well does the solution connect data and documents?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Maintenance/ quality assurance - Does the solution provide adequate maintenance measures?
• Scalability - How well can the solution scale up and down?
• Security - How secure is the tool? Are there adequate security measures? How robust is the security of infrastructure? Does it provide for secure identity and access management?

Recognizes the best solution that enables companies to plan, target, market, and measure the effectiveness of campaigns promoting products and services to consumers and/or businesses online, off-line and via mobile devices. Solutions can include (but are not limited to) marketing programs supporting SEM, social media, online/print advertising, in-product advertising, content marketing, marketing management, campaign management and deployment, as well as mobile marketing.

Judges will be looking for:

• Connection to contacts/CRM – The ability to facilitate connections with prospects, customers, partners, etc.
• Demand generation – How well does the solution identify and drive demand?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve intended goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Reporting and analytics – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the solution’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and visually appealing to the user?

Honors the solution that best empowers sales and marketing professionals with internal and external data, insights and analytics to help drive business development and target new prospects. Solutions may include B2B data, prospect databases, contact information, sales analytics, visual configuration software, conversation intelligence software, outbound call tracking, attribution software and other tools used by sales and marketing professionals.

Judges will be looking for:

• Analytics - How well does the solution provide analytics?
• Customization - How customizable is the solution to meet various customer needs?
• Feature set - Does the solution have a deep set of features that appropriately meet the needs of its customers?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration - How well does the solution integrate with third-party platforms that would be used in lead generation?
• Lead augmentation - How well does the solution append missing or additional information to a lead or data file, either from its own data set or from a third-party provider?
• Lead management - Is it easy for individuals to find and manage their assigned leads? Can managers easily view lead information relevant to each of their team members?
• Targeting - How well does the solution identify, score and target specific customer segments and pass on top leads?
• Usability and UI - How easy is it for the user to achieve their desired result? Is it mobile friendly?
• Workflow - How well is the solution embedded in the customers' workflow?

Recognizes the best sales enablement platform, which equips sales teams with the right content and information for any interaction with a potential buyer through document automation and helps progress and accelerate the sales cycle. Sales enablement platforms may include content management solutions that allow sales teams to access all relevant and marketing-approved collateral from a central location, personalize materials for specific buyers and interactions, and uncovers data-backed insights into how that content is consumed.

Judges will be looking for:

• Alignment - How well does the platform align marketing in sales in terms of sales content initiatives?
• Analytics and reporting features - How well does the solution provide analytics and data-backed insight into content usage and effectiveness? How well does it provide data to improve sales content?
• Collaboration features - How easy is it for sales reps to collaborate with others on presentations and pitches to buyers? What content annotation and mark-up tools are available to reps?
• Compliance features - Does the platform ensure that content remains compliant when used within heavily regulated industries?
• Customization/personalization features - How well does the platform enable sales reps to customize content based for specific interactions and individuals while ensuring that the content remains on-brand and updated?
• Distribution features - How many ways does the platform allow the rep to distribute content to a buyer? How robust and innovative are the distribution methods available to the rep?
• Feedback and coaching features - Does the platform allow for sales teams to provide feedback and coaching on presentation and pitch preparation, either through video or other annotation featured?
• Integration features - How well does the platform integrate with third-party platforms that would be used in a buying cycle? Such platforms include CRM, content creation, marketing automation, and other content repositories solutions.
• Outcomes – Rate the application on the stated business outcomes. Does it deliver on its promise of a compelling value proposition to customers and end users?
• Permission protocols - How easy is it to set up permissions and authorization rules prior to content being approved?
• Technological advancement – Does the application make appropriate of advanced technologies to deliver a superior experience to the customer?
• Usability and UX - How easy is it for the user to achieve their desired result? Is it mobile friendly?
• Version control - How easy is it to locate and find prior versions of content?
• Workflow features - How well is the solution embedded in the customers' workflow? Does the platform exist within other environments that sales reps used most often (e.g. Salesforce, email platforms)?

Recognizes the best solution that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times and for the right reasons. Includes Identity Governance, Single Sign-On, Authentication & Authorization Management, and Directory solutions.

Judges will be looking for:

• Access security – How well does the solution secure corporate resources from a variety of less secure access points (i.e. mobile devices)?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration – How well does the solution integration with established infrastructures?
• Reporting and auditing – Does the solution have advanced reporting and auditing capabilities?
• Scalability – Can the solution easily scale up and down?

Recognizes the best solution for preventing and monitoring unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Includes firewall, intrusion prevention and detection, unified threat management, VPN, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• Monitoring and control – How well does the solution perform URL filtering, web application monitoring, anti-virus and anti-malware scanning, etc.?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Innovation – Is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Robustness of firewall – How robust is the firewall?
• VPN connection – Can you connect to multiple sites securely using the VPN? From remote locations? For the purpose of management?
• Network protection – How well does the solution detect network attack traffic?

