Criteria for vendor categories

A look at all the criteria for the 2018 vendor categories at the Channel Awards

CRN Staff
19 April 2018

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Below are the criteria for all the Vendor awards for this year's Channel Awards. Please note that if shortlisted for Vendor of the Year, a face-to-face presentation is required in front of the judging panel. Second stage judging this year takes place on Thursday 11 October.

Award Name Datacentre Vendor of the Year - NEW

Eligibility Is this the Award for you?

Vendor Awards

The vendor awards will recognise the overall contribution that the vendor is making to business development in the UK channel, in terms of its product range and development, channel and marketing programmes, and service and support.

Datacentre Vendor of the Year

The award is open to all vendors operating within the UK datacentre market. This includes manufacturers of servers, networking equipment, software, components or peripherals that are relevant to the datacentre market. The manufacturers must be able to show that they have helped their channel partners to build and grow a profitable business in 2017/2018

Entry Criteria: Your entry should be based around the following criteria, which is what the judges will be using as a basis to score each entry. Please do not address each point separately and just base the entry on these points alone -try to add some colour/personality and just incorporate them into your entry as you see fit. Also bear in mind that the judges are accepting PDF or multi-media entries, but at the very least please make sure your entries that are easy to read and digest if in plain text format.

Outline why you are entering this category, explain a bit about your company, your relevance to the category, what the channel means to your business - back up with numbers and stats to show channel growth and the actual percentage of your business that is through partners - and ensure the entry is relevant to the UK market.
What changes/enhancements have been made to your channel programme (can be in the form of products, new services and support) in the last 12 months, with evidence of the impact those changes have had on your partners (stats, figures) and describe why your programme stands out from the competition.
Describe how you have assisted your channel partners to actively increase their business over the past year - this can be through additional investment, headcount and training - please use facts and figures relevant to the UK market.
Pick a particularly successful partner (reseller/VAR/MSP/Integrator) case study from the past year (ie a partner that has seen their business grow as a result of your partnership) and explain to the judges why it was such a success, how you helped that partner succeed and ensure partner testimonials back up the case study.
Company ethos - how important is the channel throughout your company, how do you encourage staff to ‘think channel' and get the best out of your indirect strategy?

Entries are actively encouraged to include hard facts and figures - all of which will be kept strictly confidential and used for judging purposes only. All programmes and initiatives must have been new or further developed in 2018 to qualify. Vendors are actively encouraged to enter for more than one award if they so wish, and if the category is relevant to their business. But every entry MUST be different.

Maximum word count: 1,000.
Please read the criteria before submitting your entry. Relevant partner testimonials and supporting materials are welcome but must not exceed the 1,000 maximum word count.

Award Name Security Vendor of the Year

Eligibility Is this the Award for you?

Vendor Awards

The vendor awards will recognise the overall contribution that the vendor is making to business development in the channel, in terms of its product range and development, channel and marketing programmes, and service and support.

Cybersecurity Vendor of the Year

This category is for all vendors that manufacture/develop software, hardware, systems or peripherals for the security market. The manufacturers must be able to show that they have helped their channel partners to build and grow a profitable business in 2017/2018

Outline why you are entering this category, explain what your company is, your relevancy to the category, what the channel means to your business - back up with numbers and stats to show channel growth and the actual percentage of your business that is through partners - and ensure the entry is relevant to the UK market.
What changes/enhancements have been made to your channel programme (can be in the form of products, new services and support) in the last 12 months, with evidence of the impact those changes have had on your partners (stats, figures) and describe why your programme stands out from the competition.
Describe how you have assisted your channel partners to actively increase their business over the past year - this can be through additional investment, headcount and training - please use facts and figures relevant to the UK market.
Pick a particularly successful partner (reseller/VAR/MSP/Integrator) case study from the past year (ie a partner that has seen their business grow as a result of your partnership) and explain to the judges why it was such a success, how you helped that partner succeed and ensure partner testimonials back up the case study.
Company ethos - how important is the channel throughout your company, how do you encourage staff to ‘think channel' and get the best out of your indirect strategy?

Award Name Specialist Vendor of the Year

Eligibility Is this the Award for you?

Vendor Awards

Specialist Vendor of the Year

This category is open to vendors that manufacture (and/or market) particular ‘specialist' offerings. This includes both specialist products which a vendor may develop and/or a service that the vendor may offer. It must be a finished product and/or service, not component i.e. a product or service that a distributor or reseller can stock and/or sell. This will include audio-visual vendors, printer vendors, internet services, hosting or broadband services, WAN infrastructure and managed services or hosted applications. Please note that because there are cloud services, datacentre and security categories as well, preference will be given to entries outside those three areas. Vendors must show that they have helped their channel partners grow and build a profitable business in 2017/18

Outline why you are entering this category, describe your company briefly, your relevancy to the category, what the channel means to your business - back up with numbers and stats to show channel growth and the actual percentage of your business that is through partners - and ensure the entry is relevant to the UK market.
What changes/enhancements have been made to your channel programme (can be in the form of products, new services and support) in the last 12 months, with evidence of the impact those changes have had on your partners (stats, figures) and describe why your programme stands out from the competition.
Describe how you have assisted your channel partners to actively increase their business over the past year - this can be through additional investment, headcount and training - please use facts and figures relevant to the UK market.
Pick a particularly successful partner (reseller/VAR/MSP/Integrator) case study from the past year (ie a partner that has seen their business grow as a result of your partnership) and explain to the judges why it was such a success, how you helped that partner succeed and ensure partner testimonials back up the case study.
Company ethos - how important is the channel throughout your company, how do you encourage staff to ‘think channel' and get the best out of your indirect strategy?

