The Digital Experience Awards 2019

Again, I had the pleasure of judging at this years’ UK Digital Experience Awards in London.

What impresses me most about these events is the passion that the finalists have about their entries and their work in order to get to these finals! I chaired the judging panel for the Change & Transformation category, and passion was certainly to be found in its abundance during the presentations that I saw. In particular during the winning entry’s.

It was a beautiful sunny morning walking along the River Thames to the venue, Park Plaza London Riverbank. Judging started promptly at 9am and so myself and the panel of three other judges made our way to the rooms and the judging was quickly underway.

First of all, we saw Simplyhealth, who showcased an impressive new website, bringing in lots of new sales to the business and beginning to make that whole cultural channel shift across to digital. Then we saw Pureplanet in partnership with Torry Harris Business Solutions, an amazing ‘app’ based renewable energy supplier bursting on to the scene to disrupt the energy sector. Next up were Qwest Services who had revolutionised Cheshire West & Chester Councils digital proposition. Then we heard how Refinitiv (Reuters) had migrated many legacy systems over to one easy to use portal for business customers, increasing ease of use hugely.

Last, and not least, were Invopak. Invopak basically remoulded their entire business with minimal disruption, to channel shift to digital, as well as revolutionise their culture, increasing Customer Experience massively. They reengineered just about every single business process to become the digital and people first business that it is today. A really heartfelt entry that had all of the judges gripped from start to finish. It was indeed Invopak who won the Gold award, with Pureplanet taking the Silver, and Refinitiv the bronze. It can be difficult to judge these categories as all of the entrants are of a superior quality. If we bear in mind the category title this can make it a little easier for us.

I was fortunate enough to be sitting down for dinner with the Operations Director and Managing Director of a wonderful digital business called Swimtime. Again, it was lovely to hear the passion coming through not only about the digital transformation that their business had built and delivered, but around the ceremony itself, having such a wide variety of different types and sizes of businesses included. Swimtime not only won their category in Transport/ Leisure and Tourism category, but then went on to scoop the award for Overall Winners of the event!

Such an amazing day, with our host Ben Hart from this year’s Britain’s Got Talent wowing us all with his magic! I saw first-hand some magic that in a black and white world of logic (where I normally live!), there was simply no explanation as to how these tricks were done! I was left bamboozled. Another wonderful surprise was being given an award for an outstanding contribution to judging! All in all, a day that I will never forget.

Well done to all of the finalists! Especially the winners. It really does take something special to go through this process and not only get to the finals but come away with a hefty award. Roll on next year!

Were you lucky enough to be one of the finalists at this years’ UK Digital Experience Awards? What is the story behind your journey? It would be great to hear from you.

If you would like to speak with me about your career, or your digital and customer experience strategy, you can contact me on:

Direct Dial: 01543 231072 E-mail: hannah@douglas-jackson.com

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Hannah-Louise Cox is a Senior Recruitment Consultant at Douglas Jackson specialising in recruiting executive level and senior management appointments across operations, strategy, transformation, Customer Contact, Digital and Customer Experience.

Douglas Jackson are committed to innovation, and if you would like a demo on our digital recruitment process, which features video and behavioural profiling, as well as other innovative and helpful tools, then please get in touch!