SMA 2021 - Vendor Criteria

All you need to know for entering the Vendor categories of the CRN 2021 Sales and Marketing Awards

Below are the criteria for all the Vendor categories:

Best Partner Programme

Criteria

Who can enter? Any firm that is defined as a vendor and operates a UK channel strategy. These can be vendors of hardware, networking and software in all vertical markets, but the business must have a significant channel presence in the UK to qualify and obviously a channel programme that has been in place for more than a year. This can be a single or two-tier channel programme. The period covered for the awards is Jan 2020 to Jan 2021 so bear in mind when talking about additions/changes to programmes and the entry MUST be UK centric.

• Briefly describe your partner programme - ie length of time in operation, how it works, size of partner base, how rebates work, how partners get involved, what it offers partners?
• Do you have a partner portal? If so can you give some details of the benefits it provides partners?
• How user friendly is it? Why do partners want to work with you?
• How much time/money do you invest in your partner programme each year? Has the Covid situation forced you to alter your programme in any way? If so how?
• Why does it stand out from the competition/why have you entered?
• How does it help your UK partners? Do they enjoy working with you? Why?
• What have been the main benefits to you as a vendor with your partner programme?
• REQUIREMENT: Provide a UK partner testimonial within the entry

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. They must be UK RELEVANT ONLY. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Videos over five minutes will not be watched in full.

Best Online/Hybrid Partner Event

Criteria

Who can enter? Any firm that is defined as a vendor and operates a UK channel strategy. These can be vendors of hardware, networking and software in all vertical markets, but the business must have a significant channel presence in the UK to qualify. Due to Covid restrictions this category also covers physical events that were forced to become online events, or brand-new online events launched over the past year, as well as events that happened pre-lockdown. It MUST be a CHANNEL focussed event and not one aimed at end users. It must be relevant to UK partners. These awards cover the period Jan 2020 to Jan 2021 so the event must fall in that timeframe.

• Please describe the event, explain if appropriate how you had to adapt the event from a physical one to an online/hybrid event as a result of restrictions, and why you are entering it for this award
• Please reference any outstanding results in terms of attendance
• What benefits did it offer your reseller/distribution partners?
• What fun/social elements did the event have? Was it tweeted about? What sort of buzz did it create?
• Why did partners sign up? How many attended?
• What did they take away with them after the event? Have there been any significant business wins as a result?
• What do you get out of it as the organiser?
• REQUIREMENT: Include testimonials from UK partners that joined the event within the entry itself, not as an attachment

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. They must be UK RELEVANT. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Any videos longer than five minutes are likely not to be viewed in full.

Best Company to Work For

Criteria

Who can enter? Any firm that is defined as a vendor and operates a UK channel strategy. These can be vendors of hardware, networking and software in all vertical markets, but the business must have a significant channel presence in the UK to qualify. The company must pride itself on being a great place to work both in terms of results/growth, staff/employee satisfaction/motivation, CSR and general company culture. The period covered by the awards runs from Jan 2020 to Jan 2021, so please bear in mind when talking about particular activities, trips or incentives offered to staff. Images can also be used if required.

• How many staff do you employ in the UK?
• Why is your company such a great place to work?
• How did you keep staff morale up during lockdowns and all the ensuing restrictions?
• How has your workplace changed as a result of Covid? Ie - are more people set up for homeworking than before? Will this continue?
• What do you think makes it stand out from your peers?
• How are you addressing the gender pay/skills gap in the industry?
• How does company culture help generate results?
• Has your company used internal social media campaigns to generate a fun working environment? How has this enhanced the staff morale? Give examples.
• How does your company empower staff to do their jobs better? Give examples.
• Can you give examples of CSR activities? ie Charity fundraisers etc
• How do you motivate staff and engender loyalty? This can include outlines of bonus/commission schemes, extra leave, holidays, prizes etc
• REQUIREMENT: Please provide testimonials from your staff in the entry

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. They must be UK RELEVANT. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Any videos longer than five minutes are likely not to be viewed in full.

Best Marketing Campaign

Criteria

Who can enter? Any firm that is defined as a vendor and operates a UK channel strategy. These can be vendors of hardware, networking and software in all vertical markets, but the business must have a significant channel presence in the UK to qualify. The period covered by the awards runs from Jan 2020 to Jan 2021, so please bear in mind when writing entries and referring to particular campaigns.

• What was the campaign and when did it run? How did it work? Please describe the campaign itself and its title. NOTE: This can be a social media-based campaign, email campaign, print campaign or any other form of campaign.
• Why are you entering this particular campaign? Why does it stand out?
• How did the pandemic affect how you ran the campaign and how did you overcome the challenges?
• Were any distribution partners involved? Please elaborate if so.
• Who was it aimed at? ie SMBs, Enterprises, Public sector (or other specific sectors)
• How successful was the campaign - use facts and figures to back up claims. How many resellers benefitted from the campaign?
• Was there anything quirky or unusual about the campaign that really got it noticed?
• REQUIREMENT: Please provide partner testimonials within the entry itself

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. They must be UK RELEVANT. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Any videos longer than five minutes are likely not to be viewed in full.

