This year’s Computing Awards for Excellence again recognises 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.

The IT Team of the Year award, meanwhile, recognises the best groups within an IT department, or perhaps an ad hoc team pulled together to tackle a particular project or task.

We are inviting readers to now submit their nominations for the prizes. Entries can be made 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: Using innovative approaches or technologies to enhance their
organisation.

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

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

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

Please keep submissions below 750 words. Then complete the form at the Computing awards web site, at: www.computing.co.uk/awards.

The final shortlists will be announced in September, in advance of the 16th
annual awards ceremony at Battersea Park Events Arena, which takes place in
London on 5 November.

For more information and to submit your entry, visit: www.computing.co.uk/awards

Individual & Team Awards: last year’s winners

IT Leader of the Year - Rorie Devine

Betfair’s former chief technology officer (CTO) Rorie Devine helped to transform the online betting firm into a mature global company.

He ran fortnightly “talkback” sessions to encourage feedback from engineers, and sent out a weekly email called “Rorie’s Ramblings” to share the ups and downs of being a CTO.

As part of its ethical and responsible approach to growth, Betfair has set new standards in the fight against corruption within sport, becoming the first company in the online gaming industry to achieve ISO 27001 information security accreditation.
Customers are also benefiting from continued innovation - in 2007, the time taken to return money to customers during the Grand National was just two minutes, down from 90 minutes the previous year.

IT Professional of the Year - Andrew Mackey

Andrew Mackey was head of networks for Service Birmingham, with responsibility for voice and data networks across Birmingham City Council.

Service Birmingham is a partnership between the council and Capita, which runs the council’s IT systems. Mackey successfully managed the creation of one of the UK’s most advanced public sector IT networks.

The project was three months behind schedule when Mackey took over and the timescale for delivery was effectively halved. Mackey met the new deadlines and
incorporated several unplanned extras.

IT Department of the Year - Canterbury City Council

Canterbury City Council’s IT department is the link between technology and delivering the council’s aim to improve the quality of life of the community and its visitors.

The department’s key objective is to ensure that IT-enabled services are designed with the customer in mind to create a positive user experience. Achieving this goal
involved redesigning the council’s web site, providing public videoconferencing facilities and implementing ITIL standards on the helpdesk.

Council employees benefited from an improved online call logging implementation and a self-service portal for straightforward IT queries.

IT Team of the Year - Barclays Bank ­ mainframe stability team

Barclays’ mainframe stability team consisted of a small number of analysts providing live support 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

The team had daily responsibility for more than £60m of account payments, £1bn of Bacs payments and £252bn of automatic funds transfer payments. Barclays’ acquisition of Woolwich Building Society required all Woolwich accounts, products, balances and customers to be migrated onto the Barclays mainframe.

Over 12 months, the team played an integral role in introducing an innovative and complex system for backing-out transactions. Staff on a rota system worked every weekend over six months to implement operations.

For more information and to submit your entry, visit: www.computing.co.uk/awards