Now in its fourth year, the race is now on for Sift Media’s prestigious Software Satisfaction Awards 2009.
Based on the UK’s biggest single market research survey, the Software Satisfaction Awards are based on ratings from business software users of the products they use in the following areas: ease of use; functionality; reliability; and value for money.
In 2008, almost 6,000 respondents took part in the survey. Sift Media expects a higher number to participate this year from the 250,000 members of its professional online communities, which includes HRZone.co.uk and its sister sites: TrainingZONE.co.uk, Finance Week, AccountingWEB.co.uk, BusinessZone.co.uk, UK Business Forums, MyCustomer.com, and KnowledgeBoard.com.
Winners will be revealed at the Software Satisfaction Awards 2009 dinner on Thursday 8 October 2009, at The Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Award categories
The main awards are based on primary research among users and buyers of business software in the following categories:
- HR & training
- Accounting & finance
- CRM & customer management
In addition for 2009, there will be two new awards judged by a panel of industry figures for Newcomer of the Year and Software Vendor of the Year for the most customer-focused developer across all the functional categories.
The full category list for HR & training is as follows:
- SME HR software
- Enterprise HR software
- Talent management software
- Learning software
- Web-hosted HR software
Call for entries
The Software Satisfaction Awards give software houses the opportunity to let their customers provide positive feedback on how their business applications perform.
The awards scheme is now open for entries. The deadline for entries is Tuesday 31 March 2009. Entry costs £75 for the first software product and £50 for each subsequent product or additional category.
The Software Satisfaction user survey starts on Friday 1 May 2009 and will remain open until the end of June. Members of HRZone.co.uk will then have the chance to vote for their favourite software supplier. Contenders are encouraged to tell their users about the survey to improve their chances and to promote the awards scheme.
Participating in the Software Satisfaction Awards gives exposure to developers through the survey and in coverage throughout the polling, shortlisting and prize-giving process. Those companies taking part will be invited to a Software Satisfaction Awards 2009 briefing with BASDA’s marketing special interest group in April to discuss current market trends and customer issues with Sift Media editors and leading analysts.
Last year’s winners
Innovation was the key to Softscape’s success last year, said Cynthia Hammond, global PR manager for the company, after it won the enterprise software award in 2008. “We reinvest 34% of revenues back into R&D and ongoing innovation,” she said at the time. “We’ve worked closely with customers over the past year to define what’s needed to make employees more effective on the job. Softscape is on the cutting edge of technology, linking strategic HR functions with knowledge-sharing tools to help organisations better manage their business.”
Octopus was the lucky winner of the mid-range HR software award, which, said the company’s sales director Chris Beaumont, was the culmination of three year’s hard work: “As a comparatively new HR product launched in the UK just over three years ago, capturing 26% of the total vote cast is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved in our business, and is testament to our long-term partnerships with our customers.” He added that the Octopus core philosophy is based on a commitment to always exceed customer expectations.
Another winner from last year was SuccessFactors, scooping the talent management gong. On collecting his award, Andy Leaver, vice president of sales EMEA at the company, said: “I would like to think we won this award because we are obsessive about delivering measurable value and results to our customers, with high levels of customer satisfaction.”
He added: “We deliver our solutions in a true multi-tenant SaaS model. This allows us to release software every single month, with often hundreds of small updates and improvements. This Web 2.0 delivery mechanism truly allows customers a faster time to value with minimal risk.”
What to do next?
For full details of last year’s winners, see: www.softwaresatisfaction.co.uk/winners_08.html
For details of the awards ceremony and how to book tables, see: www.softwaresatisfaction.co.uk/table_booking.html
For sponsorship opportunities, see: www.softwaresatisfaction.co.uk/sponsors.html or contact sponsorship manager Nicky Whitaker on 07977 008925 or nicky.whitaker@siftmedia.co.uk
