We are pleased to announce the shortlists for the Computing Awards for Excellence 2008.

For the fourth year running we have received a record number of entries, 10 per cent up on the previous high last year. And the quality of the entries across the categories has been outstanding.

All the individuals, teams, companies and projects that have made the shortlist can be proud of their achievements - all of you demonstrate the strength of the UK IT community.

We will be featuring each of the nominated entries on Computing.co.uk over the coming weeks - but only one can walk away with each prize.

The winners will be announced at the prizegiving ceremony on 5 November at the Battersea Park events arena - to book your place at one of the best parties of the year, visit: www.computing.co.uk/awards.

Project Awards

Private Sector Project of the Year

• Citi UK Consumer – Derby Live
• Farnell – i-Buy
• Lewis Silkin – Document control & security
• National Australia Group – Datacentre migration
• Red Bull Racing – High performance computing
• Taylor Woodrow – Cloud computing
• Waitrose – Demand forecasting
• Zurich Life UK – E-business project

Public Sector Project of the Year

• Kent County Council – Kent Highways Service
• NHS Connecting for Health – GP2GP
• NHS Connecting for Health – NHS Pathways
• NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde – RFID portable asset tracking
• North Mersey Health Informatics Service – Wireless communication badges
• Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals – Electronic control of blood transfusion
• Southwark Council – One Touch Gov
• West London Cancer Network - Videoconferencing

Community Project of the Year

• Bullying UK – Click, create & print
• City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council – SmartAssist
• e-Learning Foundation – Children’s Hospital School at Great Ormond Street Hospital
• Liverpool Direct & BT – Telecare
• St Barnabas Hospice – SystmOne
• Solihull Community Housing – Leased lines in the sky
• University of Liverpool & OciusB2 – Community Grid
• Voluntary Services Overseas – VSO matching system

Innovative Project of the Year

• Lloyds TSB – Innovation Market
• Loyalty Management Group – Self Serve
• NHS Connecting for Health – Mobile clinical assistant
• Nomura Securities – Grid computing
• Sky – Electronic programme guide
• Southern Water – Field data capture system
• The Co-operative Group – Insight project
• Yorkshire Water Services –Water resource allocation plan

Green Project of the Year

• Gm2 – New storage architecture
• Leeds City Council – Green IT strategy
• London Borough of Waltham Forest – Managed print services
• National Australia Group – Green initiative
• Reed Managed Services – Thin client computing
• Royal Bank of Scotland – Carbon offset project
• The Co-operative Group – Night-time Epos energy saving

Outsourcing Project of the Year

• Financial Services Authority
• Highways Agency
• Iceland Foods
• Lloyds TSB
• Skandia
• Test & Verification Solutions - ClearSpeed

Student Project of the Year

• Yasmeen Ahmad, University of Dundee – NOPdb content management system
• Stephen Boot, Sheffield Hallam University – Embedded digital set-top box application
• Robin Bourne, University of Portsmouth – The student information system
• Wesley Hollin – ZooTech project
• Leanda Long, Brunel University- E-banking study
• Suzanne Prior, University of Dundee – Glu-zone diabetes monitoring system
• Amarvir Thindal, Sheffield Hallam University – Laura Ashley e-learning
• Gavin Topley, Kent IT Clinic – Text-a-car

Individual and Team Awards

IT Leader of the Year

• Janet Day, IT director, Berwin Leighton Paisner
• Patrick O'Connell, managing director, BT Health
• Darryl West, director of group IT, Lloyds TSB
• Catherine Doran, director of information management, Network Rail
• Darrell Stein, director of IT & logistics, Marks & Spencer
• Al-Noor Ramji, chief information officer, BT Design
• Phil Pavitt, chief information officer, Transport for London

IT Professional of the Year

• Morteza Alamolhoda, direct services manager, Information Systems Aston
• Steve Christer, global head of testing, Strategic Systems Solutions
• Margaret Corrigan, service delivery transformation manager, Service Birmingham
• Keith Files, delivery director, VocaLink
• Rob Hobart, business systems technologist, Berwin Leighton Paisner
• Lee Parry, project manager, Fife Council
• Renata Vincoletto, head of IT, Camfed International
• Brian Wells, test and validation specialist, Experimentus

IT Department of the Year

• Home Group
• Iceland Foods
• Kent County Council
• IT Assist, Northern Ireland Civil Service
• Network Rail
• Standard Life
• The Exchange delivery team
• The Pensions Regulator

IT Team of the Year

• Berwin Leighton Paisner - development team
• Citi UK Consumer - Technology infrastructure team
• Lloyds TSB - Process, design and solutions team
• Lloyds TSB - Innovation & research team
• London Borough of Havering - IT customer & service support team
• Network Rail - Rail defects management team
• The Co-operative Group – InControl support & rollout team
• The Pensions regulator - ITSSS

Company Awards

Best IT Strategy

• Berwin Leighton Paisner
• Liverpool Direct
• PDSA
• Swiftcover.com
• VocaLink

Best Small Business IT Strategy

• Business Stream
• Close Invoice Finance
• ControlCircle
• Ecotricity
• Imagine Homes
• Imerja
• ProNet
• TDX Group

IT Employer of the Year

• Berwin Leighton Paisner
• Kent County Council
• Rackspace
• Yorkshire Water
• National Australia Group

Industry awards

Business hardware supplier of the year

• 8e6
• 3Par
• EMC
• Hitachi Data Systems
• IronKey
• Secure Computing
• Texas Memory Systems
• Yoggie Security Systems

Business software supplier of the year

• BigHand
• Citrix Online
• Eg Solutions
• PlateSpin
• Red Hat
• Sage
• StepStone
• Tideway

IT services supplier of the year

• Cognito
• Esteem Systems
• FDM Group
• Glasshouse Technologies
• LogMeIn
• MessageLabs
• Networks First
• Optevia

Networking and communications supplier of the year

• ANS Group
• BlackBerry
• iPass
• Freedom4
• Fluidata
• LifeSize
• Ruckus Wireless
• Telecity Group

IT PR Company of the Year

• Brands2Life
• Chameleon PR
• Fleishman-Hillard
• Johnson King
• Lewis PR
• Octopus Communications
• Rainier PR
• Weber Shandwick Technology

Recruitment Consultancy of the Year

• Advanced Resource Managers
• Elan Computing
• Hays IT
• Henderson Scott
• Highams Group
• La Fosse Associates
• Preferred IT
• ReThink Recruitment

Technology Advertising Campaign of the Year

• Chemistry for Morse
• Creative Direction Consultants for Fujitsu Siemens Computers
• DWA Media for Citrix Online GoToMyPC
• DWA Media for KonicaMinolta
• DWA Media for ESET
• Mason Zimbler for Toshiba
• Ogilvy for BT Global Services
• StarCom for Oracle

Editor’s Award

Outstanding Contribution to UK IT

To be announced on the night.