TickIT awards — a winner's perspective

Abstract

The TickIT Awards were launched by the Department of Trade and Industry in January 1993 inviting those organizations which had TickIT certification to enter the competition. An Awards Application Pack was sent out with the letter together with Guidance Notes on how the award will operate. The Awards were not run in 1994 due to sponsorship difficulties but were run in 1995 with the Computing Services and Systems Association as one of the sponsors. It is hoped that the sponsorship difficulties have been overcome and that the Awards will be a major annual event. A description of the rules and regulations is given as background to the reasons and rationale behind entering the competition from Triad's perspective. This paper details Triad's approach to producing the submission, what it has meant in terms of effort, resultant benefits to the staff and to Triad's clients and suppliers. Triad was one of the runners up in the 1993 Awards and the winner of the 1995 Awards in the category for companies with between 50 and 150 staff in which most of the 850 TickIT certified companies eligible to enter the Awards lie. Entrants must have been fully TickIT certificated by 31 December 1994. A brief comparison is made with other Awards such as the European Quality Award. The paper concludes by describing how winning the award has had an impact on quality from junior staff up to the managing director himself.