Technology Innovation Award

Criteria

Who can enter? Any firm that is defined as a vendor and operates a UK channel strategy. These can be vendors of hardware, networking and software and related services in all vertical markets, but the business must have a significant channel presence in the UK to qualify. This award is aimed at a particular technology or technology set that has revolutionised business for channel partners and their respective customers over the past 12 months.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not an opportunity to market or sell a particular product or descend into techie speak, the award is aimed at describing how a product has actually helped make YOUR CHANNEL PARTNERS money. Bear in mind the awards cover the period Jan 2020 to Jan 2021.

• Briefly describe the product you are entering and why it is being entered for this award. Why do you consider it to be innovative? What effect is this innovation having on partners and customers?
• Did your product specifically help partners and their customers become more efficient during the pandemic/lockdown - please explain how.
• How does it differ/standout from the other similar products that are on the market in terms of innovation - again keep it brief and focus on the business benefits, not the complexity of the technology.
• What benefits has this product or product set you are entering provided for your channel partners in the past year - facts and figures are a must.
• Demonstrate how sales of this product have increased through the channel in the past year and why (facts and figures needed)
• Why does this particular technology innovation deserve this award? ie because it has made a huge difference to partners' business, customer take up has been phenomenal etc
• REQUIREMENT: Back up your claims with testimonials from actual channel partners in the entry, and how this technology has helped their business in the past year. Get them to explain why they think this particular technology should win.

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. They must be UK RELEVANT. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Any videos longer than five minutes are likely not to be viewed in full.

Best Graduate and/or Apprenticeship Scheme

Criteria

Who can enter? Any firm that is defined as a vendor and operates a UK channel strategy. These can be vendors of hardware, networking and software in all vertical markets, but the business must have a significant channel presence in the UK to qualify and the graduate/apprenticeship scheme needs to have been running or further developed since at least January 2020.

• The skills gap is the number one problem many tech firms are facing. Describe how your company is looking to plug that gap with a dedicated Graduate and/or Apprenticeship scheme.
• Tell us about your particular scheme and why you launched it/how long it has been running. Where do you recruit your Graduates/Apprentices from - how do they apply and how do you select them?
• How many Graduates/Apprentices have you trained so far and are you planning on increasing this?
• How did the pandemic affect your scheme and how did you overcome the challenges to keep new graduates motivated?
• Are you doing anything in particular to encourage more female graduates into your schemes?
• How long is the process and what do they do once it is finished?
• What have been the biggest challenges in running your scheme?
• Describe any particular success stories - ie, someone who has gone on to become a senior manager within your own company or has been headhunted somewhere and has done really well for themselves.
• REQUIREMENT: A testimonial from a graduate/apprentice within the entry itself - either a current one, or one that has flourished after completing their training with your company.

Written entries must be no more than 1,000 words, and try to think about the judges when composing them. They must be UK RELEVANT. Use plenty of spacing, bullet points and paragraphs to construct your entry to make them easier on the eye. PDF and other multimedia entries are encouraged, and you can add personality to your entry too to make it stand out. If you are submitting a video, please keep it to FIVE minutes or less. Any videos longer than five minutes are likely not to be viewed in full.

The ‘Over and Above' Award

This is a new award for 2021 aimed at highlighting the amazing work by an individual, the company as a whole, or a division/team during the ongoing challenges of the global pandemic.

It is a chance to give those individuals or teams some credit for going ‘over and above' their duties to ensure a customer was served, or a project was completed, or they managed to keep everybody's spirits up by being an exceptional manager or supportive colleague or even a community-minded individual/team.

Anyone can receive this award, from an exceptional sales/marketing/support team, a particular manager or staff member within any team, the CEO or a company cleaner that went the extra mile to keep the office safe during the pandemic. Anyone you feel has definitely gone ‘over and above' their normal duties to make peoples' lives easier during difficult times and has done something to deserve special recognition.

Below are some tips for constructing the entry but please make it as personal as you like.

• Describe the individual or team that you are entering for this award - why do they deserve special recognition?
• What have they done that you feel is ‘over and above' their usual duties? Please explain.
• What kind of a difference has their actions during the pandemic made to either individuals, customers/partners/the company or their local community?
• What would winning this award mean to them/the company?

Entries can be up to 1,000 words on why the particular individual or team deserves recognition- but shorter entries will not be penalised - if individuals want to nominate their colleagues, we will accept between 250-500 words as long as the above points are covered to some extent. Please do make sure these are personal entries as it is an emotive category. The timeframe this covers is Jan 2020 - Jan 2021.

The deadline for entries is Friday 9 April. To enter, please click here.