Nominations for the second annual Digital Transformation Awards produced by IT World Canada (ITWC) are now open.
The Digital Transformation Awards is a national program designed to recognize the best examples of business or organizational digital transformations in the country. It is open to all Canadian businesses and government institutions.
“In our inaugural year we saw example of companies that disrupted the way banking is done, the way students in the North are educated and the way a small company delivered services in a way that put them on equal footing with the larger competition,” said Fawn Annan, president and chief marketing officer of ITWC.
“This year as more companies see the necessity of digital transformation, we hope to entertain nominations from innovative companies from across multiple industry verticals.”
Awards will be presented in five categories: Large private sector transformation, Large public sector transformation, SME enterprise or sector transformation, Public sector SME transformation, and a new category for 2018, AI-inspired transformation.
Canada has lagged behind the rest of the world when it comes to digital transformation, in part because of the small number of companies willing to showcase their success. Whether it’s modesty or a desire to guard a competitive advantage, the early adopters chose to try and fly under the radar.
However, since the initiation of the awards and the introduction of a special portal dedicated to digital transformation, ITWC has documented dozens of digital transformation success stories that enterprises can learn from.
“We’re looking for companies who are proud to share their stories and help others avoid the pitfalls that they experienced,” said Annan. “Although only five winners will be recognized at our Digital Transformation Conference in June, all qualifying nominees are will be featured on our ITBusiness.ca website. There’s something to learn from every business story.”
The 2017 winners included CIBC, Humania Assurance, the City of Toronto and Connected North, a program operated by Taking IT Global.
ITWC has recruited several high-profile industry leaders who have agrees to serve as judges of the nominations. They are: Gary Davenport, Past president of the CIO Association of Canada; Ted Maulucci, President, SmartOne Solutions; Corinne Charette, Senior Fellow, Concordia University, Montréal; Corey Cox, CIO, Tandet Group; and Dr. Ron Babin, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University.
“Digital transformation is not easy. It demands an enterprise-wide commitment to innovate and change to ensure sustainability and success,” says Davenport. “A stronger understanding of the practice of digital transformation will help to ensure a smoother evolution of Canadian business into the digital age.”
Anyone can nominate an organization for consideration. Nominations close in early April and the awards will be presented on June 13, 2018, during a national day-long digital transformation conference in Toronto.