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?
• 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?
• Accuracy – Does the solution process healthcare data with high accuracy? 
• Redacting personal information – Does the solution allow for personal information to be completely removed from the record?
• 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?
• 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?

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

Judges will be looking for:

• Analytics – How well does the solution evaluate and provide 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? Does it automatically scale the infrastructure as needed?
• 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 ability to mask PIIs from the data being processed etc.
• Visualization – Does the solution organize data insights into a format that can be easily configured, shared and interpreted.

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 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 privacy.
• Visualization – Reports to help organize data insights into a format that can be easily configured, shared and interpreted.

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, search 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?
• Data and reporting – How robust are the reporting features?
• 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 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 ntegrate 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 cite 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 and engaging customers throughout the lifecycle through customer data, 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? Is it a good partner in doing business?
• Scalability – Can the product scale to meet the needs of the business?
• Product engagement – What is the depth, breadth, and frequency of interaction of users with the product? How well does the product maximize usage?
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described? How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources/ solutions? How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – is the product using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• 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?
• Integration – How does the product integrate with the other applications and data sources necessary to understand customer engagement and health? 
• Robustness – Does the product have the features required to support the wide-ranging needs of Customer Success teams? 

Recognizes the tool or platform that best enables organizations in developing, deploying, operating and managing a 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?
• Data governance – How well does the system allow organizations to track data egress and management?

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:

• Customization / personalization – Is the level of customization appropriate to the audience? Be sure to define the customer personas and what the typical target market segment size is.
• 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?
• Extensibility and integration – How easy is it for an enterprise to enhance the platform and/or plug it into existing content creation/distribution platforms? How easy is it to integrate with other public cloud / on-prem dev environments?
• 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? How flexible is it to various types of targets (e.g. cloud code and services, connected IT assets, disconnected IoT devices etc.)
• 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?

Honors the solution that best stores, organizes, and distributes digital assets and rich media files in a central location. Assets may include photos, creative files, video, audio, presentations, documents, data and more. 

Judges will be looking for:

• Search capabilities and AI – Does the solution allow users to quickly and easily find assets? How robust are the metadata and tagging features? How well does it utilize AI to locate assets?
• Workflow capabilities – Does the solution allow for work-in-progress support in a collaborative work environment?
• Usability and UI – How well does the solution allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction? Is it mobile-friendly and accessible anywhere, anytime, from any device? Is it user-friendly and visually appealing? 
• Integrations and portal capabilities – How easily and quickly does the solution integrate with other data sources inside and outside its ecosystem? Does it provide integrations into agile content management systems and product information management systems? How well does it allow users to curate and expose assets and style guides to internal and external stakeholders? 
• Creative capabilities and intelligent content creation – How robust is the creative toolset integration? Does it support traditional tools such as Adobe CC, stock photography libraries and 3-D assets? Does the solution allow for automated permutations of content, such as auto-cropping to areas of interest?
• Digital rights management (DRM) and security – Does the solution have the ability to protect content and ensure compliance with usage rights and licensing? Can you assign different permissions to different users? How secure is it? What is the uptime for the system?
• Customization and scalability – Is the solution customizable to the customer’s unique library? Does it have the ability to scale up or down to meet the customer’s asset management needs? 
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented? Does it offer adequate customer support?

Recognizes the service, solution, product or tool that optimizes digital employee experience across every touchpoint – device, application, etc. by leveraging workplace analytics, user sentiments analytics and automation thereby measuring, quantifying, analyzing and reporting user experiences to enhance each employee’s workplace experience.

Judges will be looking for:

• Analytics – How well does the solution evaluate and provide insights into business processes. May include, drill down, data exploration and multi-dimensional analysis.
• Effectiveness– Is the solution able to capture user happiness/discontent? Does the use of analytics or other innovative technologies improve the experience for the user?
• Customization – How customizable is the solution?
• Data – How quickly and reliably is the data transferred to/from devices or resources? Can the solution easily integrate data from a variety of sources?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Performance management – How well does the platform allow you to track, monitor and drive performance?
• Visualization – How well does the solution organize data insights into a format that can be easily configured, shared and interpreted?
• Compliance – Is the solution compliant to leading compliance standard- GDPR, PCI, HIPPA, ISO etc.

Recognizes the best 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 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 five 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. How does the technology set itself apart from competitors?
• 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 examples of new user methods for adoption.
• 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 Enterprise LMS or ELM that best delivers, tracks, manages and reports on employee training, development and upskilling.

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 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 – How 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 solution for managing, producing and executing in person, hybrid or virtual events. Includes registration and ticketing, payment processing, sponsor and attendee management, event marketing, reporting, event program, networking, etc.

