Time to salute individual excellence

Enter this year's Computing Awards for Excellence now

This year’s Computing Awards for Excellence will again recognise the best individuals and teams working in IT.

We are looking to reward IT experts at all levels of an organisation who have contributed to the development and deployment of innovative technology that improves business operations or enhances public services.

This year we have also introduced a new prize for the IT team of the year, to recognise the best groups within an IT department or perhaps an ad hoc team pulled together to tackle a particular project or task for the benefit of the organisation.

We are inviting readers to submit their nominations for these prizes. Entries can be submitted by companies and public bodies, individuals or teams wishing to recognise their own or their colleagues’ efforts, or by IT vendors nominating their customers. The individual and team awards are:

IT Leader of the Year

Awarded to a chief information officer, IT director or other board-level IT executive. The winner will be an individual who has consistently demonstrated excellence in leadership, innovation and quality in the use and promotion of IT to deliver business growth or improvements in public services.

IT Department of the Year

Awarded to the IT department in any private or public sector organisation that has consistently proved its excellence in the delivery and support of IT services.

IT Team of the Year

Awarded to any team within an IT department – whether a permanent group, such as a support or operations team for example, or an ad hoc team created for a specific business initiative. The winning team will have consistently demonstrated excellence in innovation and quality in the use of IT, and shown significant achievement during the past 12 months.

IT Professional of the Year

Awarded to any individual working in IT, whether part of an IT department, business unit or small business. The winner will be an individual who has consistently demonstrated excellence in innovation, and quality in the use and promotion of IT in their organisation to deliver business growth or improvements in public services.

Entries will be judged against the following criteria:

Excellence: consistently meeting or exceeding challenging objectives to ensure the successful use of IT.

Innovation: used innovative approaches or technologies to enhance their organisation.

Role model: provided an example to peers or colleagues of the importance of the role of IT in the organisation.

Success: has achieved significant success through involvement with one or more major IT initiatives in the past year

Quality: demonstrates a quality approach through personal values and working practices that ensure success for their team and organisation.

The final shortlists will be announced in September. The awards ceremony – recognised as the Oscars of the IT industry – takes place on 7 November at Battersea Park Events Arena in London.

For further information and to submit your entry, visit:

www.computing.co.uk/awards

Individual & Team Awards: last year’s winners

IT Leader of the Year: Darin Brumby, First Group

Transport operator FirstGroup completely transformed all aspects of its IT operations under the leadership of chief information officer Darin Brumby.

In the year preceding the award, Brumby led a £46.9m outsourcing deal with BT that took the company to new levels of IT maturity. He was also responsible for pioneering the use of best practice at the company, including its adoption of the ITIL service management standard and the Prince 2 methodology for programme management.

This new structure enabled the company to integrate and transform several new rail franchises, and successfully complete more than 100 technology projects.

In addition, Brumby’s outstanding leadership and communications skills enabled him to build winning teams and trusted relationships across the enterprise and beyond.

IT Professional of the Year: Tim Needham, West Midlands Fire Service

Tim Needham, of the West Midlands Fire Service, fought off several other top candidates to become 2006’s IT Professional of the Year.

The senior systems developer delivered his groundbreaking vision for an Integrated Risk Management Information System (Irmis) in May 2005. In its first year the system captured the details of more than 60,000 varied activities from 1,500 employees in richer detail than ever before, enabling the brigade to work more productively in ways that previously had not been possible.

Needham also consistently demonstrated an ability to use his technical talent to meet business objectives. For example, the exceptional quality of the user interface he developed for Irmis reduced the need for user training.

Needham was also singled out for his softer skills, including the ability to convey his ideas in a way that captures people’s imagination and inspires the organisation to action.

IT Department of the Year: Northumberland County Council

Northumberland County Council’s computer services division was named IT Department of the Year following its successful completion of an ambitious restructuring programme.

The division dismantled its previous silo-based structure and reformed itself around seven business teams corresponding to council directorates. A further three teams now handle the delivery and support of networking, hardware and IT services to all council users.

As well as improving efficiency and morale, the restructured division successfully delivered several high-profile

projects in its first year, including a web portal giving community groups the ability to establish an online presence, internal systems for videoconferencing and home working, and business systems that are reportedly saving the council £2m a year.

www.computing.co.uk/awards