Channel Awards deadline: Just days to go

With the Channel Awards deadline on FRIDAY, it is more important than ever to shout about your success

The National Lottery saying “You have to be in it to win it” is quite apt, and the same applies to the channel awards.

There are just days left to get entries in before the deadline expires on Friday 17 July, and unlike other awards, there are no ‘surprise’ deadline extensions announced – the deadline really is the deadline.

We have launched some new categories this year in the VAR/MSP space that really should be appealing to many firms out there – the main one being ‘Public Sector Provider of the Year’.

In such a cut-throat world, success needs to be shouted from the rooftops and there is just one week left to do it.

Have you won a particularly large education deal, or ousted someone from a government contract? Have you won a series of deals with health authorities and hospitals this year? If you have, you really should be sharing that success with your peers.

Our other new categories – Cloud Services Provider, and Corporate VAR of the Year are already proving very popular, so unless you broadcast your success, you will have to put up with seeing your rivals scoop the prize.

In distribution there have also been some changes – the biggest one being Systems Distributor being replaced with Client Distributor.

After extensive discussions with distribution players, it was decided that Client was a better term to include all that was included in ‘Systems’ including PCs, servers and other hardware. Again, don’t miss out on winning by coming too late to the party.

For a full rundown of the awards categories including all our news ones – please visit our official awards website here.

This year we also have more judges than ever looking at entries and every single entry is judged on merit alone, and not based on what someone may or may not spend with CRN or whether they are the biggest player in their field. Good entries are what win the awards. End of.

Independence is very highly valued, and this is why winning a CRN Award, or even a commended, is a real achievement in itself.

And with our strapline being ‘Dare to be Different’ we are actively encouraging PDF and video entries this year rather than just large blocks of text. To hopefully help entrants catch the spirit and personality of their companies as well as their successes.

Please do have a read of the criteria - it has all been rewritten this year so it reflects exactly what the judges look for and mark on.

Remember to back up all claims with stats, facts and figures, and include partner/customer testimonials to show the judges that your business strategies are working. And stick to the word counts - Judges are sticklers for that.

One other point, for those of you thinking of entering the ‘Big Three’ – Vendor/ResellerDistributor of the Year – the judging date for that when you have to come in and present has been CHANGED to Wednesday 14 October. Please make a note in your diaries.

Best of luck to you all.