This year’s Computing Awards for Excellence again recognise best practice in the IT industry, with the industry awards covering the areas of technology, recruitment and marketing.

In the technology category, we are looking to reward innovative suppliers that provide the best quality and best value-for-money products and services.

Computing is also searching for an IT PR company that can demonstrate a proven track record of achievement, and a recruitment consultancy that has gone the extra mile to provide the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Finally, judges are looking for a technology advertising campaign that is
original, creative and able to hold the readers’ attention.

We are inviting readers to submit their nominations for the prizes now.

Any nominations for the supplier awards can come from users or suppliers, including individuals that wish to nominate themselves.

Entrants to the recruitment, PR and advertising awards will need to provide supporting evidence. For further details, go to: www.computing.co.uk/awards

The industry awards are:

• Business Hardware Supplier of the Year
• Business Software Supplier of the Year
• IT Services Supplier of the Year
• Networking and Communications Supplier of the Year
• Recruitment Consultancy of the Year
• IT PR Company of the Year
• Technology Advertising Campaign of the Year.

Entries for the Business Hardware Supplier, Business Software Supplier, IT Services Supplier and Networking and Communications Supplier categories will be judged against the following criteria:

Quality: Provision of products or services that consistently meet or exceed customer expectations.

Value-for-money: Provision of competitively-priced products or services that allow customers to achieve measurable return on investment.

Innovation: Provision of products or services that use new, leading-edge or innovative techniques or technologies to help customers improve their operations.

For Recruitment Consultancy and IT PR Company of the Year, submissions should include a description of the services offered and the main benefits provided. Evidence of achievements or success should also be included.

For Technology Advertising Campaign of the Year, submissions should consider the definition of objectives, how the campaign was executed and how its success was monitored.

Please keep submissions below 750 words. Then complete the form at the Computing Awards web site at: www.computing.co.uk/awards.

The final shortlists will be announced in September, in advance of the 16th annual awards ceremony at Battersea Park Events Arena, which takes place in London on 5 November.

For more information and to submit your entry, visit: www.computing.co.uk/awards

Last year’s Industry Awards winners

Business Hardware Supplier of the Year: Secerno

Secerno claims to offer the only intrusion prevention system which can block all SQL
injection attacks, whether the attack is external or from an authorised internal user.

Business Software Supplier of the Year: Tideway

Foundation, Tideway’s flagship product, reduces maintenance and licensing costs by eliminating inefficient and unused servers and software.

IT Services Supplier of the Year: MessageLabs

MessageLabs provides multilingual technical support 24 hours a day with named client service managers supporting all its corporate customers.

Networking and Communications Supplier of the Year: iPass

Remote access provider iPass introduced a flat-rate offering giving businesses unlimited access to iPass connectivity services throughout the world.

Recruitment Consultancy of the Year: ReThink Recruitment

ReThink Recruitment was formed in 2005 as part of the ReThink Group and now has 70 experienced IT consultants in London, Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester. Turnover was expected to reach £27.1m last year, compared with £12.9m in 2006.

IT PR Company of the Year: Hotwire

One of the fastest growing PR consultancies in the UK, Hotwire has an ever-expanding list of clients and impressive financial results.

Technology Advertising Campaign of the Year: ChemistryTM for Morse

With a budget of only £7,000, the advertising campaign gained a 75 per cent response rate in half the expected time.