Take a look at the finalists for this year's Innovation Awards - and join us at Contact Centre Planning 2010 to hear how they achieved their sucess. 

Click here for more information or read about last year's winners

Contact centres have come a long way in the last ten or twenty years, but they don’t stand still. These awards recognise the successful initiatives that are making innovative centres great places to work and to contact. Great innovation transforms the experience of customers or employees and changes the way we work within the wider organisation or community.

The Contact Centre Innovation Awards are a show-case for organisations that are leading the way in making their contact centre operations great places to work and to contact. These prestigious awards celebrate the achievements of the industry's innovators and offer a benchmark within the industry. As well as the highly-coveted Innovation of the Year Award, and the Public Sector awards, judges look for outstanding success in lifestyle and people planning, customer planning, resource planning, management information, performance optimisation and development, back office customer service and outbound calling.  See more information on planning forum work in areas such as MI and Performance Analysis, Planning for the Back Office or Outbound, Planning for the Customer and the Public Sector.

High profile winners celebrate outstanding success
The awards are presented at the annual contact centre planning conference in April. The conference is an unparalleled opportunity to be stimulated and inspired by a wide range of initiative and innovation, with the chance to meet and network with leading specialists and experts in the areas of contact centre planning and analysis across Europe.  A great incentive for the best performers, the rich information can be brought back and shared with colleagues.     

The Innovation of the Year Award 2009 was presented to QVC for the impressive and pioneering planning initiatives that cut occupancy by 15% in the call centre, dropped agency hours by 23% in the distribution centre and cut team leader admin from 50% to 11% of their working week.  EDF Energy won the 2008 award for their ground-breaking new end-to-end service delivery for new customers, Salford City Council in 2007 for their Think Customer initiative, Tesco in 2006 for a programme of change that took the stress out of their Christmas peak period and HBOS in 2005 for developing initiatives to improve work-life balance and schedule efficiency.

“The Innovation Awards show the huge progress that is being made in call centres to improve life for both the customers and the employees – and to demonstrate that planning analysts are often critical to making these improvements happen”, explains Paul Smedley, Executive Director.

Nominations for the 2010 awards were submitted in November, but please feel free to get in touch to find out what you need to do to be next year’s winner.

A night of celebration to remember ... a reward for your hard work
The awards are announced at Contact Centre Planning conference 20 April 2010 - during a fabulous gala dinner at the end of the conference each year.  "A sensational night", comments Tom Davies from Sandwell Council, previous award finalists.  Network with industry professionals from leading contact centres  and seriously motivate your teams or clients with a real celebration.  A highly enjoyable night, delegates tell us it's very different from the typical awards event. This year, again, the conference price includes the gala awards dinner. Extra places are available for colleagues who wish to attend the dinner, but not the conference, and special prices apply for booking tables - but places are limited due to the size restrictions of the venue, so book now to be sure of your space

Get involved ... opportunities for vendors and consultants
Align your brand with the best contact centre innovators and gain exposure in the contact centre industry's unique planning forum. The awards dinner is a great place to bring clients and prospects - and is conveniently located in London, making this the ideal year to book a table.  Relax and enjoy the evening - plus the first-rate networking at both the dinner and the conference.

Nominations can only be made by contact centres directly, but as consultants and vendors you know the the best in the industry.  Why not get support them in making a nomination and getting the recognition they deserve.  Members are always interested in the systems used by award winners and the external support they have used to gain their success.  Case studies from all the award finalists and site visits are central to our best practice programme and provide high-powered exposure throughout the year in our networking, best practice and training programmes.  To get involved or for information about sponsorship opportunities, call Steve Woosey or Penny Hicks on 0333 123 5960.

See your work in a new light by participating in our rigorous assessment
A great opportunity to gain external recognition and validation for the hard work and success achieved by you and your team, the standard of these awards is maintained by rigorous assessment and participants often comment on how much they themselves have learned by the process of preparing information and being visited by our teams of assessors. Organised by the Professional Planning Forum - as part of our work to promote best practice in contact centres and to professionalise the role and contribution of analysts and planners - these awards are offered for significant measurable improvements for employees, customers, business and other stakeholders.

Award winners demonstrate the successful implementation of new ways of working that have made a demonstrable difference to the performance of a contact centre(s).  Our place in the contact centre industry is to promote best practice in contact centre resourcing and planning and we have found that these specialist skills are critical ingredients of the best innovations. These Innovation Awards, however, are about more than good resource planning. We’re looking for projects or new ways of working that have made a big difference to customers or colleagues in the last year – with a significant measurable improvement or evidence of changed behaviour.

Have you done something that you are proud of? Could others learn from your success?

Why not enter your operation for our Innovation Awards next year and become a 2011 winner?  Please enter your nomination before November 10th.  We can help you complete the simple application process which is free of charge.  All we ask is that you share your work to help drive best practice in the industry.
The initial nomination process is very quick and easy – we ask you to complete one simple form during October or November - further commitment is only required after short-listing in December.  After short-listing in December, the judges visit all finalists in February or March for a more in-depth evaluation, and we ask you to make a commitment to host a site visit in June or October and to talk about your work at Contact Centre Planning 2011, where the awards are presented. Each finalist is featured in our much-consulted case study series, published in the annual Best Practice Guide.