Channel Watch

Introducing the RCP/Rocket Award for IT Services Companies

Is your IT services firm's recent history a great growth story? Redmond Channel Partner and consultancy Revenue Rocket want to hear about it for the first-ever Excellence in Growth Award.

• By Scott Bekker
• January 09, 2013

The submission period is open for the inaugural RCP/Rocket excellence in growth award.

This award, a joint creation of Redmond Channel Partner magazine and Revenue Rocket Consulting Group, will recognize and honor excellence in growth. The RCP/Rocket Award will be awarded to up to three IT services companies whose innovative business strategies have resulted in sustained growth over a three-year period.

RCP and Revenue Rocket, each in their own way, have dedicated themselves to helping IT services companies become more successful -- RCP, as an independent advocate for Microsoft partners; Revenue Rocket, as an IT services growth consultancy.

The award is open to all U.S.-based IT services companies with annual revenues between $5 million and $75 million. You must provide a one- to two-page case study describing your company's business strategies and how they've resulted in growth over the past three years. The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2013.

All entries will be evaluated by a panel that includes me; Mike Harvath, Revenue Rocket CEO and RCP On Growth columnist; and three other distinguished guests with hands-on experience in growing an IT services business.

The award will be evaluated on two key criteria:

• Strategies: What unique combination of strategies did you employ to generate the results you achieved? This section will constitute three-quarters of the evaluation, as we're most interested in understanding what various strategies drove success -- and how.
  
  
• Results: What did your company achieve over a three-year period in terms of revenue, profit and other relevant metrics you deem appropriate? This will account for one-quarter of the evaluation.

To be considered for the inaugural 2013 RCP/Rocket Excellence in Growth Award, your company must submit an essay, in case study format, that documents and supports your organization's growth over the last three years: 2010, 2011 and 2012.

The format of the case study should include four elements:

1. Company Background. Describe how you're positioned and differentiated in the market in terms of vendor alignment, technology focus, geographic reach, vertical emphasis and so on.
   
   
2. Strategic Initiatives. Identify the key strategic initiatives that your company implemented and how they drove your business over this period. This could include mergers and acquisitions, geographic expansion, new service line offerings, sales and marketing programs, and key hires.
   
   
3. Performance. Describe your company's performance over this period, including revenue, profit and any other metric that makes your case.
   
   
4. Lessons Learned. What have you learned as a result of this effort?

In addition to an award plaque, winners will be the focus of an article in a future issue of Redmond Channel Partner magazine and have a donation made in their name to a charity of their choice.

Send submissions to [email protected].

More Columns by Scott Bekker:

• Sinofsky's Exit Not About Windows 8
• Reading Between the Lines of Microsoft's Surface Pricing
• Column Archive