A Canadian bank now holds the bragging rights to the best IT practices in North America, according to one U.S. research and advisory firm.
Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. awarded RBC Financial Group with the Gartner CIO Choice Award on Monday afternoon. Bart Stanco, Gartner’s CIO and the leader of the selection process, presented the award to the bank, saying that it displayed all of the qualities Gartner was looking for.
“They have to be nominated to be even considered and the nominations come from our research community and our clients,” Stanco said of the selection process. “They can’t just self-select.”
Gartner gives the annual award to companies that embody qualities of IT best practices leaders, said Stanco.
“A company has to be able to quickly adapt its IT infrastructure in certain circumstances and they have to have a good return on investment,” he said. “IT should directly contribute the company organizations’ leadership.”
Stanco credits RBC with its use of business intelligence software to better service and sell to customers, excellence in leveraging customer relationship management and business intelligence applications to reduce fraud, the creation of an online mode for real-time data updates, and the implementation of video-on-demand training for all its associates.
“They actually hit across all the criteria,” he said.
RBC, which was selected from more than 100 nominations submitted for the award, had just released quarterly results on Tuesday and was not available for comment. However, in a prepared statement for IT World Canada, Marty Lippert, CIO of RBC Financial Group, said that the company was honored to be “chosen as a leader within North America’s top 100 organizations.”
“We are particularly pleased to receive this award because it not only recognizes innovation and leadership in technology, but it also recognizes a proven capability to apply that technology to create business value,” Lippert said.
Stanco said this kind of recognition helps companies to attract and retain good people.
“It’s nice to know that you are coming into a cutting edge organization that is being recognized outside,” he said.
RBC in Toronto can be reached at http://www.royalbank.com. Gartner is at http://www.gartner.com.
