Aims
This Annual West Midlands ICT Cluster Awards for companies based in the region was established in 2005 with the aims of:

• Growing recognition of the ICT cluster, and its capabilities within ICT companies in the West Midlands, potential customers in the West Midlands, the national ICT media, and the ICT industry nationally
• Building a sense of self-identity in the cluster
• Promoting, celebrating and show-casing best-practice, innovation and achievement

The Annual Awards will be presented at the ICT Cluster Annual Conference in November 2006.

Categories
For 2006 Awards will be presented in the following categories:

• Most Innovative Product
• Best Value Public Sector Project
• Best Public Sector Procurer
• Most Value Added Private Sector Project
• Best Use of Skills Training
• Best International Trader

In addition an Overall Regional Champion Award will be awarded to one of the above category winners, with a prize of £2,000 for this top award.

Eligibility
To be eligible for the award the company must have its registered office/HQ/main base of operations within the Advantage West Midlands region. The awards are only open to SMEs (classified as less than 250 employees) with the exception of the Award for Best Public Sector Procurer. The company does not need to be a member of a regional ICT project. In each award the product/service/project/procurement must have had the main activity or launch during the period October 2005 - October 2006.

The Process

• Entries are invited during the summer from ICT companies based in the West Midlands.
• Entrants must complete an Award Entry form. This will be acknowledged by email within 5 days of receipt.
• Initial entries will be judged by a panel drawn from the Cluster Opportunity Group (COG).
• A selection of applicants will be invited to go through to the second stage of the competition. The individual category awards will be selected by the respective judging panel. The panel will comprise members of the COG, AWM funded projects and other industry experts from the ICT and end-user communities.
• The award panel chairs will assess each award winner to determine the Regional Champion.

Judging Criteria
The judging criteria for all awards are available below.

Important Dates
Close of initial Entry Form submission 29th September 2006
Short listed companies notified week commencing 16th October 2006
Short listed companies give a presentation to judging panel during week commencing 23rd October 2006.
Winner notified by 6th November 2006 (all winners to attend the conference on 21st November 2006)
Overall Regional Champion announced at the ICT Cluster Conference on 21st November 2006.

Awards
The Awards shall consist of a trophy and certificate for the winner. The awards will reflect the hi-tech nature of the ICT industry.

A cash prize of £2,000 will also be presented to the Regional Champion.

Promotion - Post Event
It is important to give recognition to these awards as they serve to showcase regional excellence within and outside the region. The awards and the winners are likely to be promoted through:

• Press release to regional and ICT media
• Cluster winter newsletter
• Project mailing lists and web sites
• Cluster web site

Judging Criteria
Four core criteria will be used to judge entries. Judges will acknowledge the merits of individual achievements at their discretion and agreement. The questions below will help you to focus on relevant issues. However, these are not exhaustive, nor will they necessarily apply to each award and applicants will be expected*, based on the specific category they are entering, to extol their application for a particular award.
The judges decision is final.

1. Added Value
What value has the product/service / project/procurement brought for the customer/company/community/ recipient? How well does the product/service / project/procurement meet the needs of the customer? To what extent will the product benefit society/the procurer? What benefits have been gained? What lessons have been learnt? What whole-life value did the project/product add to the client's business? How satisfied was the client with the project/product? How did the company exceed the expectations of the client? How were skills and training requirements identified?

2. Commercial Potential
How big is the commercial opportunity? How commercially viable is it? What potential market is there for the product or service? How does the company market itself? What leadership does the product/company have over the competition? What percentage of the company's turnover does this represent? How has the company entered its target market(s)? What has the company done to adapt to its target market(s)? How is the company structured to deal with new trade? Can the company demonstrate growth over the last 2 years? What are the company's main targets for future development of trade?

3. Business & Project Management
To what extent does the product, service or project address a real world problem? What problems were encountered, and how were they overcome? How good was the risk management? How well did the project manage time, cost, quality, specification and risk? How well were costs and value assessed before the project began and how accurate were the estimates? What is the company's strategy for updating its skills? How well has the company implemented and managed training and staff development? Is there evidence of evaluation, development, and implementation of best practice? How are staff developed and coached? Do they champion skills, celebrate success? What is the company culture, and how is it managed or developed?

4. Clustering & Regional Relationships
How can partnership working be demonstrated? What use, if any, has been made of regional support? (e.g. agencies, initiatives, projects, etc.) What partnerships or collaborations have been used? How have the relationships helped the development of the product/service/project/procurement? How innovatively has use been made of existing IPR, either alone or in combination? How well has the company exploited innovation support schemes? What has been done to promote this project/partnership working? Has there been influence on other departments/organisations as a result of this project?