How to enter

How to enter

Applications for 2025 closed

Judging panel:

The awards will be decided by a panel of judges, selected by the editors of Risk.net. The panel includes technology users, analysts and members of the editorial team. The names of the judging panel will be published when the awards are announced. Judges will only offer an opinion on categories where they have direct experience and are asked to recuse themselves in any categories where they have a conflict.

How to enter:

Interested firms must submit a pitch document. All awards pitches (except for the five innovation award categories) should briefly seek to answer the following four questions. Each has a word limit:

• How do you meet the industry's needs in this category? (600 words)
• What differentiates you from other vendors? (600 words)
• How has your product/service changed over the past 12 months? (800 words)
• In your field, what developments or trends do you expect to shape client needs over the coming 12 months? (600 words)

 

Entrants in the innovation award categories should pitch a recent development – something that has been changed or added within the previous 12 months. Instead of the standard questions above, innovation entrants should answer the three questions below:

• What is the development, and the rationale behind it? (600 words)
• What makes it innovative? (600 words)
• How has it improved the product? (600 words)

Any entry that does not directly answer the set questions will be excluded.

PLEASE NOTE: Testimonials from named clients are not compulsory, but are always valued by the judging panel and often make a difference in close decisions. Candidates that choose not to provide testimonials should provide evidence of client support in other ways: for example, by sharing significant client wins, or client numbers, providing the results of customer satisfaction surveys or giving an overview of financial performance.

As always, candidates are free to submit additional material in support of their entries - presentations, product brochures, technical specifications, white papers etc.

Who can enter:

Each category relates to a broad industry need. Any firm with a product or service that attempts to meet that need is eligible to enter.

We deliberately do not provide tight eligibility criteria, or seek to use existing vendor market segments – the aim is to cast a broad net, rather than to compare apples with apples. Interested parties with queries about eligibility should contact us. In some cases, judges may decide a particular nominee is better suited for a category other than the one that was originally entered. Judges may move entries from one category to another at their discretion.