2020 CRN Impact Awards are now Live!
If you have any questions, please contact impactawards@crn.com.au
The CRN Impact Awards celebrate the technology providers delivering outcomes for customer organisations and building Australia’s innovation economy for the future.
Note: We will publish 2021's Impact Award's criteria below in due course.
But before you rush to enter, please read this page as it contains detailed information about the categories in the CRN Impact Awards.
For information on the award rules click here - or on the "Entry rules, tips and assets" tab above. We also strongly recommend you download the 2020 CRN Impact Awards Entry Kit, which contains comprehensive information for your submission.
We also request that you fill out the first page of the entry form as soon as possible. This will only take a minute and it will help us manage entries and follow up on any incomplete submissions.
About the award categories
The seven 'Project' categories are open to channel partners for delivering technology projects for Australian customers.
The three 'Innovation' categories are open to Australian technology companies that have commercialised their intellectual property.
The 'Distribution Performance' category is open to IT distributors.
It is free to enter (single or multiple entries).
Please send any inquiries to impactawards@crn.com.au
Project categories
Business Transformation
This award recognises projects that transform a customer's operations, delivering more efficient operations and profit growth. Projects eligible for this award could include modernisation or migration projects, creation or adoption of new applications, realising value from data, finding new ways to delight end-customers. If the project you worked on delivered the outcome of a better client business, you're in the running!
Workforce Empowerment
This award recognises projects that make your customers' staff more productive. This category would include telecommunications and connectivity, including smartphones and tablets. Projects centered on unified comms and activity-based working would fit this category, as would contact centre builds, networking projects, deployment of bespoke apps to staff - anything that makes a team more efficient.
Modernising Infrastructure
This award recognises projects that move customer IT infrastructure to modern platforms: to support cost savings, efficiencies, growth and innovation. This category would include upgrading compute, storage, core networking or converged systems, end-user devices or printing. Data centre improvements would also fit. We may decide to award two winners (one for smaller projects; one for larger projects).
Trusted Systems
This award recognises projects that improve customer resilience through projects that protect data, enhance security, ensure business continuity or improve an organisation's ability to recover from a disaster. The category considers consultancy and advisory services as well as completed projects.
Network Evolution
This award recognises networking projects that connect teams and organisations, speed up communications and break down silos between teams, data and environments. This category would fit telecommunications and network infrastructure projects, including moving to software-defined networking.
Customer Experience
This award recognises projects that help client organisations better service their own end user customers in a digital, mobile world. This category could include technology in retail, hospitality or customer service environments: driving sales and marketing outcomes and supporting customer transactions or interactions. This could include websites, mobile applications, or any technology deployed in the service of customers. If you delivered a brilliant digital experience for your client's customers in 2019, enter this category!
Working Together
This category celebrates projects on which partners collaborated with other partners to deliver an outcome for a shared customer. This category could include specialist providers working together or mainstream/broad IT suppliers enlisting a niche/specialist partner.
Distributor category
Distribution Performance
This award category is for distributors that have gone the extra mile for vendor/s and channel partner/s. This entry should be based a discrete project, campaign or initiative run to support a vendor, or perhaps a new service launched into the market. For example: supporting a vendor to launch a new product into market; helping a vendor or reseller/s achieve a specific sales result; managing a marketing campaign/strategy; delivering pre-sales, enablement or training around a vendor's technology; or launching a new go-to-market offering. CRN may award two awards in this category, for major and minor campaigns.
Innovation categories
Exporting Innovation
This award is for Australian software / tech firms that have won export sales for their own products or other intellectual property. Judges will be looking for entries from companies that can prove they have scaled their product outside Australia through direct sales and/or channel sales. The judges will want to see supporting information, including testimonials from international customers, details on the commercial model, pricing and information on reseller programs. This category is typically aimed at older, more established companies. Younger, emerging companies that are not yet exporting are welcome to enter the ‘Emerging Innovation’ category.
Emerging Innovator
This award is for Australian software startups or other emerging tech firms that have developed their own intellectual property and successfully commercialised it. Judges will be looking for entries from companies that have passed the R&D phase and are firmly scaling their product in the market through direct sales and/or channel sales. The judges will want to see supporting information, such as testimonials from customers, details on the commercial model, pricing and information on reseller programs. This category would typically suit younger companies and startups. More established software/tech companies should consider entering the ‘Exporting Innovation’ category.
Platform Innovator
This category is aimed at Australian solution providers (such as resellers, system integrators, MSPs) that have diversified by building their own intellectual property around a third-party platform. Entrants will need to show they have a history as a reseller or service provider and that their solution is built around a third-party ecosystem, such as a hyperscale cloud provider marketplace or with API integration to a major vendor product/platform.
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