Award Name Cloud Services Vendor of the Year

Eligibility Is this the Award for you?

Vendor Awards

Cloud Services Vendor of the Year

This category is open to all cloud services vendors, whether they sell a physical product or a virtual one. This includes cloud-based software manufacturers/developers and providers of any type of cloud service/product TO the channel. The vendors entering must be able to show that they have helped their channel partners to build and grow a profitable business in 2017/2018.

Outline why you are entering this category, briefly describe your company, your relevancy to the category, what the channel means to your business - back up with numbers and stats to show channel growth and the actual percentage of your business that is through partners - and ensure the entry is relevant to the UK market.
What changes/enhancements have been made to your channel programme (can be in the form of products, new services and support) in the last 12 months, with evidence of the impact those changes have had on your partners (stats, figures) and describe why your programme stands out from the competition.
Describe how you have assisted your channel partners to actively increase their business over the past year - this can be through additional investment, headcount and training - please use facts and figures relevant to the UK market.
Pick a particularly successful partner (reseller/VAR/MSP/Integrator) case study from the past year (ie a partner that has seen their business grow as a result of your partnership) and explain to the judges why it was such a success, how you helped that partner succeed and ensure partner testimonials back up the case study.
Company ethos - how important is the channel throughout your company, how do you encourage staff to ‘think channel' and get the best out of your indirect strategy?

Award Name Emerging Vendor of the Year

Eligibility Is this the Award for you?

Vendor Awards

Emerging Vendor of the Year

This category is open to all manufacturers that would class themselves as a relative newcomer to the channel, having worked with channel partners IN THE UK for a minimum of one and MAXIMUM of five years to qualify. The manufacturers must be able to show that they have helped their UK channel partners to build and grow a profitable business in 2017/2018, and also demonstrate what they think makes them eligible to be classed as an emerging vendor.

Outline why you are entering this category, briefly describe your company, your relevancy to the category, what the channel means to your business. Explain why you consider yourself an emerging vendor and what makes you stand out from the competition - back these claims up with numbers and stats to show both company and channel growth and the actual percentage of your business that is through partners. Please ensure the entry is relevant to the UK market.
Why have you picked the channel as your preferred route to market, and what benefits do you think you can bring your channel partners - can you provide any proof in the form of stats/figures (from the last 12 months?). Why should they go with you rather than the more established vendors in the market? What do you bring to channel that is fresh, exciting and new?
Describe how you have assisted your channel partners to actively increase their business over the past year - this can be through additional investment, headcount and training, or indeed have you seen rapid channel growth this year that has made a difference to your business? - please use facts and figures relevant to the UK market.
Pick a particularly successful partner (reseller/VAR/MSP/Integrator) case study from the past year (ie a partner that has seen their business grow as a result of your partnership) and explain to the judges why it was such a success, how you helped that partner succeed and ensure partner testimonials back up the case study.
Company ethos - how important is the channel throughout your company, how do you encourage staff to ‘think channel' and get the best out of your indirect strategy?

Award Name Vendor Innovation Award

Eligibility Is this the Award for you?

Vendor Awards

Vendor Innovation Award

NOTE: Please do not submit an entry that talks in great detail about technology and nothing else. These are not technology awards, but rather business awards. Have you as a vendor launched a particular technology or channel initiative that has reaped amazing results? Are you knocking out the competition left, right and centre with your most recent innovation? What is your innovation? Marketing, programme or technology based? Explain briefly. Are you helping your partners win bigger deals/steal market share as a result? The vendors entering must be able to show that they have helped their channel partners to build and grow a profitable business in 2017/2018.

Outline why you are entering this category, briefly describe your company, your relevancy to the category, describe in detail what exactly your innovation actually is. Is it a product or particular channel-centric scheme? How has your particular innovation benefited your channel partners and their respective customers?
Back up your claims with numbers and stats to demonstrate the success of your innovation and ensure the entry is relevant to the UK market.
Pick a particularly successful partner (reseller/VAR/MSP/Integrator) case study from the past year (ie a partner that has seen their business grow as a result of your partnership) and explain to the judges why it was such a success, how you helped that partner succeed and ensure partner testimonials back up the case study.
Company ethos - how important is the channel throughout your company, how do you encourage staff to ‘think channel' and get the best out of your indirect strategy?

Award Name: Vendor of the Year - (presentation required if shortlisted)

Vendor Awards

Vendor of the Year

This category is open to all vendors that feel they have done a particularly outstanding job in the UK channel over the past 12 months that deserves the top accolade at the CRN awards. Any vendor, regardless of size, specialisation or focus is eligible to enter this award.

Demonstrate why you feel you qualify for the Vendor of the Year award - use stats and examples to show channel business growth, partner acquisition (both reseller and distributor), support and investment made into your channel strategy over the past year.
Why do you think you have done a better job than your competitors?

What has your channel-facing business achieved in the past 12 months that makes it stand out from the competition? Use facts, stats and figures to back this up and strengthen your entry.
What has been your company's biggest achievement over the past year in relation to the channel?
What part has your channel-facing team played in this and how is their relationship generally with the channel?
Pick a particularly successful case study (can be either reseller or distributor partnership) from the past year and explain to the judges why it was such a success, and why you think it will help you win this award. A reseller/distributor testimonial can be used to back up the case study.