Recognizes the best solution for managing the production and execution for events, Recognizes the best solution for managing the production and execution for events, in person or virtual. Includes registration and ticketing, payment processing, sponsor and attendee management, event marketing, reporting, event program, budgeting, etc.. Includes registration and ticketing, payment processing, sponsor and attendee management, event marketing, reporting, event program, budgeting, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• Accessibility - is the technology device agnostic?
• Adaptability - How well has the product adapted to support events throughout COVID-19?
• Customization – Does the solution provide easy and speedy customization capabilities?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration of data sources – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources?
• Overall performance – Does the solution perform at adequate speed, security, and reliability? Does the attendee, sponsor and organizer have a great experience?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for data analysis?
• Scalability – Does the solution have the ability to scale up or down?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Recognizes the best compliance solution to address regulatory rules, ethics, sustainability and governance. The winning solution provides audit, risk and compliance solutions and/or expert insights that enable businesses to connect regulatory developments with internal policy systems, organizational risks and controls, and regulatory training.

Judges will be looking for:

• Audit Trail Management - What level of audit trail is maintained?
• Content depth and accuracy - Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?
• Customization - Is the level of customization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate with respect to the audience and use case, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?
• Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience?
• Regulatory – Does this solution build to address the regulation?
• Regulatory Support – How well does the system support regulatory requirements?
• Relevance to target audience -Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Significance of innovation - Is the solution likely to cause significant change for its users?
• Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the Best Financial & Market Data Solution designed for professionals in the financial and capital markets industries. Nominees may submit solutions that provide financial, market data and related information for market practitioners. Includes real-time data services, reference data solutions, or historical data, financial news services, market analysis & research, credit services, capital markets, commodities & energy, foreign exchange, fixed income and/or merger and acquisition information.

Judges will be looking for:

• Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?
• Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate can this product be integrated with other relevant systems and can the content and/or data within the product be exported?
• Platform Flexibility & Accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate for the target audience?
• Relevance to target audience - Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the best solution to make financial services more efficient by demonstrating an incremental or radical/disruptive innovation development of applications, processes, products or business models in the financial services industry, expanding business and consumer options for investing, saving, and conducting transactions, competing with banks selling financial service solutions for money transfer, lending, investments, and payments. This can include but is not limited to financing, insurance, investments, payments, advisory, security, etc. May include blockchain.

Judges will be looking for:

• Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate can this product be integrated with other relevant systems?
• Platform Flexibility & Accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate for the target audience?
• Relevance to target audience - Does the product effectively solve a specific market need? Does the product transform a market sector? Does it enable a traditional financial institution to enter this market space through an outsourced solution?
• Security – does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk.
• Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the best solution for improving care quality, patient safety, efficiency, medical information and/or data exchange to healthcare professionals or consumers. Population health or fee-for-value solutions include the development of new payment and care models, care coordination, readmission management, med adherence, health optimization/wellness, telemedicine, telehealth, and innovations in disease management. May include Revenue Cycle Management Software.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented, as compared with similar offerings?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Obstacle Avoidance - How effective is the solution at overcoming user acceptance?
• Overall impact on costs – Does the solution have a positive impact on costs?
• Overall performance – How reliable is the solution and how optimal is the speed for the given use case?
• Security – does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk.
• Workflow improvement – How well does the solution integrate into and/or improve existing workflows?

Recognizes the best solution that automates any aspect of human resources management and talent acquisition, including HRIS, benefits administration, recruiting, payroll, and performance appraisal.

Judges will be looking for:

• Disparate data sources - How well does the solution pull from disparate data sources?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Global support – How well does the solution support multiple languages, currencies, etc.?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integrations - does the solution integrate have the ability to easily integrate with other solutions?
• Manipulation of data – How well does the solution allow for manipulation of data for reporting?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and appealing to the user?

Recognizes the best information-based solution designed for the legal professional. Nominees may submit solutions that provide access to legal research information, business & practice performance / productivity / development tools, as well as litigation support, workflow, and e-discovery solutions.

Judges will be looking for:

• Auditability - what audit trail tools are available to system administrators?
• Content depth and accuracy - Is the content accurate and timely for the stated use case? Does this product address the depth of information required to serve the audience?
• Customization or personalization - Is the level of customization/personalization appropriate to the audience and use case presented?
• Feature set - Does the feature set incorporated within this product appropriately meet the needs of the audience and use case? Does it incorporate advanced technology (AI)?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Interoperability - Where appropriate with respect to the audience and use case, can this product be integrated with other relevant systems OR can the content and/or data within the product be exported?
• Platform flexibility and accessibility - Is the solution made available through the delivery platforms appropriate to the target audience?
• Relevance to target audience - Does the product effectively solve a specific market need?
• Usability - Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Honors the solution that promotes wellness and wellbeing by applying technology in innovative way to help employees thrive in their work and daily lives.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented, as compared with similar offerings?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Obstacle Avoidance - How effective is the solution at overcoming user acceptance?
• Overall impact on costs – Does the solution have a positive impact on costs?
• Overall performance – How reliable is the solution and how optimal is the speed for the given use case?
• Security – does the solution have the necessary security to mitigate risk.
• Workflow improvement – How well does the solution integrate into and/or improve existing workflows?