The Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards are open for entries until June 21, 2024. Here's a guide to everything you need to know before submitting your most innovative projects.
What is Qorus?
Qorus is a non-profit association formed in 1971 by bankers and insurers, specializing in retail financial marketing and distribution. Today, more than 1,200 financial brands in 120 countries are Qorus members. Learn more about Qorus
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The submission process
The Qorus-Infosys Finacle Banking Innovation Awards 2024 are open to all banks or credit unions, regardless of their Qorus membership status or the country in which they operate.We also have a category for fintech firms that compete with banks in various business lines such as loans, payments, and personal finance management.
There is no charge to enter, or to participate in the awards ceremony if you are a finalist.
You can submit as many projects as you want, even in the same category. However, the same project cannot be submitted in multiple categories. Please select the category that is most suitable for your innovation. The Selection Committee reserves the right to change the project's category.
Only innovations launched or enhanced after January 1, 2022, will be eligible for the 2024 edition.
All Qorus financial institution members have full access to review all submissions, and the submissions will be saved and made available in the Qorus Innovation Library. Therefore, only include information in your submission that you are willing to disclose to the public.
You cannot submit your innovation in the Transformative Innovator of the year category. This special category awards the most innovative bank and you need at least 3 entries in any of the other seven categories to qualify. The winner is the organization whose corporate vision is fully committed to continuous innovation and transformation, to the development and leadership of a broad ecosystem of partners extending beyond banking and to the strategic use of emerging technologies that improve the experience of its customers and the performance of its business.
Tips for a winning submission
Based on an analysis of winning submissions and best practices, here are some tips to help you build a compelling case for your innovation.
1. Clearly present the problem you needed to solve: show how you used technology or an innovative idea to solve that problem; and highlight the results with both qualitative and quantitative success metrics.
2. Remember to directly address each judging criterion: originality, impact and universality. Mapping your key points to each criterion prior to writing your submission entries is a useful exercise.
3. Proofread and edit your submission: while correct spelling and grammar are not criteria, a polished final submission will impress your peers, who have the final say regarding who wins.
4. Visuals, such as images, videos or screenshots of an application, can make your submission more engaging. Same for PowerPoint presentations. Gather your best supporting materials to add as attachments. The selection committee favors the best, most complete and content-rich forms over project submissions of identical quality.
5. Don’t be afraid to talk about your setbacks or challenges and how you overcame them through ideation and implementation. These stories spark inspiration.
6. Keep your audience in mind: How can your innovation change the industry as a whole and impact your audience members? Your customers? Voters want to know why your innovation matters.
7. Be specific, especially in your results. Use statistics and numbers to show growth or change.
8. Submit your innovations as early as possible: early entrants may be selected for an Innovation of the Month Award, which fast-tracks organizations to the global awards shortlist.
How are the winners chosen?
Following the submission deadline, the Qorus Selection Committee reviews all the submissions and selects nine innovations from each category to become nominees based on four criteria:
Originality: the uniqueness of the idea in the marketplace and its potential as a gamechanger.
Impact: the innovation’s capacity to generate a superior, long-term competitive edge. This includes KPIs such as RoI, NPS, cost reduction, churn rate, employee engagement score, customer lifetime value (CLV), time reduction, carbon footprint, etc.
Universality: the innovation’s potential to be relevant and/or adapted for use in other markets, or even industries.
Form quality: A detailed description of the project in its various phases, its results, and the addition of presentation slides, videos or images to visualize and better understand the project.
In the case of the Transformative Innovator of the year category, the Committee shortlists up to 12 applications.
Then, Qorus members and non-members vote for the top 3 finalists in each category online (except the Transformative Innovator of the year). These votes make up 50 percent of the final scores (40 percent from Qorus members and 10 percent from non-members) with the remaining 50 percent coming from Awards Jury members. The jury comprises senior banking executives from around the world. The jury also selects the winning Transformative Innovator of the year from the shortlisted nominees. In the event of a tie, the institution with the highest number of entries will be given preference.
