by Calvin Smith
This past December, Aragon Research hosted its annual Aragon Transform event which recognized Hot Vendor, Women in Tech, and Innovator Award winners. Every year, we have firms that come into contact with us wanting to know more about how either their firm or one of their colleagues can be nominated and potentially win an Aragon award.
This blog provides an overview for each award, the qualifications for each, and how you can begin your nomination process.
Aragon Hot Vendors
Hot Vendors are new and emerging providers that have been deemed by Aragon as noteworthy, innovative, and visionary. Hot Vendors may have a new technology that expands capabilities, a new strategy that opens up markets, or even a new way of doing business that makes them worth evaluating.
In 2019, Aragon produced five Hot Vendor special reports which featured providers in: conversational intelligence, image and video analytics, unified communications and collaboration, learning, document analytics, global mobility management, team collaboration, conversational AI, digital transaction management, meeting automation, revenue intelligence, sales coaching and learning, artificial intelligence, customer revenue optimization, web and video conferencing, board meeting platforms, customer experience cloud, and enterprise backup and recovery.
To nominate your firm as a Hot Vendor, you can simply fill out the Aragon Hot Vendors nomination form and explain why your organization should be identified as a Hot Vendor. Once you have submitted your form, our group of experienced analysts meet, discuss, and vote on who should be named as a Hot Vendor. If you have won a Hot Vendor award in the past, it is unlikely that you will receive the award again. [Note: Hot Vendor Nominations are now closed]
In addition, one of the best methods to get your organization and your product in front of our analysts is to schedule a complimentary briefing. This is your chance to present to our analysts virtually or face-to-face on why your company is revolutionizing a particular market. If you’re ready to schedule your complimentary briefing, you can do so here. Nominations close February 21st.
Ryan Kam, CMO of Five9, accepts the Aragon Research Innovator Award for Intelligent Contact Center.
Women in Tech
In 2019, Aragon received the most nominations ever for the Women in Tech Award since we began implementing this award back in 2017! The Women in Tech Award reflects the achievements of women who have demonstrated outstanding personal and professional growth and significantly contributed to the technology industry.
The Women in Tech Award winners are selected by the Women in Tech committee, which includes the winners from the previous year. Once the nominations have been submitted, the committee meets several times to read nomination forms, discuss candidates, and then select the award winners.
Last year’s winners included: Virginia Davis-Lee (Avaya), Bernadette Nixon (Alfresco), Joan Pepin (Auth0), Nicole Alvino (SocialChorus), Elaine Foreman (Topia), Lisa Hurd Walker (Fuze), Lorrissa Horton (Cisco), and Michelle Balash (IBM).
If you’d like to nominate your colleague for a 2020 Women in Tech Award, you can submit your nomination here. Nominations close March 31st.
Aragon Innovators
Ten technology providers were recognized as Aragon Innovators at last year’s annual year-end event. The award winners were: Chorus.ai, Cisco, Lifesize, Alfresco, Five9, Fuze, RingCentral, HelloSign, Nintex, and Seismic.
These ten providers were selected as Innovators due to their best-in-class technology or service that differentiates them in their respective market.
Very similar to the Hot Vendor selection process, Innovators are chosen by Aragon analysts. Once nominations have been submitted, our analyst team gathers to discuss and then select winners based on their market and how they are innovating in their market and beating their competitors.
The 2020 Innovation categories are: artificial intelligence, conversational AI, customer journeys, CPaas, content management, digital business, digital work hub, digital transaction management, intelligent contact center, intelligent content analytics, learning, sales engagement, smart RPA, talent management, and workflow and content automation.
If you believe your company is providing the best-in-class technology, you can submit your nomination for an Innovator Award here. Nominations close March 31st.
Bottom Line
The nomination list for each award continues to grow every year. This is a testament to the growing popularity of the Aragon awards and the value of receiving one of these awards. Aragon looks forward to receiving, reviewing, and selecting this year’s winners. Be sure to submit your nominations before the deadline!