Judges will be looking for:

• Accessibility – Is the technology device agnostic?
• Adaptability – How well has the product adapted to support events as they shift between in person, hybrid or virtual?
• 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 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 solution 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 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 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, blockchain etc. 

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?
• Reporting- How robust are the reporting features? Are they customizable to meet user needs?
• Security – does the solution have the necessary security, compliance auditing, and interaction logging to mitigate risk.
• Usability – Can the user easily and efficiently interact with the product features to achieve their desired result?

Recognizes the best tech solution for improving care quality, patient safety, efficiency, medical information and/or data exchange to healthcare professionals or consumers. 

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 solution using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features? Does the product have any AI features?
• Integration – How well does the product integrate data from other systems?
• Obstacle Avoidance – How effective is the solution at overcoming user acceptance?
• Overall impact on costs – How 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 include 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 Recruiting, Onboarding, HRIS, benefits administration, payroll, learning, analytics and performance appraisal.

Judges will be looking for:

• Disparate data sources – How well does the solution pull from disparate data sources?
• Ease of use – Is the product efficient, effective, engaging, error tolerant and easy to learn? 
• Global support – How well does the solution support different  languages, and cultures?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Customization -– Does the product allow for customization by user? 
• Integrations – does the solution easily integrate with other solutions?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Customer Support – Is customer service and tech support responsive and competent?

Recognizes the best solution that authenticates and authorizes user access to resources such as applications, data, systems, and cloud platforms by ensuring the right people are granted access to the right tools, at the right times for the right reasons. Includes Identity Governance, Single Sign-On, Authentication & Authorization Management, and Directory solutions, etc.

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 solution using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Integration – How well does the solution integrate with established infrastructures and other identity providers/ solutions?
• 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 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:

• Customization – Is the solution customizable? How configurable is the solution?
• 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 – How robust is the range of applications, files, databases and web services the solution can connect?
• 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 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? How well does the solution fit into existing user workflows?
• 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?

This category honors the all-in-one platform that best provides product support and self-service across channels, both for customers and/or employees. Entries can be enterprise help sites, knowledge bases, customer or employee support portals that contain both (structured and unstructured) product information, support information, specifications, documentation, training, customer community content, and other product-specific content.  

Note that providing solution access to the judges during the review period for this category is helpful.

Judges will be looking for:

• Visual aesthetic – Is the site’s visual design appealing and free of unnecessary clutter? Does the overall design seem appropriate for the site’s purpose and target audience? Does it have a nice balance of content to white space? Are appropriate fonts used?  
• Navigational cues — Does the site have a navigation menu (or menus)? Is the navigation clear and easy to use? Do the navigation labels lead to pages or resources that you would expect? Does the site content include additional navigational guidance in the content, e.g., links to related content (“see also,” “learn more,” “next steps”) or tooltips, or other practical details?
• Load time and responsiveness – Does the site load quickly? Is it as responsive as you would expect (do pages and functions appear without you having to wait for lengthy periods while the content loads)?
• Functionality – Does the site contain all of the functionality you expect as a visitor, and do the present features function as you would expect them to? 
• Differentiation — What features do you notice while using the site that differentiates it from others you have visited?
• Creating a Profile – Does the site allow users to create a profile and set up preferences that can be used to personalize the content experience?
• Mobile – Does the site provide support for those who choose to access it via a mobile device? Does the site support responsive web design? 
• Chatbot — Does the site also provide a chatbot? Is the chat experience clear, and does it provide useful answers to queries? Is it automated, or does it connect you to live support personnel or both?
• Unified content — Does the site enable access to product content of different types (step-by-step instruction, video documentation, product specifications, training, user assistance content, etc.)? Does the site present content from different sources in a single user experience and interface instead of making the visitor jump between different sites with different interfaces, logins, and experiences for different types of content?
• Accessibility — Does the site provide any features of use to people with visual impairments? Do the images have helpful alt-tag descriptions that screen-reader technologies can take advantage of?
• Faceted search — Does the site provide a search feature? Does it work as you anticipate? Does the site allow you to filter search results, allowing users to narrow down search results by applying multiple filters based on faceted content classification?
• Access to additional support assistance — Does the site provide visitors with different ways of finding solutions to problems they were unable to solve using the self-serve support center content, such as a connect to telephone support feature, a call you back later feature, a chatbot, text-based support, or FaceTime support?
• Translation and localization — Does the site provide visitors with a method of switching to different language versions of the site content?

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 and  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?
• Value – Does the vendor make a cogent case for the purchase and how it benefits the user?

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?
• Integration – How well does the solution integrate with other functions (specifically, sales and strategy)?
• Innovation – Is the solution using cutting edge technologies (for example does the system learn over time and enable more targeted communications based on learning?)

