EPCA/ECR
Excellence in Payments Innovation
Awards 2008
Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide a brief overview of the process for the submission of applications for the European Payments Consulting Association (EPCA) and European Card Review (ECR) Innovation Awards. The members of the EPCA are as follows:
- deLege Korus, Poland
- GALITT, France
- Innopay, Netherlands
- Payment Systems Europe, UK
- PaySYS Consulting, Germany
- PlusCON, Denmark
- 4P square, Belgium
Scope of Awards
The four awards will be made to banks, sector vendors, telco’s, Mass Transit operators, merchants and processors that an EPCA panel of consultants judge to have made an outstanding contribution to Europe’s payments business during 2007. The award groups are:
- The most innovative Retail or Corporate Payments Product/Service launched during 2007.
- The most innovative and advanced Payments Software/Hardware Product launched during 2007.
- The most innovative and cost effective Payments Processing Solution launched during 2007.
- The most innovative and advanced Bank Retail or Corporate Solution launched during 2007.
Applications to be submitted to Henning N. Jensen, Senior Partner of PlusCON, no later than 29th February 2007 by e-mail (hnj@pluscon.dk). The 2008 awards will be presented La Hulpe in Brussels on 1st April at the EPCA Conference “Releasing the power of payment - same game, new rules” organized by PlusCON and Innopay (please see www.epcaconference.com for more details).
Eligible Organisations
The scope of the awards to be as follows:
- Eligible organisations will be those that have a direct involvement in payments. The “payments” for the purposes of the awards will include cash, pre-paid, cheques, plastic cards, high value payments, current and savings accounts, credit card accounts.
- Participants can be drawn from the following:
- Banks, monolines, savings and loans/building societies/similar organisations, finance companies/houses, issuers and acquirers
- Merchants/retailers, merchant finance companies, Mass Transit operators
- Software and hardware suppliers as they relate to payments (including chip manufacturers)
- Service providers including processing companies, network providers, secure delivery companies/CITs
- Specialists including consultancies and service companies
Eligible Products
Eligible products must meet the following criteria to be considered as part of the awards process:
- Products can encompass those offered in the retail, wholesale, international, consumer, corporate and SME market places.
- Products may also operate within the following delivery channels, POS, internet, branches, ATMs, mobiles.
- The product must have been launched, or moved into pilot. Products that are still in the process of development will not be considered.
- Qualifying products must be totally new in their concept, or radical reworks of old. Upgraded products will not be eligible.
- Products must be innovative, use new technology or processes to provide a competitive edge, present radically improved offers to consumers, substantially improve efficiency or payments process.
- Products must have been developed within Europe (or European variations developed within Europe).
- Submissions. Organisations wishing their product to be considered for an award should follow the following steps:
- The award application form should be completed by the applicant (see Appendix 1).
- The application should be backed up with product descriptions, as well as any relevant press release data.
- The application should describe clearly why the organisation believes their product should be considered for an award.
- Documentation should be signed by two directors/officers of the company and submitted to the EPCA for vetting and approval.
- Vetting and Approval Process. The following vetting and approval process will be adopted:
- A Standing EPCA Award Committee has been formed consisting of one consultant from at least three member companies.
- Committee members will declare any interest in any submissions, ie. they have worked for the organisation, or have any other commercial links. Committee members that have worked for an applicant in the last year, will not be allowed to score their application.
- The Committee will decide the award category applicable to each submission.
- Each Committee member will independently score each application using a common scoring matrix.
- All submissions will be processed over the same time period in order to ensure scores are comparative.
- Committee members may contact applicants requesting supplementary information, where relevant.
- Individual Committee member assessments will then be input into a final summary assessment and ranking established.
- Applicants will then be informed of their award by the EPCA Chairperson.
Key Evaluation Criteria
The following key criteria will be used in assessing each submission:
- Proposition. The strength and compellingness of the proposition.
- Innovation. Degree to which new concept which changes market.
- Design. The quality of the product design (including IT architecture).
- Features/Benefits. The benefits that each product feature delivers to customers.
- Efficiency. Extent to which product reduces customer costs.
- Customer Service, Support, Maintenance. Extent to which the product improves customer service, support and maintenance.
- Competitiveness and Value for Money. Degree the product improves competition and offers good value for money.
- Ease of Installation and Use. The ease with which the product can be installed and used.
- Training. The amount and quality of training provided.
Marketing/Promotion. The quality of the marketing and promotion of the product.
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