CRM Industry Awards

The dinner was held in aid of the charity Children in Crisis, of which the Duchess is founder and life president.

In all seven awards, which are designed to recognise and encourage achievement in the field of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), were presented.

Mark Turner, editor of CRM magazine and chairman of the judging panel, said the quality of the nominations shows that companies are now beginning to achieve real gains from CRM. Judging this year was an exceptionally difficult and close process. We had a number of excellent finalists with demonstrable vision, deliberate execution and unquestionable return on investment. Any of the doom-mongers who believe that CRM is dead are, quite simply talking to too many of the wrong people.

CRM is a business philosophy that puts the customer at the centre of an organisation’s activities and aims to provide consistent service across whichever means or media the customer chooses to deal through. Projects are currently being implemented at many of the country’s utility, financial services, travel and retail organisations.

The judging panel included Steve Blood, research director at Gartner, Bill Rose of the Service & Support Professionals Association and last year’s recipient of the Industry Champion award, Gavin Spier, senior director, technical account management for Siebel and Ann-Marie Stagg of CitiFinancial and Chair at the Call Centre Management Association.

Winners:

Best CRM Project for a large organisation

Best CRM Project – large Organisation: British Telecommunications

There were three very strong contenders as finalists in this category. But the winner was a truly impressive multichannel project. The facts that it was on such a large scale, had clear management vision delivered throughout the organisation and was backed up by wide ranging metrics that demonstrated a true return on investment, finally gave it the edge.

Other finalists:

Nationwide Direct

Newcastle City Council

Best CRM project for a Small to Medium Sized Enterprise

Best CRM project – SME: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Only two organisations were selected as finalists in what was otherwise a disappointing category. But our winner has shown commitment to delivering better service and turning vision into action – and action that has produced real results for its customers.

Other finalist:

Stream International

Industry Champion

Industry Champion: Phill Robinson, Siebel Systems

It is always difficult to compare individuals as their efforts are strongly influenced by their environment. But in the end, the judges decided the champion for 2003 has shown a long-term commitment to CRM and, indeed, has been significantly influential in creating the CRM environment in which many of us now work.

Other finalists:

Mike Hughes, PeopleTECH.com

Faye Tutuncu, One.Tel Centrica

Innovation of the Year

Innovation of the year: Round for Customer Centricity Director

By far the best-supported category in terms of nominations and probably the hardest to chose. The breadth of interpretation of CRM by all the nominations was as impressive as it was exciting in what it suggests for the future of CRM. But the judges felt that our winner’s clear understanding of the market and CRM issues meant that its innovation would have a long-lasting and significant impact on the market.

Other finalists:

Sainsbury’s Stores – Hazelgrove store

Spero Communications – BigTime Multimedia Player

TUI UK - Personalised travel ticket pack

Best Customer Contact Centre led Project

Best Contact Centre led project: Hewlett Packard

The judges were blown away by the completeness of the winner. Described by one as the perfect example of technology being used as the vehicle for change and not the end solution and by another simply as fantastic, the winner was praised for its well articulated vision, for how that vision had been communicated throughout the organisation and not only for the impressive results the project had achieved but also by the thoroughness in which the organisation tracked those results.

Other finalists:

London Electricity

Sainsbury’s

Best Field Service-led Project

Best Field Service led project: Europump Services

Again the judges were disappointed by the wider quality of the nominations but felt both of our finalists were very strong and worthy of recognition. Our winner put forward a powerful business case that produced very real business returns. The judges particularly liked the fact that management had understood its success metrics and put them in place before it started work - demonstrating clearness of vision and a determination to make a real difference.

Other finalist:

Siemens Communications

Best Sales and Marketing led project:

Marks & Spencer Financial Services

Again another fiercely fought category but the judges liked the way the winner’s project had a strong vision with senior management support and had had a clear and measurable impact on the company and the way it does business. Simply put, the project has helped to drive the company’s success in its sector.

Other finalists:

Altro

Follow he link below to view more information from the awards

www.wilson-publications.com

Irish Life & Permanent

CRM Industry Awards Contact

Children in Crisis – Media Relations

Mark Turner, Awards Judge

Rachel Virden – Press Officer

markt@wilson-publications.com rachelv@childrenincrisis.org.uk

www.crmindustryawards.org.uk www.childrenincrisis.org.uk

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com