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:

• Scalability -How scalable is the solution? Can it handle infrastructures that expand across multi/hybrid clouds?
• Ease of use – How well does the product allow users to achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use? How quickly can an organization security team / SOC be trained to use this product or solution effectively? 
• Functionality of key attributes – Do the key attributes function as described?
• Implementation – How easily and quickly can the solution be implemented?
• Innovation – Is the solution using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Monitoring and control – How well does the solution perform URL filtering, web application monitoring, anti-virus and anti-malware scanning, etc.?
• Network protection – How well does the solution detect network attack traffic and notify SOC teams? How does it help customers mitigate/ respond to the security attacks/risks?
• 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?

Recognizes the best No Code/Low Code solution that allows users to create applications with little knowledge of traditional programming languages, machine code or development work.

Judges will be looking for:

• AI – Does the platform offer the ability to leverage machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI), Advanced levels of automation?
• Ease of collaboration – Does it allow for easy collaboration including governance controls to speed co-development efforts?
• Ease of use — How easy is it for the user to reach the desired outcome in a timely manner? Is it intuitive? Can it rapidly change/ adapt applications at any stage of development?
• Integration:Does it easily integrate with both modern and legacy applications with little coding? 
• Scalability –  Can the application be deployed at enterprise scale or integrate it into the complex enterprise technology stack? 
• Security – Does it meet security, privacy and compliance requirements? Does it include role-based controls, auditability, and governance controls?

Recognizes the best solution for securely passing authorization, payments, and settlement data between a merchant’s website and the merchant’s processor. Includes digital payment products, payment gateways, crypto, blockchain, etc. 

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 – How easy is it 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 platform as a service (PaaS) that increases the speed of development of applications, reduces cost of development, automates deployment, and provides flexibility, enablement and scalability.

Judges will be looking for:

• Launch – How easy is it to create, configure and deploy the service without requiring programming expertise?
• Security – How well does the solution offer security features to protect user data being processed using confidential computing? Does it reduce the blast radius?
• 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 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?

Honors the solution that best enables users to access, leverage, and utilize property information to make targeted and informed decisions on a property or a portfolio of properties.The winning solution enables users to best identify the value of properties, enable proactive portfolio risk management, or equip stakeholders with an overview of real estate market data and insights. 

Judges will be looking for:

• Integration – How well does the solution integrate with other solutions? Does it allow for integration and gathering property data from third-party data sources?
• Reporting and analysis of data – How robust are the dashboards and reports for analysis?
• Quality of support- How well does the solution offer help and support to the user.
• 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?
• Manipulation of data – How well does the solution allow for manipulation of data for reporting?
• Visually aesthetic – Is the application’s visual design beautiful, innovative, and 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?

Honors the solution that best helps businesses manage, streamline and optimize every aspect of the sales cycle, from inquiries and orders to invoicing and payments, to ensure that sales representatives have access to tools and features that help them achieve their sales goals.

Judges will be looking for:

• Data Analytics – How robust are the data and reporting functions?  Does the solution help users gain insight into prospects and identify new prospects?
•  Reporting – Does the solution provide useful sales reports that allows users to track past sales and easily reconcile accounts?
•  Pipeline management – How well does the solution move and track customers through the sales pipeline, from inception to order to payment?
• 360-view of prospects – Does the solution offer a 360 degree view of prospects and allow users to customize the view to meet their needs? i.e. how well can users filter prospects according to different options like geography, age, and other demographic data.
•  Integration – How well does the tool integrate with other solutions used by other teams within the company like marketing, contact management, social media, etc.
•  Security – How secure is the tool? Does it protect customer data? 
• Ease of Use – How easy is the solution to use and can the user easily get questions answered if they need help?

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?

Recognizes the upskilling or workforce education solution for organizations that best increases opportunities for aspiring or existing workers to grow their careers through education, mentoring, certifications and/or training.

Judges will be looking for:

• Ease of use -How easy is the solution to use and is it designed so that people with limited experience with technology can use it? 
• Feature set – Does the feature set incorporated within the product appropriately meet the needs of the users?
• Ease of integration – How easy is it for a company or other organization to integrate this solution in their HR/LMS systems?
• Comprehensiveness – Is the user supported all the way through to their next career step?
• Usability – How easily and efficiently can the user interact with the product features and the content to achieve their desired result? 
• Innovation – Is the solution using cutting edge technology, strategies, ideas or features?
• Equity – Does this solution increase economic mobility by opening up opportunities for higher wage jobs to workers at all levels? Support with data.

Recognizes the solution that promotes wellness and wellbeing by applying technology in an 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?

Recognizes 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 attributes 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.

The Best Overall Business Technology solution is awarded to the product that receives the highest scores of all of the products, from both rounds of judging. Every nominated product is automatically entered into this category at no additional cost, and the winner will be announced at the CODiE Award Winner Announcement in June 2023.