Three private-sector organizations and one public/private sector partnership
survived the rigours of a demanding judging process to win top honours at
CIO Canada’s 2000 ITX Awards, which were presented at a gathering of about
200 industry executives in Toronto recently.
Produced in association with The Conference Board of Canada, the ITX Awards recognize IT initiatives that demonstrate best practices and enable the enterprise to move in new directions, changing its scope, nature and economics. The award ceremony capped a two-day conference “eXecuting in the Evolving Economy Forum”, produced by IDC Canada and co-sponsored by CIO Canada.
The overall ITX winner was Teranet, a unique 50/50 strategic alliance between the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services and a consortium of private-
sector companies now called Teramira Holdings Inc. Teranet’s Teraview gateway allows customers to search title records, register documents, conduct Writs of
Execution searches, and purchase title insurance, all online.
“What started within government as an automation project has, through our collaboration with Teranet, turned into an E-government initiative that provides a suite of services to the citizens of Ontario,” said spokesperson John Dalgliesh, Land Registrar, Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations. “Teranet shows that a joining of the public and private sector can lead to award-winning results.”
Also reaching the podium was BMO Nesbitt Burns, winner of the Collaboration category, Clarica, winner of the E-business Strategy category, and Royal Bank Financial Group winner of the Business Value category.
BMO Nesbitt Burns won for Full-Service Online, which provides a portfolio of services to clients and to the company’s financial advisors. According to BMO, the system supports the relationship between the financial advisor and the client, providing tools that enable the advisor to monitor clients’ activity and proactively support and advise the client, based on established preferences and history.
Honours went to Clarica, which was born of Mutual Life of Canada, for its Web-enabled Agent, which transforms the company into an electronic business. The system assists the company’s agents, while providing a new direct channel to customers. According to Clarica, the intiative has broadened its service and product offerings and has established a robust business platform from which to grow.
Royal Bank Financial Group won its award for ViewFinder, an application that exploits the Internet to e-enable the organization’s Global Securities Services clients. According to Royal Bank, the system respects the level of technology
comfort of the user, being both flexible and easy to use. As a result, in less than one year from launch almost 50 per cent of about $1 trillion in assets are now managed through ViewFinder.
Case studies of the award-winning initiatives will appear in the September and October issues of CIO Canada.